Why should we allow EV drivers to charge at our RV Park?
The data shows that future of driving is electric. Drivers love the smooth power delivery, the ability to charge up at home, and (hopefully) the ability to charge at their favorite RV Parks.
Because towing a trailer significantly reduces the range of an EV (sometimes cutting it in half!) it can make camping trips challenging. For drivers, being able to run the battery low, because they can plug in on arrival at an RV Park is a great solution. This also avoids having to search for public EV charging stations, which are sometimes hard to come by, and requires dropping their trailer.
There are however understandable reasons why some RV Parks are not excited to allow this. We are discussing these below.
Should I charge my guests an additional fee for the electricity?
Depending on your electricity cost, and nightly rates, this is reasonable. Please see the table on this page for estimates. If you do add a fee to a guest’s stay, we recommend it being a “per stay” fee, not a “per night” fee, because the vast majority of the charging will be needed upon arrival. Keeping an EV topped off during their stay (even when running errands) should be a fairly minimal cost.
Most EV drivers are very aware of the cost of electricity, and often pay high charges for charging at public EV chargers (like the Tesla supercharger network) on their road trips. Being asked to pay an additional fee should not come as a surprise to most drivers.
Can my park’s system handle the additional load?
This is dependent on each individual RV Park’s infrastructure, and an electrician should be able to help with a load calculation. We’ve talked to RV Park owners with zero issues, and we heard stories of EV charging resulting in issues at neighboring campsites.
Here are a few ideas that might help spread the additional load:
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- Spread EV charging guests out to sites on separate power circuits.
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- Ask guests to only use their level 1 (slow) charger (i.e., using the 20 amp household outlet). This means it could take 2-4 days for a car to fully charge, but it significantly reduces the load peaks you might experience if multiple EV drivers plug into the 50amp 240v outlets at the same time. You can also ask them to use the 50A outlet, but reduce their standard charging speed of 32A down to something like 16A, which generally still results in a full car in 24 hours.
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- Limit when guests can charge (e.g., no charging during the hottest parts of the day, when other campers are running their AC units).
What are the RV Park “Camp & Charge” Categories?
Green
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- Charging at the campsite is available, either free or at an additional cost.
Yellow
Charging allowed with some special rules to address concerns, for example:
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- Only charge using the 20 amp standard household outlet (slower, level 1 charging)
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- Only charge at certain off-peak hours (for example, from midnight to 12pm)
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- No charging at the campsite, but EV chargers available elsewhere in the park.
Red
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- No charging allowed or available.
How do I add my RV Park to the list?
Contact us, and let us know what you do, or do not, allow at your RV park. Feel free to tell us if this is limited to certain campsites, and whether there is a surcharge.