Charging Station Congestion

[AllenXS]

Last summer I had to wait a couple of times. The was on slow fast chargers in remote spots (50kw). Thankfully one was a mini that needed like 2kw to go another 100k.
It runs on the smell of a leaky battery.

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[4HERMES]

I have never seen more than 2 other vehicles charging at any EA location I have visited. Often, we are the only ones.

I have been to EA locations in Michigan, Ohio, NY, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida.

Hey. At least you HAVE EV stations. I’m barely able to find operating Level 2s convenient to highways and Level 3s are a fantasy at this point. I drive in Southern Ohio, Kentucky, W VA, Indiana. Love the outdoors but round trip drives are risky. We need infrastructure catch up fast.

 

[RickMachE]

Hey. At least you HAVE EV stations. I’m barely able to find operating Level 2s convenient to highways and Level 3s are a fantasy at this point. I drive in Southern Ohio, Kentucky, W VA, Indiana. Love the outdoors but round trip drives are risky. We need infrastructure catch up fast.

Well, O_io....

West Virginia is a backwards state as you know. Indiana is sparse. Much of rural states is sparse.

 

[4HERMES]

yeah…no doubt…my new GT was keyed once, too. Not an accident…def some bizarre thinking out think

 

[Billyk24]

Well, O_io....

West Virginia is a backwards state as you know. Indiana is sparse. Much of rural states is sparse.

Including the home of the Federal trandportation head whete theUp of Michigsn has one 120kW dcfc and 40 miles away a 1/2 functioning 62.5 kW charger. Very difficult to road trip 6 months a year in the UP of Michigan. 174 miles one way from the closest 62.5 kW dcfc in lower Michigan to tje 120 kW chargrt in the UP.

 

[veronicablack]

I forgot the exact numbers I read before but my quick googling brought me this: 58% of American DC fast charging stations are Tesla owned (as of 2021). But 79% of new EVs registered in the US are Tesla too (as of 2020. I assume it decreased in 2021 with cars like the Mach E, Ioniq 5, EV6, etc really coming to market/bigger production that year. But still. Lots of Teslas on the road).

So while Tesla is dominating the fast charging scene by having the majority of them in the country, there's also a crap ton more Teslas on the road. A disproportionate amount. So it's not surprising to me that people would see this more often at Tesla Super Chargers than, say, a random EA DC fast charge station.

People brag about the Tesla Super Charger infrastructure. And for good reason. Say what you will about Tesla but their charging infrastructure is leading the market right now. But if Teslas only use Tesla infrastructure and all other EVs use everything else... well. We might still have some time before we see equivalent congestion.

 

[KevinS]

I expect the Delmarva peninsula is going to be a dumpster fire this summer when traffic from the Philly and DC areas arrives; there are very few DCFCs here.

 

[ridgebackpilot]

I forgot the exact numbers I read before but my quick googling brought me this: 58% of American DC fast charging stations are Tesla owned (as of 2021). But 79% of new EVs registered in the US are Tesla too (as of 2020. I assume it decreased in 2021 with cars like the Mach E, Ioniq 5, EV6, etc really coming to market/bigger production that year. But still. Lots of Teslas on the road).

So while Tesla is dominating the fast charging scene by having the majority of them in the country, there's also a crap ton more Teslas on the road. A disproportionate amount. So it's not surprising to me that people would see this more often at Tesla Super Chargers than, say, a random EA DC fast charge station.

People brag about the Tesla Super Charger infrastructure. And for good reason. Say what you will about Tesla but their charging infrastructure is leading the market right now. But if Teslas only use Tesla infrastructure and all other EVs use everything else... well. We might still have some time before we see equivalent congestion.

As a Tesla owner, I agree that Elon Musk's real brilliance was installing the Supercharger network. He has promised to soon allow other EVs to use that network, which no doubt will make him even more money!

And it could be good for us, too, since it would vastly expand the places we could fast-charge our MMEs. However, that could also make congestion at Superchargers worse. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Thankfully, state and Federal programs to fund new charging infrastructure are spooling up fast. That will help solve our short-term problem by installing more fast chargers.

But a long-term problem is looming, as the Washington Post pointed out in an article today: The grid isn't yet ready to handle the increase in demand for EV charging as we move rapidly from ICE cars to EVs. We're going to need to invest a lot more in modernization of the grid to handle the anticipated demand.

That reminds me to put in a plug for rooftop solar. My modest solar array feeds two Tesla Powerwall batteries, which run my house exclusively during peak and mid-peak hours. As a result, I draw from the grid only during off-peak hours, including charging my EVs. And during the summer, I send more electricity to the grid than I draw. More and more states have incentives for installing rooftop solar, such as tax credits and no-downpayment financing. I got more than 10 percent back in rebates when I installed the Tesla Powerwalls. I hope more EV owners will consider installing rooftop solar; it's really a no-brainer!

 

[Glen Boise]

I disagree.

While it may get worse in a few spots like Kalifornuh, and the greater NYC area, I expect very quick utilization of the $7.5B to add more chargers. Then, when local laws and utilities slow things down, I expect state governments to step in and kick some butt.

States that have embraced EVs and technology will come out ahead. Our state has created an Office of Future Mobility and Electrification and named someone to head it. That's the kind of thinking we need.

I think many states will lag, if they don't focus on it.

I've seen this come up from people in California, Washington state, Oregon, NY, and NJ.

Local zoning laws should not be a problem, except where people have not done their homework or some one influenced by the Big Oil Companies starts whining. The response to both is simply that a gas pump and an EV charger do the same thing. They refuel cars, using different technologies. So if the zoning allows gas stations then the zoning official can logically extend that to include EV charging stations.

 

[rfrommd]

Big waits and long queues. This is already happening at Tesla Superchargers. Are people seeing this at EA and EVgo?

I haven't had to wait to get a charger yet, but for a few minutes of my charge session this afternoon, all 6 spots at the EA in Ormond Beach FL were occupied and charging. 2 MME (including mine), 2 Ioniq 5's, a Kia EV6 and a Bolt.

 

[andrew]

The “line” of cars appears to be a single car. This crew added three to that line. The single car that was ahead of them pulls into a space about 5 minutes into the video… probably not more than 10 minutes after they arrived. If you only use public chargers, and you frequently need to charge three Tesla’s, I suppose this circumstance is more likely to happen to you. Sounds like they should have planned their Air B n B a bit better, knowing they would need a lot of chargers overnight.

 

[RickMachE]

The “line” of cars appears to be a single car. This crew added three to that line. The single car that was ahead of them pulls into a space about 5 minutes into the video… probably not more than 10 minutes after they arrived. If you only use public chargers, and you frequently need to charge three Tesla’s, I suppose this circumstance is more likely to happen to you. Sounds like they should have planned their Air B n B a bit better, knowing they would need a lot of chargers overnight.

But, but, then we wouldn't be able to make a video that silly people watch so we can earn money...

 

[emersonsdad]

Not 30 min before reading this had my friend, on his way from Cali to Utah, send me some pics and asking if this is what I have to look forward to. Eddie World outside Barstow, Ca is the location of this charge station. He said about 20 Tesla’s in line. No doubt most are Vegas/LA travelers.

 

[RickMachE]

Suckers that go to Vegas deserve to wait in line.

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