City Lodge’s eight Chargify hotels are real — the >120-station claim still needs a public pin count

Primaries: City Lodge Hotels press release (29 Jan 2026) listing eight properties with Chargify AC stations; chargify.co.za public locations list fetched 27 Oct 2026. Chargify / City Lodge partner copy still claims a network of more than 120 charging stations nationwide — we could not independently audit that figure from a public pin API tonight.

Eight City Lodge-group hotels with guest AC charging

City Lodge says Chargify stations are live at:

• Gauteng: Courtyard Hotel Waterfall City; Courtyard Hotel Sandton; City Lodge Hotel Lynnwood
• Free State: City Lodge Hotel Bloemfontein
• KwaZulu-Natal: Town Lodge Umhlanga; Road Lodge Pietermaritzburg
• Eastern Cape: Courtyard Hotel Gqeberha
• Northern Cape: Road Lodge Kimberley

Features in the hotel PR: compatible with new EVs sold in SA; AC points (bring your own cable); no booking required; cost depends on battery size and session length. That is destination overnight charging — not highway 150 kW DC.

What we could count on Chargify’s public site tonight

As of 27 Oct 2026, the Chargify homepage locations block named partner sites across City Lodge / Courtyard / Town Lodge, Caltex, Netcare and selected lifestyle/mall addresses. Counting distinct named entries on that public list yields about 26 partner site names (25 unique strings if duplicate “Waterfall” labels are collapsed). That is a lower bound from marketing copy, not a live connector census, and it sits well below the partner PR claim of >120 stations.

Editorial rule: until Chargify publishes a dated map export or pin API we can recount, Solar News 24 will keep citing >120 as City Lodge / Chargify PR, note the ~26 named public-list sites we can see, and tell drivers to trust the live app on travel day.

What this means for apartment and estate drivers

If your body corporate is still arguing about basement DB capacity, a workplace Type 2 bay plus hotel/mall AC on trips can bridge months of governance delay — at a higher R/kWh than home. Budget public/destination AC nearer the published shared-network AC examples (~R5.88/kWh class in Rubicon’s Aug 2025 note) unless the venue posts a guest rate. Home or exclusive-use bay charging on metro tariffs (~R3.30–R4.70/kWh energy) remains the commuting saver — apartment EV, charge cost.

How this sits next to GridCars, SAEV and CHARGE

• GridCars — largest cited public DC CPO footprint; 120 kW dual CCS2 refresh underway (tonight’s GridCars piece).
• SAEV Charge — battery-backed DC; Richmond factory site reported ~R3.49/kWh.
• CHARGE — off-grid N3 hubs scaling toward 720 kW with large solar/BESS.
• Chargify — destination AC (hotels, hospitals, malls); verify pins live.

Caveats

“Mapped” is not “powered.” Reception hours, faulty card readers and occupied bays still strand drivers. Mercedes-Benz SA’s investment in Chargify (est. 2023 per City Lodge copy) explains OEM interest; it is not a guarantee of national CCS2 DC coverage. BlueNova MKII street prices and a full Chargify pin audit remain open research items on this desk.

How to use destination AC without wrecking the budget

Hotel and mall AC shines when you are already parked for hours. It is a poor substitute for nightly home charging if you are paying public-AC rates on a daily commute. Build a personal hierarchy: (1) home / exclusive-use bay, (2) workplace, (3) destination AC while you sleep or shop, (4) corridor DC for trips. That order matches both rand/kWh and queue risk.

For body corporates stuck on basement capacity, pointing trustees at real hotel/mall guest demand can help a visitor-bay pilot motion — without pretending Chargify’s national PR number is an audited census. Bring load-management and sub-meter proposals, not vibes — apartment EV.

Open research

Still open on this desk: a live Chargify pin census with dates and metro-by-metro TOU export backend go-lives. BlueNova SBB MKII pricing is now anchored to a dated ACDC Dynamics listing (R37 341.95 incl. VAT special net, out of stock, 27 Oct 2026). We update when primaries move.

Counting method (reproducible)

On 27 Oct 2026 we fetched https://www.chargify.co.za/ and counted named entries under the public “Charging Locations” headings (City Lodge, Courtyard, Town Lodge, Caltex, Netcare, and the lifestyle/mall bullet list). Result: 26 named partner site labels (25 unique strings if repeated Waterfall labels collapse). We did not scrape a map SDK, did not invent pins, and did not treat marketing “0” counters or animations as data. City Lodge’s eight hotels remain separately verified from the hotel group’s own 29 Jan 2026 release.

For fleet managers booking staff travel, the eight hotels are a concrete packing list; for national charger-count debates, wait for an auditable map. Solar News 24 will update the public-networks answer when Chargify or a partner publishes a dated pin export we can recount without guessing.

Bottom line: eight named City Lodge-group hotels with Chargify AC are a verified guest amenity; the >120 national claim stays labelled PR; commuting economics still favour a CoC’d home or bay charger on metro tariffs.

Related

• Public networks compared
• Workplace / destination charging
• EV charging pillar

What this means for household charging maths

Hotel and mall AC pins are useful overnight or while shopping; they are not a substitute for a CoC’d home or basement bay charger if you commute daily. Price home AC against your metro tariff (often roughly R53–R85 per 100 km at typical residential rates) and treat public DC corridor rates (~R6–R8/kWh on many apps; documented outliers exist) as travel insurance. Keep the City Lodge >120 stations figure labelled as partner PR until a live pin census is published — drivers should trust the live map on travel day.

Related desk pages: EV charging guide · home charger cost · public networks.

Re-check 27 October 2026, 08:10 SAST: where the Chargify count stands

We went back to Chargify’s own site for a pin census. The “Locations” link in the site menu (chargify.co.za/locations) returns Chargify’s “page not found” screen, and the site’s public page index lists only home, partner, gallery and news pages — no map export or station counter. The best primary numbers remain the partner and OEM statements:

• >120 charging stations — Chargify boilerplate in the City Lodge release (29 Jan 2026).
• 127 Mercedes-Benz EQ-branded stations planned — 67 in phase 1 and 60 in phase 2, funded with R15 million plus R25 million, installed across Gauteng, Free State, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and North West at the time (Engineering News, 26 Jul 2024, quoting MBSA).

Those are station claims, not a connector-by-connector census, so this desk keeps quoting them with attribution. For your wallet the takeaway is unchanged: hotel and mall AC is a top-up while you stay or shop; overnight home AC on your municipal tariff stays the cheapest daily charge, and the cheapest published public DC remains SAEV Richmond Park at about R3.49/kWh (R2.49 when its battery is above 90%) versus GridCars at about R7.35 (DriveElectric).

Pin census still open — drive on the live map

City Lodge’s 29 January 2026 PR remains the best primary for Chargify’s “more than 120 charging stations” claim. Chargify’s public homepage still does not publish an aggregate pin counter (re-checked 27 October 2026). Treat >120 as partner PR; on travel day open the live map / app, not this article’s memory. Named hotel pins (the eight City Lodge sites) are the concrete list for overnight AC planning.

Homeowners should still price a wallbox against municipal c/kWh. Hotel AC is a trip convenience layer beside GridCars DC and Eskom mall pilots — public networks.