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Electric vehicle charging stations

MudMoney

MudMoney

Well-known member
Your thoughts on adding this service and where would you place unit on a busy wash.My research so far has the closest chargers 110 miles south of me. There are programs to lessen the investment,including tax credits. I'm on hwy 2 leading to Glacier park and I would target the tourist traffic for starters. I realize this is a risky investment but the future appears to be EV . My pluses are attended wash, bordered by McDonalds, Pizza hut, 40 below restaurant,new Starbucks coming across the street. I'm n great location,15000 + car count,3 phase power @ wash for a Fast Charger. I figure if I'm first n town that might keep the copy cats to think twice before investing.
 
All the Safeway grocery stores here have put in EV fast changing stations to use for free. How much do they cost to install, it might be worth looking into.
 
I like the idea - basically re-selling electricity at a mark up, very low maintenance & labor.
Sounds like you've thought through the financials, I'm assuming they are at least reasonably good but the one $ thing that jumps out at me is can you charge enough (:rolleyes:)? Boiled down to $ / hour (like the SS bays), is it worth it?
Regarding placement, yeah, I think that is the critical thing. How the changed traffic flow effects the wash revenue would concern me, I try to keep my focus on the #1 source of revenue and do not muck it up.
 
What will the people do while their car is charging? Is there another business next door that might occupy their time? The ones I see around here are at a store of some type.
 
We are thinking of adding level 2 chargers/80 amps at a couple of the Vaccum spaces I think most people would charge their car while vacuuming and washing their Dog. They typically spend 15-20 mins Plus I own electric vehicles so it would be convenient to charge my cars too.

The top end Units are running about 5-7k each with all the bells and whistles credit card tap and membership apps seems worthwhile you easily could charge 45-50 cents per kWh we are adding solar panels too to run all the lights and 20 amp loads at the Carwash anyway. This is the future might as well jump in now.
 
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Carwashmafia said:
We are thinking of adding level 2 chargers/80 amps at a couple of the Vaccum spaces I think most people would charge their car while vacuuming and washing their Dog. They typically spend 15-20 mins Plus I own electric vehicles so it would be convenient to charge my cars too.

The top end Units are running about 5-7k each with all the bells and whistles credit card tap and membership apps seems worthwhile you easily could charge 45-50 cents per kWh we are adding solar panels too to run all the lights and 20 amp loads at the Carwash anyway. This is the future might as well jump in now.
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Have you considered the potential benefits of adding level 2 chargers to your Vacuum spaces, given the convenience for car owners who can charge their vehicles while vacuuming or washing their dogs, along with the opportunity for additional revenue through charging fees?
 
I looked into this a couple years ago and the local utility company informed me that the standby charge (cost to facilitate the charger's electric draw) would be too much to make it profitable. Has anything changed recently or that we may have missed back then?
 
crackplatooncsl said:
Have you considered the potential benefits of adding level 2 chargers to your Vacuum spaces, given the convenience for car owners who can charge their vehicles while vacuuming or washing their dogs, along with the opportunity for additional revenue through charging fees?
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I have a car rental fleet, and we just put in a level 2 charger to charge electric vehicles that come from other rental locations. (Electric rental cars are a terrible idea, but we have to deal with the times). It takes about 8-9 hours to charge a vehicle like a chevy Bolt from 10% to 95% on our 40 amp charger. I can't think of a worse idea than putting them next to our vacuums. Inevitably people would vacuum for 5 minutes and then think it was ok to leave their car in our vacuum slot for the next multiple hours to charge their vehicle blocking everybody on our property. We do NOT offer our charger to customers.
If someone were to put in electric chargers at their car wash, they would need to have a larger property with space away from their equipment that allowed the mindless Tesla drivers to plug in and come back in 3-7 hours.
 
I'm designing a new express wash here in CA, and the city is requiring me to put in two elec chargers at my vacs. I tried to explain why this is a bad idea, as the car wash is not the type of business where a customer parks their car, and then walks inside a store to conduct business. I explained that our average customer is parked for less than 4 minutes and we can't have a car taking up a space for hours.

They didn't care. So I guess I'll be putting two chargers. I foresee the breaker for the chargers being "accidentally" turned off.
 
I have no personal experience. I have talked with Tesla owners that tell me the Tesla charging stations work through a phone app that facilitates the connection and charging of the vehicle. When it’s down to the last 15 minutes it alerts you and after about a 15 minute grace period it charges you to park in the charging space. This stops the car from blocking the charger for 8 hours or more.
 
I wanted to put them in at my wash, but I am at the maximum impervious ground cover for my city.

I am a firm believer that industries need to actively participate or involve themselves in the current cultural dialogue or their viewpoints don't get considered which allows people from outside of the industry to target the industry. IE, "Car washes are bad for the environment". Versus, we are powering electric vehicles through the solar roof we have above our vacuums; therefore, we are "helping" the environment.
 
Bill Capron said:
I have no personal experience. I have talked with Tesla owners that tell me the Tesla charging stations work through a phone app that facilitates the connection and charging of the vehicle. When it’s down to the last 15 minutes it alerts you and after about a 15 minute grace period it charges you to park in the charging space. This stops the car from blocking the charger for 8 hours or more.
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I am a Tesla owner. When I visit an official Tesla SuperCharger (which I do only on road trips), it takes about 30 -40 minutes to charge my car. But the Tesla SuperChargers provide high-voltege charging. The "other" chargers that you see at hotels and would be the ones being added to car washes, charge on 240v, which is what I have in my garage at home. It takes about 8 hours to fully charge my car at home.

I do not want a car parked in one of my vac spaces for hours on end.
 
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