SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday September 07 2017, @08:21AM (15 children)
Maybe someone else's home in an emergency? I bet you could pay someone $10 to have them let you plug your car in and get you a cup of tea while you wait for it to charge.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by lentilla on Thursday September 07 2017, @08:31AM (1 child)
Awesome idea for an enterprising home invasion in wealthy suburbs: steal a Tesla, park it in someone's garage for $10, and proceed to grab everything in sight whilst the victim puts the kettle on. If you were nice and apologetic, I bet they'd even refuse to take the ten bucks.
(Score: 3, Funny) by MostCynical on Thursday September 07 2017, @09:45AM
Make it a Model X, they have 2,180 litres of load capacity, somyou can take the fridge, too. (Model S only has 894)
https://www.tesla.com/en_AU/modelx [tesla.com]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 07 2017, @08:38AM (8 children)
As they said all the way back in 2013 on Drifters, but we don't live here, ... "We only come here to charge our phones. And shower. And sleep."
So, update that for 2017, and we only come here to charge our cars.
Cue the American assholes bitching about why are you quoting from a British TV show. Cue the ignorant assholes bitching about why are you quoting from an American TV show (it isn't). Cue the boomer assholes bitching about why are you quoting from a TV show made this century. Cue the hipster assholes bitching about why are you quoting from a TV show. Fuck you, SN. Fuck you all.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Thursday September 07 2017, @08:59AM (4 children)
Oy! Listen mate. What the hell are you whinging about?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 07 2017, @09:25AM (3 children)
"There was an episode of Drifters in which Meg dropped her phone in the toilet ... [soylentnews.org]
"You seem to be yet another American who believes America is the world." [soylentnews.org]
Screw You, SN!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday September 07 2017, @11:16AM
Oy! Listen mate. What the hell are you whinging about?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 07 2017, @11:21AM
I start from s01e01 when I watch a show, not s04e05.
Also, go fuck yourself.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 07 2017, @03:46PM
Lol, what else do you expect from a violently imposed website??
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 07 2017, @01:03PM
Cue the assholes bitching about people they just made up.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday September 07 2017, @02:18PM (1 child)
Excuse me, sir? Can you please lean forward so I can check something? (checks seat) Ah! Just as I suspected. It appears you sat on a dried corn cob which has caused it to become lodged in your anus.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DeathMonkey on Thursday September 07 2017, @06:04PM
It appears you sat on a dried corn cob which has caused it to become lodged in your anus.
No wonder he hates straw-men so much!
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Thursday September 07 2017, @08:48AM (1 child)
Not in America.
And you can expect more and more frequent brownout and/or blackouts as people will be wanting their cars charged now, not when it's good for the grid.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 07 2017, @08:58AM
Oh! Oh! I know this! I heard about it in microeconomics class! It's called demand. Add capacity to your grid to provide supply, instead of making a moral issue of it like a fascist who tries to dictate what people should want.
(Score: 2) by NewNic on Thursday September 07 2017, @06:05PM
Maybe someone could create a website and an app [plugshare.com] that allows people to find chargers, including residential chargers that EV enthusiasts have agreed to share?
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 3, Informative) by steveha on Thursday September 07 2017, @07:00PM
I bet you could pay someone $10 to have them let you plug your car in
I have only done the research on Tesla cars, but: plugging in to 110 Volt AC power for an hour will only give 3 to 4 miles worth of charge. It's so much better to plug into a 240 V NEMA 14-50 outlet; one hour of charging should give 28 or 29 miles of range [tesla.com].
Then the special Tesla home chargers are even better. And, Tesla has a program where they install those chargers at hotels, restaurants, etc. This is called Destination Charging [tesla.com]. For example, if I were to drive a Tesla to visit Mount Ranier, it's far enough from my home that I would want to top off the charge in the car; so I would go to a restaurant in nearby Ashford and let the car charge during lunch.
Best of course is a SuperCharger [tesla.com]. 20 to 40 minutes should restore over half the capacity of the battery. And a Tesla has an onboard computer that will tell you where the nearest charging options are.
Finally, anyone can use the PlugShare [plugshare.com] web site, which lists all the options in an area, including people who have installed NEMA 14-50 outlets in their home and are willing to let people use them. I found out that the city where I live (Kirkland, Washington) has several free public car chargers, including two in the parking garage for the public library.