BMW, Volkswagen and ChargePoint Announce Completion of Electric Vehicle Express Charging Corridors

[zenmaster]

BMW, Volkswagen and ChargePoint Announce Completion of Electric Vehicle Express Charging Corridors on the East and West Coasts.

 

[TexasEV]

You'd have to be a real EV enthusiast to drive hundreds of miles by charging at CHAdeMO/CCS stations along the way. Or a masochist. Or both.

 

[Lloyd]

With one charging station 'choke points' is it really as they have advertised? It's a start and I applaud them for it. Imagine that one person blocks the east west corridor by going shopping for the day, all traffic stops and there is a HUGE line waiting to charge.

And.... 20 minutes to charge to 80% is just false advertising.

 

[Petra]

Why would you want to drive from Southern California to the SF Bay Area via Highway 101 (or 99, for that matter)? Also, looking at the maps, nearly all of the stations are either single plug or two plug stations. I mean, I'm sure these will be useful for some people...

 

[GSP]

You'd have to be a real EV enthusiast to drive hundreds of miles by charging at CHAdeMO/CCS stations along the way. Or a masochist. Or both.

Or a Tesla owner (with adapter). LOL.

Although Superchargers are likely available on all of the same routes, both faster than Chademo and already paid for. So you are still right about having to be a masocist.

In reality, this capability is very useful to owners of shorter range EV owners. It is handy to drive to nearby towns, or across a large metro area. Just because a highway goes the length or width of a continent does't mean people are obligated to drive the whole distance. Instead they will typically use a just a segment near where they live. Same for "electric highways."

Even for Teslas in supercharger dense Norway, Björn Nyland still finds his Chademo charger very useful at times. As he says in his videos: "Chademo Rocks" (compared to L2).

I am always encouraged to see DC fast chargers installed.

GSP

 

[GSP]

With one charging station 'choke points' is it really as they have advertised? It's a start and I applaud them for it. Imagine that one person blocks the east west corridor by going shopping for the day, all traffic stops and there is a HUGE line waiting to charge.

And.... 20 minutes to charge to 80% is just false advertising.

Good point about the one stall stations. That is just exceptionally poor network design. Just Stupid.

However the Chevrolet Spark EV can charge to 80% in 20 minutes easily on a CCS/Chademo charger. I think there are other cars that can as well.

GSP

 

[Lloyd]

However the Chevrolet Spark EV can charge to 80% in 20 minutes easily on a CCS/Chademo charger. I think there are other cars that can as well.

Granted they do show the BMW and VW emblems at the top, but every car cant charge to 80% in 20 minutes.

 

[HookBill]

Speaking of Bjorn, I just finished watching his latest video where he drove a new Leaf from Oslo to Bergen and back. One thing it pointed out to me was the potential problem we will have here in the states once EVs become more popular. Many of his Chademo stops were adjacent to SC locations and there appeared to be no more than two fast DC chargers at each site whereas the SC were at least half full with Teslas with spaces for more. In one instance he and one other gentleman charged while a third person borrowed his adapter so she could plug her Leaf into a 110 outlet. It is a good start for VW and BMW to fund these new chargers but it will only be a drop in the bucket as time goes on. And, who is going to install all of those to meet the future growing demands and maintain them properly? I don't see the large automakers continuing beyond a certain point so it will be left up to other private entities to fill the need. That is, if it is profitable.

 

[TaoJones]

No. Scalability.

 

[CSFTN]

So, to bring up a related although old subject, when will Tesla bring out a CCS adaptor?

And, I'm sorry to ask, but by scalability to what are you referring, Tao?

 

[miimura]

We have an e-Golf, so I was interested in this announcement. However, looking at what is actually installed, I am quite underwhelmed. Yes, it is now technically possible to drive an e-Golf or i3 BEV from San Diego to Portland. However, outside the major metro areas, the chargers they installed have the following issues:

1. There is only a single fast charger on-site.
2. The fast charger can only output a maximum of 24kW and the starting charge rate is only about 18kW on e-Golf and i3.
3. The charger is CCS-only. No CHAdeMO port is available.
4. Most sites have no backup in case the one charger is broken - not even a Level 2 AC charging station.

I did a sample route from Vacaville, CA (the location of the last 50kW NRG station between the SF Bay Area and the Oregon border) and Ashland, Oregon. These are the distances: Vacaville - 60 miles - Williams - 55 miles - Corning - 46 miles - Redding - 53 miles - Dunsmuir - 43 miles - Yreka - 40 miles - Ashland. So, you will be driving 35-55 minutes for each leg and charging for a nearly equal time. If they had installed 50kW stations the charging time would be about 22 minutes to replace 60 miles of range in the battery.

I think the only good thing is that these stations can be backup to the more robust infrastructure funded by the California Energy Commission this year. Those installations will require a minimum of a 50kW station, a L2 AC station and electrical capacity and conduits for an additional 150kW station.

 

[GSP]

Wow! Only 24 kW, no Chademo, and no L2 backup!

That is more than "exceptionally poor design." That looks like deliberate design to fail. I guess that is supposed to teach us to buy an ICE car next time. Pathetic.

Good thing the CEC is also installing a charging network. It looks like they are designing for success, but still not able to get the funds for even two 50 kW chargers per location. Two is really the absolute minimum for a network node to be able to handle even minimum traffic without blocking. At least they have plans for expansion in the future.

Tesla really is light years ahead of any other charging network. Their first stations had 4, 6, or 8 stalls. When pressed Telsa still installed a minimum of two stalls. This gave owners confidence to take long trips without being blocked by busy or broken down chargers.

At the rate the others are going, it will take them 10 years to catch up with Tesla, if they ever do.

GSP

 

[Zoomit]

2. The fast charger can only output a maximum of 24kW

Where were you able to look up their power rating?

PlugShare disappoints me because it doesn't appear to have this info which I would like for trip planning.

 

[ChadS]

I love how the West coast corridor stops at Portland.

Obviously it is because CA and OR are ZEV states while WA is not, so they don't care about WA sales. But you would think they would realize that more Portland buyers will care about getting to Seattle than SF...

 

[Jeff N]

Where were you able to look up their power rating?

PlugShare disappoints me because it doesn't appear to have this info which I would like for trip planning.

You can usually figure it out by looking at the detail for each station location.

I agree that PlugShare needs a lot of work. It has a great charging map but no filtering by charging rate or by location type (restaurant vs hotel etc.).

 

[Jeff N]

Good thing the CEC is also installing a charging network. It looks like they are designing for success, but still not able to get the funds for even two 50 kW chargers per location. Two is really the absolute minimum for a network node to be able to handle even minimum traffic without blocking.

I think the new CEC grants are for a minimum of 2 CHAdeMO stations -- one CHAdeMO only and one dual protocol station with both CCS and CHAdeMO. I thought both stations are 50 kW also. No? Also, a third pre-wired pad is included for a future 100 kW dual plug station.

 

[GSP]

I think the new CEC grants are for a minimum of 2 CHAdeMO stations -- one CHAdeMO only and one dual protocol station with both CCS and CHAdeMO. I thought both stations are 50 kW also. No? Also, a third pre-wired pad is included for a future 100 kW dual plug station.

I have not read the CEC grant. My comment was based only on the previous comment by miimura, copied below.

Either way, the CEC is doing a much better job than the BMW and VW are with their "network."

......

I think the only good thing is that these stations can be backup to the more robust infrastructure funded by the California Energy Commission this year. Those installations will require a minimum of a 50kW station, a L2 AC station and electrical capacity and conduits for an additional 150kW station.

 

[dauger]

I love how the West coast corridor stops at Portland.

Obviously it is because CA and OR are ZEV states while WA is not, so they don't care about WA sales. But you would think they would realize that more Portland buyers will care about getting to Seattle than SF...

Similarly the East Coast stops at Boston (what if I wanted to have lobster in Maine?) to the north and Washington, DC, to the south. As if no Southeast states are part of the East Coast; I cannot see that going down well politically.

More importantly, neither coast seems complete, at least from the point of view of a Tesla owner.

 

[ChadS]

Yup. Here's a map of the ZEV states; note how the most populous parts of these states correspond to these charging corridors.

Not that I have a problem with them starting in the ZEV states, as long as they plan to keep going...

 

[AndY1]

You'd have to be a real EV enthusiast to drive hundreds of miles by charging at CHAdeMO/CCS stations along the way. Or a masochist. Or both.

I agree. As an Ampera owner, who has done 105.000km EV and 10.000km HV (115.000km on the odometer with 0.6l/100km Lifetime), my 470km trip at 145+km/h on Autobahn to our summer house at the sea is a breeze of 4.5 hours of driving in one go with my family.

Having to add 2 hours of SuperCharging would be masochistic.

/sarcasm off