Costco Superchargers?

MEDICALJMP

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Costco has great gas prices, but do they have Superchargers in any of them? Is it worth my time to petition the local Costco stores here to install Superchargers?
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alan auerbach

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Costco has great gas prices, but do they have Superchargers in any of them? Is it worth my time to petition the local Costco stores here to install Superchargers?
Have not heard of such, so far. Costco works on big volume, so if the demand arises, I'm sure they'll be receptive.
 

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Costco is a little behind the times when it comes to charging infrastructure.

But their plan is bulk and efficiency, they probably don't think of themselves as a 'stop and charge' place. It's not like you can run out to move your car when it's done while you're in line.

It would be pretty cool, though. They have alot of good locations.

What Tesla really needs to do is bring out their CCS dongle they've been teasing (and have in Europe). Their system is compatible with the J1772 and combo plug communications. Then you could use any charger in between home and the Supercharger.

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Cyber_Dav

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Costco was one of the first! They had inductive chargers for the EV1. When I got my EV in 2002 that was my goto for travel charging.

But the demand wasn't there yet. If they stopped working they were not repaired. The Costco in Santee (SoCal) was the first (local to me) to turn them off. I begged them (local and corporate) to turn them back on.

Answer was very discouraging. "No ROI" they said. I think they will be one of the last to have chargers again.
 

Friday

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Costco was one of the first! They had inductive chargers for the EV1. When I got my EV in 2002 that was my goto for travel charging.

But the demand wasn't there yet. If they stopped working they were not repaired. The Costco in Santee (SoCal) was the first (local to me) to turn them off. I begged them (local and corporate) to turn them back on.

Answer was very discouraging. "No ROI" they said. I think they will be one of the last to have chargers again.
Can confirm Costco was the first public chargers I remember back in EV1 days. I still remember which parking spaces were the chargers at the local one. In AZ.
 


Sirfun

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Personally I think with most EV's having over 200 miles of range most people would rather not plug in for the short amount of time they are in a store. I think the only time I will be plugging in my CT will be at home or on a road trip. Maybe if I were parking for an extended time, 4 hours or more would be the only time I might think about plugging in. Otherwise, it's just like any other vehicle, park it and walk away.
 
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Marriott tends to have a bunch of destination chargers.........would be great to have superchargers at Marriotts, too.
 

Crissa

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Personally I think with most EV's having over 200 miles of range most people would rather not plug in for the short amount of time they are in a store.
That's why level 2 mixes more with restaurants, work places, hotels. Plugging in also means you get just enough miles to finish errands or keep the AC on without making a special stop.

But also remember there are lots of cheaper, smaller vehicles like e-bikes and city cars, that need access to cheaper charging options. Scooters and city cars won't have much range for a long, long time - batteries are bulk, weight, and cost.

-Crissa
 

TI4Dan

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I am curious were superchargers will go in a city type setting our Costco is very close to a strip mall. The mall ( stores indoors under common roof ) that I go to once in a while has a hotel connected to it and has a couple destination chargers, the mall is slowly losing foot traffic even before the pandemic occurred. Many stores have closed and others went out of business. Strip styled malls ( store has its own entrance door ) seem to be very popular here in Kalispell Mt. maybe a good location for a supercharger. Many types of stores plus restaurants and vast food variants. This maybe a win for both EV's and business owners, Most people will probably elect to go about the strip mall for food or shopping while vehicle charges. As technology progress and charge times are greatly reduced a charge station maybe come a reality, the kind we see for petroleum products.
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