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IIUC, these chargers cost $50-$250k a piece. I imagine the technology will improve and they'll need to be upgraded in less than ten years. Each gas pump proba

IIUC, these chargers cost $50-$250k a piece. I imagine the technology will improve and they'll need to be upgraded in less than ten years. Each gas pump probably costs similar or less - and you only need to use one for a couple of minutes. A charger you can tie up for a half hour or longer. Even at that price - charging would be about half the revenue as the average re-fuel. So you need to charge more to make similar profits. Gas stations don't really make any money selling gas - they make it all from selling candy bars and sodas. I would expect the spread to be much higher on charging than re-fueling.

metabagel 5y ago
I’ve decided I’m going to stop trying to figure out what acronyms like IIUC mean. I figured it out, but I realize my time is better spent elsewhere, and ultimately it’s OK if I don’t solve the little puzzle embedded in the comment.
- gabrielsroka 5y ago
  https://www.google.com/search?q=iiuc+acronym https://www.google.com/search?q=iiuc+acronym
vel0city 5y ago
> I imagine the technology will improve and they'll need to be upgraded in less than ten years. What improvements do you foresee which will require these to be upgraded?
- onlyrealcuzzo 5y ago
  I imagine we have not reached the physical limit for how much power can be transfered over a period of time. So I would imagine that better chargers can exist, and I imagine upgrading will be significant capex.
  - vel0city 5y ago
    As far as the cables and plugs themselves, we're pretty much nearing the practical limits of our known physics. These days car battery packs can't keep up with the max theoretical rate these chargers can supply for longer than a few minutes. We'll have to come quite a bit further with our battery technology to really stress CCS cables and connectors.
tgtweak 5y ago
Tesla's installed cost on a supercharger is $20k, that includes manufacturing, transport, installation and anything else needed at the supercharger station. There's no reason on earth that dc charger would be $250k a piece. That is the price of a large traction transformer for an electric train that can supply 10MW of variable power on-demand. I have a "screw-you-consumer" price on a 22KW fast charger (ccs) at $8,000. The manufacturing cost does not scale linearly nor does the economy of scale when buying thousands of them.

metabagel 5y ago

I’ve decided I’m going to stop trying to figure out what acronyms like IIUC mean. I figured it out, but I realize my time is better spent elsewhere, and ultimately it’s OK if I don’t solve the little puzzle embedded in the comment.

gabrielsroka 5y ago
https://www.google.com/search?q=iiuc+acronym https://www.google.com/search?q=iiuc+acronym

vel0city 5y ago

> I imagine the technology will improve and they'll need to be upgraded in less than ten years. What improvements do you foresee which will require these to be upgraded?

onlyrealcuzzo 5y ago
I imagine we have not reached the physical limit for how much power can be transfered over a period of time. So I would imagine that better chargers can exist, and I imagine upgrading will be significant capex.
- vel0city 5y ago
  As far as the cables and plugs themselves, we're pretty much nearing the practical limits of our known physics. These days car battery packs can't keep up with the max theoretical rate these chargers can supply for longer than a few minutes. We'll have to come quite a bit further with our battery technology to really stress CCS cables and connectors.

tgtweak 5y ago

Tesla's installed cost on a supercharger is $20k, that includes manufacturing, transport, installation and anything else needed at the supercharger station. There's no reason on earth that dc charger would be $250k a piece. That is the price of a large traction transformer for an electric train that can supply 10MW of variable power on-demand. I have a "screw-you-consumer" price on a 22KW fast charger (ccs) at $8,000. The manufacturing cost does not scale linearly nor does the economy of scale when buying thousands of them.