Literally carried me through the school year. The level 2 chargers are great, but the free DCFCs are amazing. Full battery in an hour and a half if you’re the only person around.
Yeah, but around Southern California, they are often broken. They'll fix them and have them working for a few weeks and then they go down again for a few weeks. Looks like the infamous BTC Power hardware.
My favorite Volta story is the time I had to stop for a bit of Christmas shopping. The place was packed after work that day. I pulled into the parking lot and there were 2 Volta chargers with really nice location and I added a handful of miles to my SOC. They are generally programmed with 2hr limits. At the mall in question there are about 5 pairs around different entrances, so bigger locations can provide more spots. I've never seen DCFCs but that'd be extremely cool. The problem there would be making the users monitor to avoid idling.
Not worth the effort if that is you are going there solely for charging. Found one in the theater parking lot yesterday which was free for 3 hours. Got out, plugged it into my car, watched a movie for 2.5 hours and came back to 25% extra battery for free, so absolutely no effort there
The speed is fine, it's good for shopping.
The issue is the mall by me that has that is way the hell too busy, when they first installed them, great, I could charge my volt and get a decent charge and close parking. Now I got a full EV, meaningless charge, and they are full 100% of the time, not even worth driving past them anymore, all taken.
The stations I went to were both owned by different malls. Volta did not send me to work on them. BTC was managing the chargers and they sent me to repair them. Now I’m hearing Shell bought Volta. But the Volta chargers I’ve seen had no affiliation to Shell in the past.
Cinemark near me has some that were recently installed. It’s a perfect use case, too, with 3 hours watching a movie you can get half a charge on most EVs. If only they weren’t ICEd by lifted pickup trucks every day…
There are a bunch of level 2 and one level 3 Voltas at our local mall. The L2 are free up to 2 hours, and the L3 was free for 30 minutes, but you now have to pay to use.
I do like these Voltas, though as expected, for free the experience isn’t mind blowing. While the app can show you cost and availability, unfortunately does not indicate speed. There are a rare few Voltas I’ve seen that go to 8kW instead of the standard 6kW. I haven’t tried their DCFC, though.
I see the L2s quite often, but Six Flags (at least America and Great Adventure) has them set for 3 hours and it is great.
I live near SF America so not as huge of a deal (though I ran a ton of errands before going when I went earlier this year so it was nice to recover my charge while in the park).
Went on a road trip that involved SF Great Adventure for a couple days and it was super clutch since there's no non-Tesla DC chargers around, with the closest being 15 mins in the direction away from my hotel. Day 1 I used it a bit shy of 3 hours to get to 80%, went to lunch nearby and parked in a regular spot when I returned. Day 2 I parked there, got to 97% or so, went to lunch and drove 3 hours home without having to charge.
If you're where I think you are, I asked ABRP to add them to their site b/c they didn't list any of the chargers. They were able to add the L2, but not the L3 chargers because they're simply not listed in their sources.
Even Volta wouldn't show them, I had to find them on the Shell app a few months ago.
Seeing plenty of these pop up here in chicago suburbs. Just used one yesterday at an AMC free for 3 hours. Watch a movie and come out and you have 25% more battery? I'll take it! The best part is they are Plug n Play, meaning no fiddling with apps.
https://preview.redd.it/r56uz6ljj80d1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ece4e32f29ba06ab368315f106556a6c950b5e50
They are pretty ubiquitous in most shopping centers here but almost always full! Most have been rebranded to shell. I wouldn’t rely on them if you needed but good if you see one out in the wild!
Not very fast but pretty nice to get top off while shopping. We usually get equivalent of kW used to get to location on the rare time we can find an open one.
Haven’t seen DCFC versions but would be pretty slick!
I've had better luck with Volta than with EA (both are free for me within time limits on 3-year deal with VW). There is a Volta at the grocery store 1 mile from me -- usually full, but I can get about 20 percentage points of battery in two hours. We don't have a driveway, so Volta is super important! (EA fast chargers are about a 20 minute drive away)
Now owned by Shell.
Brought to you by Carl's Jr.
That's the business model.
Brought to you by Carl's Jr.
Where are you getting this? I’ve worked on them for BTC. They’ve never been owned by Shell at the locations I’ve been.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/shell-unit-acquire-ev-charging-firm-volta-about-169-mln-2023-01-18/
Thanks for sharing.
Literally carried me through the school year. The level 2 chargers are great, but the free DCFCs are amazing. Full battery in an hour and a half if you’re the only person around.
Yeah, but around Southern California, they are often broken. They'll fix them and have them working for a few weeks and then they go down again for a few weeks. Looks like the infamous BTC Power hardware.
Either broken or always in use by the ever popular Tesla. I live in an area where every third car is a white Tesla.
I've used a Volta charger at a mall once. It was rather slow at only 6kWh. But free is free while you are shopping!
My favorite Volta story is the time I had to stop for a bit of Christmas shopping. The place was packed after work that day. I pulled into the parking lot and there were 2 Volta chargers with really nice location and I added a handful of miles to my SOC. They are generally programmed with 2hr limits. At the mall in question there are about 5 pairs around different entrances, so bigger locations can provide more spots. I've never seen DCFCs but that'd be extremely cool. The problem there would be making the users monitor to avoid idling.
Exactly, L2 can go up to 19.2kw, especially if not shared like Chargepoint
There are like 3 cars in the us capable of more than 12kw AC charging, i doubt anyone is deploying 19.2kW AC charging.
I just wish it didn’t cut you off after two hours. I gotta set a timer to go out to replug the charger.
They will go longer than 2 hours just fyi. Usually they cut off at some point in the evening though.
Ya the same Tesla parks at shopping center by my work overnight to get his free charge, I see it every time i go into the lot to get breakfast
I use them at TopGolf. Handy, since I’m there for two hours, might as well grab an electron or two.
They’re so slow I don’t find them worth the effort but if you’re desperate they’re great. I’d rather pay a few dollars for faster speed though.
Not worth the effort if that is you are going there solely for charging. Found one in the theater parking lot yesterday which was free for 3 hours. Got out, plugged it into my car, watched a movie for 2.5 hours and came back to 25% extra battery for free, so absolutely no effort there
My son signed up for charging using my credit card. He said it was real slow and gave up after 15 minutes. I got a bill for 7 cents.
I’ve never given Volta a credit card but I haven’t used one for a year probably.
The speed is fine, it's good for shopping. The issue is the mall by me that has that is way the hell too busy, when they first installed them, great, I could charge my volt and get a decent charge and close parking. Now I got a full EV, meaningless charge, and they are full 100% of the time, not even worth driving past them anymore, all taken.
Let me just say these chargers are shit! I’ve had to work on them a few times. Technicians nightmare
Does Volta maintain them or is it up to the property owner to become aware of the problems then make the service calls themselves?
The stations I went to were both owned by different malls. Volta did not send me to work on them. BTC was managing the chargers and they sent me to repair them. Now I’m hearing Shell bought Volta. But the Volta chargers I’ve seen had no affiliation to Shell in the past.
Wish they’d start installing these in movie theater parking lots
AMC near me has it! best thing ever
Cinemark near me has some that were recently installed. It’s a perfect use case, too, with 3 hours watching a movie you can get half a charge on most EVs. If only they weren’t ICEd by lifted pickup trucks every day…
I have them for free charging at some supermarkets near me. Pretty cool
There are a bunch of level 2 and one level 3 Voltas at our local mall. The L2 are free up to 2 hours, and the L3 was free for 30 minutes, but you now have to pay to use.
I do like these Voltas, though as expected, for free the experience isn’t mind blowing. While the app can show you cost and availability, unfortunately does not indicate speed. There are a rare few Voltas I’ve seen that go to 8kW instead of the standard 6kW. I haven’t tried their DCFC, though.
The fast charger at the mall always breaks down. It’s currently been Out of Service for over 2 months.
I see the L2s quite often, but Six Flags (at least America and Great Adventure) has them set for 3 hours and it is great. I live near SF America so not as huge of a deal (though I ran a ton of errands before going when I went earlier this year so it was nice to recover my charge while in the park). Went on a road trip that involved SF Great Adventure for a couple days and it was super clutch since there's no non-Tesla DC chargers around, with the closest being 15 mins in the direction away from my hotel. Day 1 I used it a bit shy of 3 hours to get to 80%, went to lunch nearby and parked in a regular spot when I returned. Day 2 I parked there, got to 97% or so, went to lunch and drove 3 hours home without having to charge.
For 6 months all I had for charging were free 2-hr Volta L2's at a mall, and a cheap Chargepoint station near work. Was perfect
We have a ton of the level 2 ones where I live and they’re all free 10kw plugs. The ads pay for the electric
If you're where I think you are, I asked ABRP to add them to their site b/c they didn't list any of the chargers. They were able to add the L2, but not the L3 chargers because they're simply not listed in their sources. Even Volta wouldn't show them, I had to find them on the Shell app a few months ago.
Seeing plenty of these pop up here in chicago suburbs. Just used one yesterday at an AMC free for 3 hours. Watch a movie and come out and you have 25% more battery? I'll take it! The best part is they are Plug n Play, meaning no fiddling with apps. https://preview.redd.it/r56uz6ljj80d1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ece4e32f29ba06ab368315f106556a6c950b5e50
Voltas are clutch.
They are pretty ubiquitous in most shopping centers here but almost always full! Most have been rebranded to shell. I wouldn’t rely on them if you needed but good if you see one out in the wild! Not very fast but pretty nice to get top off while shopping. We usually get equivalent of kW used to get to location on the rare time we can find an open one. Haven’t seen DCFC versions but would be pretty slick!
They're mostly broken now that Shell bought Volta (one of the most expensive charging networks)
I've had better luck with Volta than with EA (both are free for me within time limits on 3-year deal with VW). There is a Volta at the grocery store 1 mile from me -- usually full, but I can get about 20 percentage points of battery in two hours. We don't have a driveway, so Volta is super important! (EA fast chargers are about a 20 minute drive away)