4x4van wrote:
westernrvparkowner wrote:
We specifically prohibit charging of electric vehicles. No campground's electrical system is designed to handle both the load of a 50 amp RV and the load created by charging an electric vehicle. Multiple units on an electrical loop would quickly trip the main breakers cutting power to all the rigs on the loop.
Today, electric cars are not much more than a curiosity piece. If the manufacturers ever want them to become mainstream, one thing they are going to have to do is come up with a recharging infrastructure that does not rely on the goodness of others. No one expects an RV park to fuel up their diesel pickup tow vehicle or their Honda CRV toad and it shouldn't fall upon the parks to fuel up someone's electric car.
Exactly what I was thinking! Those of you who think it's fine to charge your EV off the campground pedestal will be directly responsible for campgrounds increasing their prices to reflect the additional electricity as well as the requirement to upgrade their facilities.
The entire US does not have the infrastructure (nor the generating capability) to charge EVs if they become the norm. EVs are not "green"; the manufacture and disposal of the huge batteries are an environmental nightmare, and the electricity to charge them has to come from somewhere. Currently, most comes from the burning of coal and natural gas. Driving an EV actually does nothing for the environment.
I agree that currently with the amount of EV's on the road in the US and Canada it probably wouldn't be worth while for a campground to add a charging station or two. They are typically about 4400 dollars to install including the credit card swipe machine that pays for the power. However I think that will change over time as the density of electric vehicles increases.
Wether they are green or not depends on the country or even area within a country that they are used in. Some states and provinces in North America produce much or all of their power from water power and they have capacity to spare. Others not so much. But large scale natural gas plants produce energy much more efficiently than individual internal combustion engines. The reality is more and more of the worlds energy is being produced by non combustion methods so the writing is on the wall. Lead batteries used to be a huge source of pollution. Now 99.8 percent of lead is recycled and the lead mining market is growing smaller not bigger. Many of the components of the new generation batteries are recyclable as well and that technology will only continue to improve.
One risk I see is that the same thing will happen with electric vehicles in North America as high speed rail did. North America is 6 to 7 decades behind Europe and Asia as far as transport goes and there is really no hope in catching up. Anybody who has traveled on high speed rail in Countries like Spain, France, Japan, China etc knows how embarrassingly behind the curve we are on this side of the pond. Its one of the reasons our winter retirement plans have switched from North America to Europe.
Anyway, I would suspect that we will frequent any business, shopping mall or whatever that provides charging stations for our car....when we get it. :) Just gotta wear out these durn smart cars first. :) Into year 10 and counting. :)
