Matt Richtel reports at The New York Times that the push to make California greener with electric cars is having an unintended side effect: It is making some people madder and meaner. The bad moods stem from the challenges drivers face finding recharging spots for their battery-powered cars. Unlike gas stations, charging stations are not yet in great supply, and that has led to sharp-elbowed competition. According to Richtel electric-vehicle owners are unplugging one another's cars, trading insults, and creating black markets and side deals to trade spots in corporate parking lots. The too-few-outlets problem is a familiar one in crowded cafes and airports, where people want to charge their phones or laptops. But the need can be more acute with cars — will their owners have enough juice to make it home? — and manners often go out the window. "Cars are getting unplugged while they are actively charging, and that's a problem," says Peter Graf. "Employees are calling and messaging each other, saying, 'I see you're fully charged, can you please move your car?'"
The problem is that installation of electric vehicle charging ports at some companies has not kept pace with soaring demand, creating thorny etiquette issues in the workplace. German software company SAP installed 16 electric vehicle charging ports in 2010 at its Palo Alto campus for the handful of employees who owned electric vehicles. Now there are far more electric cars than chargers. Sixty-one of the roughly 1,800 employees on the campus now drive a plug-in vehicle, overwhelming the 16 available chargers. And as demand for chargers exceeds supply, a host of thorny etiquette issues have arisen, along with some rare but notorious incidents of "charge rage." Companies are finding that they need one charging port for every two of their employees' electric vehicles. "If you don't maintain a 2-to-1 ratio, you are dead," said ChargePoint CEO Pat Romano. "Having two chargers and 20 electric cars is worse than having no chargers and 20 electric cars. If you are going to do this, you have to be willing to continue to scale it."
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 12 2015, @02:23PM
A fair percentage of hybrid owners are probably the kindly old hippie types who support Bernie Sanders, but Teslas are bought by the alpha males who are accustomed to having the expensive new toy before their coworkers. They get into these same Seinfeld-type scrapes at the marinas when competing for last buoy or fuel pump, and they'll send back their entrees at three-star restaurants if it doesn't make their mouths water.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday October 12 2015, @11:46PM
I'm calling bullshit on this one. Unlike all the other electric cars, Teslas actually have really good range. Unless these guys are commuting from Sacramento or something, they shouldn't have any problem at all parking like any other car and not recharging during the day.
I work at a facility that's pretty remote, at least 20 miles from the nearest decent-sized town; there's one guy there with a red Tesla, I've seen driving from the small city that's 40-45 minutes away. There's definitely no chargers at this place, but with a 200+ mile range, he isn't going to need one.
It's those crappier EVs like the Leaf that need topping up like that, since they can't even go 100 miles on a charge.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 13 2015, @12:55AM
Aww somebody had a bad experience when they were a child.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 12 2015, @02:49PM
Aren't they supposed to have hundreds of miles of range? Only something like the Leaf actually needs a charging station when you get to work. Of course there will always be special situations but generally it shouldn't happen this way.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Kilo110 on Monday October 12 2015, @02:58PM
Well I assume they're not paying for the electricity at their work's parking lot. Of course that may not be the case as there are pay-for-charge stations out there.
It could also be "range anxiety".
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mmcmonster on Monday October 12 2015, @11:08PM
Free electricity makes people do stupid things...
I have a friend who owns a Tesla and has a charging setup at home. He convinced his workplace to install a charging station in their lot. He now charges exclusively at work and brags about he no longer pays for running his car.
Moral: Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do it.
In other words: Don't be a douche.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by davester666 on Tuesday October 13 2015, @08:13AM
Sorry, this is America. Land of Douches. Hell, we invented the MBA.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 12 2015, @02:59PM
Well, presumably the electricity at your employer's charging station is free, while at home you have to pay for it. That gives a great incentive to charge at work, even if you would not strictly need it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 12 2015, @03:52PM
And just why is this? I don't get free gasoline in my garage where I work. Why should they get free electricity just because they bought an expensive electric car?
Make them pay for the electricity their cars consume, just like the rest of us have to pay for the energy our cars consume.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 12 2015, @04:05PM
They have charging stations where i work. You have to pay a fee to use them. The only thing you get 'free' is the infrastructure, not the actual power.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 12 2015, @08:07PM
I would like a gas pump in my parking lot please.
Some days I am in such a rush that even if my gas is low I don't have time to stop, and it would be nice knowing that I can make it home. Please and thank you.
Oh whats that, I need to take that into mind and be prepared for it?
Well EV owners should be prepared for the possibility that there will be no juice for them. Maybe they should have taken commute distance into mind when they were deciding what car to buy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 12 2015, @08:39PM
Or, perhaps you need to drink some of that gas that you 'planned ahead for' and set yourself on fire, from the inside out.
Companies often like to give perks to employees to attract talent, ever think this may be one of those cases and they DID plan ahead, with this knowledge? Moron. Scary to think you are out on the roads with the rest of us.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday October 13 2015, @12:45AM
Obviously, he's not smart enough for these companies to want to hire him.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 13 2015, @08:00AM
Probably because the number of people using them is small enough that the cost of billing them would be greater than the cost of providing it for free, and the cost of providing it for free is worth the improved image of the company (companies spend a lot on improving their image; the free charging is probably just somewhere in the rounding error).
As the number of people with electric cars grows, I expect the companies to start billing.
(Score: 3, Informative) by bryan on Monday October 12 2015, @03:02PM
My Nissan Leaf has a "lock" button inside that prevents the charger cord from being pulled out while charging.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 12 2015, @03:03PM
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bryan on Monday October 12 2015, @04:02PM
There isn't an "other side of the charger" just as much as there isn't an "other side" of the gasoline pump hose at the gas station. They are both attached to the base unit.
http://www.nissanusa.com/electric-cars/leaf/charging-range/charging/ [nissanusa.com] for pictures.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 12 2015, @03:06PM
What the fuck...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by joshuajon on Monday October 12 2015, @03:06PM
Why do employees feel entitled to charge at work? I drive an ICE vehicle. I don't expect my employer to provide a fueling station in the parking lot. And if they did, I wouldn't necessarily feel like I was entitled to jump the line if others were filling up.
This is a bizarre situation indeed.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 12 2015, @03:18PM
Welcome to the new America. How is that "change" working for you?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by isostatic on Monday October 12 2015, @03:24PM
Only in america would people blame their president for the actions of their German employer and their fellow citizens.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 12 2015, @06:48PM
There is a difference between an ICE and an electric car. An ICE takes like five minutes to refill and hence you take turns at the gas station. An electric car takes a much longer time. It's not like you can go to the gas station and spend five minutes charging your car and everyone takes turns because there are multiple charging stations. For this to work you obviously need way more outlets per vehicle given the amount of time it takes to charge each vehicle. At least until charging time gets shorter and shorter.
Based on this I kinda thought of the possibility of something like this happening long before I read this or anything about it. It was predictable but I thought perhaps people were too civilized to actually start getting that aggressive about it and my imagination was getting carried away (though I don't own a hybrid). I was wrong.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 12 2015, @07:58PM
Something I thought about a while back is that (shared) charging stations should have a way to notify the owner and everyone else (driving an electric car) when their car is fully charged. That way the owner can then go and move their car and someone else can take their place.
(Score: 2) by gidds on Tuesday October 13 2015, @02:11PM
(Disclaimer: never owned or even seen an electric car or charging station, so this may be a stupid idea, but...)
How about a moveable charger that can be attached to a car at one of two (or more) adjacent parking spaces? That way, when a car is charged, it can be reattached to the next car along, without having to move either vehicle. Owners could leave their cars all day without worrying about taking up a charger; an owner could pop down and quickly swap the charger over when the previous car was charged.
Or could a charger support more cars simultaneously, by reducing the current and taking longer to charge each one? After all, if your car's going to be parked there for 8+ hours, it won't usually matter whether it takes 2 hours or 8 hours to charge.
[sig redacted]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2015, @12:56AM
Same poster as the person you responded to.
I thought of the same thing. A problem is how do you prevent the portable charger from being stolen. I suppose they can install an anti theft mechanism. Low jack it. But people can find ways around it too.
I think much of the problem is that companies need to find a way to manage usage time. There are a million fair systems and ways to manage it. Different employees can use it on different days. Each employee can use it for only so long each week before they lose priority and must give up using it if someone else with more priority asks to use it.
Of course all this creates more management overhead.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Rich on Monday October 12 2015, @03:08PM
"Charge Rage" ... "said ChargePoint CEO"
This certainly can compete for the most stupid advertorial of the year.
Personal 1-sample statistic: There's a Tesla S living down my road. It seems to always be parked on the road. I've always thought "nifty owner, guess he charges it at work to save on the 'leccy bill". Eventually I met the owner who was getting out of the car and inquired a bit about life with it. Turns out he indeed charges at home, which is a bit recessed from the road where it can't be seen, but he does it so rarely (like once every 5 to 7 days) that I had the impression the car is always parked on the road while the owner is at home.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Hyperturtle on Monday October 12 2015, @03:34PM
It seems that they made something up to promote their product, and used captain obvious science to promote their product.
Next up, people get upset when the good tables and seats at restaurants are taken by the time they get there, they are upset when they must wait in a long, slow moving line to get something for free, and then they may complain that the free thing they waited a long time to get wasn't very good.
In any event, I do not see this as an issue ""Employees are calling and messaging each other, saying, 'I see you're fully charged, can you please move your car?'"
My advice to people with rechargable cars who wish to also not have to frequently refill their tires:
When done shopping at the mall or anywhere, don't sit in your parking spot while looking in the mirror and grooming your beard; leave so someone else can take the spot. Groom at the traffic light like most people that only need slight manners correction, so that people can honk at you and provide a more culturally appropriate behavioral correction.
Also, if you have a second car that requires petroleum, don't pump your car full of gas at the gas station and then go to the movies prior to moving your car away from the pump. If you come back later and act surprised that people had no idea you were not going to return immediately after paying for your fill-up, you are a jerk. If you walked over to the movie theatre knowing people were waiting to use the pump, as only a true idiot would not realize this, you are a supreme jerk. Parking your car and going into work for 8-9 hours is worse since movies only last a couple hours.
When there is a finite resource and you're using it, one of the primary messages behind the use of that resource is "don't be a jerk". If you must get into your desk precisely at 8 am or your boss will be upset and you can get fired, then perhaps driving your electric car to work is not the best option for you, if you are unable to arrive early enough to get enough of a recharge done so that you can get home and not upset countless others. You don't park at the gas station because the movie concept was absurd, right, so why are you doing this? It is no different.
And how much did the charge cost, anyway? If it was free, then you're an even bigger jerk than the hypothetical person who paid for a gas fill-up and saw a movie without moving the car. At least our bad example paid for the fuel replenishment. If the recharge was free, then you are a new class of opportunistic freeloading jerk that we need to come up with a name for.
*you used in the hypothetical you, not directed at parent poster
Also, please do not post ads discussing yet another technological fix to what should be a cultural correction. (perhaps more specifically: please don't post ads.)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by jdavidb on Monday October 12 2015, @03:12PM
It is making some people madder and meaner
I went through anger management training a few years ago to overcome angry outbursts. In the end I had to conclude that circumstances don't make me angry - that is a choice that I make in response to frustration. There are lots of other choices that can be made in response to frustration instead.
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday October 12 2015, @04:07PM
You would think that California of all places would have the obvious alternatives readily available:
1. Meditation, yoga, and other new-agey mellowness.
2. Pot (legal for medical use, and getting the medical prescription for treating, say, "anxiety" is not difficult from what I'm told)
3. Revenge - after all, don't get mad, get even.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday October 12 2015, @04:43PM
they told her there was LSD in her system when they found her abandoned on a public restroom floor.
She spend much of her life in institutions. Now she is homeless and always wears a smile and has a happy word to say.
She too says that how she feels is a choice.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 12 2015, @04:57PM
I used to get road rage pretty bad. I'd roll down my window, scream and curse, chase people around the road to yell at them, etc. If I could run someone off the road to their death and get away with it, i'd have probably done it.
Then one day after a very scary incident I stopped and asked myself "Why am I doing this? Why am I risking my life and others? What the fuck is wrong with me?" So I then started to discipline myself and do things like deep breaths, count to 10, dumb shit like that to quickly get yourself out of "the moment". It's why talking down jumpers into not committing suicide is pretty effective. When you're raging with emotions, you don't think clearly. Once you or someone else breaks that crazy train of self destructive thought, you snap back to reality and calm down. It makes you think twice and suddenly, that raw surge of emotion dies down. And you're less likely to kill someone else or yourself.
Sure, I still get mad at people who drive like reckless dicks. I'd love to run those fuckers into a pole or beat them mercilessly, stomping their skulls into the dirt on the side of the road. But that won't fix anything. And it will do nothing but most likely ruin my life and others around me in the process.
And like you, my anger went beyond roadrage. It also extended to my personal life and lead to many fights with my family, friends, and girlfriends. Now, I let simple things go. That or I walk away from a project or event that I'm not happy with. Or, in many cases, compromise. Of course I sometimes need to blow off steam, no sense bottling it up. That's why games like grand theft auto exist. I just rampage and i'm fine after an hour.
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Monday October 12 2015, @06:55PM
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 4, Funny) by Joe Desertrat on Monday October 12 2015, @07:20PM
I used to get road rage pretty bad. I'd roll down my window, scream and curse, chase people around the road to yell at them, etc. If I could run someone off the road to their death and get away with it, i'd have probably done it.
Me too. Then I moved out of New Jersey.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 12 2015, @09:11PM
Anger keeps you warm at night.
(Score: 3, Funny) by darkfeline on Monday October 12 2015, @11:10PM
>There are lots of other choices that can be made in response to frustration instead.
Indeed, I have found level-headed violence to be significantly more effective than emotional violence. It must be the magic of smiling I kept hearing about as a kid.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 12 2015, @03:16PM
I see a market for small portable generators that you can put in the trunk of a 100% electric. Personally i would not want a car where you *have* to find an outlet to keep moving.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday October 12 2015, @03:49PM
I would not want a car where you *have* to find a gas station.
Same thing, different energy source.
The BMW i3 does come with an optional "range extender," which is what you're talking about. The window for the aftermarket for such a thing generally is a short one; rolling improvements in battery technology are about to eliminate the range & recharge gap entirely.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 12 2015, @04:08PM
Considering the country is blanketed with "hydrocarbon based gas stations", you are a fool and dont understand what you are talking about. You are disqualified for any future discussions.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 12 2015, @04:24PM
That's a pretty silly statement. I live out in the boonies, and I never "have to find" a gas station. No matter which direction I drive from my house, I'll soon find a gas station. South - five miles. North, 17 miles, in the nighttime, only two miles daytime. East, it's about 20 miles. West, it's about - hmmm - 12 miles I guess. I would have to go out of my way, taking the backroads, to avoid finding a gas station.
You don't seem to grasp what Phoenix was saying - that is, it's somewhat foolish to be driving something that is not supported by the _existing_infrastructure_ Internal combustion engines are well supported by today's infrastructure.
(Score: 2) by AndyTheAbsurd on Monday October 12 2015, @05:58PM
I interpreted Phoenix666's post a bit differently.
The fact of the matter is that at one time, the country was not carpeted in hydrocarbon fueling stations. And most people traveled by foot or horse, and found it ludicrous to travel around in a horseless carriage that required you to regularly go purchase a combustible liquid fuel, rather than just your horse graze in a field (or, if away from home, purchase some horse feed from the already-existing-at-that-time network of stores that sold suitable feed).
Adoption of a new technology takes time. We're now in a period where we'll find if electric is going to take over from internal combustion, or if the two are going to learn to coexist.
Please note my username before responding. You may have been trolled.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 12 2015, @10:30PM
It's not exactly the same. One could ride a horse with a week of food in a carriage if necessary. I can put extra 100 gallons into my truck easily and some people do when going far away or with paranoia. This option simply does not exists for electrics and makes one more dependable on governments and corporations. They - corporations - like it; same as cloud storage.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday October 12 2015, @06:08PM
Not all boonies are created equal, Runaway. Boonies in Alabama, say, are one thing, boonies in the West are another. Darkfeline? Darkfeline lives in a town further out in the Rockies than the ghost towns that are on the outer edge of the boonies. The Crow Agency and country north of Devil's Tower are worse than that, and even that is peanuts next to Alaska. You don't really live out in the boonies unless you're one of those guys who has one of those auxiliary tanks that take up 1/3 of the bed of your pickup (because you often need it).
When I lived in places like that the backup transportation was always the horse, but now with a long-range EV and a sufficient array of solar and wind at your homestead it would take a lot of the hassle and expense of transportation out of the equation. You can make electricity with sun and wind no matter where you are, not so with finding oil and lugging around the refinery to process it into gasoline.
As for infrastructure, is the electrical infrastructure, ie. that upon which EVs rely, not more widely available than gasoline? When Hurricane Sandy wiped out refineries that served the Tri-State area a few years back, electricity was still available. Had you had an EV then, you would have been right as rain throughout.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 12 2015, @07:15PM
"is the electrical infrastructure, ie. that upon which EVs rely, not more widely available than gasoline?"
That is best answered "yes and no". Few of us have a high capacity charging capability at home. That will require a modestly small investment - that is, I can probably hook up a slow charging battery charger anywhere, but the charge rate is measured in hours. A somewhat faster 40 amp "professional" battery charger will cut those hours in half. Something that will charge an EV's batteries in half an hour? That's going to cost a few hundred dollars, and it's not readily available at your corner auto parts store.
So - you've purchased your charging system, brought it home, and set it up. Is the electrical panel up to the task? I have a 200 amp panel, but it's a cheap POS. (Seriously, it's the cheapest GE panel rated at 200 amps - it is very obviously inferior to the cheapest Square-D panels I work with at work) I wouldn't trust it. I can easily mount another panel on the meter pole, but that's another modestly small investment - couple hundred dollars the last time I looked. Other people may not be able to easily mount another service panel. Yet other people are going to have to hire a licensed electrician, and meet city building codes before they can make any such changes.
TFA discusses the lack of availability of quick charging stations - no, the infrastructure isn't ready. We need to roll out that "last 100 yards", as opposed to the internet's "last mile".
To equal the current infrastructure of combustion engines, we need about ten to twenty charging stations located at present gas stations. That would be in addition to home charging stations. Maybe I'm over estimating, but I'm trying to allow for the time involved in charging. I can gas up a car in about 3 to 5 minutes, but you're simply not going to get much of an electrical charge in those same minutes.
Someone who only needs a little bit of a charge to get home, might get away with ten minute's charging time. He gets a little juice, continues home, and plugs in at home, he's happy. Another person who has a lot of miles to go is going to need half an hour or more, even with an up-to-date fast charging system.
Think of gas stations today. Most of the ones around me have 4 to 12 pumps, one nearby station has 16 hoses total. If every vehicle that came in required a half hour to fuel up, there would be waiting lines, blocks long.
So, no, the infrastructure isn't yet in place for a wholesale switch to electrical vehicles.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Monday October 12 2015, @08:02PM
You are taking high-speed charging as a requirement, but it's not. My brother-in-law has a BMW i3. He plugs it into a normal 120V outlet and recharges it overnight the way I plug in my cell phone. It is true he doesn't get anywhere near draining the battery on a daily basis, but if he had the average American daily commute of 23 mi he'd still be able to comfortably recharge overnight without doing anything to the wiring in his house. My brother the engineer also has an i3 and got the high-speed charger installed in his house and can fully recharge from empty in 4 hours, but it's a convenience, not a necessity for his daily driving needs.
If you want to take that road trip to Mardi Gras, you would have difficulty doing it in an i3 without the high-speed charging network you're talking about, but you could manage it pretty well in a Tesla Model S today.
Tangentially, the side benefits of EVs are lovely. No more changing the oil or replacing the fan belts or tune-ups or clogged filters or replacing the brakes, nada. Fill up the windshield wiper fluid once in a while and that's it. And out here in the TriState area, you can drive in the HOV lane all by yourself in an EV. Saves probably a full work day of commuting time every week. I know some guys love the growl of an engine, but for me the silence of the EV is golden. No engine noise to drown out the radio or conversation in the car. No slopping coffee as the car shifts gears. I'd recommend it to anyone.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 12 2015, @08:22PM
Point taken - fast charging is not an absolute requirement, certainly not for everyone. However, those people who tend to wander further from home, requiring a charge at a service station, aren't willing to sit around a service station for an hour or six.
And, if you are the only driver of an EV, you can safely plan your work week to be home for enough hours to charge your vehicle. But, what if you have two, three, or more licensed drivers in the home, and can only afford one car? The bread winner of the family automatically has dibs on the vehicle, for work. He/she gets home from work, and Junior or Missy needs the car for extracurricular school related activities. The car isn't charging during the hours the kid is gone, of course. When the car gets home, maybe some grocery shopping has to be done. Just imagine the average American family's hectic days - by the time everyone is finished with all their business, there may not be 4 or 8 hours of charging time left, until the bread winner has to make more bread.
Households with two working parents? That can easily get much worse.
I would suggest that virtually everyone will want, if not need, a rapid charging system. Unless, of course, they can afford two or more of these (currently) exorbitantly priced vehicles.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Monday October 12 2015, @05:50PM
Ahh, your location bias is coming through. Maybe *you* live in a place where there are gas stations everywhere, but that is not universally true, even in the United States of America. I grew up in the West. The big, open, empty West. There are long, long stretches of road where there is nothing. Sure, on the Interstate you're fine. But there are thousands of miles of state highways and county roads where there's nothing. You get plenty of range anxiety on those routes, even in a fuel-efficient vehicle. Then layer in driving at night, when few of the gas stations that do serve those areas remain open. Then layer in winter, with snows that hold up the tanker trucks coming to re-supply. Then layer in that you don't get paid until Friday and you only have $20 in your pocket, but you have to drive to get somewhere and you're sweating the whole time that you're gonna run out and be stranded; people die of exposure in their cars all the time where I grew up. Then layer in oil shocks and weather-caused interruptions (aka hurricanes and tornadoes) to infrastructure, three of which I've lived through, even in New York City, where cars line up for hours and miles hoping they can get a couple gallons before the station runs out.
So I don't get the meme, the fantasy, that some peddle whereby range anxiety is a problem exclusive to EVs. I've known range anxiety with gas-powered cars my whole life, and to this day I yell at my wife when she takes the car out for the day and comes back with the tank hovering above empty. The thought of running out of gas on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, an elevated roadway, at rush hour gives me nightmares.
Chew and digest, Young Padawan.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday October 12 2015, @05:45PM
Personally i would not want a car where you *have* to find an outlet to keep moving.
*Having* to find a nozzle instead is clearly the superior choice!
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday October 12 2015, @07:34PM
The car that you would want, then, would look something like these [wikipedia.org], because they all generate power via solar on the roof and hood.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Monday October 12 2015, @03:19PM
The too-few-outlets problem is a familiar one in crowded cafes and airports, where people want to charge their phones or laptops
It really isn't, assuming you always carry a 4-way with you. People in airports (I don't squat in cafes) don't need lots of power, just an outlet, and I've never had someone say "no" if I ask if I can insert a 4-way inline. Plenty of grateful people use the other 2 or 3 sockets though
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Monday October 12 2015, @04:44PM
This is similar to how things roll in the frozen north in the winter. You want to plug in your block or battery heater you pack your own extension cord rather than fight over the employer's service dept's one cord. You can complain all day about not having a cord provided to you and other people not willing to share their cord with you, or you can bring your own cord, its not that hard to figure out the path of least resistance (oh the bad electrical pun). Of course its nice to get the employer supplied cord and not have to coil mine up and toss it in the back seat, once in awhile. My current car doesn't even have a block heater, every car I get has a smaller lighter engine and I could probably jump start off a cellphone battery by now.
I guess they're talking about plugging in those 10 KW fast chargers not plain old 110V outlet trickle charging. It would seem a cheap and simple solution to follow the nordic north and install 100 wall outlets instead of 10 expensive fast chargers.
Electric car charging connectors are REALLY nice compared to extension cords and I was toying with the idea of using that system to power up my car's block / battery / charger all at once, neatly. In the "long term" it could be cool to have a universal smart power cord for general outdoor use better than 100 year old extension cords. Something vaguely smart and water resistant and tough.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday October 12 2015, @04:45PM
How much could a charger possibly cost? A big transformer, rectifier and voltage regulator (or maybe current regulator).
Compare the price of a brand-new Tesla.
Your employer doesn't owe you a free charge. It's not like they pay for the gasoline of carbon-emitters.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by LoRdTAW on Monday October 12 2015, @05:14PM
It's more than just a simple power supply -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charging_station [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by scruffybeard on Monday October 12 2015, @05:24PM
Based on some figures in this article [plugincars.com] a typical charging unit is $500-$1000 depending on options. The electrician will cost $200 to $1000 depending on how far you have to run the line from the breaker panel. The last circuit I had pulled cost $600 (~30 ft. run through an unfinished basement). The cost could be a lot higher if you need additional electrical service run to your home. I couldn't figure out if the 200 amp service that I have in my home is sufficient. I believe it is, but there are still many older homes that only have 100 or 150 amp service.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday October 14 2015, @01:47PM
Electrician prices are outrageous. My aunt recently had electrical problems in an old house. The Air conditioner she had was overloading a circuit that simply has too many things plugged into it. The fix was dumb simple: Just run a dedicated circuit to the AC unit and be done with it. Probably an hours worth of work. Parts needed: new breaker in the panel box, a 15 foot run of bx cable (armoured cable), receptacle box, bx clamps, and single 120V receptacle. Parts would cost around 50 bucks. My aunt is old and getting senile and didn't trust me to do the work. She has an electrician do the work and guess what? He did the exact same thing I was going to do for $250 and it took him an hour.
$600 for a 30 foot run is not too bad for a charger and high current wiring. I'm also assuming it's in conduit. Even if you had a charger installed, if the run was in conduit I can see a $200-250 parts cost. The rest is labor. And BTW, 200 amp service is standard nowadays. No new construction is done with less. The old standard was 100A, never seen 150 though I'm sure it exists. Still old homes with 120V service, ancient meter pans with 30A main fuses jumpered with bypass plugs to get more current and a fuse box with four or eight fuses.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday October 12 2015, @08:22PM
Man, half the shit i read and experience in real life makes me wonder: "We are the most intelligent species on Earth, aren't we?????"... but then i see dolphins and monkeys (and Monkees) and spiders and ants and and and and....
How the shit are we the most intelligent species? Because we can destroy ourselves and all other species???
Man......
Now: gonna go watch Corner Gas... love that Hank!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---