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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: 5, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 07 2017, @12:56PM (4 children)
Solar panels are more in the range of 300W these days. They improve all the time, and the cost has been sliding dramatically.
The way to calculate output from a solar panel is to take that panel's rating and multiply it by the insolation, which is average number of hours per day that a solar panel will run at peak. Here in NYC it's 4 hours. So that 300W panel would net you 1.2kwh/day, or 36 for the month.
A top-of-the-line Tesla Model S has a 100kW battery with a range of 315miles. The average commute in America is 23 miles round trip, so for 20 business days/month that's 460 miles. So you'd need to recharge ~1.5 times to travel that distance, or 150kWh. That's a little more than 4 of those solar panels to generate the electricity you'd need to drive your car on pure solar.
Most homes have roofs that are larger than 1 sq. meter so you'd probably be able to swing that. There's also the roof of the garden shed and perhaps the gazebo that could hold a couple, and there are also structures that can go over your driveway that can hold a few. A bit bulky that, but it has the nice benefit that you don't have to shovel your driveway so much.
YMMV of course, but it's not the impossible lift some believe it is.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Thursday September 07 2017, @03:22PM (2 children)
It's also worth noting that the Teslas, being built as sports cars, are juice guzzlers.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 07 2017, @04:11PM
True, but it's so much fun. I test-drove a Model S with ludicrous speed on Friday in a wealthy suburb north of Detroit. It blew everything else off the road.
Also, I wasn't supposed to, but starting from a red light next to a Bentley I put the car in autonomous mode, laced my fingers behind my head, and gave its driver my best grin as the Model S drove itself through traffic. Back in the parking garage it was also fun to get out and use the key fob to tell the car to park itself.
Next to that the fact it was an electric car was almost an afterthought. It was simply a far superior driving experience. That's the secret sauce.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Informative) by steveha on Thursday September 07 2017, @07:28PM
It's also worth noting that the Teslas, being built as sports cars, are juice guzzlers.
You might think so, but it turns out not to be the case.
A 2017 Tesla Model S has an "MPGe" (miles per gallon equivalent) number of around 100 [fueleconomy.gov]. (The P90D gets 95, the 90D gets 104, other models vary.)
The highest efficiency EVs listed on the fueleconomy.gov web site (link [fueleconomy.gov]) have 8 cars with MPGe at or above 100, and two of those are Tesla Model S models.
But what about the Tesla Roadster? That's a sports car, that might be wasteful... nope, Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] says its MPGe is 120. As a sports car it's lightweight and aerodynamic, and I guess that translates into efficiency.
Okay, how about the Tesla Model 3. That will be less expensive, will it have worse MPGe? According to this article on thedrive.com [thedrive.com] it will have MPGe of 126.
For comparison, the top 2017 Toyota Prius (the Prius Eco [fueleconomy.gov]) has a combined MPG rating of 56.
It's totally fair to say that Teslas are expensive. I don't think it's fair to say they are "juice guzzlers".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 07 2017, @03:23PM
The most common solar panels for residential installations are 1.6m², with about 300W output as you say. But GP explicitly specified a 1m² panel, and 200W is right around what you'd expect from something of that size.