I’m looking at the EV charging report for June, 2023, kindly provided by Lindsay Eidson, our Assistant Director of Facilities. It gives a picture of the use of the EV charging stations at the Kendal Barn and at Crosslands’ Center. There are two stations at each locations, each of which can charge two cars simultaneously.

As many readers know, residents with plug-in vehicles at Kendal and Crosslands don’t need to use those charging stations, because they can have an outlet installed where they park (and most of them take advantage of that option). So I was wondering what was happening with those four charging stations. Are they getting used? By whom, and why?

The answer is: yes, they are getting used, and their use is growing. More about that in a moment, but first a bit of background.

Electric vehicle types. Electric vehicles (EVs) come in two forms, called “battery electric vehicles” (BEVs) and “plug-in hybrid electric vehicles” (PHEVs). BEVs include Teslas (of which we now have at least 10 across our two campuses) and VW’s ID.4. They do not have a gasoline engine and depend entirely on their batteries.

PHEVs include the plug-in version of the Toyota Prius and RAV4 (both of which are represented on our campuses). There are many others. They have a battery (for relatively short trips) and a gasoline engine for longer ones. Jan and I mostly make short trips, and our plug-in RAV4 Prime is perfect for us. It has 45-50 miles of battery-only range, and we find we rarely need gas.

Charging options. Initially, the idea for the charging stations was that residents with EVs would all charge their cars there. But that has changed. If you want a standard 110-volt outlet (like those you use at home) installed where you park, KCC will install one. It costs you $10/month if you own a PHEV and $20/month if you own a BEV. Charging is relatively slow using that type of outlet: you get enough electricity each hour to drive about 4 miles. For a PHEV, that means you get a full charge overnight; for a BEV it’s more like 3-4 days for a full charge, if you start with an empty battery.

Using one of the charging stations is much faster (a few hours to charge a BEV), but you have to pay for the electricity you use (I believe the current rate is $0.30 per kWh).  That rate is still far cheaper than the corresponding amount of gasoline, and it is less than half of what you would pay at a nearby commercial charging operation. Although we own the charging stations, they are part of the ChargePoint network, and ChargePoint takes a small cut on each transaction and handles the credit-card processing.

If you use your EV at least a couple of times a week, on average, using the outlet at your parking space is a much better deal than the charging stations.

Who uses the charging stations? If a plug at your parking spot is generally cheaper (and more convenient too), is anyone using the charging stations? The monthly charging report shows that they are getting used, and the use is growing. In June 2023, there were 60 charging sessions across the two campuses.  That’s up from 14 sessions in June of 2021, when the stations were just four months old (but there were no parking-space outlets).

Who is using the charging stations, and why? We don’t know exactly. Although the reports show details about every charging session, the data is anonymous, so we don’t know who did the charging. There are, however, some clues.

First of all, most of the charging is done by just a few people. Of the 60 charging sessions during June, 28 were the same vehicle on different days. (We know that because the ChargePoint report gives each vehicle a unique account ID.) Another vehicle had 7 sessions, and a third had 6 sessions. The remain 8 vehicles had only 1 or 2 sessions each. Looked at another way, just two vehicles used the majority of the electricity. One used 189 kWh, and another used 183 kWh.

While we don’t know who the heavy users were, we do know their zip codes from the report. One of them is from the Phoenixville area. That user is the one who had 28 charging sessions over the course of the month. The amounts of electricity (typically 7-11 kWh each time) is enough to drive about 28-45 miles. That sounds like commuting, so my guess is that this is a staff member.

The other really heavy user only had 6 charging sessions during the month, but those were 25-40 kWh. That’s enough to drive 100-160 miles. That user’s zip code is in Long Beach Island, on the New Jersey shore. So that might be a relative, driving their BEV up from the shore to see a KCC resident.

I think it’s fine. If my theory is true, that the main users of the charging stations are staff and visitors, I think that’s a good outcome. It makes our staff and visitors happy (because they get low-cost charging) and KCC still makes some money on the charging fees.

Residents will continue to mostly use their parking-space outlets (which means the charging stations won’t get crowded), but if they need faster charging because of an upcoming trip, they can use the charging stations. It’s a win-win-win-win.

Update as of 7-18-23. On reading this blog post, some residents have voiced concerns that KCC might not provide charging outlets for them where they park. I have spoken with Roy Manno, our Facilities Director, about this issue. He assures me that it is still the policy to provide these outlets in response to resident requests. However, when a parking area does not currently have the necessary power connections in the immediate vicinity, the time and cost involved in underground cabling may cause a significant delay in installations. Residents must be patient, but outlets will be provided.