As the number of ev's on the road increases, EVSE access will of course become more of an issue. Unfortunately, some manufacturers and converters don't seem to take this into account when sizing chargers, assuming most charging will be done overnight so a low power charger will suffice. The PHEV's that have smaller battery packs also seem to have lower power chargers.
There are a few destinations around 50 miles from my home where there is only one EVSE. I need to charge a bit to return home. So far that hasn't been an issue, but a vehicle left at one of those sites for several hours would be a real inconvenience for me or others - say getting home at 9:00 pm rather than 5:00 pm. I usually have left my car to charge for 3 - 4 hours while bike riding or hiking nearby those places since I've not seen any other EV's there, but I am in the process of upgrading to a 10kW charger so I can add enough charge in less than an hour, move my car away from the EVSE, and then go hike or bike, in anticipation of more EVSE congestion. It would be a real drag to delay someone by a few hours. It would be nice to see the predominantly 240V/30A EVSE's upgraded to 50 or 70A to further shorten charging time. It seems that most of the time needs could be met with 70A level 2 charging rather than DC fast charging and would presumably have lower installation cost due to lower power. You could add 16kWh in an hour while you have lunch - enough for a Leaf to go around 60 miles - if your charger could use the full power. Less energy and shorter charging time than this would be required most of the time. If in addition to this everyone moved their vehicle as soon as it was done charging, EVSE utilization could be greatly increased. I think manufacturers need to look ahead now and increase EVSE and charger power before EVSE congestion becomes a big issue - those cars will presumably be on the road for 8 to 10 years. -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-Think-Before-You-Plug-In-tp4663123p4663128.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
