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Around the world, support is growing for electric cars. Automakers are delivering more electric models with longer range and lower prices, such as the Chevrolet Bolt and the Tesla Model 3. China has set aggressive targets for electric vehicle sales to curb pollution; some European countries aim to be all-electric by 2040 or sooner.
Those lofty ambitions face numerous challenges, including one practical consideration for consumers: If they buy electric cars, where will they charge them?
[...] Mr. Romano says there's no exact ratio of the number of chargers needed per car. But he says workplaces should have around 2.5 chargers for every employee and retail stores need one for every 20 electric cars. Highways need one every 50 to 75 miles, he says. That suggests a lot of gaps still need to be filled.
Automakers and governments are pushing to fill them. The number of publicly available, global charging spots grew 72 percent to more than 322,000 last year, the International Energy Agency said. Navigant Research expects that to grow to more than 2.2 million by 2026; more than one-third of those will be in China.
Tesla Inc. – which figured out years ago that people wouldn't buy its cars without roadside charging – is doubling its global network of Supercharger stations to 10,000 this year. BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen, and Ford are building 400 fast-charging stations in Europe. Volkswagen is building hundreds of stations across the United States as part of its settlement for selling polluting diesel engines. Even oil-rich Dubai, which just got its first Tesla showroom, has more than 50 locations to charge electric cars.
If range anxiety and the availability of charging stations remain a barrier to EV adoption, then for Tesla it seems like it's nearly a solved problem. Will a reliable supply of batteries or the self-driving features piggy-backing on EV platforms like the Teslas or the Nissan Leaf prove the real differentiators in the market?
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday September 08 2017, @08:54AM (2 children)
Colo: I bought two similar LiPO packs from Harbor Freight [harborfreight.com] which look like both in parallel ( one on each of the van's batteries ) might assist in case of a "barely won't start", but just looking at them, and the size of the cabling going to the batteries, I am rather dubious they can actually start this beast, glow plugs and all. Not only is this beast's engine three times the displacement of my Toyota, its also high compression, and has glow plug load on top of that. I believe those things would start the Toyota, no problem. They *might* start the beast.
I finally chickened out and bought an AAA membership just in case I ever got into trouble with this thing. I have never had anything like this before, and I feel quite helpless to start the thing if the battery goes weak, so consider me quite pro-active in trying to avoid this scenario. The Toyota, well I could damn near Flintstone it home if I had to; it was quite lightweight and manual, so pushstarting was a very viable option. I seriously doubt I could move the beast just by pushing on it, albeit if some other pretty good sized truck pushed me, I don't know if I could command it into, say, second gear, and throw the "coast clutch" and "torque converter" clutch on this beast's transmission and push start it. It has the E4OD transmission, which appears almost to be a manual transmission with solenoid operated controls. I will be building a new transmission control computer for it anyway. I know this kind of thing, as I have been building this kind of stuff for 40 years now.
Now, that I have hit retirement, and have the luxury of choosing what I spend my time doing, my needs have changed. ( err, so has my waistline ). That Toyota served me well for the 40+ years I have had it. But, like me, its aging, its hard to get parts for it, and quite frankly, I have outgrown it. Literally. I no longer have a daily commute to a tiny spot in a parking lot. Now, I want something I can live in, and is strong enough to carry stuff around in... as I now want to carry my tools and whatever around with me, and looking forward, should I need it, its readily adaptable for use as a handicap van. Hopefully, I won't need to do that, but I am just thinking ahead.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday September 08 2017, @12:06PM (1 child)
Oh, wow. When you give them a try (you will, won't you?) please let me/us know how they worked.
I wouldn't be worries about the glow plugs, I don't think they'll eat more than 400W total; but high compression ratio and large displacement mean a heck of power for the starter.
What's the operating current for that one?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday September 09 2017, @02:20AM
Eight glow plugs. The engine is 7.3 L. High compression at that. No turbo.
Its no racehorse, but I believe it would pull a house off its foundation if I asked it to. Standard E4OD transmission.
Its already pulled a few tree stumps out of my front yard. Acted like it hardly noticed them.
One of these days I will pick up a good 1000A clamp-on and actually measure it, as the cabling going to each battery ( 2 group 24F ) is about as big as my thumb.
I know this beast can be hard to wake up if its cold outside....even with brand new glow plugs, with each measuring about 10V during starting.
Presently looking into how to modify the air intake so I can preheat the incoming air with a handheld mapp-gas plumbing torch during those trying times ( which thankfully occur rarely ).
( I'll have the hood popped for this, so I will be starting it with a nearby starter and glow plug control switches under the hood while I am manning the torch ).
I have not been over everything yet with a fine tooth comb, as I intend to replace a lot of stuff when I customize this thing. One thing I am going to have is built-in current measurement rings so I can watch things like starting current on an oscilloscope so I can get live "compression testing" upon startup, baseline it, and watch for deviations which would indicate pending engine problems such as valve, head gasket, ring, or cavitation failure.
I will report back here as I little by little actually do the stuff. I plan a lot before I go for tools, as poor planning quickly gets very expensive! I have a lot of time, not much money, so I do a lot of looking before I leap.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]