PlugShare & West Coast Electric Highway (Exclusive Video)
Originally published on EV Obsession.
Ashley Horvat, VP of Strategic Initiatives at PlugShare, gave a 30-minute presentation at the EV Transportation & Technology Summit to explain PlugShare and also discuss the West Coast Electric Highway.
PlugShare is the most popular charging station locator app/website in the world, and I’ve used it many times. Still, I learned a few things from Ashley’s presentation, so I figured I’d highlight them below the video in case they were new to you.
(You can view Ashley’s slides here.)
Very usefully (I think), PlugShare has launched a “Pay with PlugShare” program whereby you can pay at a variety of different charging stations just using the PlugShare app. If this got adopted widely enough, it could simplify EV charging payments since you wouldn’t need to carry around multiple charging network cards.
Interestingly, PlugShare “powers” the browser system in Tesla’s cars.
The Kia Soul EV and some other automakers also have their navigation systems “powered” by PlugShare.
Getting one charging station installed in an area often stimulates the installation of several more charging stations by others.
For much, much more, check out the full presentation.
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Come on Zach, drop a link on “check out the full presentation
“. 🙂
Sorry, it was linked above, but I can add it there as well.
I was referring to the video (above) + the slides (linked right below the video).
Well, for this viewer, this might be the first big story of 2016 – the US DOT is in discussion / consideration of how to make electric highways nationwide. There’s already one DC Fast Charge nationwide highway network for one of the two DC charging standards – namely Tesla Supercharger network. Such a nationwide DCFC network would then enable all of the other automakers to really enter the EV markets. Other nuggets in this video:
– The low interest and dependence on public Level 2 charging. An interesting economic analysis would be: is it more effective and economical to enable all EVs to have 200+ mile range or install Level 2 chargers all over the place. The cheaper batteries get, the less relevant public L2 chargers become, as charging moves to overnight at home, at destination, or DCFC on extended trips.
– The market research and market segmentation of different charging situations and use cases (destination, at work, at home, at rented apartment, etc). This is really important to spend money on chargers effectively. Chargers often cost five figures to install, so they’d better get a lot of use, and most I see are empty. And others are oversubscribed and one can’t get a spot.
Makes me wonder if affordable 200+mi range is a price of entry for most of the market.
1956 saw the start Interstate Highway system maybe 2016 can be the start of the Electric Interstate highway.
Yes!
on my recent road trip i noticed the only EV charging station i have ever seen at a hotel i was staying at. it was located at the opposite side of the parking lot from the entrance to the hotel and as i need the use of handicapped parking spaces i wondered is this a normal thing. are all EV drivers expected to be able bodied and walk greater distances?
Some good content, but the audio quality could use some improvement. It’s got that “auditorium echo” which makes listening a chore. The mic needs to be closer to anyone who speaks (i.e., including the questioners).
Also, for a talk about the “west coast electric highway”, there was precious little about the small Californian segment, which is sadly WAY behind the Pacific Northwest. Hopefully with Ashley now working for PlugShare (home in the SF Bay Area), California will catch up in a hurry.
And I hate to sound like a “socialist”, but ideally this project would have been planned and built by the federal government, as was the I-highway system. It’s arguably a matter of national or even planetary security. And if it were done right, quite likely charging (passenger vehicles) on a federally planned and built network could be offered for free or for pennies on the privatized-system dollar. But I guess that train has left the station, as it were, and we are left trying to integrate a patchwork of not-always-friendly competitors into a useful and efficient system.
PlugShare is a great service but it doesn’t “power” the browser in Tesla Model S. They just did a version of their web page that fits the 17″ screen.
Am I wrong? My understanding is that these stations are prohibited from selling electricity by the kWh because they would have to be a regulated utility to do so. Thus, they can only sell by the hour regardless of the amount of electricity sold. If the $2.49/hour charge is anywhere near correct, it means the higher the charging rate the lower the cost per kWh. At that rate, some cars would be better off burning gasoline with gas prices what they are and some ICE cars getting 30 mpg. That would be a big difference if you are charging at a Tesla Supercharger rate vs. a LEAF with just the L2 6.6kW rate.