EV support

I'm one of two electric vehicle coordinators for my company. A while back we started a project to put in more chargers in our facilities. As of a year ago we only had about 20 level 2 chargers (240 volt fancy chargers) for the entire San Diego facility (10,000 people) and people were often arguing over chargers, having to move their cars after a few hours to get someone else in etc.

The new project uses simple 120 volt outlets rather than the more expensive 240 volt EVSE's. Charge rate is slower, but over an 8 hour day you can get about 40 miles more range from a simple outlet - and that's enough for almost anyone to make it home. And since outlets are cheap, we were able to put more in one place. This first installation has 25 charging spots for EV's. In the picture below you'll see Leafs, Focuses, plug-in Priuses, Volts, BMW's and Teslas charging their cars.

This still isn't enough (the spots are full every day) but this is just the first installation. Within two years we are hoping to have hundreds of charging spots for EV owners to use. And since several of our parking garages have lots of solar PV on the roof, there's a nice equivalence between power generated and power used in the garage.

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Just out of curiosity, is the company selling the power to the drivers or giving it as a fringe benefit/perk? In SoCal, 1500W for 8 hours works out to about $2 per car per day.

 

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Giving it out free. I've actually proposed charging standard rates for the higher power chargers, because it makes them more available to people who need them to get home. (As an example, every single high power charger in our facilities here always has an EV parked in it. But right across the street, four standard Blink chargers, which charge $0.50/kwhr, always have an available spot.)

 

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billvon
Do you have an all electric car and if not are you planning to buy one in the near future? If so I was wondering which car you are leaning towards and why?

 

I have a Leaf and a Prius right now. We generally use the Leaf more often.

 

I am assuming the Prius is a chargeable model. But I'm betting the Leaf is a better driving car. How many miles can the Leaf get on a full charge? Also, how would living in Arizona work for a Leaf where you have to run the air conditioner just about all the time?

 

Started off at just under 100, now it's at about 70 (3 years and 20,000 miles later.)

I would not have recommended it two years ago due to the battery problems they had at high temperatures. Those problems have been fixed, though, and would thus depend on your route. If your usual commute is under 40 miles round trip then it's a good option. If it's longer you'd probably want to make sure you could charge at work, so you can handle detours and unexpected trips.

 

I'm living alone so I need a car that's a little more versatile. I like the concept of the chargeable hybrid but not to eager to be stuck driving a Prius. The EV's I would like to drive are way out of my price range. So my next car will probably be a high mileage gas or clean diesel.

 

You might consider a Ford C-max Energi. A friend of mine has one and likes it a lot. Greater EV range than the Prius and more fun to drive - and it's in a small SUV form factor.

 

Thanks I did check it out, and it looks promising. In the US it's supposed to get significant upgrade in 2016 and it's already a pretty good looking car. I plan to keep an eye on it and wait another year.

 

I would love to support EV's, but I dont really understand the advantages of using them.

 

Do you remember when gas was over $4.00 per gallon? Not having to pay the pump is a big advantage. Also a big part of our global warming is burning fossil fuel, so you can get a feel good by not using gasoline.

 

Ye I do, thats cause the demand for it is so great. But, whats going to happen when the demand for electricity increases? the price is going to increase when the supply cant cope.

For now. If every vehicle on the road was a EV how much do you think you would pay for electricity?

Ok, but dont they burn fossil fuels to generate electricity? So in a way it has an advantage in the sense that burning the fuels in a centralised environment we have a better chance to filter or contain the co2 and other harmful gases.
Burning huge amounts of fuels in a centralised location may also have dire consequences for the local environment and weather.

I still dont understand...

 

so is billvon a Tesla type manager or a Leaf type associate...I wonder...

 

For now, that part is more of a scam than an advantage, since you typically end up paying a higher lifetime ownership cost for the electric car, since they are so much more expensive than gas cars. It's something to watch, but for the most part, not ready for prime time yet.

 

No, for two reasons:
1. Electric cars are going to mostly be charged at night, when electricity is used much less and (where such pricing exists) is much cheaper.
2. We have the ability to generate a lot more electricity - nearly unlimited electricity - for about the same price it costs now, with nuclear power.

 

Maybe, however you have to start somewhere and the current reprieve in gas prices won't last. In order for continued development in alternative power sources you need customers. If your not yet ready to be a customer for EV's and hybrids, you should be glad others are. There will come a time when owning a gas powered vehicle will cost you more than the alternatives and you will be glad there are alternatives when that happens.

 

Indeed.

Agreed, and while 8 years ago when Peak Oil looked like it was approaching, or even 3 years ago when oil prices were spikey, that day looked like it was just around the corner. I bought my current car 3 years ago and put a fair amount of effort into comparing costs for hybrids and conventional cars. I'll have to see if I still have the spreadhseet, but I think I was expecting $8 gas within a few years. That was high enough to make a hybrid close to a toss-up and at least worth looking at, but I opted for a conventional car that I just liked better than the available hybrid options. Today, I'm very glad I did.

Yes, $2 a gallon gas probably won't last long, but whether it does or doesn't it is pretty clear that the artificially high prices of gas that we've had for the last 40 years are gone for the next 40. I see shale oil and market forces creating a plateau for oil at no more than $4 a gallon, indenfinitely.

Actually, no: alternate power sources will work against electric cars (or, really, the other way around). Since most charging will and should be done at home, at night, when power capacity is plentiful and electricity is cheap, alternate sources like wind and solar do nothing for electric cars. Building rooftop solar panels over a garage to power electric cars for employees is a marketing gimick. Insofar as it wouldn't have happened if it had to make sense it is good that it happened, but once the fad factor goes away, people are going to have to do things that make sense. Charging cars at night, at home and using the solar panels to run your company's air conditioning during the day is what makes sense -- it results in fewer natural gas power plants being built.

I don't know if "environmentalism" is ever going to grow up, but they'll need to start being serious and logical about these issues in order for them to work out. IMO, going after the fads -- keeping-up the fad factor -- is a bad thing, not a good thing.

 

I don't think EV's are considered a fad. Also, what do you think about hydrogen powered cars? Looks like some companies are going to get very serious about them over the next few years.

 

I'm not sure if there is a better word, but I'd compare it to buying a any product when it is new and immature; you pay much more than it is worth and you don't really know if/when it will catch on.

I haven't heard of any serious effort being put into them, but as the technology currently stands, they are a much worse idea than regular electric cars. I really see no benefit to them at all vs battery powered cars.