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Unfortunately, most of the public charging stations out there are pretty pointless due to their slow charging speed. Without faster charging, you can't do long
by NickM 10y ago
Unfortunately, most of the public charging stations out there are pretty pointless due to their slow charging speed.
Without faster charging, you can't do long-distance travel (nobody wants to stop for 4-8 hours in the middle of a road trip to recharge), so the only value they offer is for longer charging sessions while the driver is already in the area for work/shopping/etc. However, even then, you can't really rely on their availability, since it's always possible someone will already be there tying up the station for an 8-hour stretch...so they really aren't terribly useful or convenient for the vast majority of EV owners.
I would argue that the only charging network out there that really makes sense is Tesla's Supercharger network: it actually charges fast enough to make road trips practical, is generally quite reliable, and typically includes at least 6-8 stalls per station to avoid congestion during peak travel times. This gives Tesla a huge competitive advantage over other EV manufacturers, and I think it'll be a long time before anyone catches up to them in this regard.
- tcoppi 10y agoA slower charging network could be useful for putting a charging station at every parking space at say workplaces, where your car will be left for an extended time Slower chargers are presumably cheaper to build and run, so they might make more sense there. But otherwise completely agreed that superchargers are basically the only type of charger that makes sense for 99% of the rest of use cases that a gas station would normally take care of.
- NickM 10y agoYeah if there were parking garages or lots where every parking space had a charging port, that would be awesome, and could actually be part of a practical solution in the long term. Unfortunately most garages I've seen have somewhere from zero to two spots in the entire garage :(
- greglindahl 10y agoFacebook HQ has around 150 L2 chargers. It's just a matter of time.
- Teever 10y agoI'm not exactly sure what facebook having 150 car chargers has to do with the rest of the world getting car chargers.
- greglindahl 10y agoThey aren't the only company with more than 0-2 chargers per parking lot, I could name a bunch of others. The point I'm making is that more chargers are on the way.
- greglindahl 10y agoIn Palo Alto, I can tell that there are a bunch of EVs that charge overnight at the L2 chargers in various city garages -- dunno if their apartment complex won't install chargers or if they're waiting to get a charger installed. Either way, it's extremely useful to a minority of EV owners.