How to Find Free EV Charging Stations
While not urgent information for new or prospective EV buyers, free EV charging stations are abundant in 2021.
By Grant Gerke, Senior EV Ambassador
New or EV prospective buyers can be overwhelmed with so many new processes and unknowns, such as home charging stations, how to manage a vehicle’s battery pack and where are public charging stations? While not a pressing issue, finding free public charging stations isn’t hard in 2021 and offers up a new appreciation for your new vehicle purchase and reduces your overall total cost of ownership.
Now level 3 public fast charging stations are not usually free since they offer a ton of convenience — and electricity on the road traveling long distances or on a business trip. But there’s an abundance of free charging stations in your daily and road trip routine and we’ll show you will dish how to find them below:
How to Find Free Public Charging Stations
Free Level 2 Charging Stations via the Volta Charging Network
PlugShare’s Free EV Charging Station Directory
Hotels and Destination Charging
1 | Volta Charging Network
Level 2 free charging stations are not super rare in 2021 and you can find them in many places outside of California, but Volta Charging Network Level 2 charging stations provide 20 to 30 miles of range in an hour depending on your EV’s acceptance rate (see Plugged In EV’s Glossary). Again, these are J1772 plugs and all EV automakers provide these adapters with new EV purchases, and the Volta makes money by providing advertising via the large LCD displays incorporated into the charging stations. The usual charging limit is two hours with these stations.
And, in 2019, the charging network also unveiled FREE fast charging at 50kW or 100kW for the first 30 minutes and then after 30 minutes a charge would be assessed via its app.
2 | PlugShare Free EV Charging Station Directory
The elder statesman (person) of charging station Apps — a must-have — has a handy directory that can be found via its website, www.plugshare.com/map/free-ev-stations. In order to use this directory, register with PlugShare and you can find a pre-filtered list of all the charging stations throughout the world that offer free charging.
This list includes fast charging, Level 2 charging and even 120V plugs. Most free charging will be Level 2 charging and J1772, and will be found in retail and downtown areas. Plus, the directory can be pretty handy for destinations on the road when visiting an area for, say, a hockey tournament or vacation. A convenient level 2 charging station — paid or free — can alleviate any stress when driving or renting an EV on vacation.
PlugShare is a great tool with some tricky and dated UI but can be figured out quite quickly. And if you’re a map freak, PlugShare is a blast.
3| Hotel Charging
Many newbies to the EV world don’t know that hotel charging is quite abundant in the U.S and to some degree, Canada — and trending in the UK and Europe. Talk about amenities, hotel charging is amazing and 99% of hotel operators won’t charge — no pun intended — a fee to plugin while using a Level 2 charging station.
At this point, most charging stations have two charging plugs — many ChargePoint Level 2 stations. Most smaller operations will have only one station. On a 2019 trip to Los Angeles from Chicago, a Level 2 charging station at Holiday Inn in Keene, Nebraska provided a Tesla Model S 60 with a full 202 mile battery pack at the start of the day.
The charging process at hotels includes an honor code, where you can check-in via PlugShare, which allows other drivers to message you. Or, hotel managers will help but many are hands-off at this point — or don’t know they have it. Also, I try to call ahead to see if the charging station is working — less populated areas — or to gauge the use of the station.
As seen by LaQuinta, many bigger operators are also offering charging stations and most are offering it for free.
How to Find Hotel Charging?
Again, I would use the PlugShare App or its website map to find hotel charging, and the filters on PlugShare can be tricky on the App. Make sure to check “lodging” and “payment required” in the filters for all the hotels to appear as the “payment required” filter is stated for non-hotel guests and can block out the free charging for hotel guests! See below:
Plus, many hotel chains are publishing their stations online. See Marriot’s charging station list.
Happy charging!