Where Can I Get Free EV Charging

Is it still possible to get free EV charging in 2023 and if so where? Over the last 10 years Tesla has offered free Supercharger charging for life for certain models. If you have a Tesla with that perk you are lucky. But in 2023 it does not appear Tesla is offering that promo anymore. What can you do to get free charging if you have a Tesla without free Supercharging access or another electric vehicle?

Yes there are still options for free EV charging. One company that offers free charging is Volta Charging. They operate large LED screen charging networks that make money on advertising and most of their chargers offer free Level 2 charging for up to 2 hours.

Volta Energy Free Charging

Volta usually has only a couple of chargers in any location. I have some near me at a nearby Whole Foods and they have 2 chargers offering 2 hours of free EV charging. To use the Volta free EV charging just download the Volta app it will show you where chargers are located near you and if any of them are currently in use or not.

Employer Free Charging

Some employers offer free charging in the company parking garage. Places such as government buildings, hospitals and other private companies sometimes offer free EV charging to their employees located around their building or in the parking garage. You may want to check with your employer to see if they offer such a perk. The website plugshare.com also aggregates all charging stations and they show private chargers as well that may help you find employee charging.

Public Free Charging

There are shopping centers that offer free charging. Colleges, Grocery centers, malls, hotels all sometimes have free charging locations nearby. You can again check plugshare.com and select free charging to see what free charging options are available in your area. Chargepoint is one of the companies used in these public locations for free charging. You can check on Chargepoint’s app as well to see if there is free charging near you.

Complimentary Charging With New Vehicle

If you are in the market for a new EV check with the manufacturer to see if they offer any complimentary charging with the purchase of the vehicle. Ford for example offers 250kWh of free charging with the purchase of a new Mustang Mach-E or F-150 lightning at Electrify America charging stations. That works out to about 4 or 5 full fillups.

Discounted EV Charging

While not free both Electrify America and EVgo offer memberships to their charging networks. With these memberships you get a discounted rate on charging cost. If you live nearby one of these charging networks or use one of them often it may be advantageous to you to sign up for one of their memberships.

Heavily Discounted At home Overnight Charging

Finally also not free. But it is convenient to charge at home and sometimes better to just charge at home then to travel to a charger even if its free. If you have not already done so check with you electric company to see if they have an electric vehicle rate plan that discounts your electricity rate during off peak hours. Many electricity companies offer a plan that makes the off peak electricity rate really low which can help make charging at home very cheap.

For example my local utility Southern California Edison offers a special rate called TOU-D-Prime or Time-Of-Use Prime rate. This rate is specifically for EV owners and it heavily discounts the cost of electricity between the hours of 8am and 4pm and 9pm to 8am. This makes the cost equivalent to charge an EV less than $2 for a gallon of gasoline.