How Does Somebody Get an EV Parking Space at Disney World?

[mkt]

Related to your conversation if it comes a time when the majority of folks are driving electric, what is that going to do to the electric rates I wonder?

Full transparency: I work for an automaker, and work on EV projects on a very regular basis.

Anyway, we've done studies about this at work. Realistically, it's expected that if every car were to be an EV, there would be a 25% increase in cost per KWH.

At my house, I spend about $170/mo on electrical - $15 of which is to charge my car (FPL gives a good breakdown on their website).

25% higher cost would be $212.50, which means $18.75 to charge my car. The amount spent to charge my car is irrelevant, but I wanted to add it - but this is what's relevant.

That's an increase of $42.50. In my case, with the amount of driving I do, I'd spend that much on gas in a week. So even with an increase in KWH, I still come out ahead financially. I have a feeling most people would as well.

Even if someone does not own an electric car, they will be paying high electric rates to keep the Teslas charged up.

Not just Teslas. Chevys, Fords, Toyotas, Nissan, etc.

Just like they're going to pay those same rates if someone else decides to have a ridiculous christmas light show in their house, or a crypto mining operation in their basement.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Full transparency: I work for an automaker, and work on EV projects on a very regular basis.

Anyway, we've done studies about this at work. Realistically, it's expected that if every car were to be an EV, there would be a 25% increase in cost per KWH.

At my house, I spend about $170/mo on electrical - $15 of which is to charge my car (FPL gives a good breakdown on their website).

25% higher cost would be $212.50, which means $18.75 to charge my car. The amount spent to charge my car is irrelevant, but I wanted to add it - but this is what's relevant.

That's an increase of $42.50. In my case, with the amount of driving I do, I'd spend that much on gas in a week. So even with an increase in KWH, I still come out ahead financially. I have a feeling most people would as well.


Not just Teslas. Chevys, Fords, Toyotas, Nissan, etc.

Just like they're going to pay those same rates if someone else decides to have a ridiculous christmas light show in their house, or a crypto mining operation in their basement.

Ok now you did it, you reminded me of the Osborne lights I miss them...
But I digress..
Electricity rates going up by 25 percent, if that turns out to be true, that's not too bad.
So $42.50 a month to charge. That's nothing.
On the average, how many miles per month do you get for $42.50 ?

 

[mkt]

Ok now you did it, you reminded me of the Osborne lights I miss them...
But I digress..
Electricity rates going up by 25 percent, if that turns out to be true, that's not too bad.
So $42.50 a month to charge. That's nothing.
On the average, how many miles per month do you get for $42.50 ?

We all miss the Osborne lights

Since I work form home, I don't drive really long distances - mostly around town to run errands, and occasional trips to breweries. With that out of the way, I drive about 600 miles on an average month. My worst month was about 1k miles, and even then, my charging amount didn't go past $25.

I'm also counting that about 15% of that usage is from when my car stays plugged in on hot days so the battery cooling/maintenance system will help preserve the battery.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Disney didn't build gas stations at the Contemporary Resort or at TTC.

Except they did…

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

Except they did…

There’s a gas station at the Contemporary?

 

[SteveAZee]

Related to your conversation if it comes a time when the majority of folks are driving electric, what is that going to do to the electric rates I wonder?

It seems to me, everyone's electric rates will be high due to good old supply and demand.

Today, most can choose to drive less to save on the cost of gasoline, but there are many folks that their entire home is run on electricity; cooking, cooling and heating. That makes using less electricity much harder.

Even if someone does not own an electric car, they will be paying high electric rates to keep the Teslas charged up.

If you're asking about the actual electric bill, then yes it will go up and your gasoline bill will go down.

If you're talking about $/kWH, there are places where the grid might be strained more than other places... clearly Texas has a grid issue at times. I would think the need for more electricity will be gradual and the infrastructure will grow to meet it.

It'll be interesting to see what happens to gas stations over time... as demand decreases, I assume some places will close and gas prices might increase due to less volume. Petroleum, though, might just get diverted to wherever people are using it to generate electricity to feed the grid.

Me, I'm going solar.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

It would be interesting to have a conversation like this in an alternate universe where nearly everyone drove electric cars and someone was wondering where they can get gas for their new ICE car... does each resort have a gas pumping station available?

The change from one to the other is also a change in how one approaches 'refueling'.

I'm not slamming the OP... it's a legit question. I have an ICE truck and my wife has a Tesla (so a mixed marriage ) and we've done road trips and vacations in her car... and honestly I'll be moving to a Rivian pretty soon... there are just small tweaks to be made in how one travels, but the trade-offs are small and the wins are big.

I am disappointed Lordstown Motors hasn't gotten their trucks going...so in my stock portfolio

 

[mkt]

It'll be interesting to see what happens to gas stations over time... as demand decreases, I assume some places will close and gas prices might increase due to less volume. Petroleum, though, might just get diverted to wherever people are using it to generate electricity to feed the grid.

In my market, some with decent food/coffee options are adding L2/L3 chargers of various flavors to attract those people.

 

[SteveAZee]

In my market, some with decent food/coffee options are adding L2/L3 chargers of various flavors to attract those people.

LOL, high power electrical lines and underground tanks of flammable liquid... what could possibly go wrong?

This makes sense though, at least for the stations that have enough room to let cars park for 20 minutes at a time (and high margin snacks to be bought).

 

[BillyGr]

Perhaps a setup would work where you have a double row of parking spots and one charging station in the middle of 4 spaces.

Whichever car arrives first gets plugged in, then when that one is charged, the plug is moved to #2, #3, #4 until all 4 are charged. It would only require one employee every however long (hour? two?) a charging takes to go along a line of these spaces to move the plugs to the next set of cars x 3 (since once all 4 are done, that would end it until those cars leave).

Would help allow more people to use less chargers without needing the car owners themselves to disrupt their time in the parks to do so.

 

[drizgirl]

Perhaps a setup would work where you have a double row of parking spots and one charging station in the middle of 4 spaces.

Whichever car arrives first gets plugged in, then when that one is charged, the plug is moved to #2, #3, #4 until all 4 are charged. It would only require one employee every however long (hour? two?) a charging takes to go along a line of these spaces to move the plugs to the next set of cars x 3 (since once all 4 are done, that would end it until those cars leave).

Would help allow more people to use less chargers without needing the car owners themselves to disrupt their time in the parks to do so.

Disney is in the business of downsizing staffing. I don't see anything that requires human staffing happening on this.

 

[mkt]

Perhaps a setup would work where you have a double row of parking spots and one charging station in the middle of 4 spaces.

Whichever car arrives first gets plugged in, then when that one is charged, the plug is moved to #2, #3, #4 until all 4 are charged. It would only require one employee every however long (hour? two?) a charging takes to go along a line of these spaces to move the plugs to the next set of cars x 3 (since once all 4 are done, that would end it until those cars leave).

Would help allow more people to use less chargers without needing the car owners themselves to disrupt their time in the parks to do so.

Granted, unplugging an EV is a pretty low risk thing, Disney does not like the liability of having to do anything to guest cars. For example, they got rid of the locksmith, which would - for free - unlock your car, and even change the ignition lock cylinder and rekey a car if a guess completely lost their car keys.

But if they were to do it...

Disney is in the business of downsizing staffing. I don't see anything that requires human staffing happening on this.

...they wouldn't hire people for this specific role. They would just add this responsibility to the parking cast.

 

[drizgirl]

...they wouldn't hire people for this specific role. They would just add this responsibility to the parking cast.

And when someone comes back and finds their car didn't get charged becuase the staff had a particularly busy day? Nope. Don't see it happening.

 

[mkt]

And when someone comes back and finds their car didn't get charged becuase the staff had a particularly busy day? Nope. Don't see it happening.

I don't see it happening for the first reason I stated in my post, not for Disney.

Disney caring about the guest is lip-service, but not much else.

 

[spock8113]

I hate the entire "Charging Anxiety" thing. That can be stressful in a subdued way.
I would suggest bringing an extra pack of "AAA"s and a maybe a spare hamster and never, ever use auto pilot!

 

[Club Cooloholic]

So been driving a rented Tesla S for several days. It's a bit older and only has 225 range, which seems to be even less, is it the heat? Anyway, while it's been fun it was a bit stressful finding charging. As I mentioned we stayed at the Poly...no charging there. The charging stations at the park were always full(BTW Epcot has a terrible spot for theirs, literally the same lane as the Rideshare pickups and dropouts so cars are always behind tour parking space). Car got down to just 6 miles left today on it when I pulled into a lot with supercharger. This after driving by several gas stations. Fun but a little stressful.

 

[mkt]

It's a bit older and only has 225 range, which seems to be even less, is it the heat?

If it's a bit older, it's likely due to the age and use of the battery. EV range is affected more by cold temperatures than by heat.

 

[MaryJaneP]

Until there is a universal "Fuel" option, it seems like we are headed to a betacam vs vhs battle where most households have to choose on or the other. Why would WDW even contemplate getting into this mess regarding recharging? While it is probably smart to encourage EV adoption by having closer parking spaces (like maybe the row behind the handicapped spaces), expecting WDW to have recharging infrastructure seems unlikely.

 

[larryz]

At my house, I spend about $170/mo on electrical - $15 of which is to charge my car (FPL gives a good breakdown on their website).

25% higher cost would be $212.50, which means $18.75 to charge my car. The amount spent to charge my car is irrelevant, but I wanted to add it - but this is what's relevant.

That's an increase of $42.50. In my case, with the amount of driving I do, I'd spend that much on gas in a week. So even with an increase in KWH, I still come out ahead financially. I have a feeling most people would as well.

More power to you (literally)

 

[Club Cooloholic]

Ok Electric Car pros...I'm at vero beach Disney...they have a chargepoint charger. I have a Tesla,been using the adapter all is fine till the car charges to about 112 miles. At that point chargepoint says it's fully charged and stops charging. Any advice to keep the car charging more than 112?