Featured Study: 1 in 5 EV Charging Attempts Fail

As for fast DC charging, CCS-1 has been and possibly remains a disaster. I recently bought a CCS-1 equipped BMW i3-REx because I knew my Range Extender engine (REx) would be reliable and runs at 70 mph. In contrast to CCS-1 with the incredibly slow, 40-50 kW charge rate (~160 miles EV range added per hour!) while parked at a working CCS-1.

The L2 charging situation is more mottled. The primary failure is no maintenance while self-serving, ignoramous do to L2 chargers what they also do to public bathrooms ... vandalize them. The J1772 connector is especially vulnerable due to a latent design defect, the easily broken latch. Equally bad, the long cables allow the handle to be dropped on the ground and run over.

In contrast, the Superchargers are maintained and upgraded by Tesla. The short cable means it is almost impossible to drive over even if dropped on the ground. As for Tesla L2 chargers, most of the ones I've seen at motels have both a J1772 and Tesla plug. Teslas are able to charge from either.

I have two wall mounted L2 chargers, a home and public one in the alley behind a drug store. I remain disappointed how many times I find the cable and plug on the pavement. As for other problems:

• power parasites - solved by limiting to business hours and 8 kWh charge per session
• weak NEMA 14-50 socket - solved by limiting maximum current to 35 A

My recommendation for a public available L2 charger:

• At least two - one will fail, as they are that unreliable.
• Have a spare in storage and 'sell' the broken one on eBay as broken.
• Locate away from favorite parking spots as ICE drivers have no clue (or respect.)
• Make sure the owner can manage
  • time of service
  • either duration or charge kWh per session
  • limit maximum current because electricians try to save a buck

Bob Wilson

 

the city north of us has a few L2 free spots in the free public (no overnight} parking. The lot opens at 5am. Met up for an early 6:00 a.m. breakfast .... & ½ of the stalls already had 2 stinking squatters. It didn't really matter that these 2 squatters were both model 3. Could have been any plug in. The city recently throttled the charge rate down to a measly 8 amps to stop people from hogging juice .... but it appears some people go down early & just sleep in their cars. Really? sleep in your car so you can grab 1.6kW for a couple hours? This reminds me of the early days of Nissan Leaf charging where some plugins would go down to the Mitsubishi headquarters so they can free charge .... squat - pull their bicycle out of the trunk - pedal home leaving the car there for 6 or 8hrs. Best thing Tesla ever did was Jack up to super high rate fees - for people that would leave their cars at the supercharger & go out to dinner & a movie blocking that spot until they were damn well good & ready to come back. Even L2 public charging seriously needs this feature.
Besides squatter fees - EVERY public charger needs to have enough of a fee scale so that the L2 owners can keep those things in great working shape ALL the time.
.

 

in doing my bolt research, i was curious about public charging. i went to a few sites, and was surprised at how many were reported not working, including one down the street from me that is only a couple years old.
i'll be charging at home, but if we ever went on a road trip, it would be tesla all the way.

 

In the Nissan Leaf I remember a few places that had problematic or non-working charging. With the distances between charging stations back then and 75 miles of range I'm surprised I only needed a tow truck once.

 

Staggered. Took my simple hybrid in to the Toyota dealer's today and two Chargepoint stalls off one post.

This seems mighty sensational. Sure I have seen and experienced non-functioning gas pumps. Or entire stations out of gas. But the percentages are awfully tiny especially the latter. In my 65 years of driving, only once did it affect me (other than the gas shortage and the even/odd rationing). Oh, and I have ration coupons from WWII.

Just like I have seen one Tesla by the side of the road. And hundreds or maybe thousands of ICE vehicles.

Never underestimate the READ ME sensationalism of the headline writer.

 

Seems the other guys could (but they won't) learn from Tesla Supercharger implementation, like this over 4 dozen stalls opened a couple years ago in California.


And this location has less than ½ the # of stalls compared to the largest one in China.
.

 

I was at a gas station that had a middle eastern takeout restaurant built into it just now. (Pretty cool, right?) Anyway they were a little backed up with dinner orders so it took a good 20 minutes to get my falafel and go.

...And I watched this poor SOB with the Ford crossover EV struggle with a charging station the whole time. He must have plugged and re-plugged the thing 10 times.

 

I have written how my local dealer got a 2 plug chargepoint charger installed in the most popular place to park for people visiting the showroom. Guess what was hooked up to it the last time I was there....Model S.

 

good on them, maybe they were perusing the prime