Mostly electric car charging in the U.S. is free, as in zero cost to the consumer. There is of course a cost to buy the charging station, install it, get permits to install, etc. The businesses who install charging stations need to recoup their investment – there needs to be…
Those of us who drive electric cars (or motorcycles) every day know the recharging infrastructure is weak. The question is how do we get the process underway to beef up the charging infrastructure? AND, what organization should fund and own the infrastructure? Over on whitehouse.gov a new petition was just…
Is electricity a Fuel? Should electric vehicle charging stations be located next to gasoline stations? Recently Fastned and ABB announced a large fast charging network to be built throughout the Netherlands. It will be the largest yet nation-scale electric car fast charging network, comprising over 200 such stations which will…
A core fact for electric car owners, today, is that the charging station networks limit access to those who have a membership relationship with the appropriate network. It was a big advance to develop the J1772 standard, giving us a common standard to accessing charging services. But if we are…
This may seem like an obvious observation: Ubiquitous fast charging will improve electric car adoption, and electric car utilization. To me that’s a “DUH” sort of thing to say, but at the same time the U.S. planning for electric car charging is dominated by public level 2 charging stations. Obviously…
Why do electric car charging stations have to be part of a charging station network? To charge an electric car why do we have to be a member of ChargePoint or Blink or whatever? Gasoline car owners don’t have to maintain a membership to buy gasoline, they just drive to…
A somewhat surprising is that fast charging (for electric cars) can reduce the cost of electric cars. Because electric car cost is a major factor delaying electric car adoption, if fast charging support would allow a cheaper electric car then it’s important to get fast charging infrastructure out there as…
It’s thought that DC Fast Chargers deployment is a crucial element to widespread electric car adoption. For example, the Japanese deployed a widespread CHAdeMO network in 2008 and immediately saw electric car utilization rates go up. My feeling is that fast charging is the way to implement the normal behavior…
Oregon is already fairly well enlightened in regard to electric vehicle adoption, and infrastructure for electric vehicles. For example, there is the West Coast Electric Highway, a project which has placed EV charging stations along the I-5 corridor through both Oregon and Washington State (it was originally slated to extend…
Recently I had the occasion to write up a news article about new CHADEMO fast charging stations from Fuji Electric and ABB. In the press release from ABB I noticed a paragraph saying that the station was compatible with the Open Charge Point Protocol. Hmm.. I thought, what does that…
Those of us who own electric vehicles know what it’s like to arrive at a charging station, expecting to charge our car, only to find it is blocked by a gas car. Such a situation is infuriating and endangers the electric car owner because of the increased risk of being…
What does Tesla Motors’ CTO JB Straubl think about the future of batteries and charging protocols? The SAE published a recent interview with him which in part is interesting because Tesla uses a non-SAE-standard protocol for electric vehicle charging. Battery format: Tesla is still using 18650 size cells in their…
Washington State is looking to institute a fine for ICE’ing an electric vehicle charging station. An ICE’d charging station is one that’s blocked by a car, typically gasoline powered, blocking access to the station and preventing an electric car driver from using it. There’s nothing more frustrating or dangerous to an electric car…
A group of Model S owners proved last weekend that John Broders failed Tesla Model S road trip could have been a success. The question the last two weeks is, why did the NY Times writer John Broder fail in his Tesla Model S road trip, and did he fake…
