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Charging infrastructure not ready

Discussion in 'Gen 1 Prius Plug-in 2012-2015' started by chesleyn, Jul 17, 2013.

  1. chesleyn

    chesleyn Active Member

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    So here in Southern California I noticed spring 2012 I had no issues charging my vehicle. I'd see a leaf here and there but other than that, no problems.

    Now I am seeing most EV spaces are always taken. As more EVs and PHEVs are rolling onto the streets, I am getting the feeling that our current infrastructure will not be enough to handle the demand.

    Typically a known EV parking garage in the Los Angeles area will have 2 EV stations, 3 max. In some remote areas, I have seen walls of 10-12 EV stations. Based on the number of 2014 plugins rolling out, we will need major increases in EV stations to meet the demand or we will start seeing plugin rage around SoCal. Especially from those people who bought pure EVs like the Leaf and Ford Focus.


    iPad ? HD
     
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  2. mmmodem

    mmmodem Senior Taste Tester

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    I don't think so. Up here in Northern California as EV spots fill up, so do costs. PHEV's will be relegated to home charging soon enough as the costs rarely go in our favor.
     
  3. iplug

    iplug Senior Member

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    Dreaming a little here, but it would be nice if municipal utilities like LADWP partnered with Blink or ChargePoint or other electric vehicle charging station operators, building out many more charging stations, charging reasonable fees, and allowing you to get billed directly to your home utility bill. Maybe California could use some incentives and regulatory muscle to push for something like this and maybe other states would follow.
     
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  4. markabele

    markabele owner of PiP, then Leaf, then Model 3

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    I too think that our infrastructure is currently sufficient to handle plenty of more EV's on the road. It's all about home charging at night. If this is done we will be absolutely fine until EV's reach a pretty substantial percentage of cars of the road. By that time I'm sure the grid will have evolved enough to take care of it.
     
  5. iplug

    iplug Senior Member

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    It will be interesting to see what happens in the future between the balance of build-up of charging infrastructure and the development of further generations of PEVs with much more EV range and capable of much faster charging.

    Most of the car owning population would not need anything but home charging at that point. But we would still need a robust infrastructure for fast DC charging on long road trips. Still, though, the nice thing about having charging stations in parking lots all over the place would be that one can top off EV conveniently and businesses can use these as incentives to draw in customers.

    For now, the current influx of the first mainstream generation of PEVs (PiP, Volt, Leaf, etc.) may still present a challange for the next few years in places like SoCal and NorCal. I rarely need to charge outside of my home, but I too have seen lots of empty spots at EV charging stations early last year to now finding them frequently all in use.
     
  6. jfschultz

    jfschultz Active Member

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    There was an editorial a while back that indicated in Tennessee there were 2 public charging stations for each registered EV and PHEV vehicle. Part of the glut here is probably tied to the Federal grant money and pushes by TVA and ECOTotaly.
     
  7. markabele

    markabele owner of PiP, then Leaf, then Model 3

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    Are these free spots? If not, what is the charge?
     
  8. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    ...score one more point for PiP, right? PiP is great MPG running on gaso and you are not dependent on finding public charging spot. You go home and plug in a regular 120V plug in your garage.
     
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  9. Dan Cathy

    Dan Cathy Junior Member

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    Charging an PiP is like running your hair dryer at "high" for 3 hours. With global warming, more and more A/C will be running and running longer during the day in summer time. At some point, I see they will have problem keeping up with the power consumption.
     
  10. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    Today is such a day. Today Dominion elec cut back my air conditioner (I allowed them to put a gismo on my house for $40/yr rebate). We're expecting 100F in DC.
     
  11. DadofHedgehog

    DadofHedgehog Active Member

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    Huzzah for Ground-Sourced Heat Pumps!
     
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  12. iplug

    iplug Senior Member

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    Yes, the ones now full most of the time are free. It seems most places around here are either free (municipal sponsored) or $2/hour ChargePoint. If the city would convert their free stations to nominal fee, the squatters would probably go away and they may be able to open up a few more stations with the money saved.
     
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  13. fjpod

    fjpod Member

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    Besides my Gen 3, I own an iMiev. I am a total believer in home based overnight charging for a couple of reasons.

    1. Cost...if you start charging at commercial public chargers, quick chargers, or chargers located in gas stations, the cost savings of an EV will go away.

    2. The grid...IMHO will not be able to take a nation of EVs charging in the daytime, especially when weather is very hot or very cold. There is a huge amount of unused capacity at night time though. It would be environmentally crazy to try and charge all those EVs during the day.

    So what do you do if you need to go on a longer trip than your EV has range for...Use the Prius. That's why God made them.
     
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  14. Dan Cathy

    Dan Cathy Junior Member

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    They offered me the same deal but I turned it down. I didn't want them to mess with my system. On weekends, I go out and spray my roof with water every hour, it helps keeping the house cool. It's a pain but at least I get some exercise.

    I wish they would make an A/C system for home that works like the ones in the Prius. The ones for home is either on or off. I wish the A/C could reduce power consumption when the temperature is closed to the target temperature. If the room temp is 75 and it's set at 76, there's no need to go full blast.
     
  15. markabele

    markabele owner of PiP, then Leaf, then Model 3

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    Totally agree!

    If the grid can handle quite a bit of AC during the day...it can handle quite a bit of charging at night.

    Plus I firmly believe solar will come down more and more in price making it practical for a much higher percentage of households to install them in their home. Granted, solar doesn't work everywhere. But it works pretty well most places where there are electrical shortages.

    That seems like a good way to harm your shingles. The constant cooling down and heating up will leave them very brittle which will obviously make it easier for wind and hail to do damage. Plus it probably only marginally helps electricity bills. Get solar panels if you want to keep the sun off your roof.
     
  16. Dan Cathy

    Dan Cathy Junior Member

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    I didn't think of that. You got a good point there. I better stop doing that. Thanks.
     
  17. markabele

    markabele owner of PiP, then Leaf, then Model 3

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    No problem. That's what were here for...to help each other. :)
     
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  18. ny_rob

    ny_rob Senior Member

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    Take a look at current mini-split AC units with inverter technology.
    They operate exactly as you desire- they only put out enough cooling to cover the current needs.
    My 24k BTU outdoor unit (compressor) can throttle down to 9k BTU's and then even turn itself completely off- when the four indoor units don't require max (24k BTU's) cooling. It's an amazing and efficient system.
     
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  19. Andyprius1

    Andyprius1 Senior Member

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    . Absolutely, right now there exist very little knowledge or requirements except for the owners of these EV/HV's
     
  20. evfinder

    evfinder Member

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    I went to Century City Shopping Center Yesterday and one of the two EV parking spots was available so I went to charge. Then I noticed that there were already two EVSEs connected. The second one was a Nissan Leaf that was parked in the space next to the two EV parking spaces. There are 4 outlets for the 2 spaces so there was still one additional place for someone with an extension cord to plug in.

    Here is an image I snapped with the three EVSEs plugged in
    [​IMG][​IMG]