That’s the reason, I didn’t look at Tesla Superchargers. They would not be compatible with the car I used to have and my PlugShare was set up to exclude them. I would never buy a Tesla vehicle in the first place.
I have done really long trips with my Tesla. The longest was from The Hague (NL) all the way down to Albacete in Spain, but going via the whole of France, the north of Spain, Portugal from the north border all the way down to Lisboa, and then east until Albacete (roughly in the east of Spain). And then the return drive along the Mediterranean coast of Spain, all the way to France, then through Belgium, and back to The Hague.
There were no problems, and the supercharger network for the long stretches of driving was more than sufficient. When staying at some place, we had overnight chargers.
It was quite a nice experience, all in all!
Yes, until charging options are almost as ubiquitous (and reliable) as gas stations, that will be a serious limitation on EV adoption. The other of course is hoome charging. I anticipate a dat when all code will include a requirement for 240V power plugs in the garage (or consumer demand will require it).
Other manufacturers are slowly configuring their cars to be compatible with Tesla superchargers. Some supercharges have the dual option of the Tesla plug or the upside-down mickey Mouse plug, or you can get an adapter once your car is made compatible (Software update?).
Despite the fact that Elon himself needs a complete reboot and software update, the cars are in fact probably the best option for EVs. Despite his many faults, Musk has made the EV market practical far faster than other manufacturers. He’s applied that same “do it even if there’s a better way to soak the customer” mentality. (Not to mention weaning NASA slowly away from the mentality of the military-industrial complex “buy a hundreds of millions dollars rocket and throw it away after one use…” because the government has lots of money)
I agree, but there is a practical difference, which will have a psychological affect on people. Gas stations are convenient when they are along your route, and visible. Chargers are convenient when they are at your origin or destination and invisible. Level 2 chargers in many of the places cars are left for several hours is ubiquitous charging, but that is a half dozen pedestals in the big office complex parking lot or behind the apartment building, not tall, brightly-lit signs advertising prices. So even when chargers exist, it is very easy for people to not know.
In many places the level 2 options are insufficient for people who don’t have home charging. I’m sure I could manage without home charging in Boulder, Colorado, but definitely not in Georgetown, Texas.
That’s all for daily charging, of course. For long distance charging, high speed DC chargers along the route are obviously more convenient.
sounds odd … old Nissan Leaf?
Yep, it was a Nissan Leaf, but 2019 so its not too old. It was pretty much the only EV I could afford that had a range over 100 miles.
Nissan def. won a place in EV history by building m/l the only mass produced EV without battery cooling …
Everything that resembles a battery and has lithium in it, absolutely HATES heat. Like the heat generated by having your car parked on an open parking space in exotic places like Florida, California, AZ, etc…
Just by having it parked this way, the internal resistance of the battery pack would increase by the factor of 5 or so … effectively “making the battery even smaller”
just goes to show the quick advances in EVs … just thinking there were EVs with a range UNDER 100 miles is a headscratcher.
ps: sorry it didn’t work out for you
I few weeks ago I was poking around on the Charge Finder site, just curious as to how many chargers there were in my area. It turns out there’s a row of Level 2 chargers in front of the medical center just a few blocks from my house, and I had no idea they were there even though I drive past them all the time. They are indeed not very noticeable if they don’t happen to be in parking lots you frequent.
I mean, I’m not likely to need to use them since when I eventually get an EV I will be able to charge at home, but it is good to know they’re there.
I believe California already requires EV chargers in the garage for new construction. But even my 50 year old house already has a 240V outlet in the garage, because like many homes around here that’s where the washer and dryer are. There are smart switches available that will automatically switch between the load between the dryer and EV charger depending on which is being used, so my plan is to get on of those and just change from the dryer outlet when I get an EV.
Real old housing stock will be a problem. But even 50 year old ~= 1975 (!) housing has the basic ampacity of service if not the right outlet in the right spot.
As has been said umpteen times, the killer is the tremendous stock of urban and suburban housing lacking individual garages. Be those row houses, garden apartments, or multi-story buildings.
At-home chargers being installed in those facilities need to happen first to permit demand to even get started. And that’s only happening with intrusive aggressive legislation and probably public money.
Both of which will be in short supply given the US’s baleful politics damned near everywhere there’s any significant population concentration.
I want success; I just struggle to see a realistic path forward to get it.
I had a MacBook Air where I’d either neglected it so long or left it charging so long the battery swelled up and the keyboard was actually bent. It was so old Apple no longer supportd it, but I got a replacement battery on the internet and it works fine now.
I read somewhere that the Leaf also used these soft-pack batterues, and one problem was that uncooled and without a hard shell the batteris would swell up and start to fail - “older” Leafs would lose half their range - permanently. Most other EV’s use hard-shell batteries. the Tesla has a body pan full of hundreds that look like AA but a bit larger.
Good point, but thanks to the internet, there are sites like plugshare.com which can be useful for most people in unfamilair locales. Typically, if you are leaving your car for an extended period, it would be work, or a restaurant or a mall you frequent - places you go often. Generally people will notice the banks of chargers in such places when they start to think about EV’s.
Electricty can be expensive, so not long from now few of these will be free, except maybe private work lots - they will require payment, and presumably like Tesla chargers, start charging extra when you occupy the spot but are done charging. That’s what I’ve seen with the few L2 chargers in public - they are always occupied. But then, this whole discussion thread has mentioned that creating banks of more than 1 or 2 chargers is a major expense in wiring and capacity. They will appear as the demand grows. The other problem with at-work chargers is that daytime tends to be peak power use, and so even more expensive. I presume we’ll start to see assigned parking/charging stalls at work as a perk. Then the tax department will start to notice this as a taxable benefit.
Every time this thread bubbles up, I take a look at charging sites near me. I can attest the number seems to have increased at first glance, but when I look at the comments I see things like “in garage, for condo residents only,” “employee charging only,” or the more ominous “Charger will be out of service for an extended period to address maintenance issues and development concerns.” In my area, it seems that a lot of the chargers listed aren’t really available for someone to just drive up and plug in.
And I don’t really know much about Level 1, 2, or 3, but I notice many of the chargers around here seem to be noted “5 Kw.” Isn’t that low for a Level 2 charger? How much of a charge will I get during the hour or so I spend shopping or eating in a restaurant?
And finally, every charger I looked at has a J-1772 connector. Is that standard for all EV’s?
I add about 12 miles per hour at level 2
J-1772 is the standard except for Teslas. When you buy a Tesla you get a free adaptor so you can use those stations.
BUT, I think nearly all EV manufacturers are switching to the Tesla charger, the NACS. In the not too distant future, NACS will take over. That’s my understanding.
This is correct and there will be adaptors that will go the other way. In a couple of years, the other cars will come with NACS.
Yes - level 2 (slower) chargers are typically J1772, unless they are the Tesla NACS plug. They are electrically compatible, since for 240V feed the charger control is inside the car. Adapters from one plug to the other socket are available. I have the one that accepts a J1772 charger and plugs into the Tesla socket on my car. (You can charge with 120V/12A but it’s painfully slow - 3 mi/hr.)
For Level 2 (slow 240V charging) typically they run up to 40A ( 10kW). Some go higher - Model X and S can handle 80A I think. For my Model 3, 40A adds 58km/hr (about 36mi) 26A adds 38km/hr (24mi/hr).
Off the beaten path, the reliability of chargers - L2 and fast L3 - varies. Another emerging trend seems to be people sawing off charger cables for the scrap copper value.
Obviously, those occasional slow chargers not connected to some (money) charging system will not be simply “help yourself” to the general public, unless they are to attract customers, such as at hotels, or to promote “green”, like some public buildings, parks, etc. .
The bigger problem is that most people, for now, who buy EV’s mostly charge at home so the demand for slow chargers elsewhere will be low. They will appear mostly at longer term parking venues - restaurants, shopping malls, sports stadiums, etc. They will be more of a convenient top-up than a full charge.
What tool do you use to look at these charging sites?
I will probably replace my current ICE (heh! 
) car in the next 6-12 months and am on the horns of deciding at least in principle between EV vs ICE.
I will have L3 charging here at my residence building, net of the irritation of shared chargers and needing to shuttle the car between my parking space and one of the many shared charger spaces scattered around our parking facility.
But getting a good grip on what the rest of the local public charging infrastructure is, how it’s changing, and how well a road trip would work up our various highways would be useful to me.
https://www.plugshare.com/ or something similar will show you all of the sites in an area.
If you’re planning a road trip any of the usual navigation apps will show you charge stations along the route if you set it in that mode.
Tesla specifically has it as part of their native navigation and will suggest specifically which charger to choose and your estimated charge level at the stop. If you’re on the edge of running out of power before you get there it will ask you to slow down or lower the AC.
Besides “Plugshare”, there’s Electrify America, Chargepoint, and Shell that I have on my phone. You download the app, set up an account and things should work. I use the Electrify America 95% of the time because it’s fast and there’s a local site near me. I’ve also used Chargepoint with no problems.
Shell is primarily gas but there is an electric portion to the app as well.
Yes, every time I mention the plug share site linked above (omitted here by me) the edit process mentions “you’ve already referenced this site, are you sure you want to do so again?”
It is better in that it is an attempt to comprehensively list every charger that anyone wants to tell others about. You can filter by plug, etc. People post their experiences, so you can see if it is used recently and if so, what the user experience was. The other ones listed, as I understand, are for specific charger company networks and only tell you about their chargers.