ChargePoint Users Can Reserve EV Charging Stations
The most extensive electric vehicle charging network in the U.S. announced today it has begun to support reservations for its more than 650 charging posts. Customers can reserve a station for a particular time block using ChargePoint website’s station finder at www.mychargepoint.net/find-stations.php.
Coulomb Technologies, the company behind ChargePoint, says the service’s smartphone apps will be updated within the coming weeks to support the new functionality. The ability to make reservations is arguably the missing component in the application’s current configuration that only shows charging locations when routing the driver to a destination and whether they’re in use or not. Now EV users will feel more secure knowing there is a spot waiting for them ahead of time.
It might seem early in the EV revolution to support reservations, but it’s possible the proliferation of EVs will exceed that of charging locations. Cars.com already faces this challenge because our parking structure has two ChargePoint posts, each of which supports one Level 1 and one Level 2 hookup. Because there’s another customer who charges at Level 2, our Chevy Volt regularly has to charge at the slower Level 1, leaving the remaining Level 2 capacity for our Nissan Leaf, for which a full charge is critical.
Individual station operators, who set their own pricing levels, will decide whether to enable reservations or not, how long the car can remain attached and how much a reservation fee will cost. Currently, the overwhelming majority of charging stations on the network are free.
The reservation functionality will appeal most to motorists who face charge-point scarcity, especially those for whom a full charge is critical. The capability will perhaps be most important for DC fast chargers, which will be popular along interstates. In this instance, a guaranteed fast charge is critical for long-distance travel. Waiting in a line of EVs, each of which requires up to 30 minutes per charge, would make such trips undoable.
