On 2/12/15 7:09 AM, Robert Bruninga via EV wrote:
Even I would balk at that! $25,000 per charging station when a $15 GFCI
ouitlet from Home Depot can do the same thing most of the time!
Leaving aside any discussion about who should pay for level three
charging stations, and how the business model might work, I just want to
add a perspective on the increased utility of electric cars with fast
charging capability.
Level one charging does not offer the same utility as even level two
charging, let alone level three. By changing the charging capability and
you change what the car can do. By expanding what the car can do you
increase the number of people who can consider using it.
A level one connection does only one thing, and that's a slow charge
suitable for overnight at home or much of the day at work, for those who
drive within a range covered by that approach, and who have access to
home or work charging. Or if a car is left for a sufficient period of
time, like at an airport.
So yes, for such particular use cases, it can be great. But these use
cases may not cover most people most of the time.
Level one charging greatly limits the utility of the vehicle because you
only get a small amount of range per charging hour. There are times you
may want to jump in the car and run an errand and you can't.
There are people who need to drive outside of those constraints. So
level one charging limits the number of people for whom an electric
vehicle might fit, and makes the vehicle more of a compromise.
Level two at 6.6kw allows our electric car to regain charge relatively
quickly so it can easily drive more than twice its single charge range
within the same day.
That is a huge jump in vehicle flexibility and utility. It probably
works best for those with level two charging at home or work, depending
on where you are when you need to juice up. It also works if you're
driving to a destination where you will be for a while, like a movie,
concert or meeting, if you can plug in while doing your activity.
Level two is useful, but less so, for trips where you need to charge
halfway between start and destination, because for that use you have to
wait out the charge time and it still takes hours. It helps to combine
it with a stop where you can do something useful for those hours, but
not every such trip is conducive to that.
Level three charging, which our car also has, is another huge jump in
vehicle utility because the wait time to recharge is much, much less, so
it makes longer regional trips more practical. Thirty minutes or less is
much more doable than multiple hours.
In Colorado, with level three charging, I can easily drive from Denver
to Fort Collins and back within a single day. That's a big jump in
utility over level two charging, for me.
Sadly, there's no level three charging available in Colorado Springs.
For the cost of just a few more level three chargers in, say, Castle
Rock and Colorado Springs, I could drive from Fort Collins to Pueblo.
Just two more level three chargers, added to the ones already existing
in Fort Collins, Loveland, Denver, Greeley and Pueblo, would open up the
long Colorado front range metro area to my LEAF.
Again, I'm just commenting on that one issue, the relative utility of
level 1, 2 and 3 charging.
I don't know how the California chargers in question would be sited, but
if they use them to eliminate holes in the charging network to similarly
increase the utility of the existing level 3 capable electric car fleet
for people who live there, it could do a lot to make electric cars more
useful to more people. It could increase their useful daily range to
become regional vehicle. (I'm not advocating using the current LEAF for
interstate driving).
Increasing the flexibility and utility of electric vehicles in a way
that moves them beyond just the simple level one commuter use, (as
wonderful as that limited use may be for some people), helps to expand
the market for these cleaner vehicles.
Cheers,
-Jamie
http://www.mantecabulletin.com/section/140/article/120539/
PG&E wants ratepayers to pay bill for $653M in car chargers
The state’s biggest utility wants to install 25,000 electric car charging
stations across Northern and Central California and have customers foot
the bill.
More than 60,000 plug-in electric vehicles are currently registered in
PG&E’s service area in Central and Northern California.
But there are only 1,991 charging stations statewide, according to the
U.S.
Lets see. That's 1 public charger already exists for every 30 EV's already.
Or about 3%.. Yep That coincidently matches the State of Maryland's
determination that 97% of all charging at work can be done from standard
120v outlets while vehicles are parked at work..
EV's are not optimum nor designed for distant travel. Throwing money at the
problem to try to make EV's distant travlers will disappoint EVERYONE and in
the long run undermine EV acceptance. We need to focus on educating the
public that EV's are best used for local travel and commuter cars.
Bob, WB4APR
_______________________________________________
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)
_______________________________________________
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)
