According to one prevailing view of the future, the combustion-rooted landscape to which we have become accustomed over the last century — gasoline stations always at hand if we need them, grouped in threes and fours on some urban corners — will go the way of the buggy whip. Instead, when people are in electric vehicles and running low on juice, this outlook predicts, they won’t scan the horizon for a service station, but will already have charged up at home or work. Of course, if they absolutely must plug in, sockets delivering 20 or so miles of charge in an hour will be virtually everywhere.
That’s not what many automakers and utilities see coming. Citing surveys and their own instincts, they say most people won’t make the shift to EVs at all unless they first see visible, conveniently located fast-charging stations that will pump out a hundred or more miles in a half-hour or less. In other words, the future is more or less a gas station experience.
This conviction-filled debate has so far been fairly affable, even though one side or the other seems to be by definition at risk of overspending billions of dollars in capital investment. Either way, the public looks unlikely to be the loser: We aren’t likely to know who is right until the middle of the decade, and perhaps longer — but by then, whoever prevails, there will be sufficient charging infrastructure for the needs of those who want an EV.
it might be me, but the title of this piece doesn’t seem to relate to the content!
[Corrected. LBM]
Citing surveys and their own instincts, they say most people won’t make the shift to EVs at all unless they first see visible, conveniently located fast-charging stations that will pump out a hundred or more miles in a half-hour or less.
There’s an unspoken reason for this – I think.
Presently, refuelling stops & facilities are purely for “5 minutes” & convenience, they don’t have to be pleasant or attractive.
IF we go to the model where recharging stops are rare, then people will be constrained to spend time in unattractive surroundings, for extended periods, rather than, as at present, separating “refuelling” ( The vehicle ) and rest/relaxation/ refuelling the occupants.
The latter being a much more pleasant experience, especially on longer journeys, where a break of some sort, every 2-2.5 hours or so is a really good idea.
[ Which then means recharging points in restaurant / pub / scenic venue car parks. ]
People are not going to be happy with an obvious change for the worse – maybe/probably.
A key place for fast chargers is (traditional) car rental depots. Especially larger depots that need to reset a number of cars to rentable inventory within 60-90 minutes (including a valet).
As and when EV’s become readily available in traditional car rental fleets, the fuelling model would need to be “start the rental full, return with whatever is left, no charge for resetting to full).