Electric Car Theme Park charging stations

[kayoss]

So I'm thinking about buying an electric car, so the recent adding of charge stations to Disneyland Resort has me thinking about what other theme parks have electric car charging? Would love to see pics, and news about them (as well as any advice from other electric car owners).

[coasterbill]

Knoebels has free car charging in their free parking lot because they're amazing like that...

 

[A.J.]

I think that having electric vehicle charging stations at a theme park is kind of tricky situation - but only right now. It's kind of hard to figure out how many stations to install but that will probably change down the road (heh).

 

Right now, it seems as though the only people that can really use the stations are park locals and people who own a Tesla Model S (since it can go 200-260 miles on a charge). Anyone else that lives further than 80 miles or so from the theme park in question wouldn't be able to use a "mainstream" electric car (Leaf, Focus, etc) to get there since it would go flat before arrival. For example, I wouldn't comfortably be able to drive a mainstream EV from where I live to Hersheypark and back even with twelve hours of charging at the park - neither would someone from Philadelphia.

 

Installing them at Disneyland makes sense because Disneyland is less than 30 miles from downtown Los Angeles. Even if you only stayed at the park for several hours you'd have plenty of charge to get back home. So I think it's kind of tricky to figure out how many people are actually driving their electric cars to parks, at least right now.

[kayoss]

[kayoss]

Aw. Thought this thread would get a bit more love as I am truly curious. Guess electric car owners truly are a rare breed!

[ernierocker]

^I think A.J. answered your question. Until more Electric Cars can go longer distances between charges, you will not see a widespread addition of charging stations at theme parks around the country. Not saying, they aren't going to have them, but the initiative is just not there yet.

[cfc]

Some rest stops in Virginia have charging stations. I imagine they'll become more widespread as electric cars improve, come down in price, and become a good choice for more buyers.

Edited November 15, 2014 by cfc

[Noporian]

Really electric cars to go for are Opel Ampera (Chevrolet Volt in the states), BMW i3, Mitsubishi Outlander PHeV and other plugin hybrids, because just incase you run out of electricity you can tank up on regular petrol.

[SharkTums]

Walt Disney World also has them.

[milst1]

Efteling has it. The image below is from an older website version. The text now reads:

 

Efteling has four charging points for electric vehicles, which can be used at no cost. The charging points are located at the front of the visitors’ car park. The charging points can be used on the basis of first come, first served principle. They can unfortunately not be reserved.

 

Charging point usage

You need a special chip card to make use of the charging points. You may collect one of these from the office between the cashier’s kiosks on the day of your visit.

So apparently they used to take reservations, and now they don't, and they've added two more stations.

 

It does differ a little bit from the Dutch text, which says you can use your own chip card to activate the station. I don't know if they are referring to the national transit chip card, or something else.

[Jew]

USH has some in the bottom level of their parking garage.

[DaMarkSta]

I was just talking about this with someone at work the other day, very awesome idea and I'd love to see these pop up in more theme parks in the future.

[805Andrew]

I hope to see these in more theme park parking lots/garages. The city of San Luis Obispo in my area has electric car charging stations in several spots including in front of Target and has had a couple of these charging stations/parking spots since the 90s. I always see a Nissan Leaf and/or Chevy Volt in these spots and the occasional Tesla or Plug-In Prius. I don't know about other states, but electric cars are becoming pretty popular here in CA.

[kayoss]

One thing that's irritating to electric car drivers is when a plugin hybrid which can use gas uses a charger when they don't absolutely need to (as in a pure electric). There should really be some designated all-electric spots but I guess that discourages everyone.

[Comeagain?]

Is there actually enough demand for them that you need designated spots?

[KarlaKoaster]

I guess it's bit of a chicken and egg situation where electric cars might not become mainstream until there are enough electric charge points to make them practical, but then until electric cars become popular there isn't really the demand to add charge points.

[A.J.]

It's not a matter of if electric cars become mainstream enough to warrant the stations, it's a matter of when.

 

Right now electric cars are popular in dense cities like New York and Los Angeles, so it's necessary for theme parks within close quarters of those cities to accommodate for electric cars. However, like I stated before, because not everyone is a Tesla Model S owner, charging stations wouldn't be appropriate for a park that you have to drive 40+ miles out of your way to get to.