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A fast charger can consume 300 watts. An 80% fast charge takes around 9 minutes for a Tesla. Let’s say each charger sees 20% utilization, and a location has 6 c

A fast charger can consume 300 watts. An 80% fast charge takes around 9 minutes for a Tesla. Let’s say each charger sees 20% utilization, and a location has 6 chargers, so around 300 kWh a month. FWIW, that’s about double the amount of energy a small store already consumes every month. Free won’t ever be easy.

bryanlarsen 4y ago
Stores don't install 300kW L3 chargers, they install 10kW L2 chargers. They don't want customers charging in 10 minutes, they want customers plugged in for an hour or three. Tesla calls them "Destination Chargers" in contrast the superchargers that you use in the middle of your trip.
- falcolas 4y ago
  But customers don’t want that. And as technology advances and more cars can take advantage of fast chargers, people will seek them out. 9 minutes of a customers time is better than none. Most gas stations that live on transient customers get less than 9 minutes, and they’re quite profitable.
  - bryanlarsen 4y ago
    Gas stations are a completely different use case. By "stores" I assume the OP meant retail stores like malls, restaurants and hotels that add free/cheap charging to encourage customer traffic rather than as a primary business. I've seen lots of those with L2 charging, but none with L3 charging.
  - theshrike79 4y ago
    As a customer, I want that. If I drive from here to the closest proper movie theater, I can plug in my car at a 22kW outlet. It gets around 7.5kW/h from it (single phase charger in the car, so it can only use 1/3). A 2 hour movie and some faffing about on both ends is around 2.5 hours. That's 15-20kW of power charged to my car, which can go 100km with 15kWh. The theater is about 40km away, so I actually come back home with a fuller battery than I left with. This is how the future should look like. 11/22kW destination chargers should be ubiquitous in all places you spend an hour or more usually (bigger grocery stores, hardware stores, IKEA, malls etc).

bryanlarsen 4y ago

Stores don't install 300kW L3 chargers, they install 10kW L2 chargers. They don't want customers charging in 10 minutes, they want customers plugged in for an hour or three. Tesla calls them "Destination Chargers" in contrast the superchargers that you use in the middle of your trip.

falcolas 4y ago
But customers don’t want that. And as technology advances and more cars can take advantage of fast chargers, people will seek them out. 9 minutes of a customers time is better than none. Most gas stations that live on transient customers get less than 9 minutes, and they’re quite profitable.
- bryanlarsen 4y ago
  Gas stations are a completely different use case. By "stores" I assume the OP meant retail stores like malls, restaurants and hotels that add free/cheap charging to encourage customer traffic rather than as a primary business. I've seen lots of those with L2 charging, but none with L3 charging.
- theshrike79 4y ago
  As a customer, I want that. If I drive from here to the closest proper movie theater, I can plug in my car at a 22kW outlet. It gets around 7.5kW/h from it (single phase charger in the car, so it can only use 1/3). A 2 hour movie and some faffing about on both ends is around 2.5 hours. That's 15-20kW of power charged to my car, which can go 100km with 15kWh. The theater is about 40km away, so I actually come back home with a fuller battery than I left with. This is how the future should look like. 11/22kW destination chargers should be ubiquitous in all places you spend an hour or more usually (bigger grocery stores, hardware stores, IKEA, malls etc).