wreighven
Member
Looks great! Thank you for all your work on bring more EV charging to us!
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Go Fund Me for EV Charging in SE NM
- Thread starter nwdiver
- Start date
We're putting up signs tomorrow. Hopefully that will help.
Everything is working. Xcel even upgraded the feeder lines from ~#2 to 4/0 so pulling 80A there was only ~4v of drop to ~244v.
Every time I charge at a 80A HPWC I think of how 'funny' it is that this cost ~$5k to get 20kW and the 'fast' chargers Francis installed in Clines Corner cost $300k to deliver ~25kW. What were they thinking?
Every time I charge at a 80A HPWC I think of how 'funny' it is that this cost ~$5k to get 20kW and the 'fast' chargers Francis installed in Clines Corner cost $300k to deliver ~25kW. What were they thinking?
SageBrush
REJECT Fascism
Probably that no one makes EVs with onboard chargers that can handle 80A anymore. And of the ones that exist already out there, they all have Tesla ports. Not really Francis' fault that the EV companies have off-loaded the cost of handling those power levels to external chargers.
But, yeah, I agree that this is an unfortunate direction that the EV industry has taken. And Francis shouldn't bother with DCFC under 50kW without there being some real major constraints that push them hard to only offer service below that level (not likely the case here).
Yeah... I'm still on the fence with that one. I guess in terms of utility it doesn't make a lot of sense for ~every car to be carrying around a 20kW charger 24/7/365. But for that to work there needs to be a reasonably priced, readily available DCfC. It's annoying I can't get a 20kW CCS on amazon for ~$3k. I'd buy that in a heartbeat.
What would REALLY be killer is if someone figured out a way to use the drive inverter to charge the battery. Obviously this already occurs to some extent with regen. I have an EcoFlow that I believe uses the same IBGTs that power the inverter to also charge the battery from an AC source. So the battery can be charged at the same 600w rating of the inverter.
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SageBrush
REJECT Fascism
The Zoe worked that way; I don't know if it still does.
At least in that implementation though there were trade-offs consumers were not happy to accept.
Regarding the cost, perhaps $25 - $50k can be explained by the current DCFC market but $300k is something else entirely.
Had to share this. I saw a used 125A panel on amazon for $30 I thought could be useful down the road. This is how it arrived. The outer box was in perfect condition so someone packaged it like this...
Feels like a waste to ship it back. They really need to have an 'I'll just throw this out for you' option with returns.
Feels like a waste to ship it back. They really need to have an 'I'll just throw this out for you' option with returns.
SageBrush
REJECT Fascism
$107,000 for 4 L2 30A charge point sites...
Is it me or does that seem a bit high....
Bernalillo County adds 4 electric vehicle charging stations
Is it me or does that seem a bit high....
Yeah, that’s crazy. I’m astounded by how much money some municipalities dump into mediocre charging setups.
It’s also unfortunate that they think those will refill an electric vehicle in 4 hours. Maybe a Fiat 500e, Kia Soul or other small battery compliance EV. Whoever their charging “partner” is is ripping them off.
sdoorex
Member
Look on the bright side, after a mere 53,500 hours of usage they’ll cover the capital costs!
It's so dumb. They're paying $30/mo in network costs so they can recover $20/mo in revenue......
SageBrush
REJECT Fascism
If I'm following, there is an important benefit here though: the EVSEs are not free, so the locations will be more likely to be available to those without destination charging. And as for the network costs (I presume viewed as a pittance overall), that may be recouped in avoided electricity charges.
I REALLY do not want to see free public EVSEs.
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As for the $200k cost -- absolute insanity. As much as I want the Gov to support EVs, this kind of profligacy is bound to come back and bite us.
Possibly. I do think that's the only rational reason to charge for L2. I think it could be like parking. Where parking isn't scarce it's almost always free. But then why not just have L3 that you pay for and L2 should almost always be free?
dgpcolorado
high altitude member
L2 public charging is almost always free in my area. Nevertheless, it is fairly rare that all stalls in a town/city are full. I presume that's a rural thing; I would guess that the number of locals with EVs that don't have home charging approaches zero. It figures to be some time before than changes out here in the boondocks.
Many of the public charge stations in rural Colorado (and some in urban centers) are 80% paid for with state grants that usually require that they be free for several years. The state grants are funded by an extra registration fee on plug-in cars of $50/year: $30 for roads and $20 for public charge stations. I figure that I helped pay for them so I use them, when convenient.
In many cases, I think that the public L2 charge stations continue to be free because setting up a payment system is more trouble than it is worth and the cost of the electricity is trivial (unlike with DCFC stations). The networked L2 Chargepoint stations are something of an exception, they can easily be free or require payment, as the sponsor wishes. Six of the seven Chargepoint locations (sixteen stalls) in my area remain free, for now; the one that charges a fee is located at a National Recreation Area, since paid charging is the norm for the National Park Service.
I can see why it is better to charge for charging, even L2, in cities where demand is high. In rural locations that isn't the case, so far.
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