I’ve had a Tesla Model Y for over two years now. For the most part I’ve charged at home at 110v and 14a. Not only is that quite slow for charging speeds, resulting in 24+ charge times, but it costs me anywhere from $3 to $6 depending on time of use to charge my car. Now that’s incredibly cheap compared to gas, and I work from home so I don’t do a ton of driving, so I just didn’t really worry too much about it.

Lately I’ve been having a lot of fun finding spots I can charge for free. It turns out there are numerous places near me where I can plug in and charge for free, often at a faster rate of charge! So where can you find free charging, and how would one find it?

ChargePoint

The first thing I’d recommend doing is downloading the ChargePoint app and creating an account. You can also browse their map for free on their website. Thanks to it I’ve found numerous free charging locations around my town. In addition to using it to locate charging spots you will also use the app to activate the charger by tapping your phone to the NFC reader on the charger. Once authenticated it will unlock the cable and allow you to plug it into your car. These all seem to be a max of 6.8 kW.

Community Sites

This one is going to vary a lot depending on where you live. You’ll want to search the name of your town / city or community and free charging. You may find your town has all sorts of free charging options list on their site. For example my town has free charging in about 30 locations and as long as you are paying for parking in those lots you are welcome to use a charger, usually there are four per parking lot. Again these appear to use the ChargePoint app to activate the machine. These all seem to be a max of 6.8 kW as well.

I personally use this option a lot, seeing how I only have a 110v / 15a circuit at home. I just park my car at the arena a couple of blocks away and can charge at 240v / 30a for free, it’s actually about 6x faster than charging at home and also has the added benefit of being free!

Flo

While most Flo chargers charge a fee to use, not only are they one of the most reliable chargers (second to Tesla’s SuperChargers) but they also sometimes are free to use, depending on the location. For example two of the No Frills locations I know of have Flo chargers that are free to use while shopping there. They will require the Flo app to activate though.

PlugShare

Another good app / website to check is PlugShare. They will have a list of free charging stations near you. You may see some overlap with what you see on the ChargePoint app but it’s definitely worth checking.

At Your Office

While I work from home when I was previously interviewing for a new job one place I interviewed at did have an interesting perk: over 20 chargers free to user for their employees. That would make my commute basically free. While not an option for everyone, it’s certainly something to look into.

Car Dealerships

You’d be surprised how many car dealerships have EV chargers available to the public. So look around, you may see them listed on some of the above apps even. The challenge with these I find is the often want you to go in and talk to them before they will switch it on, and will try and sell you a car in the mean time. I’ve had very little luck showing up after hours and using them to charge. So plan accordingly, but I don’t find these to be worth the hassle.

Campgrounds

While not necessarily free, as you’re paying for the right to camp there, I was quite pleased to be able to charge my car while camping several times this summer. You will need a TT-30 adapter to connect, at least here in Ontario Provincial Parks. But it was well worth the cost as I have gotten at least a half dozen full charges while camping or visiting friends camping this past summer, and also camped in my car using camp mode several times.

As electric cars become more widely adopted and common I suspect the free options will become less and less common. I’ve already seen costs of charging increase significantly. So take advantage while you still can and get some free juice!