When will all the US freeway gas station / truck stop / convenience stores deploy EV chargers?

[mrc3]

Chargers can go wherever there’s electricity, it all depends on the size and speed of the charger desired and that can be determined by the businesses or municipality that’s installing said chargers.

Condos, apartments complex’s, airports. L1 and L2 only:
Charger installed in parking lot for tenant use. These chargers are relatively inexpensive to install especially if it’s during new construction. Hopefully soon chargers will be as common as parking lot lights.

Sit down Restaurants, malls, hotels, and shopping centers. Mostly L2, and some 25kw L3:
What better way to attract people and get them to spend money at your business then to bring them in with free L2 charging and keep them there for a couple hours?


Travel centers, interstate and hwy fuel stations, rest areas: L3 & L4
These are places that have a quick customer turn over, get you in and out with your snickers bar ASAP. With the advancements in charging speed and battery tech in the next few years, a bathroom break and a candy bar is all you’ll have time for.

Yes, it is that last category that was my focus. Good delineation of categories.

Mike

 

[Zythryn]

Yes, it is that last category that was my focus. Good delineation of categories.

Mike

And most people have responded that there will be more and more DC fast charging available.
Just that gas stations will not be a common place for them. It just doesn’t suit the business model.
Fast food restaurants, strip malls, even restaurants perhaps.

So in answer to your thread title... Never. Or, once enough gas stations go out of business such that ones with DC fast chargers are the only ones left

 

[MD-2000]

We have gas stations because of the infrastructure and management issues involved. Charging can be completely hands-off. Presumably malls, restaurants, theatres etc. are ideal for charging. The chargers themselves handle billing without the need for a cashier; no environmental worry with tanks, leakage, monitoring for fuel theft, or any other headaches that gasoline sales involve. The only issue I see is that fast chargers may finish before the owner is done with their meal or movie, thus blocking additional patrons; whereas L2 might be good for top-up around town, but not suitable for road trip charging.

There is an obvious role for fast chargers at interstate rest stops, which usually seem to have the other money-makers present - convenience stores, fast food, etc. The only difficulty I see is meeting demand. Look at how many vehicles pull in to fill with gas with how many pumps, and now imagine each of those vehicles needing to park for 20 minutes or so to charge. V3 top end chargers will be a necessity.

(Let's say during a busy time 4 vehicles a minute times 20 min. charge - that implies you'd need 80 stalls, and road rage would become a factor for anyone overstaying their charge time. I'm surprised we don't see news stories about fistfights at supercharger line-ups during the Thanksgiving rush...)

The same applies for hotels - many have 1 or 2 L2 chargers, and I anticipate (seems to happen occasionally already) that we will see more complaints of "the charger9s) were taken all night" before hotels start to expand the number of chargers.

The other problem everywhere is grid/service capacity. A decent sized L3 charger or a multiple of L2 is probably a significant proportion of any particular site's total power service unless it's a big mall. It may involve running bigger cables all the way from the local substation, and so distance/accessibility to a suitable power substation may be a deciding factor. i wonder to what extent this may be an issue for some Interstate rest stops too - perhaps the concept of battery buffer for chargers will be more common.

Bechwana Bay north of Sault Ste Marie for example, was supposed to be a supercharger site - since SSM to Wawa was 200km and dicey for some cars in deep winter. However, apparently in that isolated location there is only one phase of a 3-phase power available (208V) and so the result is a number of L2 chargers instead. Putting V3 power in there would probably run in the millions.

Another fun question - when will tow trucks also include a powerwall battery or two for emergency charges?

 

[mrc3]

Another way to think about the problem is by dividing EV car owners into who has at home charging capabilities, and those who do not.
For the most part those who have at home charging capabilities have their needs met for commuting and normal car usage. Where they will need fast charging is while on trips. Thus the freeway rest stops etc as mentioned in the thread subject. The DC charging speed is going up with every generation of EV's. I can see a 20 to 70% charge rate falling to under 10 minutes of time in the next 5 to 10 years. This will correspond to an increased number of EV's on the road and incremental demand on chargers. Thus the log jam at chargers that currently only exists in a few locations will be alleviated with increased stations and reduced charging times.

Those people who do not have a way of "overnight" charging at their residence will need metro area charging and increased availability of power charging options at apartments. Was not really considering that aspect when I started this thread.


MIke