That, to me, sounds like the best solution. If it works.

Battery packs could be small, less weight to haul and cheaper to purchase. Replacing worn out packs would be cheaper.

No stopping to charge, no waiting for a charger or looking for one while traveling.

My point is, paying $10 for a rapid charge on the rare occasions most people would need one is not out of line. It would be more than offset by the large savings done with grid-priced charging.

That said, I don’t see these standalone chargers as the future. I think they will be used for customer acquisition by restaurants and retailers. There is value in having someone stop in your business parking lot and spend a 20, 30 minutes. If you set things up so that they don’t have to rush back to their cars as soon as they are charged then you’re going to have eating and shopping occurring. Competition for customers will drive costs down lower than $10.

What a shame, I hope they go bankrupt sooner for others to learn a lesson.

Believe me, I would cheer for them and heavily promote them if they charge you the national average of $0.12/kWh of recharging. As it is, they are like the plague to be avoided.

The reason why they are going bankrupt is that the two best selling plug-ins would try to avoid them like the plague. It is a no-brainer for Chevy Volt owners to plug at these expensive stations because they have a choice of going gasoline or going electric, depends on the pricing economics. The PIP for sure, it would be financial suicide to charge at these stations. The Tesla is offering free charging at their super charging stations.

That leaves the very desperate Smart EV and the LEAF owners who with their unplanned draw-down of their batteries are forced to be fleeced out by these stations. They will only be used for emergencies. And well, AAA is the solution to that already, and they allow you a few recharging emergencies free of charge if you are a member.

Cheaper prices or bankruptcy, I say.

It would be better that utilities build these supercharging station, and you can insert your utility card so that you are sent one bill together with your housing electricity rate. It will never be viable for businesses like this one to prosper and be profitable if they charge a lot higher than the local utility rates.

Let us assume a flat terrain on freeway speed, the LEAF range is about 65 miles when you normally go 70 mph. You have full charge left from home, and near zeroed out safely at your destination and recharge with $10. So your house bill, could be $3 for the forward trip, and then $10 back home from these soon to be bankrupt companies. Your total for the 130 mile roundtrip is $13. Guess how much will that cost the Prius in gas?

If their lease of $29.95 per month comes with free electricity, then that would be reasonable.

Do you get this prissy when ever someone uses the word Kleenex to refer to a non-Kleenex brand facial tissue?

Halfway through the third car it calls the first car owner and gives a ten minute warning. If the first car isn’t unplugged and moved in a timely manner the owner starts paying serious parking fees.

That would let drivers plug in and do something else rather than sit in line waiting for their turn. Cost would be low. Basically a couple more cables and plugs.

Three is just a number. It could be two or four. Enough to give people some freedom from sitting around waiting.