This is true but not to the degree you might assume. I've had a LEAF for almost 3 years now and it has been charged outside of my garage maybe a dozen times. My wife drives it to work every day.
It really depends on people's habits vs. the range of the cars they buy. We are seeing 200+ mile range on affordable cars (Model 3, Chevy Bolt.) If the standard range is that or higher then most people will not need a charging station outside of their garage.
The charging stations will still be convenient and people will ask for them for that reason, but they won't be necessary like they would be if we saw widespread adoption of the first generation LEAF with a realistic 60-80 mile range. Then more people would need a charging station at work to be able to commute. But that's not what's happening, so I think charging stations outside the home won't be necessary so much as desirable.
What will be needed for wider adoption is charging stations at apartment complexes and condos. That's one thing that is really holding EVs back and may hold non-homeowners back from being able to get them.
Don't get me wrong, we are closer all the time to resolving all the concerns. I think we just rounding the bend. Hopefully Tesla and co will keep up the pressure for better alternatives.
Let's hope that the current government trends don't set us back years in the progress we are making.
I am optimistic that the electric trend has enough momentum that it will continue, but we have seen huge shifts in automotive tech happen before (for example, rubber tire conglomerates and freedom of cars shifted us away from mass transit in the past).
If you run out of charge and get stuck somewhere that's no more the Leaf's fault than it is a gasoline car's fault when you run out of gas.
In ~3 years that has happened exactly zero times to me or my wife.
> Also, the cost of electricity is surprising to them as it is not as cheap (still cheaper usually than gas) as they expected.
That varies based on where you live but for us it costs about $0.02/mile to drive the Leaf. Whereas our Honda CR-V which gets ~30 mpg costs about $0.08/mile right now. Gas prices are artificially low in the US right now, when they go back up it will be even more drastic (and of course if your car gets worse than 30mpg then it will be worse, or better if you get better mileage.) In order to reach $0.02/mile with a gas car I'd have to get 115mpg, though. (Gas is ~$2.30/gal in my town currently.)
> Let's hope that the current government trends don't set us back years in the progress we are making.
This is my main concern as well. Where I live the state government just passed a really regressive fee for EV registrations.
There's no reason you can't have chargers available for street parking too. It's not common yet, but it's just a matter of demand.
It shows just about every publicly available charger, and many private ones as well. Each one has notes on what kind of charger it is, availability, cost, and user-submitted comments. It's really useful for EV owners, and interesting to poke around on even if you can't currently make use of them.
It doesn't show any of the publicly available chargers in the state of Ohio. I don't know how many there are - I've never needed to care - but I'm pretty sure that if the local Wal-Mart has a few (and the UU church!), there are others.
Are you just looking at it zoomed out really far? It only shows a selection of chargers until you zoom in, otherwise the whole thing would just be a sea of icons.
It might also be worth noting (to others reading the conversation, if there are any) that charging stations, while not cheap enough to just ignore, are pretty inexpensive to install. The main thing is getting power to the site. If power is already available, then it can be under $1,000 to put in a station (including buying the equipment), although of course there are many more expensive options if one wants.
In and out in a couple of minutes.
For sure.
I live in a place where there are line ups at GAS stations during the busy season. Imagine everyone trying to charge while on a trip? That "half an hour to stretch my legs and eat" becomes a queue of everyone doing the same.
Extremely relevant point. EV penetration will cause huge surges in demand; a 100 KwH Tesla is ~10 days of household electricity usage here in the Netherlands. That's why demand response and load shifting will be critical.
> no energy source is really ever "free".
The sun is pretty close to free on the scale we use energy at. :)
nope. building solar panels pollute. disposing them more so. the setup with mirror and a standard turbine has less costs tied to manufacturing, but creates a huge no fly zone for birds.. and everything else really, so you can't plop a thousand of them all over the place. having them in deserts works, but you still need to transport the energy, which has a cost and again an environmental impact.
now, all in all the impact from solar is quite less than burning coal or oil, but there are other solution that are at least competitive (methane, nuclear) - but there are very few studies compare the total cost and pollution including externalities, because everyone likes to profit on the state incentives
That is a solved problem
Electricity is expensive
Batteries and electric power have bad by products:
1. heat generation
2. by-products of manufacturing
3. electricity generation by-products
I am 22 years old. Because of society's slow uptake of carbon-neutral power generation and consumption, I will live through every consequence of past generation's short-sighted power decisions. The clathrate gun will happen before I am middle-aged. Your comment, complaining about things that are solved problems, is quite detached from the reality of Earth.
I think you missed the point of my complaints, they aren't justifications for going against green tech, if anything, it's more like a list of obstacles to be solved. In your opinion, already done, so then we should be positive since you feel that way. Woohoo! No issue.
For the record, you should know that I have always been an ardent supporter of alternative/greener transportation, in fact, I put my money where my mouth is as much as humanely possible, which is why I drive a plug-in hybrid (I can't afford a full electric like a Tesla).
If my job wasn't 20 miles away, I would ride a bicycle or take public transit and forgo a car completely. Just not possible where I live.
Again, sorry you feel the way you do. I'm on your side.
That's what I meant: the supercharging stops at some less-than-advertised capacity, and becomes normal charging (and normal charging rates also slow down above the 80% mark).
> thanks to the active cooling system in the battery pack.
That makes some sense, as the damage does come from heat buildup in the cells. However, since battery packs are typically remarkably dense to achieve a good W/h : size ratio, that would have to be quite the cooling mechanism; I don't believe that simply cooling the air around the battery cells (such as with a peltier and a fan) would suffice.
I base this supposition on the completely unscientific method of recharging batteries in my garage in the winter; they still get remarkably warm with an ambient air temperature of around 40°F and normal charging (around 1c - their mAH rating). Perhaps they simply set artificially lower capacities per cell than the battery pack's real capacity in order to prolong their advertised lifespan.
Not to mention the fact that electricity gets surprisingly expensive at peak rates. I recognize we are doing this to try to reduce carbon emissions, but I find it important to remember that energy is neither created nor destroyed according to the laws of thermodynamics. So, we are only transitioning from one form of energy to another, which has its own pros and cons. Of course, electric "seems" to have more pros then cons, but it definitely still has cons (heat generation, lithium/battery tech byproducts/electricity generation byproducts, etc.), and no energy source is really ever "free".
Disclaimer: I don't have a Tesla but do drive a plug-in hybrid. It feels like a nice balance of gas/electric at the current time.