US government needs a "standard" in EV charging stations

[rcc]

There's a saying in the computer world: "The great thing about standards is there are so many to choose from."

Making something a standard is no guarantee that it will be widely used. We're going to have to see what wins out.

The SAE standard for L2 charging is looking like a winner. But I think the jury is still out for fast DC charging.

 

[AWDtsla]

It doesn't matter because everyone's missing the point. In the future you only charge at home. Only trucks charge at stops.

 

[PhilBa]

It doesn't matter because everyone's missing the point. In the future you only charge at home. Only trucks charge at stops.

Yes, for a very large part. However there are 3 exceptions that matter: long distance travel, destinations (resorts, hotels) and, to a lesser extent, places of employment. All those public L2s could go away tomorrow with no ill effects. People are smart enough to not buy an EV with less range than their daily and weekly driving needs.

 

[stopcrazypp]

The government shouldn't invent a standard nor only allow a single standard, but it does sometimes help if they mandate a "minimal" standard. For example, when CCS was set as the minimal standard in the EU, the number of chargers installed exploded after the market uncertainty was eliminated.

And sometimes they do make the "right" decision when they do pick a single standard (for example Type 2 over Type 1 and Type 3, or the microUSB standard in the phone industry).

 

[bonnie]

Two thumbs down to the government getting involved in establishing a standard. The market will sort it out.

 

[James Anders]

And let's not forget that all of Tesla's charger and plug designs are now free and open.

 

[TonyWilliams]

The government shouldn't invent a standard nor only allow a single standard, but it does sometimes help if they mandate a "minimal" standard. For example, when CCS was set as the minimal standard in the EU, the number of chargers installed exploded after the market uncertainty was eliminated.

And sometimes they do make the "right" decision when they do pick a single standard (for example Type 2 over Type 1 and Type 3, or the microUSB standard in the phone industry).

The only uncertainty in Europe was whether there would be ANY of the CCS Combo2 plugs (which are not interchangeable with the SAE CCS Combo1 that are present in the USA only).

CHAdeMO, Chameleon, and Supercharger are doing just fine in Europe without government mandate. The only thing the EU government did was mandate a fourth standard that was not established.

The same would likely happen here with government intervention. Every government mandated station is one that can't power the actual electric cars that already exist in the world in volume; Nissan LEAF and Mitisubishi iMiev variants (about 180,000 cars worldwide that use CHAdeMO) and Tesla Model S (about 35,000 cars that uses Supercharger and soon CHAdeMO with adaptor).

What German car makers tried to do in Europe is eliminate competition with government regulation.

They failed at that, miserably. Now, other standards are protected after many rewrites of the EU rules.

 

[woof]

Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it. As a history lesson, I bring you what happens when industry "collaborates": Open Systems Interconnection - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

attempting to get industry participants to agree on common network standards to provide multi-vendor interoperability. It was common for large networks to support multiple network protocol suites, with many devices unable to interoperate with other devices because of a lack of common protocols. However, while OSI developed its networking standards,TCP/IP came into widespread use on multivendor networks for internetworking, while on the local network level both Ethernet and token ring gained prominence.

And then the government gets involved:

OSI Protocol Suite vs. GOSIP

Unfortunately, by the time the Government got around to 'standardizing' and 'implementing the GOSIP standard' the Internet had already fully implemented TCP/IP as its own standard and was using it exclusively. TCP/IP and GOSIP were NOT compatible. The government, caught with a technology that no longer matched the de-facto standard used on the Internet then mandated that the IETF and the IAB make the Internet compatible with GOSIP even though the OSI GOSIP software was not yet finished and not fully standardized even by 1990 when the FIPS #146 document was published. - See more at: OSI Protocol Suite vs. GOSIP

So here was a standard no one wanted (because the industry players involved already had their own better proprietary protocols), that everyone was forced to use by the government if they wanted to sell equipment to the government.

And by then, the older proprietary stuff was abandoned anyway in favor of the newer, faster, and (mostly) better technology anyway.

 

[brianman]

Nobody is really speaking to a potential middle ground. What if there was a standard physical size for the "nozzle" and it had to feature AC and DC capability.

No thanks. I prefer my Model S connector to everything else I've seen used with EVs (J1772, Frankenplug, CHAdeMO, 14-50, etc.).

If it was government designed it would be larger than a gas nozzle and additional requirements would likely limit it to 1kW.

 

[PhilBa]

No thanks. I prefer my Model S connector to everything else I've seen used with EVs (J1772, Frankenplug, CHAdeMO, 14-50, etc.).

+100. The tesla design is best of breed. Simple, elegant, clean. J1772 is a distant second and everything else is beyond fugly.

 

[jerry33]

No thanks. I prefer my Model S connector to everything else I've seen used with EVs (J1772, Frankenplug, CHAdeMO, 14-50, etc.).

If it was government designed it would be larger than a gas nozzle and additional requirements would likely limit it to 1kW.

The usual problem with government design is that every Congressman and Senator adds their pork to the design so that it changes 300+ times. That's how we got the $10,000 toilet seat at NASA.

 

[Chipper]

Like some have already mentioned, I will throw my hat in with theirs by saying, The more our government stays OUT OF my car, my house, my love life, my weapons of choice, and my family the happier I will be! Let the industry establish the standards in a free-market society and may the best options win.

 

[pgiralt]

There is much truth in this
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That cartoon never gets old