Electric Car Ownership - Any Experiences?

Underground lines are great for things like ice storms, however, not so much when half your house loses power and there's steam coming up out of the ground.
Thats a level of snafu thats off the charts. Any line run underground should be in conduit thick enough to protect it. That is, unless somebody digs into it.
 

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I don't think we're going to see a massive amount of stand-alone charge stations.. But I can certainly see a future where every grocery store, every Wal-Mart, restaurants and other businesses where you're likely to spend half an hour or more start to install two to a dozen chargers in their parking lots.
And the larger stations, along Intersates, will need to have rows of them eventually.
 


There was some variation, but it worked out to about $24/hour on a Level 3 charger. But, you are paying a premium for the speed. Level 3 gets you full in an hour or less, Level 2 gets you full overnight or over a workday.

But real energy costs may be a better measure.
In the same general market, I recently paid:
$0.25 per kWh for level 2 Charger.
$0.66 per kWh for level 3 Charger.

And at home, I won't be paying the commercial markup.
I'm sure you know this, but for clarity "full" in this context is like 80% charge. Past that even the level 3 chargers slow down a lot. Around here, it's most common to see public non-Tesla level 3 chargers in Wal-Mart parking lots; we can usually walk in and grab snacks and beverages while the car charges.

We usually charge our EV overnight at home on our level 2, and we've been places that had level 2s for guests and did that there as well. Because we have solar panels on our house (but no battery backup at this point) if we charge during the day, it's effectively free.
 

On a high level the long term economics of such charging stations would seem highly questionable.

I think you are missing some of the opportunities here...

Its something that only those traveling larger distances need, that costs more than alternatives (homes charges) so anyone that can avoid them will.

For the most part, yes.

Compare to gas stations where everyone with a car needs them.

Don't compare to gas stations, because their use is different, and the required infrastructure is different.

Charging stations are never going to proliferate like gas stations.

Part of the point is that we don't want or need them to. Mashing electric vehicles into the same model, patterns, and infrastructure as internal combustion is a flawed premise!

In communities with a lower density of long distance travel they probably make little to no economical sense.

So, you failed to ask where I found those level 3 charging stations.

Charging a car is not (currently) an in-and-out in five minutes operation. So, a freestanding establishment that is just for charging is a problem for people - what are they going to do for that half hour or more? Just sit in their cars?

But also charging stations don't need attendants, and don't need huge underground tanks of fuel. The stations take only small amounts of space, so you can put them in any parking lot, with no significant loss of parking capacity.

I found them in the parking lots of shopping centers and malls: near restaurants, coffee shops, and stores. You put them in places where people can do something (and maybe spend a little money) while they wait!

An electric car infrastructure becomes ubiquitous enmeshed in the rest of your parking infrastructure.
 
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And the larger stations, along Intersates, will need to have rows of them eventually.

Yep. And the usual amenities of those - the coffee shops, restrooms, convenience stores and fast food joints, will still apply. Honestly, adding them to existing highway rest stops should become a no-brainer in the near future, as they already have the parking space for the amenities.

The only issue is Tesla being jerks, and making exclusive deals around charger placement. That crap has to stop.
 
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I don't think we're going to see a massive amount of stand-alone charge stations.. But I can certainly see a future where every grocery store, every Wal-Mart, restaurants and other businesses where you're likely to spend half an hour or more start to install two to a dozen chargers in their parking lots.
I suspect this will depend a lot on where you live. Here in Germany, less than half of the population own property, and if I remember correctly, only about a third own a house. So a decent amount of public chargers is needed for the rest of the people (assuming a general shift to EVs is still desired)
That being said, it does indeed seem like chargers are mostly popping up around supermarkets and administrative buildings first (at least where I live; the next bigger town seems to have more of them in other places, too).
 

Yep. And the usual amenities of those - the coffee shops, restrooms, convenience stores and fast food joints, will still apply. Honestly, adding them to existing highway rest stops should become a no-brainer in the near future, as they already have the parking space for the amenities.

The only issue is Tesla being jerks, and making exclusive deals around charger placement. That crap has to stop.
I haven't really seen anything like we have in Ontario, Canada along our major highways, mirrored in the US. We have these almost shopping mall type locations that are called ONRoute. In the US I tend to see clusters of smaller stations and individual fast food/restaurant locations. This might give us a bit of an advantage in ease of installation, at least along something like the Detroit/Windsor to Montreal highway corridor.

 

I haven't really seen anything like we have in Ontario, Canada along our major highways, mirrored in the US. We have these almost shopping mall type locations that are called ONRoute. In the US I tend to see clusters of smaller stations and individual fast food/restaurant locations. This might give us a bit of an advantage in ease of installation, at least along something like the Detroit/Windsor to Montreal highway corridor.

Large rest areas combining a big gas station, several small restaurants (usually fast food), large restrooms and usually convenience store are common on major freeways in the US, at least in more populated states and regions. NH only has them in the Southern and Eastern areas, where tourists are most likely to pass through (ours sometimes also feature State Liquor Stores!), but I see and stop at them regularly whenever I take a road trip South.
 
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I haven't really seen anything like we have in Ontario, Canada along our major highways, mirrored in the US. We have these almost shopping mall type locations that are called ONRoute.

We tend to have rest stops along the interstate highways. They typically have a gas station, some food (anywhere form a Dunkin' Donuts to an entire food court of fast food, restrooms. Often a convenience store and maybe a gift shop.
 

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