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Charging and Fuel

Overview

HOURCAR covers the cost of charging and gas for all vehicles in our fleets. Evie vehicles are primarily charged at EV Spot Network chargers, while electric HOURCAR vehicles are primarily charged at their hubs, and gas HOURCAR vehicles must be refilled at pumps. Members are required to end electric HOURCAR trips with the car charging and gas HOURCAR trips with the tank of gas at least ¼ full.

Charge Cards and Gas Cards

The cards to fuel/charge can be found in the glovebox of the cars.

A picture of an Evie glovebox with two charge cards in it.

Depending on if the car is electric or gas, and Evie or HOURCAR, the glovebox will host a different assortment of cards.

A picture of the four types of charge/gas cards.

The Wex card can be used to pay for gas at the pump or inside the gas station. You will need to know the car’s odometer reading and a trip pin. If you are not on a member-side trip, call Member Services for the pin. The pin changes from time to time for security reasons, so if you're using a pin from memory, call MS to get an updated one.

The blue EV Spot card only works at blue chargers, while the green card sometimes works on both blue and green. The blue chargers have had the RFID option disabled on some of them, in which case the EV Spot cards can be scanned as a credit card.

There is also a smaller ChargePoint card, which can be used at ChargePoint chargers if EV Spot chargers are unavailable (PlugShare is a good resource for finding non-EV Spot chargers).

All Evies should have a green EV Spot card and a ChargePoint card, while all electric HOURCARs should have a blue EV Spot card and a ChargePoint card. Gas HOURCARs should have a Wex gas card.

Missing Cards

If any of the cards are missing, contact your manager and make sure an activated replacement card is placed in the car. Document which cards end up in which cars on the whiteboard in the Fleet room.

Opening the Charge Door

Bolt: The charge door is located under the driver’s side mirror. Push on the right side of the door and the door will pop open. To close the door, push it shut until it latches closed.

Leaf: There is a button to the left of the steering wheel that opens the charge door.

A pic of the Leaf charge button.

The charge door is located on the front of the hood. There is a small cover over the charge port: open it by pulling aside the latch on the right side. To close the door, re-cover the port and then push the door shut until it latches closed.

EV Spot Chargers

Most, but not all, locations have two charge towers with two spots each: a green Evie-only charger and a blue public charger. Prioritize charging at the green charger, but if necessary, you may use one of the plugs on the public charger.

Indicator Lights Meanings

The lights atop the EV Spot chargers signify the charger’s status. Each side of the charge tower has an independent light, so each side can have a different status.

  • Green: ready to charge
  • Blue: plugged in, not charging
  • Orange: car charging
  • Red: charger error
  • White: charger not yet activated

Heads Up!

Orange and red are almost indistinguishable in daylight. If no car is plugged in, it’s probably red, and if there is a car plugged in, it’s likely orange.

Starting to Charge

Press any button to awaken the charger screen. Then, select which side you want to charge at. Tap the RFID card on the scanner. You then have 60 seconds to plug into the car.

If necessary, starting a charge on the blue chargers can be done in the same way, except on the first screen, you must select RFID or Credit Card.

To stop charging, unplug the plug from the car’s port.

Charge Settings for Leaf and Bolt!

The Nissan Leaf has a charge lock setting that, if turned on, will keep you from being able to unplug the car. You can turn off the lock by pressing the charger door button again, or fully disable the lock this by using the up and down arrows on the steering wheel to go to Settings > EV Settings > Chg. Connector Lock > Unlock.

The Chevy Bolt has a setting that will delay charging. To turn this off, go on the car's console screen and click on the green button in the bottom left that says "Energy." Select "Charging," then set the charge mode to "Immediate."

Double Check: Is the car actually charging?

Before you walk away from the car, there are a couple of ways that you can check that the car is actually charging, not just plugged in.

On an EV Spot charger, check that the indicator light on top of the tower has turned orange. On the screen, check that kWh have started to be used.

There are also some indicators inside the cars:

Bolt: The light on the dashboard will flash green when charging. The screen behind the wheel will also say when the car is charging, and will estimate the time at which the car will be fully charged.

Leaf: There are three lights on the dashboard which will flash when the car is charging. Which light is flashing signifies how much charge the car has: if the first light is flashing and the other two are off, the car has less than 1/3 battery, whereas if the first two lights are solid and the third is flashing, the car has more than 2/3 battery. The screen behind the wheel will also say when the car starts charging.

Chargers with Nicknames

There are a lot of chargers for Fleet team to remember, so often they are referred to by the neighborhood they’re in or a nearby landmark (or bathroom!).

  • Guthrie: 9th Ave S and Washington Ave S
  • Whole Foods: Snelling and Dayton
  • Fresh Thyme: 30th Ave SE and University Ave SE
  • Marcy Homes: 6th Ave SE and 4th St SE
  • Dinkytown: 13th Ave SE and 4th St SE
  • West Bank: 3rd St S and 19th Ave S
  • South High: 21st Ave S and 30 ½ St E
  • St. Thomas: Selby and Cleveland
  • Macalester: Macalester and Grand

Fast Chargers

The standard EV Spot Chargers are all level 2 chargers, which means that they will take 8-10 hours to fully charge a vehicle from empty. Level 3, or Direct Current Fast Chargers, can charge a car to 80% in under an hour, but charging on a DCFC is usually more expensive for the convenience. There are currently 2 DCFCs in the EV Spot Network, one at Cesar Chavez and one at Bates and E 7th.

Multifamily Chargers

Chargers at Multifamily hubs are different from EV Spot Chargers. Any chargers constructed specifically for the Multifamily Project are orange ChargePoint chargers, the operation of which is detailed below. Instructions on how to use non-standard chargers at electric HOURCAR hubs can be found with the information for those specific hubs on the Hubs tab of this Docs website.

Since these chargers have no screen, the charger's status is communicated by the ring of light around the plug’s port.

Ring Light Color Meaning
Solid White The station has not yet been activated OR the station has lost connectivity
Pulsing Yellow Station is validating the card OR Station is booting up
Solid Green Card is approved and the station is ready to charge
Solid Red Card is not valid
Pulsing Green Card is approved and schedule is set to delay charging
Solid Blue Vehicle is plugged in but not yet charging OR vehicle is fully charged
Pulsing Blue Vehicle is charging

To activate the Multifamily chargers, tap the ChargePoint card to the right of the plug port (pictured below with an arrow pointing to where to tap). Then, plug the car in and double check that it is charging.

A picture of one of the chargers used at Multifamily hubs. The place you tap the ChargePoint has an arrow pointing to it.

Fueling a Gas HOURCAR

There is a card in the glovebox of every gas HOURCAR that can be used to pay for gas. You will need the odometer reading and a user pin at the pump. Members can access their personal pin in the Evie Carshare app while on an HOURCAR trip, but for fleet purposes, give Member Services a call and they can give you a temporary pin.