Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

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?


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Whoever on Thursday September 07 2017, @03:03PM (5 children)

    by Whoever (4524) on Thursday September 07 2017, @03:03PM (#564593) Journal

    Charge time needs to come down, way down, before electric cars can really be replacements for fossil fuel powered cars. When you can get a decent charge in ten minutes, you can build the infrastructure using the same for-profit system that works just fine today for fuel stations.

    Yes, it's not like cars typically spend 8 hours parked at work, or parked at home overnight, when they could be charging at a relatively slow rate.

    The gas station model doesn't work for EVs. No one with an electric vehicle wants to go to a gas station: they want to plug in when they get home or when they get to work. Most of the time, as long as the car recharges in 4 hours, no one needs faster charging.

    Longer journeys are a different matter: so DC charging needs to be along the highways to enable long distance driving, and even then, most EV drivers would prefer to stop near a coffee shop or restaurant instead of at a gas station.

    People need to stop projecting their experiences with gas-powered cars onto electric vehicles.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Informative=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Thursday September 07 2017, @05:40PM (4 children)

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 07 2017, @05:40PM (#564668) Journal

    The gas station model doesn't work for EVs. No one with an electric vehicle wants to go to a gas station: they want to plug in when they get home or when they get to work. Most of the time, as long as the car recharges in 4 hours, no one needs faster charging.

    Well, I wouldn't agree with the above. Especially not with "No one with an electric vehicle wants to go to a gas station".

    There are many people who say things such as, "Most people, for most uses, only commute n miles/kilometers per day, so the smallish range of many electric cars and the long recharge time is totally no problem at all even with no essentially no recharging infrastructure." Now, this is not an especially bright nor logical thing to say, but many still say it.

    Even if a high percentage of people, in a high percentage of locations, drive a short commute a high percentage of the time, then that would mean that a nonmajority-but-significant percent of drivers, in a nonmajority-but-significant percentage of places, drive more than $SMALLRANGE a nonmajority-but-significant percentage of the time.

    Put more simply, a significant number of drivers in a significant number of places need to drive more than their range a significant percentage of the time.

    And those drivers need to refuel their conveyances (or be stranded), just as do any other drivers.

    Whether the fuel is diesel-fuel, electricity, gasoline-petrol, jet fuel, coal+water for steam, unicorn wishes, pixie dust, whatever--if your method of locomotion runs out of it, and you can't go on without it, and you aren't "there yet", then you need to REPLENISH IT, whether or not your now-distant employer and your now-distant home have seventeen thousand turtle-slow four-hour chargers to spare.

    This leads to wanting to go to the gas-or-other-fuel-as-appropriate station a significant percentage of the time. If I can't do that, and any trip farther than work or the grocery store leaves me stranded like an idiot, then I don't want the car that runs on a fuel with no distribution system.

    When I do get to a gas-or-whatever-fuel station, I would prefer not to sit there and play solitaire for four hours. Even an hour every n miles or kilometers is a huge average-speed and time-of-trip killer.

    Thus, I believe that the things under discussion here (recharge station network and charging time) are probably issues that the EV world should at least address, if not solve.

    • (Score: 2) by NewNic on Thursday September 07 2017, @06:18PM (3 children)

      by NewNic (6420) on Thursday September 07 2017, @06:18PM (#564690) Journal

      If your EV has a 200+ mile range, then you probably want (or should) sit down and have some food (or at least a coffee). That makes gas stations a poor choice for placing chargers.

      With a 200+ mile range, for most people (not everyone), the vast majority of their drives are going to be within range of home, so the most convenient charging option is at home, overnight. Unless you have owned an EV, I don't think you can understand how convenient this is.

      Gas stations are horrible, smelly places, frequently with disgusting toilets. People go there out of necessity, not choice.

      --
      lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
      • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Thursday September 07 2017, @06:39PM (2 children)

        by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 07 2017, @06:39PM (#564704) Journal

        If... 200+ mile range... probably want (or should) sit down and have some food[/]coffee... makes gas stations a poor choice for placing chargers

        Or possibly it could make gas stations a great place to put restaurants, not just convenience stores. "Travel stop" type gas stations near major highways do this already [ta-petro.com].

        for most people (not everyone), the vast majority of their drives are going to be within range of home, so the most convenient charging option is at home, overnight. Unless you have owned an EV, I don't think you can understand how convenient this is.

        I see how it would be terrific to leave the car at the end of the day depleted and find it first thing in the morning full of energy and ready to go... But even though the vast majority of my driving is within range of home, there are no charging points in the apartment complex where I live, and I can't install one (I asked).

        Gas stations are horrible, smelly places, frequently with disgusting toilets. People go there out of necessity, not choice.

        Well, sure, they have a captive audience--practically no one would go there if not for the need to refuel a vehicle. But whether they are well-maintained or not is a function of the surrounding culture, and of the ownership/management's respect for and adherence to same. Most (not all) gas stations near me are clean and inviting except for the fuel smell, and the shift from hydrocarbons to electrons might mitigate that somewhat.

        • (Score: 2) by NewNic on Thursday September 07 2017, @10:15PM (1 child)

          by NewNic (6420) on Thursday September 07 2017, @10:15PM (#564781) Journal

          But even though the vast majority of my driving is within range of home, there are no charging points in the apartment complex where I live, and I can't install one (I asked).

          My city (and other around it, I think) is requiring new construction to include wiring for chargers. Apartment complexes are adding chargers because it adds value to the complex. But I don't make the claim that I live in a typical location: we probably have the highest density of electric vehicles in California nearby.

          --
          lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
          • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Thursday September 07 2017, @10:40PM

            by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 07 2017, @10:40PM (#564793) Journal

            Apartment complexes are adding chargers because it adds value to the complex.

            I would really like that. I live about ten miles from the beach, and at the beach, I have seen chargers pop up among public beach parking within the last year, but ten miles is kind of a long walk to/from your parking spot.