Bad design or bad execution. Maybe both?

[hybrid2bev]

Yes, the new EA chargers can do simultaneous charging from one tower and 2 cables at the same time. Not the older 50/100/150kW towers - those are one per tower.

EVGo chargers - with their new Delta 350kW towers offer simultaneous charging with 2 cables per tower.

Shopping mall near me got these brand new 350kW HyperFast towers recently installed - the installers said to use the 3 lightning bolt towers to not share load with another cable being used simultaneously.

The new EA dispensers only have 1 cable (shown below)? I've never seen a two cable Electrify America station that supported simultaneous charging (maybe new branding stickers but that doesn't change the functionality).

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[SpaceEVDriver]

The (obvious to me anyway) solution would have been to put the third dispenser directly in front of the third space and put the light pole in front of the chevroned stripe.

As is, I would have parked exactly where the red MME is parked every time...

Because, I avoid having cars parked next to me whenever possible...(really tired of morons dinging my car) note the striping to the right of that space... and the charge port is on the left side of the car. that space is calling my name...

offsetting the third dispenser because of the light pole was dumb. The third dispenser should be right in front of the third spot.... problem solved.

I don't think the light pole is why the third dispenser is offset. It's the one with the CHAdeMO cable, so serves both the accessible spot and the non-accessible spot.

 

[21st Century Pony]

To add: a "wasted spot" is wasted for a maximum (!!) of maybe an hour, if (IF) 5 EVs arrive all within 5 minutes of each other. Possible yet unlikely, except maybe on a Christmas Eve / Thanksgiving afternoon in a major metro area.

With assumed staggered EV arrivals and an assumed 45-minute average charging dwell time per EV, the (again, assumed) probable wait would be about 15 minutes or less.

Just like metered street parking: the meters aren't there to "make money for the city", they are there to force turnover for the benefit of small business customers on that block. No city tries to create a parking slot for every regionally registered car, right?

 

[Mach-Lee]

EA chargers in Atascadero, CA: 8 slots, 4 parking spots. And I saw a similar beautifully executed project in Los Alamos the day before.

Looks like someone forgot the light pole was there first when they did the layout. Sometimes existing obstacles get missed in the plans.

 

[cafdiniz]

If this happens, users will be confused at best.

Look at the picture in the first post... if a car plugs in on the left most slot, the open slot between the car in the picture and the left most slot can not charge.... because if they plug in, it will stop either the car on the left or the car in the picture... only 3 cars can charge at a time because the car in the picture picked the wrong dispenser...

It is as if EA is actually a plot to discourage EV adoption...

The left cable of the 3rd tower did not reach the charging door. I did this on purpose just to show how bad this design and execution looks.

The setup above only works if you have the right mix of EVs with charging doors on the left/right/front/back.

If we had 4 Mach-Es here, someone would be pissed. If slots 1, 2, and 4 were taken by the time I got there, I'd be pissed.

 

[cafdiniz]

I don't know what I might have done differently here.

A simple solution is to always keep the tower in right in front of the parking spot. The 3rd tower is all wrong because of the lamp.

 

[superdave80]

The reason that it is a bad design is because it is a cheap design. We already KNOW how these charging stations should be setup, because we've been doing the correct setup with gas stations for decades:

Pump/charger on the side, with overhead cover. But this would take more room and add more cost. If you go cheap, you get cheap...

 

[hybrid2bev]

The left cable of the 3rd tower did not reach the charging door. I did this on purpose just to show how bad this design and execution looks.

The setup above only works if you have the right mix of EVs with charging doors on the left/right/front/back.

If we had 4 Mach-Es here, someone would be pissed. If slots 1, 2, and 4 were taken by the time I got there, I'd be pissed.

Those are really long cables. I bet the cable for the 3rd unit from the left may have reached your charging port if you backed into the parking spot you're in instead of nosed in.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

A simple solution is to always keep the tower in right in front of the parking spot. The 3rd tower is all wrong because of the lamp.

Then they would have had to have two CHAdeMO capable chargers. In the current configuration they can have a single CHAdeMO cable able to service both the accessible spot and the non-accessible spot. The third tower is in the correct place.

The new EA dispensers only have 1 cable (shown below)? I've never seen a two cable Electrify America station that supported simultaneous charging (maybe new branding stickers but that doesn't change the functionality).

I think you're right. There are "Balanced" EA chargers in some areas, but they're not the 2-cable chargers. They look more like the ones your picture shows. They share a single 350 kW cabinet and can provide up to 350 kW when a single vehicle is on one of the two chargers but derate to 150 kW when there's a vehicle charging from both of the chargers on the shared cabinet.

 

[azerik]

And we only get 100kw for a little while. So I'm all for split systems as few other cars will chew up 200+ kw for any length of time.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

A simple solution is to always keep the tower in right in front of the parking spot. The 3rd tower is all wrong because of the lamp.

I believe you're missing my point.

The station second from the right or third from the left is where it is so that it can provide a CHAdeMO cable to two accessible spots, the one all the way to the right and the one where the Mustang is parked. Those two spots share the access aisle painted in blue. If that charger station were located centered on the spot the Mustang is parked in, there would be only one CHAdeMO cable available to one accessible spot.

As I look in more detail at the photo, I do see a bad design. The bad design here is that the chargers at the accessible spots are up on the sidewalk with a curb, rather than being on the same level as the vehicle. This limits accessibility somewhat, and is suggested against, though there are likely reasons it was done this way (pre-existing curb).

https://www.access-board.gov/tad/ev/

 

[CurtW]

Maybe you are at a Tango charging station. Easily get eight of these guys parked here.

 

[cafdiniz]

I believe you're missing my point.

The station second from the right or third from the left is where it is so that it can provide a CHAdeMO cable to two accessible spots, the one all the way to the right and the one where the Mustang is parked. Those two spots share the access aisle painted in blue. If that charger station were located centered on the spot the Mustang is parked in, there would be only one CHAdeMO cable available to one accessible spot.

As I look in more detail at the photo, I do see a bad design. The bad design here is that the chargers at the accessible spots are up on the sidewalk with a curb, rather than being on the same level as the vehicle. This limits accessibility somewhat, and is suggested against, though there are likely reasons it was done this way (pre-existing curb).

https://www.access-board.gov/tad/ev/

Very good point! And thanks for the link!

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