Ecotricity away-from-home charging facility
Credit: New Atlas
Electric vehicles (EVs) are a new technology, so the economics of the emerging industry are not yet clear.
Charging outside the home is part of the puzzle. Most EV owners, most of the time, are able to charge at home. Charging away from home only becomes important to enable high use days, such as a trip out of town.
Installing £30,000+ ($US40,100, $AU51,500 – see the video with Dale Vince below) worth of equipment, which most users will use rarely, is a hard way to make money. Witness Better Place.1
Another problem grows out of the length of time it takes to charge an EV. Not directly – charge time is not a problem in & of itself. In practice, where fast-charging is available, after a journey of 100km, 200km, or more, most people are glad of 30 minutes to stretch their legs, use a toilet, get a cup of coffee, &/or a meal. Closer to home, 30 minutes for shopping may be convenient.
Petrol pumps are installed at a density which ensures that customers almost never have to wait. In times of extraordinary demand, people will wait for one or two other cars ahead of them at a petrol pump. Not so so easy for an EV at a charging bay, where 30 minutes for an 80% charge is typical. It follows that charging stations need to be installed at a sufficient density that an EV driver can always find a free bay.
Electricity generators & distributors are impacted by the above only to a limited extent. Over the medium term, wide-spread EV adoption will drop the business of the fossil fuel distributors in their collective lap. This is already happening. While away-from-home charging may never be profitable, practical overnight charging is returning a profit to electricity providers right now, & this will only grow over time.
At the moment, there is a chicken-&-egg situation with consumers unwilling to buy EVs, because there is limited away-from-home charging infrastructure, & electricity generators & distributors unwilling to provide charging-away-from-home infrastructure because demand is low.
In the video below, Robert Llewellyn interviews Dale Vince,2,4 founder & CEO of Ecotricity,3 on progress, & some of the issues encountered, rolling out away-from-home EV charging in Britain.
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1 Wikipedia: “Better Place”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place
2 The Engineer: “Dale Vince, founder & CEO of Ecotricity”, https://www.theengineer.co.uk/issues/october-2013-online/dale-vince-founder-and-ceo-of-ecotricity/
3 Wikepedia: “Ecotricity”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotricity
4 Dale Vince appeared previously on Fully Charged in an October 2010 episode:
/ Ecotricity The Electric Highway Fully Charged road electric relatively short ranges long charging times current lithium-ion battery packs development electric carry supply electricity onboard provide power electrified long-haul all-electric powers project backing electric motors powertrain drive electric-only driver connect disconnect lithium-ion battery pack storage capacity electric-only driving technology LiIon lithium ion battery charge EV electric vehicle range miles tire tyre tyres tires battery charge recharge discharge owner satisfaction vehicle supreme quietness range charged normally maximum max range range anxiety software updates app smartphone app /
