Comments on: White House Petition: Create Fast Charging EV Network To Accelerate Electrification

By: evguy4

evguy4 — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 00:51:00 +0000

drivin98,

you are right for the most part. SAE doesn’t exist in the real world and the Chademo connector isn’t available in a lot of places but that’s changing.

I agree that the Tesla charger is better but it’s Tesla’s charger and no one else’s. Unless the technology is given away for free and forces the other companies to adopt their technology then it’s not going to go anywhere. The chad connector has already been accepted on foreign cars and the American cars have already accepted the SAE connector so I don’t they are going to change their minds.

That only leaves us with supporting both technologies. One charging station with two different plugs. seems pretty simple.

As far as the government “wasting a lot of our money” the petition doesn’t say that the government has to supply all the money nor does it say that it can’t be a loan etc.

By: drivin98

drivin98 — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 21:31:00 +0000

I’m all about plug-in vehicles but before the government steps in and wastes a lot of our money, a single standard needs to be selected.

Right now, fast chargers come in three flavors: Chademo, SAE Combo plug and Tesla’s supercharger. Chademo is barely available and mostly at participating Nissan dealerships (not exactly convenient locations), the Combo is no improvement and doesn’t exist in the wild. Meanwhile Tesla’s Supercharger pumps out over twice as much energy as these two, has a solar component, and a burgeoning country-wide network.

It’s pretty clear which technology is the winner here and the other automakers need to get behind it before the government helps with infrastructure dollars.

By: FastCharge

FastCharge — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 20:27:00 +0000

Most public chargers are Level 2. They recharge at a rate of about 20 miles per hour (4 hours to charge a Nissan Leaf). Tesla Superchargers aren’t level 2 and they are only for Teslas which doesn’t help the rest of us. If DC quick charge stations were put in then someone could buy a $20k Chevy Spark (after tax credit) and recharge to 80% in 20 minutes.

By: Corey E

Corey E — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 19:57:00 +0000

They won’t be taking 4 hours. Musk is already doing the Supercharger network and those are only supposed to take 30 mins… enough time to get lunch, sit down, eat, whizz and then take off.

By: FastCharge

FastCharge — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 16:17:00 +0000

“You can’t put a million electric vehicles on the road without enough chargers!”

Exactly! More importantly, people won’t use public chargers if they take 4 hours. Time to get some faster infrastructure put in.