Bad design or bad execution. Maybe both?

cafdiniz

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

Ford Mustang Mach-E Bad design or bad execution. Maybe both? IMG_0412
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AliRafiee

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It’s bad execution. I’ve see. A bunch like that. They need to space them out more and have two parking spots per charging station.
 

JohnFoxeSheets

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Only one cable can be used at a time. So in fact those four chargers are for four cars. The double cables are to enable use on either side of the car... What's crazy though is that, as I understand it, if someone plugs in the other cable while you're charging, it kills your session. (At least that's what I've read here on other threads.)
 

JohnFoxeSheets

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

Ford Mustang Mach-E Bad design or bad execution. Maybe both? IMG_0412
The EA charges in Paso Robles are at a Bank of America, not a 7-11....?
 


SWO

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Only one cable can be used at a time. So in fact those four chargers are for four cars. The double cables are to enable use on either side of the car... What's crazy though is that, as I understand it, if someone plugs in the other cable while you're charging, it kills your session. (At least that's what I've read here on other threads.)
This. It's only 4 chargers.

What's odd is the cables are long enough that you should be able to make it work with only one. I initially assumed that the dual cables were for redundancy, though they seem to have better reliability (not saying much) than the EA cabinets/touchscreens.
 

Stang68

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Yeah, echoing what others have said here...it's only four chargers. Don't count the cables, count the screens or towers and that will tell you how many cars can actually charge there. There are multiple cables just to help with different charge port locations. Sort of silly.
 

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EA's newer dispensers have 2 cables and can do simultaneous charging. The dispensers in the pic don't look like the new dispensers, but it's hard to tell.
 

4sallypat

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EA's newer dispensers have 2 cables and can do simultaneous charging. The dispensers in the pic don't look like the new dispensers, but it's hard to tell.
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.


Ford Mustang Mach-E Bad design or bad execution. Maybe both? IMG_0124.JPG
 

Blue highway

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Only one cable can be used at a time. So in fact those four chargers are for four cars. The double cables are to enable use on either side of the car... What's crazy though is that, as I understand it, if someone plugs in the other cable while you're charging, it kills your session. (At least that's what I've read here on other threads.)
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... o_O

Ford Mustang Mach-E Bad design or bad execution. Maybe both? 1680016108417
 

SpaceEVDriver

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I don't see bad design nor bad execution. The two chargers on the right allow service for the accessibility spot on the right. Both CCS and CHAdeMO are available to that spot, which is why they're nearer to each other than the other towers.

The others provide cables for any arrangement of charging ports.
 

Blue highway

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I don't see bad design nor bad execution. The two chargers on the right allow service for the accessibility spot on the right. Both CCS and CHAdeMO are available to that spot, which is why they're nearer to each other than the other towers.

The others provide cables for any arrangement of charging ports.
I see a bad design... see post above
 

SpaceEVDriver

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I see a bad design... see post above
At some point you cannot design out every possible weird way to make use of something.

One possibility of what happened here:
The driver of the red Mustang chose not to use the charger with CHAdeMO which means it's available to someone who needs the CHAdeMO charger and/or needs the accessible spot. That's good thinking on their part.

Another possibility:
We don't know what the driver saw when they arrived at the charging station. Perhaps the two left spots were already taken and the driver only had one spot to choose and then plugged into the first charger that became available.

I don't know what I might have done differently here. The accessible spot needs to have a charger that has two CCS cables so any of the four most common charge port configurations can be reached. It also needs a CHAdeMO cable, so that implies three cables minimum, which is what they've provided. Then a CHAdeMO+CCS charger should be near to a non-accessible spot so a car with CHAdeMO needs but not accessibility needs can have access. The other two chargers can serve two additional spots.

I suppose if they had a charging tower with three cables (two CCS on either side and a CHAdeMO in the center) they could have put that in the accessible spot, but the driver's choice to use the cable they chose would still have set up the same potential wasted spot. If there had been more space available, I guess they could have made it difficult to use the cable they're using while parked in the spot they're in. But that would have reduced flexibility.
 

Blue highway

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At some point you cannot design out every possible weird way to make use of something.

One possibility of what happened here:
The driver of the red Mustang chose not to use the charger with CHAdeMO which means it's available to someone who needs the CHAdeMO charger and/or needs the accessible spot. That's good thinking on their part.

Another possibility:
We don't know what the driver saw when they arrived at the charging station. Perhaps the two left spots were already taken and the driver only had one spot to choose and then plugged into the first charger that became available.

I don't know what I might have done differently here. The accessible spot needs to have a charger that has two CCS cables so any of the four most common charge port configurations can be reached. It also needs a CHAdeMO cable, so that implies three cables minimum, which is what they've provided. Then a CHAdeMO+CCS charger should be near to a non-accessible spot so a car with CHAdeMO needs but not accessibility needs can have access. The other two chargers can serve two additional spots.

I suppose if they had a charging tower with three cables (two CCS on either side and a CHAdeMO in the center) they could have put that in the accessible spot, but the driver's choice to use the cable they chose would still have set up the same potential wasted spot. If there had been more space available, I guess they could have made it difficult to use the cable they're using while parked in the spot they're in. But that would have reduced flexibility.
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.
 

ctenidae

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At some point you cannot design out every possible weird way to make use of something.
I think you're spot-on in your analysis of the options. However, I fear the truth is probably something mundane, like they didn't think about the light pole, so rather than get a new contractor in to move it and its wiring and pavement they just changed the drawing and scooched that one charger over. Somewhere the supervisor who made that call is reading your post thinking, "Dangit, THAT's what I should have put in the TPS report!"
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