Harrah’s, Harveys catering to electric vehicle crowd
Harrah’s, Harveys Lake Tahoe and Harrah’s Reno are installing state-of-the-art electric vehicle charging stations at all three hotel casino properties.
There will be eight stations at Harrah’s Reno and another eight stations at the Stateline properties.
The deployment of EV charging stations at its establishments is designed to encourage cleaner transportation and the broader use of renewable energy. Access to the charging stations is free to the public.
The charging stations are supplied by Schneider Electric’s EVlink, a technology which allows guests a convenient way to charge electric vehicles. The EVlink is a clean and simple design, with a LCD screen that displays instructions, status and usage information offering an exceptional charging experience. It is ChargePoint network enabled, and delivers a robust, reliable network giving users real-time notifications from the EVlink station during charging.
So are these things free? I have seen them other places and have always wondered about the cost of a recharge. I do believe that at the Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico they are powered by the solar panels overhead and are free, yet the Harrahs/Harveys complex has no panels I am aware of.
Whether they are free or not all depends in the policy of the entity that owns the charger. There are places that want to promote “green” or, like the casinos, just want to attract more customers, and so set them up for free charging. Others are part of charging networks and cost to use.
As far as the benefit to the driver – fully charging an pure EV vechicle only takes a few dollars worth of electicity. The main attraction for the EV driver is simply the presence of a charger so they know they can charge up. Without that knowledge, it’s tough to drive an EV to a remote location without being sure you can refuel it.
The Tesla has enough charge to get to Tahoe from Sacramento and beyond. Most EV’s don’t have enough range to comfortably get to Tahoe – even from Reno. It should be interesting to see if these are used by any EV’s or if they end up mostly being used by Volts and plug in Prii.
I’m at Harveys often and have seen several Teslas, a couple of Volts and a Nissan Leaf charging there. On a couple of occaisions I’ve seen all four spaces occupied and plugged in.
Unfortunately, those who could use these most, employees who are commuters from the Carson Valley are not allowed to use them. Maybe one day they will be installed for the employees to use as well.
Helen, I assume these are provided to attract customers. Perhaps the employees could convince the employer to install a “pay as you charge” station(s) for employees.