First things first, this a US-centric post about DC Ultra-Fast Charging. Some of it will apply to other countries, but not all. This is not referring to Level 2 or fast charging in areas where you’re meant to spend significant time like the movie theater or shopping mall. I also don’t care about any of the excuses for why it is this way. “It costs too much”, “Peak demand charges”, “The technology isn’t there yet”. None of that is my concern. The message has been sent that EVs are the future, so I am simply pointing out how the design of fast charging needs to improve in order for ICE to truly become obsolete. One of the first things that I was taught as an Electrical Engineer was to ensure that my designs were as future-proof as possible. Obviously, this is difficult to do with an emerging technology like DC Fast-Chargers (DCFC), but when billions of dollars are being poured into the transition to EVs, we should be making every effort to ensure that the money spent today isn’t wasted on something that will be obsolete in a decade or two. If the US is serious about transitioning from ICE vehicles to EVs, then we need to ensure that charging is as easy and convenient as filling up with gas. I also am not here to talk about things like reliability, number of charge sites, location of sites, etc. I am trying to focus on what’s wrong with the sites when they’re working exactly as they were designed to. That being said, here are 10 problems with the current design of EV Fast-Charging sites in the US.
1. Charging power isn’t high enough
2. Charging Amperage isn’t high enough
3. Charging Voltage isn’t high enough
4. The labeled speed on chargers is often misleading.
5. Lack of intelligent load sharing
6. Not enough site power
7. Anyone can stop your charge on some networks.
8. The overall functionality of charge stations is worse than gas stations.
9. CCS1 is being adopted as the standard, and it’s not great.
10. Too many apps and subscriptions
Full details at the link. It's nice to see an honest look at this issue...
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