My parents' house does not have a garage or a driveway, how exactly will the only-full-EV future work for them? Where are they supposed to charge?
The public charging infrastructure outside of California cities is weak. There are very few fast chargers, and the electric vehicles charge slow unless they're a Tesla.
The Chevy Bolt from GM? The fast charger is optional and is only 50kW. This means about 50 miles every 17 minutes. That's over an hour to refill the tank.
The rebuttal to how slow the public charging charging is is always "top off at home" and the rebuttal to no at home charging is always "public fast charging". Yet we see neither is doing well.
It's not hard to imagine that if the number of EVs goes to a very sizable share of all vehicles, instead of the low single digits that it is now, that the number of charging stations would explode.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_Charging_System#Versi...
Until then, I hope that hybrids will be an option.
Don't know about you, but I usually have at least 8 hours every night available for this purpose.
Saves you the trip to the gas pump!
(BTW, the Whole Foods closest to me has a CCS charger.)
In terms of time at the pump for a gas vehicle that gets 25 miles per gallon, and time on the charger at the newest Supercharger that Tesla announced a few months ago for an EV, to add enough gas or add enough charge, respectively, for a given number of miles, it takes about 15 times as long on the EV.
That's assuming a gas pump that can pump 10 gallons per minute, which is the fastest rate allowed by law in the US. A lot of pumps aren't that fast, so in practice the gas car might only "charge" 5 to 10 times faster than the fastest charging EV.
If someone goes in every 250 miles, then we are talking a minute at the gas pump best case (for a 25 mpg car), and 15 minutes for an EV, best case. With the gas car, that's fast enough that many people don't even have to think about it--they just go about their business and whenever the see that it is low, stop and get gas. You only need a little slack in your schedule to add an impromptu fill up. With the EV, you'll have to plan more, allowing for the longer charge breaks in your schedule (or stopping more often for shorter range changes).
I think the answer for dealing with EVs for people who do not a way to charge at home will not be the electric gas station model (unless charging can get an order of magnitude faster). Those stations will be for people passing through. For people who aren't just passing through, I think the answer will be to build charging stations at key places that people already visit regularly for 15 minutes or more at a time. Supermarkets, Walmart, Target, and places like that.
With the 150kW spreading all over, and already some 350kw [1] superchargers you are already just 10ish minutes to fully charge from empty. The 1.2mW [2] chargers seem insane, but over time they will get more and more capacity. As long as the cars keep up / catches up!
I agree though that gas/petrol stations will be a thing of the past. As you say charge in normal parking lots, or at home.
I expect restaurants, especially fast-food joints will be the charging places of the future.
[1] https://www.motoringresearch.com/car-news/first-350kw-chargi...
[2] https://insideevs.com/news/347476/350-kw-12-mw-fast-charging...
Either that or cities are going to have to deal with a bunch of really long extension cords all over the street!
I suppose another option is that you'll see an AirBnB type thing for garages with chargers, or small "charge garages" opening near places with only street parking.
Reading a lot of these replies makes me think that Austin must be ahead of the game. I can't think of the last time I went to a grocery store that they didn't have a charging station available.
Perhaps an arrangement like that will come around again in dense areas.
Amortize the cost of installation against the savings they'll have by spending 1/3 of the amount that they currently spend for gasoline.
Second, having a cord across the sidewalk is a tripping hazard and illegal:
* https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/09/01/toronto-electric...
* https://archive.is/29o0a (in case)
Third: street parking is common, so even if the above two items were not a problem, there is no guarantee that there would be a space in front of their place.
There's no reason they couldn't spring for a PHEV though and opportunistically charge where they can while out shopping or whatever. Every little bit helps.
Typical sidewalk in older parts of the city (use Street View):
* https://www.google.com/maps/place/50+Westminster+Ave,+Toront...
Even if one lived on the "parking-side" of such a street (which my parents do not), there's no way installing a charge point without messing up the sidewalk. And there's no way people would agree to messing up the clear sidewalks we have on the residential streets. The busier commercial streets are another matter; around the corner in the same neighbourhood:
* https://www.google.com/maps/place/385+Roncesvalles+Ave,+Toro...
> There's no reason they couldn't spring for a PHEV though and opportunistically charge where they can while out shopping or whatever. Every little bit helps.
Yes, but the originating article was about the elimination of hybrids by GM and VW: this is a non-starter for some folks.
People are buying pure electrics betting on charging at home, but some of them are going to be screwed when they move.