Crazy Idea: Boost EV Adoption With Cheap Slow Public EV Chargers Everywhere
Fast charging is mostly needed on road trips. Make most public charging low-tech, cheap, and ubiquitous.
When people are surveyed about why they might or might not get an electric vehicle, uncertainty about charging is always at or near the top of the list, which makes sense because our transportation infrastructure is almost entirely oriented toward fossil-fuel powered cars. Most EV owners so far charge their cars at home overnight using an AC “Level 2” charger that can recharge the battery with roughly 30 miles of range per hour on average, which is why charging overnight, or while you’re at work, is routine.
So far, people without a dedicated place to park and charge have had to rely on public charging stations, which mostly provide fast, DC “Level 3” chargers. Those can get an EV’s battery to about 80 percent capacity in around a half hour on average, and are the standard for the Tesla Supercharger network and for the public charging station program funded by Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. They’re ideal for people who need to quickly add 200 miles of range on a road trip or while having lunch somewhere, but they use a lot of energy and cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars each to install.
So here’s a neato idea from the indispensable climate and clean energy outlet Heatmap News: Since most people already charge their EVs slowly, using chargers that cost a few hundred dollars (for home use at least), why not keep deploying fast DC chargers near freeways and in high traffic areas, but also push for much wider availability of Level 2 public charging that’s low-tech, far less expensive, and dang near everywhere? As the article argues,
Expanding our focus to low-tech EV charging, then, is one way to make Americans more confident about ditching gas, even during the coming Trump era redux.
It’s enough to make a nerd reach for a theme song:
A shift in emphasis toward high-speed chargers that would mostly be for long-distance drivers and far wider availability of slow chargers would help solve one of the chicken-egg problems for EV adoption. Without widely available charging options, people will be reluctant to get an EV, but without a lot of customers willing to pay for fast charging, there’s little economic incentive for commercial companies to put out the capital needed for fast-chargers networks.
But if EV chargers are as common as, say, streetlights, the challenge of charging is reduced, and you won’t have people fighting for the few available fast-charge spots in the Walmart parking lot.
Appropriate electrical infrastructure already exists in many places — street lights, for example, use a 277-volt standard that could be repurposed for slow EV charging. All you need to do is run wires down to street level so cars can plug in.
You probably won’t fill up your car’s battery on streetside slow chargers. […] Yet a world of ubiquitous Level 2 plugs would add peace of mind. Think of it like plugging in your phone at a bar or at the airport. Sometimes, a little extra juice is just what you need to get by.
Instead of frantically worrying about finding an open slot at a fast charger 20 miles away, slow chargers would just be there, reducing range anxiety and making EVs more common sights on the road. That would also help with a trend that’s already developing in at least some segments of the EV industry. Manufacturers of more expensive EVs are still competing to provide larger batteries with more range. But in actual use, most people just drive around town and for commuting, and for many drivers, there’s an increasing willingness to trade extended range for a lower vehicle cost. That’s especially true as more manufacturers adopt lower-cost battery chemistry that makes EVs more affordable, at the cost of some range. Wider availability of “good enough” chargers for everyday use will only increase the appeal of such “good enough” EVs — just as shoppers for internal-combustion cars may drool over the sporty models but drive home in a sensible car with plenty of room for kids and groceries.
As Heatmap notes, cheap chargers everywhere aren’t a panacea; long-distance driving will still require plenty of fast chargers at convenient stopping points. And while they’re less expensive per unit, deploying networks of Level 2 chargers widely enough for them to be readily available would still cost plenty. There’s also the question of how commercial companies would be able to make a profit with less-pricey delivery systems, but entrepreneurs always seem to figure something out, don’t they? And yeah, you’d need to design the systems for resilience, because the streets can be mean.
[I]nfrastructure left out on the street is susceptible to vandalism as well as normal wear and tear. That’s why some places in Europe have embraced the “bring your own cable” approach to such chargers so cords are not left on the sidewalk, sitting in the rain and getting in the way.
Clever nerds with startups are already working on those problems, too.
The coming Trump II regime will set back a lot of neat ideas simply by slashing funding for Biden’s climate programs, but the EV transition will continue, more slowly than it oughta, because that’s simply where the rest of the world is headed. Trump may very well make it far harder for US companies to compete in that global market, and he’ll call it a great thing because he’s an idiot.
In one more troubling indication of what’s on the way, Reuters reported this week that Trump will seek to eliminate the $7,500 EV tax credit from the Inflation Reduction Act, in the name of cost cutting, and with likely encouragement from Elon Musk, who’d love nothing more than to remove one of the tools keeping Tesla’s competitors in the market. But as we’ve noted previously, it’s just possible that red state members of Congress will resist such cuts, since the IRA has created so many good manufacturing jobs in their states.
We can only hope that Musk continues to be such an annoying, attention-grabbing prick that he manages to truly piss off the Great Man enough that Trump decides it would be more fun not to help Elon corner the domestic EV market.
[Heatmap News / Canary Media / Reuters]
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The movie post is up, tonight we are watching 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐥. A badass woman superhero and her cat? Yes please!