I've been able to have several meetings with representatives from Mercedes USA due to my work with electric utility companies. The topic of the meetings was that they are considering several "innovative" ideas as part of their new electric vehicle rollout.
One idea that struck me was along the lines of individual homeowners making their chargers available for use by others. So for a fee, a person could stop at someones house, front yard, etc. and give their car a charge from a privately owned charger.
This of course means that the chargers would have to be externally accessible. But is sounded like an idea that Mercedes was considering as part of their overall EQ vehicle deployment over the next 5-10 years. Maybe they would be Mercedes branded chargers, it wasn't clear. But it seems like companies are seriously considering many different alternatives to help push electric cars more into the mainstream and make charging more convenient.
When I built my house 2 years ago I had a vehicle charger installed inside my garage. I don't yet own an electric vehicle, but I figured that I would eventually and wanted to be prepared. So I guess Mercedes won't be able to leverage my charger with their grand schemes. But it's an intriguing idea, nevertheless.
- Greg
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