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Comment by iqster | Hacker News Reader

I don't understand why electricity must be generated at charging stations.

"Electric charing stations must have charging equipment, generate their own electricity and have the capacity to distribute a lot of electricity."

IMHO, the lack of a reasonable solution to the gas-station (err ... fill station?) problem is the key problem here. I was at the NYC auto show and saw the charging solutions for the Volt. They all sucked. As I recall, the fastest charging solution they had required custom electrical wiring and could charge the car in around 20-30 mins.

I've also encountered the idea of swapping batteries at the fill station. This idea has a lot of problems too but probably gives the best end user experience.

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I've also encountered the idea of swapping batteries at the fill station. This idea has a lot of problems too but probably gives the best end user experience.

You're probably thinking of a startup called http://www.betterplace.com . I wonder what their analysis on gas prices would be to come to the continental US (their strategy right now is to go for densely populated areas).

They just opened their first battery switching station in Denmark, of 20 they plan to open there in the next year.

I also don't understand the need for charging stations to generate their own electricity. I do, however, think the way which electric cars are filled/charged will be fundamentally different than how our current automobiles are filled with gasoline. I think every time an electric car is parked, it will be plugged in, either to charge or to send power back to the grid. Perhaps the net metering part is what they meant by the ability of stations to generate their own power. I think "stations" will be ubiquitous, with outlets in most major parking lots. This scenario still doesn't help people who want to take long road trips on their electric vehicle but it does cover most use cases.

Lithium-titanate battery can be charged in 10min@250kW according to E-RA specs: http://www.raceabout.fi/era/

They have somewhat smaller capacity than conventional lithium-ion though.

250 kw?

If something shorts that's going to make a spark people will notice!

To address your first issue: I'm guessing it must be cheaper (in the long term) to generate your own electricity as a charging station that buy it off of a provider.

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