Gas stations adapting with charge infrastructure for EV's.

So, how long before we see a Class A Electric Pusher? :)

Cool article, thanks for posting.

It will be interesting for sure to see how the technology advances. I still think the biggest hurdle will be fast charging. Even 30 minutes for abut 170 miles (Tesla's Supercharger rate according to them) of range isn't going to satisfy most travelers. I considered electric for my last commuter car, but the prices just didn't work for me.

Are you sure this station is in Holland? It has a very American-looking parking lot with all of the US vehicles not to mention the very American-looking school bus in the background. Still a cool shot with the max use of the solar for typically wasted space.

Modification would have to be made.
A flat roof like that would pick up 2-6 ft of snow around here.

gbopp wrote:
So, how long before we see a Class A Electric Pusher? :)

Cool article, thanks for posting.

I don't know that "pusher" would really apply to an electric drivetrain. The drive motor(s) can be near the wheels; there's no need to place it at one extreme end or the other of the vehicle. Usually it's more or less directly between the powered wheels. On a motorhome, there may be enough space to have a separate drive motor for each wheel, eliminating the need for a mechanical differential and allowing easy torque vectoring/traction control.

p220sigman wrote:
It will be interesting for sure to see how the technology advances. I still think the biggest hurdle will be fast charging. Even 30 minutes for abut 170 miles (Tesla's Supercharger rate according to them) of range isn't going to satisfy most travelers. I considered electric for my last commuter car, but the prices just didn't work for me.

Are you sure this station is in Holland? It has a very American-looking parking lot with all of the US vehicles not to mention the very American-looking school bus in the background. Still a cool shot with the max use of the solar for typically wasted space.

No, not at all sure where the gas station is. It was attached to the article about the shell stations but it is not a shell station.

Re the snow thing. Yah they will have to figure that out but suspect that could be as easy as orientation and tilt.

I think most station owners make a lot of money off of high margin junk they sell. As the one shell guy said, in 10 years our competition won't be other gas stations, it will be starbucks.

Re time at the pump. Keep in mind that most charging is done at night, overnight in a garage or parking structure. Right now most people when filling up their car are their for about 12 minutes. Its closer to 26 minutes at a fast charger for an EV although generally speaking over a year you will spend much less time at a charge station because...as stated before, the majority of your charging is done at home. I think charge station owners will capitalize on this by selling more goodies etc. Having said that the new generation of EV;s and charge stations will be 150 KW charging rates so that time will end up back at the average gas station charge.

Funny thing, here in palm springs, the local costco crowd never seems to mind waiting fourty minutes to fuel. Nuts.

p220sigman wrote:


Are you sure this station is in Holland? It has a very American-looking parking lot with all of the US vehicles not to mention the very American-looking school bus in the background. Still a cool shot with the max use of the solar for typically wasted space.

Not to mention the mountains in the background.

p220sigman wrote:
It will be interesting for sure to see how the technology advances. I still think the biggest hurdle will be fast charging. Even 30 minutes for abut 170 miles (Tesla's Supercharger rate according to them) of range isn't going to satisfy most travelers. I considered electric for my last commuter car, but the prices just didn't work for me.

Are you sure this station is in Holland? It has a very American-looking parking lot with all of the US vehicles not to mention the very American-looking school bus in the background. Still a cool shot with the max use of the solar for typically wasted space.

That's a Union 76 station, a brand owned by Phillips 66 Company, marketed on the West Coast of the U.S. With the solar arrays, most likely this station is in Southern California or Nevada. Phillips 66 brands in Europe are JET in UK, Austria and Germany and COOP (joint venture) in Switzerland, no stations of any brand in the Netherlands, though we had chemical plants there.

I'm not seeing any charging stations in this picture. Phillips 66 is putting in solar on company-owned stations where it works. Thirty years ago we put in LPG fueling, where it worked, mostly at Phillips 66 stations in areas where LPG was produced locally. That was a joint venture between our Refining and Marketing division and a wholly-owned LPG company.

tatest wrote:

p220sigman wrote:
It will be interesting for sure to see how the technology advances. I still think the biggest hurdle will be fast charging. Even 30 minutes for abut 170 miles (Tesla's Supercharger rate according to them) of range isn't going to satisfy most travelers. I considered electric for my last commuter car, but the prices just didn't work for me.

Are you sure this station is in Holland? It has a very American-looking parking lot with all of the US vehicles not to mention the very American-looking school bus in the background. Still a cool shot with the max use of the solar for typically wasted space.

That's a Union 76 station, a brand owned by Phillips 66 Company, marketed on the West Coast of the U.S. With the solar arrays, most likely this station is in Southern California or Nevada. Phillips 66 brands in Europe are JET in UK, Austria and Germany and COOP (joint venture) in Switzerland, no stations of any brand in the Netherlands, though we had chemical plants there.

Yah the mountains did look west coastish. Cool shot.

It will be great if they can resolve the charge issue. We routinely take 400-500 mile trips so there would be at least 1 charge point in there (depending on the vehicle of course) and probably more than one. Getting it down to a 15 minute charge time would be a huge leap forward for those that travel significant distances at a time. Most aren't going to be interested in adding significant time to an already long trip.

That doesn't even take into consideration if you are staying in a hotel and if you would be able to charge while there. I suspect hotels will adapt as well (will be another fee they can "charge" (pun intended) you) and start having charging stations.

Either way, we have seen great leaps forward just in the last few years. It wasn't that long ago that an EV with a 40-50 mile range was considered great.

I see they have solar covered roofs on the car ports.

I keep hearing talk about Solar.. Some folks are worried about what grows, or rather no longer grows, in the shadow of those solar panels.. Well in this case asphalt grows under them and the presence of the solar panels will not bother the asphalt one bit.

So instead of putting up panels where grass or flowers or weeds or Corn may be "Shaded" how about we roof our freeways.. kind of like covered bridges.

Concrete and Asphalt, thus shaded, won't be bothered a bit, IN FACT thanks to teh shading some things like pavement buckling due to heat may be reduced.

Snow removal.. Reduced (Some will still be needed

Rain, likewise Reduced

Accidents, Likely reduced

With the solar "roof" we can put a long long string of LED lights down the road instead of "Pools of light" which often glare thus reducing accidents.

I see it as win for most everyone.. Oh a few (Koch brothers) will loose, but ,, well they can afford it.