Comment by stoicShell | Hacker News Reader

Comment by stoicShell | Hacker News Reader

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Agreed, it's insane. I don't know about most countries, but in France, some brands (Japanese iirc?) would have you go to their branded car dealership to charge. How crazy does that sound? (I couldn't believe it when he told me that, sorry I can't recall which brand it was)

The whole thing sounded mind-boggling, really. Anecdotally, my partner is seeking to buy a new car for a 1h commute so I wanted to get her a small EV — but the charging options make it totally impossible (short of getting a Tesla but that's way above our budget for this 2nd, smaller car). Consider that we live in France 30 km away from Luxembourg, a major financial/tech/political hub in the EU. What gives? I honestly don't get it.

If Tesla ever makes a sub-20K €/$ small EV suited for hourly commutes, they can just take my money.

> some brands (Japanese iirc?) would have you go to their branded car dealership to charge

That's probably because these Japanese brands use CHAdeMO (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHAdeMO), while everyone else uses Combo 2.

CHAdeMO is only for fast charging, which manufacturers say you should only do occasionally. (It's hard on the battery pack.) The Nissan Leaf comes with a CHAdeMO and (at least in NA) and a J1772 plug for routine slow charging.

Does this mean that if you don’t drive a Tesla, you have to make a conscious decision whether you’ll charge fast or slowly, or you’ll damage your battery pack over tine?

Fast chargers cost more to use, so you only use them when you have to. https://www.blinkcharging.com/ev-charging-fee

> Anecdotally, my partner is seeking to buy a new car for a 1h commute so I wanted to get her a small EV — but the charging options make it totally impossible (short of getting a Tesla but that's way above our budget for this 2nd, smaller car).

Can't you get a charger installed where you live and charge overnight?

I wish. We live in a rented flat downtown a mid-size (100K pop) city. It falls down to city management, putting chargers on every street corner or just about... Suffice it to say it's not happening right now. :(

If you have the space and don't rent, then yes.

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