With the amount of driving that I do in a week and with my schedule, taking an extra 30 minutes to an hour once a week or so to drive out to a charger in Jenks or BA is totally doable for me.

Especially when it is completely free. 🤑

Charging patterns:

• 45% of sessions in morning
• 35% in the afternoon
• 20% during the evening

And my most common days are Mondays and Saturdays.

The 624 kWh would have cost me about $87 if I charged at home in Tulsa (14¢/kWh on avg. but would likely be much lower), or $349 if I paid EA's standard rate ($0.56/kWh).

Instead, my total cost was just $1.08 (from a single time of letting it charge past the 30 minute limit).

I've charged 624 kWh in Jan & Feb, loosely equivalent to about 52 gallons of gas. At local Tulsa rates ($2.67-$2.78/gallon), that could have cost around $150 in a gas car.

Another note about the charging frequency over the first months of this year—it has been exceptionally cold here in Tulsa. Colder weather means the car is using its heat pump to heat its batteries and running the cabin heater & heated seats...completely obliterating the range.

February charging breakdown:

• Feb 1-4: 17 kWh - 1 session
• Feb 5-11: 133 kWh - 3 sessions
• Feb 12-18: 95 kWh - 3 sessions
• Feb 19-25: 110 kWh - 3 sessions
• Feb 26-28: 0 kWh - 0 sessions

Total for February: 356 kWh across 10 sessions

January charging breakdown:

• Jan 1-7: 53 kWh - 2 sessions
• Jan 8-14: 0 kWh - 0 sessions
• Jan 15-21: 108 kWh - 4 sessions
• Jan 22-28: 73 kWh - 3 sessions
• Jan 29-31: 24 kWh - 1 session

Total for January: 258 kWh across 10 sessions

With that little EA workaround, the sessions listed below are a little misleading as many of the multi-session weeks were longer single sessions split into two to keep the price at $0. In Jan & Feb, doing this saved me approximately $25 in extra costs.

The "free charging" plan has a 30-minute session limit then you're charged for overages. When it's cold out and/or charging slowly, you can stop the session before the limit, unplug, replug, and immediately start a new session to avoid paying extra. 🫣

My 2024 Ioniq 5 achieves super-fast charging speeds with its 800V battery system, reaching a maximum of 237 kW in one session. Theoretically, this could refill my 77 kWh battery three times in an hour under ideal conditions.

Charging sessions are quick, averaging just under 20 minutes each. I was charging for a total of just 3 hours in January and 4 hours in February.

Conveniently, the chargers are located at shopping centers, allowing me to pick up things I needed whether I was charging or not!

Looking at my January & February data:

I completed 20 charging sessions across Tulsa's 2 EA locations - Simon Tulsa Premium Outlets in Jenks and the Target in Broken Arrow. Adding a total of 624 kWh to my battery even with only charging to 80% each time.