Phone Booth EV Chargers

Neat. The only technical hurdle would be the question of whether the phone booths have an electric supply to actually handle charging a couple cars.

 

But lights and a phone don't require much amperage. Will level 2 charging for multiple cars be possible?

 

The DC area does not have any phone booths.
We have one or two pay phone stands inside the subway station but that's it.

 

Phone booth lighting only requires 120V.

-1- More & more plugin's are going to want to pull "Real" power. The iMiev - Leaf - Tesla(s) - Spark and more to come, can can already pull 50Kw (that's over 200 amps at 240V) ... at least until they approach 'full' charge. Faster charging (like gas refill) gets cars OUT OF the WAY, so the next car can get charging. That's already becoming more and more common place. We had a Prototype/Test Mule Mercedes EV stop by our PlugShare location. Fortunately for them - our EVSE is on a 40amp breaker - allowing them to receive their full 7,850 watt potential that they were capable of pulling.
Guess the Plug-In | PriusChat
They were back on the road in just 1hr with enough juice to travel nearly an additional 20 miles ... which allowed them to complete their travels along with the juice they still had remaining.

-2- Even 120V 'trickle' charging' (likely to only be on a 15amp breaker) would restrict multiple phone booths to one measily J plug. Two portable EVSE's that come with plug-in EV's can draw over 2.5kW's. Pop goes the breaker. Pull bigger wire for multiple 240V J plug use? BIG job. You'd need to break concrete/re-trench/lay larger conduit for greater wire air-cooling/pull larger-more wire etc. "IF" the phone booth is near the curb - that'd get you possibly 2 240V EVSE's .... do-able ... but that comes with the BIG cost of a major upgrade. Now the owner/leassor will want to / need to charge a minimum of $2/hr just so he can start paying for his upgrade ... plus insurance ... maintenance ... business taxes etc. Years down the road before (s)he can even THINK about profit" from his venture. I can hear the cry babies already (our entitled generation) whining, "what a rip off !!! " because their residential power is less expensive - so naturally EVERY place's power should meet their expectation.

-3- Many areas (including ours) require asinine rates for 'volume' electricity. When you have enough juice to pull more than 50kW - some utility providers charge "Demand Fees". Just for the 'privilege' of having large demand ... not even using one kilowatt minute of juice ... you're slapped with a whopping SIX FIGURE electric bill. Now if you're a HUGE business (Sears Tower / Excalibur Casino-Hotel / Disney / Ritz Carlton / GM manufacturing etc) with multiple devices constantly pulling MONGO power already ... that's one thing. Big utility bills are simply absorbed into the cost of doing big business. Those big boys will only be paying for extra power - which - will still cost a pretty penny. But pulling big power at a coffee kiosk / photo-mat / phone booth sized structure? That's a formula for failure. Only the areas where power is nearly free will phone booth chargers be a go ... and only trickle ... and only one car.

Train stations / Subways / Airports are REALLY the place to implement volume EVSE's. Maybe even large bus terminals. They're already on demand fees. They're capable of having skycap services that could incorporate moving plugin's when they're done charging (at least the airports are) ... whether at trickle charging speed, or over 400V, imho.
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I have not seen a phone booth, let alone a working pay phone in ages. Do they still exist?

 

Of course they still exist how do you think crack dealers communicate ... you don't think they use their cell phones where you could easily find out who they are

 

Disposable cell phones have taken over that role.

At work, the original wood phonebooths install at construction in '44 are still place. The phones are gone, but Verizon employees in for work take pictures of them.

 

Agreed these are the best places. The ability to commute long distances using only electricity is really putting to shame the theory from some guy - I think Kunstler was his name - that suburbia was doomed once gas started getting expensive.

Every airport temporary/short-term parking, as well as the "cell phone lots" should all have L3 480v chargers. The long term lots should go with the cheapest option, which is probably 110v, but even there it might not be worth it due to low turnover.

One good thing to put into all public charging stations is complimentary WiFi access. This would presumably be easier to do at the phone booths, since there is an existing phone line that could be converted to DSL.
By incorporating free data access into the charge price, you are encouraging EV drivers to visit YOUR station as much as possible, much like coffee shops today.
The EV owner could simply be given the WiFi access key once he/she has paid for the charge. That gives them something to do on their smartphone/tablet/laptop during the 20-30 minute charge....w/o using their own wireless data plan.
For L3 chargers that are not near a phone line, it is possible to send data at broadband speeds through the power line, so this could form the backbone of WiFi access in more remote parts of the country.
Imagine going on a road trip, driving into a charging station, charging up in <1 hour while you get something to eat and the EV downloads a movie or two over WiFi, for the kids in the backseat.