Publix in St. Pete, Where Charging Is a Pleasure
Yours truly is now an electric car driver. I never saw it coming. 2 months ago I was completely content with my Camry. It wasn’t exciting, but it was reliable. I never had problems with it. But after spending a weekend riding in a Tesla in Las Vegas that my buddy rented, I was hooked. I loved the cool features, acceleration, and the car farts. It seriously can fart.
As a new EV driver, the big challenge has been finding the best spots to charge up. Lots of Wawa’s have fast Tesla Superchargers. The ones in Pinellas Park and Clearwater have worked fine. But those can get pricy. I read that Elon Musk said that using Superchargers isn’t so bad for your battery health. But I keep seeing those who’ve owned a Tesla for a while say the opposite. I believe the drivers more than Elon.
My first successful non-Tesla supercharger charge happened Friday night. I drove around downtown St. Pete and PlugShare had green dots indicating free and paid chargers all over the neighborhood. The big problem is many of the charging spots were for hotel guests. Street chargers were hopeless. With it being downtown St. Pete, parking is hard to find so sure enough many of the public charging station parking spots were taken by non EV drivers.
Then I remembered reading that a Publix in the area offered free charging. Skeptical, I popped 700 Central Avenue into the GPS. At the very least, I figured at least I could recharge with a Pub Sub. It’s not a typical Publix parking lot. You pull into a parking garage. There’s no charge. After you drive up the ramp, take a sharp right and you’ll see the 2 white J-1772 chargers directly across from the elevator.
Both were available. With no registration required, I snapped on my adapter and was charging my Tesla Model 3 in seconds. I was getting 6 Kilowatts so after about 30 minutes of shopping and eating my Pub Sub at their dine in area, I got about a 5 or 6% boost.
Had I walked around the neighborhood to let the car charge more, I might’ve had an issue as Publix posts a sign that you are only to use the charger while you’re shopping. But nonetheless, the Publix charger worked great. I wish all Publix stores had them. Several in Hillsborough and Pinellas County do.
If you’re a Tesla owner like me, I’ve started a blog on my experiences as a new EV guy. Feel free to follow along: Tales of a Tesla in Tampa.
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