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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: 4, Insightful) by ewk on Thursday September 07 2017, @08:33AM (11 children)
"workplaces should have around 2.5 chargers for every employee"
Why? Does every employee bring two or three cars to work?
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(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 07 2017, @08:39AM
That's American car culture for you.
(Score: 2) by tonyPick on Thursday September 07 2017, @08:40AM (4 children)
no, but some of these workplaces might have customers; I assume they're factoring in charging capacity for them as well.
(Score: 1) by ewk on Thursday September 07 2017, @08:45AM (3 children)
Well... if retail stores are supposed to have a 1 (charger) to 20 (electric cars visiting) ratio, then the 1.5 (surplus charger) to 1 (employee) is even more weird...
Most (non retails store) businesses do not have this 1.5 to 1 visitor ratio.
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(Score: 4, Insightful) by tonyPick on Thursday September 07 2017, @09:08AM (2 children)
It could also translate roughly to "I own a company that sells charging stations"
:)
(Score: 1) by ewk on Thursday September 07 2017, @09:14AM (1 child)
Ah... so that's why the math made no sense... done by a businessman instead of a mathematician :-)
Thanks for clearing that up.
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(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 07 2017, @01:29PM
If a business man cannot do basic math, then they are probably really a huckster. They may have other people convinced otherwise. And that is probably part of their true skill. But privately they know the truth. Unless they are a psychopath / sociopath and simply don't realize it or are unable to admit it to themselves. But that would not by any means disqualify them from business and bossing around people who can do math.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by esperto123 on Thursday September 07 2017, @12:27PM
I think the reporter either got the description backwards (1 station would serve 2.5 employees), or they meant that the math for a business (I assume retail store) would be have to the number of recharge station on the parking lot 2.5 times the number of employees or 1 station for every 20 costumers, beacuse every employee would serve about 8 to 10 costumers (the number seems reasonable).
But going back to the main issue, I live in Brazil and here it would be an ideal place for electric cars, most of the energy is hydro and lots of sun available for home generation, people don't usually travel long distances to work, is neither extremely cold or hot (which reduces battery lifetime), but without govenment incentive there is literaly almost no electric cars on the streets (i think the number is in the hundreds for the whole country), people don't buy the cars beacuse they are expensive due to importation tax, automakers don't manufacture here beacuse there is no subsidies, and business will not start installing charging stations if there are no cars to use it. So the most important is a state policy to incentivise the use and spread of cars, charging stations will follow naturally.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 07 2017, @01:25PM
Maybe this is a statement as to the reliability of the chargers?
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Thursday September 07 2017, @01:32PM (2 children)
A reason to have 2.5 chargers per employee: the US electrical grid is getting worse. There will be more blackouts and brownouts. If one charger doesn't seem to work. Then try another one. There will always be an unoccupied one available.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Thursday September 07 2017, @02:51PM (1 child)
Because the charger that is in the same parking lot as a one that doesn't work will be connected to a different grid? LOL.
Actually, level 2 chargers (the type you mostly want at work) are mostly very reliable.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 07 2017, @03:21PM
Don't repeat that thing about all chargers being connected to the same electrical grid. You're taking away people's hope.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.