Charging Issues Killing the EV?

The author doesn't mention the EV with the well-known solution for traveling long distances: Tesla.

 

Geez, sure doesn't take long for these anti-EV articles to go viral. I just saw it also on an ICE forum, which of course is full of anti-EVers. And it again just confirmed their negative views of EVs.

 

Also didn't include America's best selling "self-charging" EV brand: TOYOTA hybrids.

 

I was considering selling my Leaf and going back to ICE for this very reason but I like the car too damn much. I have an 23 year old ICE vehicle which still works well and have inherited another (a 2012 Tucson) when I took in a sibling who couldn't look after his affairs any more. I'm currently using the ICE cars for the longer distance runs to help keep the mileage down on the Leaf in hopes of maintaining better resale value. I gotta tell you though the Leaf is so much more pleasant to travel around in.

I would have traded up this year but there's nothing available right now that suits my needs and what I'm willing to spend. By next year there should be more choice and I'm hoping the price of the model Y will come down even more. I do need a hatch or I'd be driving an M3 by now. I'm neither a Tesla fanboi or detractor but am aware that when you buy a Tesla you're buying a charging network that's really well done as well.

Hopefully things will gradually get better. BTW it's worse for Chademo vehicles as even installations that have multiple CCS stations will usually only offer 1 or 2 Chademo.

 

Kyle harps on non Tesla charging a lot lately too, and it seems to upset some folks, but I 100% agree with Kyle. CCS is a mess. The EA station to my north is DOWN AGAIN. AND the EA app says its UP! It literally will maroon people who arrive to find it not working, as there are no alternatives. We had some "backup" 50 kW Caltrans chargers along US395, but Caltrans hasn't been maintaining them (or paying a contract to have them maintained) and now they are all dead.

Some days I seriously think the folks in charge of CCS infrastructure are secretly working behind the scenes to *MAKE* EV adoption fail. What better way to convince the masses to NOT buy EVs than to install crappy, unreliable charging.

 

Should our conclusion instead be that the present CCS charging station business model is not profitable? Is raising charging fees the only way to make the business profitable enough to incentivize reliability?

 

So the EPA is secretly working behind the scenes to make EV adoption fail since 2016?

 

I know, but others (even here) just whitewash this kind of thing. EV chargers should work 99.999% of the time. Their status in any APP should be correct, should be working when you arrive, your payment should "just work", and activation should work the first time every time.

That's what non early adopters are going to expect, and demand.

 

I keep saying all charging stations should be on the 'net so apps can determinine their status--including the interval since the last successful charging session (which might be zero if it is currently conducting a successful charging session). This requirement would reveal which charging networks are the most reliable and, hopefully, spur the bad charging networks to improve.

 

Which "net", though? Obviously a given charging outfit has all its own chargers on a net of some sort, but
only some of them also feed that data to, say, Plugshare in real-enough time to show updated status. Better
"regulation" might start requiring them to conform to some kind of standard in that area.

_H*

 

Drivers need instant confirmation that the charging station (or group of them) they're driving towards is operational. Regulations won't help a driver if that charging station goes down en route.

 

My interest is CCS-1 charging my Tesla is rapidly evaporating.

Bob Wilson

 

99.999% is not realistic. gas pumps have been around for decades and don't have that level of reliability, usually the card reader is the failure point. I think I read somewhere that for the federal money they need something around 99% which is way better than what we have now. 97 or 98% would be pretty good.
Maybe in 5 years we'll have convenient reliable CCS charging stations. Convenient cross country EV travel is probly 5 or 10 years out.

 

Maine has fast DC charging challenges. Yet if you can get on the Canadian side, they have twice the fast DC charging infrastructure.

Bob Wilson

 

One little bright light in this mess. IVY charging in Ontario Canada (publicly owned) is now "charging" by the KWH instead of time connected. This is not only a huge boon for slower charging cars like my Leaf but the rate is so low I have to wonder if it's some kind of introductory offer. Twice I have connected to test their revamped system. Both times charging started without a hitch and the amount came to 14 cents per KWH which is the same I pay at home using the cars timer to top up during off peak hours.

 

Thanks! I just signed up. Thinking of driving across Canada and Ontario is a huge chunk of that.