Quote:
Originally Posted by JST
I think you may be misunderstanding terminology—“fast charging,” or Level 3 direct current charging, is (still) relatively uncommon, apart from the Tesla supercharger network.
I don’t have access to DC fast charging at home or work. Few people do. But that’s ok, because you don’t need it in those places.
What you need in those places is Level 2 charging—240V AC, typically 30-60 amps. That’s what all EVs now can use, and it’s (relatively) cheap and easy to install.
Would it be great if someone would build out a universal fast charger network? Sure. There’s a zero percent chance of that happening under the current administration. In the absence of political will for incentivizing third party “green” infrastructure, we have to hope that car companies are willing to build their own. Tesla showed the way to do it. I hope other companies follow suit.
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I guess I misspoke with the term "fast charging", but I don't think you're hearing at least part of what I'm saying, either.
The Level 2 charging isn't realistically possible for many people. At home, they have to park some distance away in parking lots and on the street in different spots every night. At work, they park in lots and on the street some distance away. The only place they can regularly charge is at a purpose built charging station. If they can't get something close to a full charge in a short period of time, a plug in EV will not work for them. If they have to drive half way across town to their manufacturer specific charging station every time, that isn't going to work either.
I'm not talking about people stretching to make ends meet. My brother lives in a half million dollar 1 bedroom condo two blocks from the beach. The parking lot at his complex is filled with late model luxury and sports cars. Not a single plug in EV that I've seen because there's no place any of the residents can charge them. Apparently, the topic has come up, and some on their board think they should start planning for an assessment to put in the infrastructure. But no one has any idea how they should do it in a way that won't require them making expensive modifications later when some kind of standard is adopted.
No doubt the current administration and Congress aren't going to do anything to help, but there's no reason a manufacturer association can't set standards and a third party or consortium can't start building that out. It seems like that would be the cheapest, easiest, fastest, and ultimately, most profitable way to proceed. That that's not what's happening suggests to me there's a lot more to the economics of it than I'm aware of.
Tesla proved the concept works. But, they still haven't done scale, just like with their cars. Everyone wins medium and long term if there is more cooperation than competition here. Everyone loses on a longer term basis in comparison the other way.