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Perhaps not today, because there aren't enough cars to use them - demand needs to catch up. But yes, it's feasible to fill entire parking lots with outlets at e

Perhaps not today, because there aren't enough cars to use them - demand needs to catch up. But yes, it's feasible to fill entire parking lots with outlets at every parking spot. There are already examples of this in Norway. The outlets can be built to share and distribute available power, so the grid connection required is not as huge as you might think. In practice this isn't an issue, as it's unlikely that every outlet will be drawing the maximum current at the same time.

SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
It's 1.4 kW / Tesla charging at 120 V [1]. That's basically one 15 Amp breaker per charging station. A 30 Amp breaker buys you two cars at once. That's a lot of circuits to run out to the parking lot. https://www.pluglesspower.com/learn/tesla-model-s-charging-home-public-autonomously/ https://www.pluglesspower.com/learn/tesla-model-s-charging-h...
- Reason077 7y ago
  Dedicated car chargers usually run on 240V. Typically you'll have 15/16A for ~3.5kW or 30/32A for ~7kW. You certainly don't need to run separate circuits over long distances for every individual outlet. You can run one higher-power cable to a hub unit which then breaks out to many (maybe dozens) nearby outlets.
stordoff 7y ago
> The outlets can be built to share and distribute available power, so the grid connection required is not as huge as you might think Doesn't this re-introduce the original problem? If less power is available, you have to spend longer charging.
- Reason077 7y ago
  > "Doesn't this re-introduce the original problem? If less power is available, you have to spend longer charging." Not a realistic concern, at present, because the chances that a large parking lot will be filled with even 10% EVs is small. At any given time, most stalls will be occupied by fossil cars, cars not needing charging, or will just be empty. In the future as demand increases, if you start to hit the limit then you can look at upgrading the electrical supply.

SketchySeaBeast 7y ago

It's 1.4 kW / Tesla charging at 120 V [1]. That's basically one 15 Amp breaker per charging station. A 30 Amp breaker buys you two cars at once. That's a lot of circuits to run out to the parking lot. https://www.pluglesspower.com/learn/tesla-model-s-charging-home-public-autonomously/ https://www.pluglesspower.com/learn/tesla-model-s-charging-h...

Reason077 7y ago
Dedicated car chargers usually run on 240V. Typically you'll have 15/16A for ~3.5kW or 30/32A for ~7kW. You certainly don't need to run separate circuits over long distances for every individual outlet. You can run one higher-power cable to a hub unit which then breaks out to many (maybe dozens) nearby outlets.

stordoff 7y ago

> The outlets can be built to share and distribute available power, so the grid connection required is not as huge as you might think Doesn't this re-introduce the original problem? If less power is available, you have to spend longer charging.

Reason077 7y ago
> "Doesn't this re-introduce the original problem? If less power is available, you have to spend longer charging." Not a realistic concern, at present, because the chances that a large parking lot will be filled with even 10% EVs is small. At any given time, most stalls will be occupied by fossil cars, cars not needing charging, or will just be empty. In the future as demand increases, if you start to hit the limit then you can look at upgrading the electrical supply.