Ampol AmpCharge network

[moa999]

Some details about the Ampol portion of the Arena network

Ampol launching EV charger network

Fuel company Ampol has detailed its Australian AmpCharge public EV charging network. BP is planning something similar.

www.carexpert.com.au

* 120 DC chargers nationwide by October 2023.
* Five pilot sites by July 2022 in Carseldine (Queensland), Alexandria (NSW), Northmead (NSW), Altona North (Victoria), and Belmont (WA)

150kW in power and two EVs at the same time - so they are doing more than the min 50kW required by Arena funding (although it seems it's the usual CCS2/CHAdeMO combo)

From the pics in the article looks like a stall we haven't seen in Australia.

Nothing on pricing.

Also

Ampol pushes into EVs with "AmpCharge" charging network

Ampol unveils plan for electric vehicle fast-charging network "Ampcharge", starting with five pilot sites in mid-2022.

thedriven.io

And Ampol have a website up

AmpCharge | EV Charging at Home, on the Road and for Business

Ampol is providing the power Australians need get you moving and keep you moving, with EV charging solutions at home, on the road and for business.

ampcharge.ampol.com.au

FAQ suggests an AmpCharge app is Coming Soon, and also looks like they might roll out future chargers in slower and faster speeds.
Also seem likely to sell home chargers and business solutions.

Searching around looks like they may be Italian Amplitronic stalls, and from FB forums seems @Chuq agrees

Charger - hypercharger

high power charging solutions

www.hypercharger.it

 

[Bluey]

It will be interesting to see how this evolves. I am worried that the petrol station business model requires people to come into store to be sold on the drinks, chocolates etc...

 

[moa999]

Nothing forcing you to buy, but that's obviously their hope.
But petrol stations are also often open 24/7, or at least long hours, are well lit, located on main roads and typically have toilets and some food.

 

[Vostok]

It will be interesting to see how this evolves. I am worried that the petrol station business model requires people to come into store to be sold on the drinks, chocolates etc...

On the occasions that I charge at Heatherbrae SC, I usually go into the servo next door to get a drink or snack. So I can see how the model could work, at least on highway trips. Not convinced about metro though. A servo would be close to the last place I‘d want to spend any time.

 

[Zoltrix77]

On the occasions that I charge at Heatherbrae SC, I usually go into the servo next door to get a drink or snack. So I can see how the model could work, at least on highway trips. Not convinced about metro though. A servo would be close to the last place I‘d want to spend any time.

What would be a the place for a Fast DC charger in suburbia though? For 24/7 usage, really, a service station or convience shop is the only practical place. You can get a coffee and snack if you wish and its well lit. Realistically, its not somthing you would end up doing all that often if you can charge at home. Perhaps random events where you suddenly need to go for a drive and your car is almost empty, but its pretty few and far between. I still wouldn't want an EV if I couldn't charge at home, until 50% of parking spots have 11kW Ac charging, your life is going to be frustrating.

 

[Chuq]

I've been trying to work out if this image is from somewhere, or just really good CGI. (The entire image, or an existing site with the charger and painted space edited in)

It doesn't match any of the five sites listed on their website - according to Google Street View - with the caveat that, of course, they've all rebranded from Caltex to Ampol in the last year and street view hasn't caught up with some of them.

The details of the inside of the store (lights, etc) look too good for the entire thing to be computer generated. So I'm going to guess a real store (probably a new one, given how clean everything looks) that has had the charging unit added.

 

[scully]

Looks pretty rural. Mountain range in reflection. Covid signs might be state specific

 

[Chuq]

More details... the grant funding specified conditions:

• It must be capable of charging two cars at 50 kW simultaneously
• It must have both Chademo and CCS2 connectors

Obviously there are multiple ways of meeting this requirement.

• Evie is install two Tritium RTM75 (@ 50 kW) per site each with Chademo and CCS2
• Ampol is installing one Hypercharger HYC150 (@ 150 kW) per site which can share capacity between a Chademo and CCS2 connector

Each has pros and cons. The Evie sites can charge two Chademo cars, two CCS2 cars, or one of each at once but at a max of 50 kW. The Ampol sites can charge two simultaneously but only if they use different connectors - but can do so up to 150 kW (in practice the CCS2 side will almost always have 100 kW available).

EHT and Chargefox are using Kempower hardware, exact specs unknown but the load sharing is a big feature of Kempower equipment so probably something different again. We haven't heard anything about what Engie will be using.

 

[Zoltrix77]

More details... the grant funding specified conditions:

• It must be capable of charging two cars at 50 kW simultaneously
• It must have both Chademo and CCS2 connectors

Obviously there are multiple ways of meeting this requirement.

• Evie is install two Tritium RTM75 (@ 50 kW) per site each with Chademo and CCS2
• Ampol is installing one Hypercharger HYC150 (@ 150 kW) per site which can share capacity between a Chademo and CCS2 connector

Each has pros and cons. The Evie sites can charge two Chademo cars, two CCS2 cars, or one of each at once but at a max of 50 kW. The Ampol sites can charge two simultaneously but only if they use different connectors - but can do so up to 150 kW (in practice the CCS2 side will almost always have 100 kW available).

EHT and Chargefox are using Kempower hardware, exact specs unknown but the load sharing is a big feature of Kempower equipment so probably something different again. We haven't heard anything about what Engie will be using.

Still with the Chademo. Its basically a special clause just for Nissans old stock.

 

[scully]

Alexandria DA City of Sydney - Online Business

 

[Vostok]

What would be a the place for a Fast DC charger in suburbia though?

Well, there‘s already DCFCs in suburbia… usually in shopping centres

My point is if there’s a DCFC at a servo in an urban area, EV drivers will use it, but park their car and then walk half a block to a cafe, bookstore, shop, whatever. I don’t think they would stay in the servo carpark or go into their convenience store. So from the servo’s point of view, it‘s not actually generating them any additional revenue, while it’s using up 2 car parking spaces. In fact its costing them. Good for EV drivers though.

In regional/rural servos, it’s less likely there is competition for your wallet within a short walking distance, and/or the servo was actually built with longer stays in mind with a wider range of food options, tables and chairs, toilets, etc. giving you a reason to stay. That’s my point.

 

[Vostok]

I've been trying to work out if this image is from somewhere, or just really good CGI. (The entire image, or an existing site with the charger and painted space edited in)

The charge station and painted parking space are rendered on top of a photo.

The first problem with this render is that it only shows one marked parking space for an EV, when the promo material says the minimum charging capability AMPcharge will provide will be for 2 cars simultaneously - which requires two parking spaces. There’s also no signage saying the spot is for EV charging only.

 

[Chuq]

The charge station and painted parking space are rendered on top of a photo.

The first problem with this render is that it only shows one marked parking space for an EV, when the promo material says the minimum charging capability AMPcharge will provide will be for 2 cars simultaneously - which requires two parking spaces. There’s also no signage saying the spot is for EV charging only.

Yep all good points. Also the charging unit has a shadow but the bollards don't

 

[moa999]

Alexandria DA City of Sydney - Online Business

At least those plans have two painted spots, which per the Arena conditions are required (even if one spot is effectively for a Leaf)

 

[Onshore]

Alexandria DA City of Sydney - Online Busines

Wow, I checked out the DA and the associated documentation. Look at the amount of red tape to install two EV stalls at an existing service station.

$368,000 plus god knows how much consultants fees for the DA.

Sorry, but this is just ridiculous and yet another area where the government needs to simplify things, if we are ever going to get an accelerated rollout of EV infrastructure.

There should be some guidelines for a fast track install. Any install that falls within the complying guidelines should not have to go through these hoops.

Imagine the NBN had to go through this? It would be about 20% done.

 

[Chuq]

Still with the Chademo. Its basically a special clause just for Nissans old stock.

i-MieVs, Outlanders, Lexuses, and Model S/X with Chademo adaptor as well

But yeah, we're at that awkward stage where we know Chademo is dying but we're still building up the basic level of charging infrastructure. We're still at the "new site" stage. The "site expansion" stage will heavily favour CCS2.

On AmpCharge specifically... all sites listed on their website are 150 kW shared between 1x CCS and 1x Chademo, except for Altona North which appears to be two 150 kW units. They could have gone for a HYC 300 unit on the same power supply instead - which have the ability to have three cables connected. 300 kW shared between 1x Chademo, 2x CCS. Main benefit is that a Model 3 LR, Ioniq 5, EV6, etc. is able to take advantage of >150 kW speeds. I guess they didn't want to complicate things.

 

[Chuq]

$368,000 plus god knows how much consultants fees for the DA.

Sorry, but this is just ridiculous and yet another area where the government needs to simplify things, if we are ever going to get an accelerated rollout of EV infrastructure.

Agreed. $7m from ARENA isn't going to go far if this is what it costs for one of their 121 sites.

I notice there's a breakdown of costs in the DA:

Description Cost ($)
EV Equipment $120,000
EV Construction $105,000
Solar Equipment $65,000
Solar Construction $45,000
Subtotal $335,000
GST $33,500
Total Development Cost $368,500

So $110k + GST is for installing the solar? Seems a bit high. 30 kW spread between the building and the fuel canopy. So they have to excavate between the two, which will probably include interruption to customers, maybe they've accounted for this... but still.

$120k + GST for a single 150 kW unit? To be honest the only price I'm familiar with is $35k for a Tritium RT50.

 

[cafz]

I've been trying to work out if this image is from somewhere, or just really good CGI. (The entire image, or an existing site with the charger and painted space edited in)

The COVID check-in sign on the window is a Queensland one.

 

[cafz]

Obviously there are multiple ways of meeting this requirement.

• Evie is install two Tritium RTM75 (@ 50 kW) per site each with Chademo and CCS2
• Ampol is installing one Hypercharger HYC150 (@ 150 kW) per site which can share capacity between a Chademo and CCS2 connector

Each has pros and cons. The Evie sites can charge two Chademo cars, two CCS2 cars, or one of each at once but at a max of 50 kW. The Ampol sites can charge two simultaneously but only if they use different connectors - but can do so up to 150 kW (in practice the CCS2 side will almost always have 100 kW available).

RTM75s can each charge two cars at once, shared - so the Evie sites can charge up to four cars simultaneously if two of them are CHAdeMO - and there's the parking spots for it!

 

[Zoltrix77]

i-MieVs, Outlanders, Lexuses, and Model S/X with Chademo adaptor as well

But yeah, we're at that awkward stage where we know Chademo is dying but we're still building up the basic level of charging infrastructure. We're still at the "new site" stage. The "site expansion" stage will heavily favour CCS2.

I just don't think short range EV's would even bother using the chademo stations. Outlander shouldn't even have a DCFC port, just wastes stalls at the charger.... its a plugin hybrid. Model S/X can now use CCS with the upgrade, so another non issue. I know you have a LEAF and it has served you well, I've had one as well, but I just consider it a city car, I never used it on DCFC other than curiosity. Anyone would be mad to purchase a current LEAF or LEAF e-plus for this very reason (not withstanding the passive battery cooling).