New Charging Network Announced

[BMT1071]

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-e...llaborative-electric-vehicle-charging-network

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[EELinneman]

Interesting. I'm wondering who is going to get the $7.5B mentioned in the Infrastructure bill for EV charging. Is this going to research, one or more vendors, or will this all get consumed by government oversight? It worries me when it seems like the government is picking winners and losers regardless of which party is doing this.

 

[Gixxer750]

This is an attempt by the utilities to grab a larger chunk of the profit margin for charging as they will be both the power provider and the charging provider. Will be interesting to see how the EAs and Chargepoints of the world respond.

 

[voxel]

This is an attempt by the utilities to grab a larger chunk of the profit margin for charging as they will be both the power provider and the charging provider. Will be interesting to see how the EAs and Charge Chargepoints of the world respond.

This network will actually be usable IMO.

EA is ran like a non-profit (build and forget) but these utilities care about selling electricity and maintaining chargers. ChargePoint is too interested in selling hardware to commercial entities and the owners often will leave broken chargers.... broken. There's no incentive for them to fix them.

 

[Maquis]

Interesting. I'm wondering who is going to get the $7.5B mentioned in the Infrastructure bill for EV charging. Is this going to research, one or more vendors, or will this all get consumed by government oversight? It worries me when it seems like the government is picking winners and losers regardless of which party is doing this.

Some of those answered are in the legislation. It pretty dry reading.

 

[EELinneman]

Some of those answered are in the legislation. It pretty dry reading.

Dave,

What have I ever done to piss you off to the point where you want me to read through all of this? LOL. Things are way, way too busy right now for me to get to that. Now, if that Powerball comes through......

 

[Chuck]

This network will actually be usable IMO.

EA is ran like a non-profit (build and forget) but these utilities care about selling electricity and maintaining chargers. ChargePoint is too interested in selling hardware to commercial entities and the owners often will leave broken chargers.... broken. There's no incentive for them to fix them.

This is absolutely opposite of what happens. I live in SoCal where Edison has been inclined to not maintain their network. They allow trees and vegetation to interfere with lines and some lines are in very poor quality. It becomes a danger for fires when the winds get strong. So, instead of repairing it they just shut down the power when the winds get strong. Many thousands of homes were without power this Thanksgiving and Black Friday because of their negligence.

Do not expect a public utility to be a good caretaker of an EV charging network.

 

[voxel]

This is absolutely opposite of what happens. I live in SoCal where Edison has been inclined to not maintain their network. They allow trees and vegetation to interfere with lines and some lines are in very poor quality. It becomes a danger for fires when the winds get strong. So, instead of repairing it they just shut down the power when the winds get strong. Many thousands of homes were without power this Thanksgiving and Black Friday because of their negligence.

Do not expect a public utility to be a good caretaker of an EV charging network.

Yikes. The utilities here are pretty responsive… so yeah it might be YMMV. Florida Power and Light here even setup DC charging network along the turnpike where EA has not.

 

[Neablis]

I'm excited to see the new and exciting ways PG&E will find ways to murder people with this.

 

[Mirak]

Do not expect a public utility to be a good caretaker of an EV charging network.

I would agree with this. The utility in Kansas City (KCP&L now Evergy) put in about a dozen “Efacec” 50kW units around town about a decade ago. They’re all run down now and don’t even work with the Mach E unless they finally updated the software. I suspect they used some government money to put them in and then basically neglected them.

 

[Hoovertac]

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-e...llaborative-electric-vehicle-charging-network

I love my car but have serious concerns about the EA charging network for long distance road trips. The redundancy & reliability just isn't there.

 

[Glen Boise]

Is there really a need for additional DC Chargers on the Interstate Highways? Does not EA advertise coverage for most of the busier Interstates? What is really needed is more DC Chargers away from the Interstates and big cities. Where I live, in Kokomo, in North Central Indiana, the nearest DC Chargers are in other cities some 40 miles away. (Indianapolis and Lafayette along I-65.)
The Infrastructure Bill money will probably go to the states, as most highway dollars do. They are gearing up now to use it. There was a recent announcement how several Midwest States, including Indiana, have agreed on coordinating their use of the funds. Apparently, this big utility announcement shows that the big utilities are seeking to cash in on something they know nothing about.

 

[Hoovertac]

Is there really a need for additional DC Chargers on the Interstate Highways? Does not EA advertise coverage for most of the busier Interstates? What is really needed is more DC Chargers away from the Interstates and big cities. Where I live, in Kokomo, in North Central Indiana, the nearest DC Chargers are in other cities some 40 miles away. (Indianapolis and Lafayette along I-65.)
The Infrastructure Bill money will probably go to the states, as most highway dollars do. They are gearing up now to use it. There was a recent announcement how several Midwest States, including Indiana, have agreed on coordinating their use of the funds. Apparently, this big utility announcement shows that the big utilities are seeking to cash in on something they know nothing about.

Im sure there's a basic reason why they can't put charging stations at existing rest stops along the freeway?

 

[Glen Boise]

Im sure there's a basic reason why they can't put charging stations at existing rest stops along the freeway?

Yes, they would compete with private charging stations at the interchanges like we see with gas stations. It would be useful to put them at toll road rest stops since it is harder to leave and return a toll road due to paying for using the toll road. Not a problem on Interstates.

 

[MellowJohnny]

Sooooo....51 government agencies are going to *work together*? Bottom line is unless there is an appetite to fund this at a loss, it will eventually need to turn a profit. And governments are notoriously bad at turning a profit. Unless this is funded by taxpayer money ad infinitum, there needs to be a privatization exit strategy. The Canadian government started Petro-Canada in the mid-70s as a Crown Corporation to insulate (ostensibly) Canadiens from oil shocks. When it was deemed to be no longer necessary, they sold it. Same for Air Canada.

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