3 ms·

Cars can already pull many times of what a home connection can handle. No problem, since you have all night. > but then what's the benefit? Braking and fast c

Cars can already pull many times of what a home connection can handle. No problem, since you have all night. > but then what's the benefit? Braking and fast charging.

giantg2 6y ago
I could see how braking can help. But why should I sacrifice range for faster and more frequent charging? Especially if the house connection can't handle the near instantaneous charging?
- bluGill 6y ago
  Because the 5% long trips are the only time this matters. For long trips you should stop every hour, for medical reasons. So if we can get enough range that you should stop anyway, and the stop is short, overall it isn't much of a cost. Batteries take too long to charge even at fast charge rates, but if we can do a 5 minute charge to add an hour of range that is enough. I'm not sure if I believe the above, but it is a good argument.
  - giantg2 6y ago
    I generally agree, but there's another element to this - charging station viability. Only the special charging stations will be able to do the fast charging. How available will those be? It seems to me that it might not be financially viable to have fast charging stations widely available if for the other 95% of times people are charging at home, especially if they need buffers from the grid to handle the capacity. Over all, I think supercapacitors will be a good option in the future, but not at the current energy density. Especially if they're relying on graphene and the fast charging will essentially require a second one to act as a buffer for the grid.
    - bluGill 6y ago
      That is an open question. I think I can comfortable predict that along major routes (hiways) there will be charging stations. There may not be a charging station in every small town like there is a gas station. Though I predict that hotels will all have slow charging stations (probably tied to your room key).

Cars can already pull many times of what a home connection can handle. No problem, since you have all night. > but then what's the benefit? Braking and fast charging.

giantg2 6y ago

I could see how braking can help. But why should I sacrifice range for faster and more frequent charging? Especially if the house connection can't handle the near instantaneous charging?

bluGill 6y ago
Because the 5% long trips are the only time this matters. For long trips you should stop every hour, for medical reasons. So if we can get enough range that you should stop anyway, and the stop is short, overall it isn't much of a cost. Batteries take too long to charge even at fast charge rates, but if we can do a 5 minute charge to add an hour of range that is enough. I'm not sure if I believe the above, but it is a good argument.
- giantg2 6y ago
  I generally agree, but there's another element to this - charging station viability. Only the special charging stations will be able to do the fast charging. How available will those be? It seems to me that it might not be financially viable to have fast charging stations widely available if for the other 95% of times people are charging at home, especially if they need buffers from the grid to handle the capacity. Over all, I think supercapacitors will be a good option in the future, but not at the current energy density. Especially if they're relying on graphene and the fast charging will essentially require a second one to act as a buffer for the grid.
  - bluGill 6y ago
    That is an open question. I think I can comfortable predict that along major routes (hiways) there will be charging stations. There may not be a charging station in every small town like there is a gas station. Though I predict that hotels will all have slow charging stations (probably tied to your room key).