Untangling the Confusion Behind Charging Cars

[ice-capades]

Untangling the Confusion Behind Charging Cars

Originally published by The New York Times and printed in today's Las Vegas Review-Journal

 

Las Vegas Review-Journal_2023-09-06_Untangling the Confusion Behind Charging Cars.pdf

 

Las Vegas Review-Journal_2023-09-06_Untangling the Confusion Behind Charging Cars.pdf

Edited September 8, 2023 by ice-capades
Additional Content

[lfeg]

Charging stations need the same kind of regulation and standardization that gasoline and diesel fueling stations have. They must be inspected periodically to make sure you are getting what you pay for, prices must be posted so you know the cost before you start charging, and there is to be one connector standard (a gasoline nozzle will fit anything from a 72 Gremlin to a 2023 Rolls and a diesel nozzle will fit everything from a 53 KW to a 2023 Mack). Otherwise things just degenerate into a total mess.

[Rick73]

Plugs are no doubt important, but untangling where electricity comes from is what’s needed most when discussing charging.

[silvrsvt]

3 hours ago, lfeg said:

Charging stations need the same kind of regulation and standardization that gasoline and diesel fueling stations have. They must be inspected periodically to make sure you are getting what you pay for, prices must be posted so you know the cost before you start charging, and there is to be one connector standard (a gasoline nozzle will fit anything from a 72 Gremlin to a 2023 Rolls and a diesel nozzle will fit everything from a 53 KW to a 2023 Mack). Otherwise things just degenerate into a total mess.

 

Technically this would be pretty easy to do remotely and wouldn't require that much in the way of on site inspections. I'm assuming they are connected to the internet in some fashion and you could just remote into them to check that stuff from an off-site place. 

[Rangers09]

6 hours ago, lfeg said:

Charging stations need the same kind of regulation and standardization that gasoline and diesel fueling stations have. They must be inspected periodically to make sure you are getting what you pay for, prices must be posted so you know the cost before you start charging, and there is to be one connector standard (a gasoline nozzle will fit anything from a 72 Gremlin to a 2023 Rolls and a diesel nozzle will fit everything from a 53 KW to a 2023 Mack). Otherwise things just degenerate into a total mess.

 

Totally agree with the concept.

 

Just to clarify with respect to diesel, as they actually have 2 standards, the smaller diameter consumer and larger diameter, high capacity nozzles. My F-450 and previous F-350 accepts both options, but SIL's VW would only accept the smaller nozzle. Some of our local stations have the larger diesel nozzle available at consumer pumps, so some diesel cars can't use them. 

[atomcat68]

Wasn't Ford inventing a cable that had a built in coolant that would allow a car to be charged fast? What is the progress on this, or did this turn into vaporware?

[rperez817]

25 minutes ago, atomcat68 said:

Wasn't Ford inventing a cable that had a built in coolant that would allow a car to be charged fast? What is the progress on this, or did this turn into vaporware?

 

The initial work that Ford did with Purdue University to demonstrate flow boiling techniques for cooling EV charging cables was a success and resulted in the establishment of a new research institute at Purdue called EVeCTherm: Electric Vehicle Charging and Thermal Management. Join the fast-charging revolution: new research center to focus on electric vehicle charging and thermal management - Mechanical Engineering - Purdue University

 

[rperez817]

10 hours ago, Rick73 said:

Plugs are no doubt important, but untangling where electricity comes from is what’s needed most when discussing charging.

 

Excellent point Rick73. Ultimately what matters is automakers making the necessary investments to ensure a robust charging experience for their BEV customers, not the specific connectors used for charging cables. Sadly, other than Tesla, automakers have been lacking in this regard. Bill Visnic talked about this in the August 2023 issue of SAE's Automotive Engineering journal.

 

The NACS connector isn’t what makes Superchargers great. It’s that Tesla sweated the details and laid down scads of hard cash for proper site selection and to dig trenches, lay cables, spec transformers and the myriad hidden engineering aspects that are table stakes for a genuinely robust charging network.

[twintornados]

On 9/8/2023 at 1:26 PM, Rangers09 said:

 

Totally agree with the concept.

 

Just to clarify with respect to diesel, as they actually have 2 standards, the smaller diameter consumer and larger diameter, high capacity nozzles. My F-450 and previous F-350 accepts both options, but SIL's VW would only accept the smaller nozzle. Some of our local stations have the larger diesel nozzle available at consumer pumps, so some diesel cars can't use them. 

 

I can remember when unleaded gas was introduced in the 1970's there was a "cheat" so that you could put leaded gas into unleaded cars - an adapter that you put on the larger diameter pipe of a leaded gas fuel dispenser nozzle so that it would fit onto the smaller diameter nozzle of the unleaded dispenser so that you could then fit it into the restricted filler neck of the "unleaded gasoline only" vehicle.

 

Or, some people would just cut the restriction out of the filler neck altogether.