Lots to unpack here. We towed an EV behind our motorhome for 5 years. It was never a problem, but its still kinda rare soooo...
Do I expect a campground to provide facilities where I can charge my EV or EVRV? Only if they want my business. No business should be forced to increase their market appeal unless they want to.
Hotels went through this a few years back. Generally speaking EVers stay at hotels where they have charge facilities. Should a hotel be expected to have charge facilities? Of course not. But if they want more business they will offer services that attract more clients. A hotel needs three things for us to stay there as clients.
1. They have to accept chihuahuas.
2. They have to have a good continental breakfast so we can eat and run in the morning...and fill our coffee cups before we hit the road.
3. They have to have EV L2 charging so we can leave with a full "tank". It is easy to find hotels that meet these criteria now...not so much 5 years ago.
I think some of the solutions have already been mentioned here. In the short term installing a half dozen pay to use J1772 8 KW stations would work for many. Have a company like chargepoint come in and look after the details. Owner takes a cut of the profits. This is already being done all over the world.
Or just go low tech and do like this local campground did. Just added a clipper creek 40 amp charger. Put a padlock on it if you want to control access. Cheap cheap. Works well. Charge a flat rate per day. Maybe pick half a dozen sites and install them right on site. Or cheaper yet just add a second 50 amp pedestal on a few sites. Or just have the renter rent a second site.
If you get them from Tesla they give them away for free. And you'll get two. One for Teslas and one for everybody else...although they are interchangeable with adapters.
Lots of solutions. The industry will figure it out.
JMHO
Do I expect a campground to provide facilities where I can charge my EV or EVRV? Only if they want my business. No business should be forced to increase their market appeal unless they want to.
Hotels went through this a few years back. Generally speaking EVers stay at hotels where they have charge facilities. Should a hotel be expected to have charge facilities? Of course not. But if they want more business they will offer services that attract more clients. A hotel needs three things for us to stay there as clients.
1. They have to accept chihuahuas.
2. They have to have a good continental breakfast so we can eat and run in the morning...and fill our coffee cups before we hit the road.
3. They have to have EV L2 charging so we can leave with a full "tank". It is easy to find hotels that meet these criteria now...not so much 5 years ago.
I think some of the solutions have already been mentioned here. In the short term installing a half dozen pay to use J1772 8 KW stations would work for many. Have a company like chargepoint come in and look after the details. Owner takes a cut of the profits. This is already being done all over the world.
Or just go low tech and do like this local campground did. Just added a clipper creek 40 amp charger. Put a padlock on it if you want to control access. Cheap cheap. Works well. Charge a flat rate per day. Maybe pick half a dozen sites and install them right on site. Or cheaper yet just add a second 50 amp pedestal on a few sites. Or just have the renter rent a second site.
If you get them from Tesla they give them away for free. And you'll get two. One for Teslas and one for everybody else...although they are interchangeable with adapters.
Lots of solutions. The industry will figure it out.
JMHO
pianotuna wrote:
For "rural" parks this may be an answer:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2020/02/10/solar-powered-electric-vehicle-charging-stati...
Cost is 30 K for a single unit that accommodates two BEV's. These are available now and they are entirely self contained. I do not know if they are 400 volts.
I'm certain redoing a parks electric system to accommodate BEV charging would be an order of magnitude higher, as far as costs go.
I'd expect to see leasing and/or rental agreements.
Let's assume a typical seasonal park in the north.
6 months of operation with almost all users utilizing it on the weekends.
Let's say they want to amortize it over 5yrs and get a 20% profit on their investment.
Assuming 8% interest on the loan, they need $7500 to service the loan.
Let's say 26 weekends of use with 10 vehicles charged per day for 2 days (20vehicles * 26 weekends = 560 vehicles). You are looking at somewhere around $20 per charge.
Of course, that assumes there are no repairs or other issues adding to the cost, so it could easily jump to $25/charge. At current gas prices, that's pretty much on par with what it costs to fill a compact cars gas tank.
