Winnebago Electric Motorhome on a F-53 chassis
Its Here, Another Game Changer.. :B Winnebago Electric Motorhome on a F-53 chassis... https://youtu.be/qRt5eiZJDLc?t=485
Forum Discussion
Chainwright,
Did you read time2roll's link? Here in Massachusetts they talk about being allowed to spend $45 million dollars to put in some 3,500 charging stations by 2025. Ok, we're not a big state, but 3,500 charging stations is a trivial amount even for our miniscule state. Although, this is at a cost of over $12,000 per station. AND, that doesn't include the cost of the charging station, that's just running the power to a pad someplace from a transformer. The land owner who partakes in the program has to BUY the charging stations themselves. Eversource is only going to bring the power in and meter it. The business will have to pay the other expenses. What is the ROI for a company to do this? I have no idea, but perhaps you do?
Of course, they don't mention ANYTHING about where this power will come from. The distribution network is an important piece of the puzzle, but unless you've got the electrical power in the first place, it sort of a moot point. I wouldn't take that link as an "all positive" support at all.
And another thing that bothers me is that Eversource is projecting this project out to 2025 here in Massachusetts. That's 7 years away!!! This technology is changing rapidly. What guarantee is there that a charging station installed in 2018 will be usable by vehicles manufacture in 2025? Or 2024? Or 2023? Or even 2020? As far as I know, there is NOT a single charging standard which ALL EVs use, is there? I thought there were at least 2 or 3 major standards. So, it's more than just having a charging station available, you have to have access to a charging station which will work with your vehicle. And once your vehicle gets "too old" will there be retro charging stations available. The model years of vehicles in our family are 2004, 2003 & 2001, and I expect to have ALL of them for at least the next 5 years. I have 100% confidence I'll be able to buy gasoline anywhere in the country to operate any of those vehicles. IF an EV was manufactured in that era, would it's charging technology still be available? In what numbers?
As an engineer, may recommendation was that the VERY FIRST THING ALL prospective manufacturers of EVs should have done was to have a summit and decide on the charging system they would employ. Agree on a common standard. Musical instrument manufacturers did this in the early 1980's with the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), which is STILL a viable standard. Even though it's dated, it is still used and supported 100%. Computer manufacturers did the same with the Universal Serial Bus (USB) back in the mid-1990's. Those standard were adopted by ALL major players in the market and EVERYONE benefitted from that collaboration. It's been revised and modernized, but it always offered backward compatibility so that devices made in the 90's would still function. How enticing would ICE vehicle's be if Fords could only run on BP gas, Toyotas only on Texaco and Cadillac's on Sunoco? A lot of the luster would've been gone.
One last thing, looking at that 7 year timeframe, wasn't it within the last 7 years that we, as consumers, were told and encouraged to buy "3D Televisions" because this was the coming thing? Hmmmm....try to buy one now. They are no longer manufactured. Oh, then a few years later, there were those "Curved screen" TVs we all NEEDED. Those are gone too!
My point being that this technology is evolving rapidly and modern industries have a very poor record of caring about customers using older equipment. Your cable company will tell you: "You need a new modem!" "But this one is only 3 years old!". "Doesn't matter, you need to meet our new protocols." "But I don't need the benefits of your new protocols." "Sorry, your old modem won't work with our new system." Or Apple, or Microsoft. Both of those companies have extensive records of changing their products and if your equipment is too old, their answer is for YOU to buy new equipment. Heck, I have an iPad that worked fine until Apple sent out an OS update, and now applications which worked FINE the day before and for several ipads BEFORE this one, NO LONGER WILL WORK. Same hardware! Apple changed something in their OS, they KNEW what they were doing, and didn't care. Oh, and let's not forget the Apple updates that were purposely slowing down older units to encourage customers to buy newer, faster devices. Will they do the same with EV's? "Hmmmm....my Tesla doesn't seem to have the same zip it had before." "Oh, you need to trade it in for version 2.0 to take advantage of all the new enhancements we've added to the software." "But, I don't NEED those enhancements, it was working fine for my use." "Trust me, we know best about what you need. Just give us your money." Probably a bit far-fetched. Or is it? The truth is, we don't know for sure.
It's those types of issues which cause me a great deal of concern about the rapid widespread implementation of EV technology. The technology should be allowed to mature on it's own. Spending billions of dollars to force it before the technology & infrastructure is ready is very costly. The old "Haste make waste" adage.
Again, I LOVE the technology. As a gear-head mechanic through my college years, I LOVE the performance that comes with the EV technology. But when I buy an expensive item like a motorhome, house, car, major appliance, I expect it to be viable for a time period measured in decades, not 5-7 years.
I'm not trying to sound negative, but I've "invested" enough of my money over the years in the "bleeding edge" technology of home computer evolution. I have neither the ambition nor the dollars to do that with EVs.
Still a good thread. For those of you with extra deep pockets to fund all of these experiment, feel free. I wish I didn't have to help it with my electric bill, but I guess I don't mind doing my part for the cause. :)
~Rick
Did you read time2roll's link? Here in Massachusetts they talk about being allowed to spend $45 million dollars to put in some 3,500 charging stations by 2025. Ok, we're not a big state, but 3,500 charging stations is a trivial amount even for our miniscule state. Although, this is at a cost of over $12,000 per station. AND, that doesn't include the cost of the charging station, that's just running the power to a pad someplace from a transformer. The land owner who partakes in the program has to BUY the charging stations themselves. Eversource is only going to bring the power in and meter it. The business will have to pay the other expenses. What is the ROI for a company to do this? I have no idea, but perhaps you do?
Of course, they don't mention ANYTHING about where this power will come from. The distribution network is an important piece of the puzzle, but unless you've got the electrical power in the first place, it sort of a moot point. I wouldn't take that link as an "all positive" support at all.
And another thing that bothers me is that Eversource is projecting this project out to 2025 here in Massachusetts. That's 7 years away!!! This technology is changing rapidly. What guarantee is there that a charging station installed in 2018 will be usable by vehicles manufacture in 2025? Or 2024? Or 2023? Or even 2020? As far as I know, there is NOT a single charging standard which ALL EVs use, is there? I thought there were at least 2 or 3 major standards. So, it's more than just having a charging station available, you have to have access to a charging station which will work with your vehicle. And once your vehicle gets "too old" will there be retro charging stations available. The model years of vehicles in our family are 2004, 2003 & 2001, and I expect to have ALL of them for at least the next 5 years. I have 100% confidence I'll be able to buy gasoline anywhere in the country to operate any of those vehicles. IF an EV was manufactured in that era, would it's charging technology still be available? In what numbers?
As an engineer, may recommendation was that the VERY FIRST THING ALL prospective manufacturers of EVs should have done was to have a summit and decide on the charging system they would employ. Agree on a common standard. Musical instrument manufacturers did this in the early 1980's with the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), which is STILL a viable standard. Even though it's dated, it is still used and supported 100%. Computer manufacturers did the same with the Universal Serial Bus (USB) back in the mid-1990's. Those standard were adopted by ALL major players in the market and EVERYONE benefitted from that collaboration. It's been revised and modernized, but it always offered backward compatibility so that devices made in the 90's would still function. How enticing would ICE vehicle's be if Fords could only run on BP gas, Toyotas only on Texaco and Cadillac's on Sunoco? A lot of the luster would've been gone.
One last thing, looking at that 7 year timeframe, wasn't it within the last 7 years that we, as consumers, were told and encouraged to buy "3D Televisions" because this was the coming thing? Hmmmm....try to buy one now. They are no longer manufactured. Oh, then a few years later, there were those "Curved screen" TVs we all NEEDED. Those are gone too!
My point being that this technology is evolving rapidly and modern industries have a very poor record of caring about customers using older equipment. Your cable company will tell you: "You need a new modem!" "But this one is only 3 years old!". "Doesn't matter, you need to meet our new protocols." "But I don't need the benefits of your new protocols." "Sorry, your old modem won't work with our new system." Or Apple, or Microsoft. Both of those companies have extensive records of changing their products and if your equipment is too old, their answer is for YOU to buy new equipment. Heck, I have an iPad that worked fine until Apple sent out an OS update, and now applications which worked FINE the day before and for several ipads BEFORE this one, NO LONGER WILL WORK. Same hardware! Apple changed something in their OS, they KNEW what they were doing, and didn't care. Oh, and let's not forget the Apple updates that were purposely slowing down older units to encourage customers to buy newer, faster devices. Will they do the same with EV's? "Hmmmm....my Tesla doesn't seem to have the same zip it had before." "Oh, you need to trade it in for version 2.0 to take advantage of all the new enhancements we've added to the software." "But, I don't NEED those enhancements, it was working fine for my use." "Trust me, we know best about what you need. Just give us your money." Probably a bit far-fetched. Or is it? The truth is, we don't know for sure.
It's those types of issues which cause me a great deal of concern about the rapid widespread implementation of EV technology. The technology should be allowed to mature on it's own. Spending billions of dollars to force it before the technology & infrastructure is ready is very costly. The old "Haste make waste" adage.
Again, I LOVE the technology. As a gear-head mechanic through my college years, I LOVE the performance that comes with the EV technology. But when I buy an expensive item like a motorhome, house, car, major appliance, I expect it to be viable for a time period measured in decades, not 5-7 years.
I'm not trying to sound negative, but I've "invested" enough of my money over the years in the "bleeding edge" technology of home computer evolution. I have neither the ambition nor the dollars to do that with EVs.
Still a good thread. For those of you with extra deep pockets to fund all of these experiment, feel free. I wish I didn't have to help it with my electric bill, but I guess I don't mind doing my part for the cause. :)
~Rick
