All I can tell you is that from our experience, L2 is not rapid
charging, it's normal charging. Whereas when you have somewhere to go
soon, L1 is punishment charging.
There are places where L1 works well, for example at an airport where
the car is going to sit for days. And no doubt there are folks who don't
need much spontaneity and have consistent daily needs (or another
vehicle available) so that L1 would suffice.
But while L1 can work for some cases, and it's nice to have in a pinch,
it clearly limits what can be done with an EV.
I wouldn't try to speak for most people, but I do think that flexible
(home and away) charging options are big part of the equation for
growing the EV market.
L2 controllers do not cost thousands, ours was around $1k with
professional installation and construction permit. Faster home charging
adds flexibility and makes the car investment worth much more.
When 200 mile ranges become the norm, it will be even more useful to
charge at home at L2 6.6kW (or more) at around 25 miles per hour (or
more) instead of trickling in at 5 miles/hour or so - except for those
who don't mind parking their car much of the time and limiting their EV
options.
The potential pricing of L3 charging is an interesting topic. Right now
it's free or not much $$ around here. BTW, Nissan removed their earlier
warning about L3 charging after monitoring the performance of the packs
for several years, and perhaps after changing the battery chemistry.
Cheers,
-Jamie
On 5/13/15 7:19 PM, Ben Goren wrote:
On May 13, 2015, at 5:57 PM, Jamie K via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org>
wrote:
It's the outliers that you have to accommodate.
Yes, but not necessarily with rapid charging.
When 200-mile ranges become the norm, as is promised soon -- say, a
40 kWh (usable) battery in a (conservative) 200 Wh / mile car -- the
situation becomes moot. Put 150 miles on the car in an unusual day.
Put "only" 70 miles back in the car in a shortened overnight charge.
The battery isn't full, but you've still got 120 miles of range. Do
your normal (but still more than average) 40 miles the next day; down
to 80. Put another 70 in overnight and it's back to full. At no time
did you have less than 50 miles of range, and all your charging was
at L1 rates only while you were in bed.
Will that handle cross-country road trips? No. Can you drive to
Grandma 200 miles away at the end of the day after a 40-mile round
trip commute? No. If you need to do that sort of thing often or
without warning, you'll need something more.
But most people will look at that and decide they can pay exorbitant
rates at somebody else's rapid charger the once or twice a year that
sort of thing happens, or rent a car, or otherwise manage, rather
than spend thousands on a dedicated charger.
Of course, if your car can only go ~60 miles on a charge and takes a
lot of Wh to do so, range anxiety starts to set in and rapid charging
is a real way to assuage it. But if you can be confident that you'll
wake up every morning with more miles in the "tank" than you'll need
to drive, range anxiety vanishes.
...not to mention that rapid charging tends to shorten battery
life....
b&
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