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posted by martyb on Thursday September 07 2017, @07:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the plugging-BEVs dept.

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?


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  • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday September 07 2017, @10:01AM (5 children)

    by isostatic (365) on Thursday September 07 2017, @10:01AM (#564501) Journal

    Seems to ignore the fact that a huge number of journeys are simply school runs / short commutes / quick run to the shop down the road. Mostly, electric cars will be charged at home, unless you commute such a ridiculously long distance that you need to charge twice a day, in which case you really need to reconsider where you work and/ or live. The office / roadside chargers are for people who were unable to fill up at home for some reason, or for people on longer journeys. That greatly reduces the requirements for charging stations.

    In the UK a large number of people lack driveways or garages, so park their cars permanently on the road, which is an issue with charging.

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  • (Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Thursday September 07 2017, @11:04AM

    by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Thursday September 07 2017, @11:04AM (#564507) Journal

    Tell me about it, you just described me. However I think most car owners these days have a drive or garage.

  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 07 2017, @11:05AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 07 2017, @11:05AM (#564508)

    Then you could put large poles on the cars and have them touching overhead power lines to draw power. Then lets increase the bumper sizes to make cars even safer. And finally with such safe cars, we'll no longer need road rules.

  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 07 2017, @01:12PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday September 07 2017, @01:12PM (#564539) Journal

    Most people don't have gas stations either, yet drive ICEs.

    Current EV owners can recharge at external locations. Tesla has built out a large charging network and the other automakers are following suit. With more people working on improvements, charging times will come down, energy density will improve, and locations will proliferate.

    Meanwhile people who do own their own homes and have driveways can charge their cars at home overnight--it just takes longer. So it is like they have a gas station in their home.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday September 07 2017, @01:13PM

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Thursday September 07 2017, @01:13PM (#564540)

    It's the same here in the US, in large cities. People live in row houses that were built decades ago, or even back in the horse-and-buggy days, and park on the street wherever they can find a place.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Whoever on Thursday September 07 2017, @02:56PM

    by Whoever (4524) on Thursday September 07 2017, @02:56PM (#564590) Journal

    In the UK a large number of people lack driveways or garages, so park their cars permanently on the road, which is an issue with charging.

    Yes, it's not as if most streets have posts with electric lights in them that could be tapped to make a kerbside charger. Oh, wait, they do.

    With the move to LED lighting, there is spare capacity in the wiring already.