Want to race a Tesla semi around a test track?

valhalla360 wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
Thanks for the clarification. I had just assumed that all the charging stations would work for all the EV's. I don't intend to buy one, but it's interesting to know.

It gets complicated because there are actually 3 competing standards and multiple use cases.

The vast majority of charging happens at home in the garage.
- If you just have a short commute and aren't stressing the range of the car, plugging into a standard 110v outlet when you get home works fine. Who cares if it takes 8hrs to top up?
- A lot of people bump up to a 220v dedicated outlet (think electric dryer outlet but with some tech features), so even if the car is low on juice, it's sure to be full in the morning.
- You can bump up to a dedicated high output charger but these things can draw some serious juice. This can be an issue. Say your house only has a 100amp feed, a 15amp outlet pulling 10amps is unlikely to trip the main breaker but adding a big charger, you may need to upgrade your main service panel (this has largely been mitigated to date as most EV's go to higher income families and they are more likely to live in a newer larger house with a bigger power feed to the house. If we ever see a mass market cost competitive car, that will bring on new challenges.)

If your work parking lot has a charging, it's really a similar use case, the car has lots of time to charge so no need for high power charging.

It's the stand alone charging stations where they get more exotic. Once you get past the enthusiasts, most people expect 5-10 minutes to fill up the gas tank. This is where the fast chargers come in. They still won't match a gas/diesel fuel pump for transferring energy into the car (figure 3-5 times as long or you can accept only a partial fillup if you are close to home). As with most new technologies, it takes time to sort out who will be the winners and losers (think of the old Beta vs VHS wars. The technologically best may not win.). Right now, there are 3 major players:
- CHAdeMO: which is a Japan heavy option. Supported by Nissan, Mitsubishi, Subaru & Toyota
- CCS: Supported by BMW, Dahmler, FCA, Ford, Hundai, GM & Volkswagon
- Tesla: supported by Tesla

Then you have the complication that all these technologies are evolving as they try to charge faster, so if you have an older EV, you may or may not be able to use the full capability of the latest charging stations (usually, you can use a lower output option).

In terms of field charging stations, Tesla may be in the lead but most of that is the others have't even bothered up until recently and its absolutely critical to Tesla's entire business model. If the other manufacturers get serious about producing EV's, I expect the Tesla charging format will be squashed.

If I had to speculate, I would say CCS. My thought is Europe is a far bigger market than Japan and has a much better use case for EV compared to the USA (shorter driving distances) and most of the European manufacturers are on team CCS (including the US owned EU brands). Of course, it could take 10-20yrs to sort out.

Good morning.

I would agree that CCS will eventually supplant Chademo but right now the majority of Chademo stations are dual connecter so both can connect...although not at the same time. I noticed Chevy has put in some CCS only machines at their dealerships. The EV community kinda frowns on this as they are limiting who can charge on them whereas Nissan tends to put in CCS/Chademo (not everywhere though).

The charge Landscape may look different in 5 years but as recently as 3 weeks ago GM made it very clear they were not getting into the Charging infrastructure issue. Nissan on the other hand is active in making certain corridors better and is partnering with various agencies in various areas. Probably because Nissan sells a lot more EV's than GM.

I think TESLA will stay on the top of the heap for awhile as they are still the biggest EV manufacturer. And at this point the only real serious North American contender.

JMHO