Just yesterday I recorded an incredible conversation with the archivist from Ford, formerly of Coca-Cola, about the history of fueling infrastructure in this country and let me just say... when you listen to that conversation, you'll understand why we haven't cracked the code on EV charging yet.
There are two camps here:
One understands what basic-ass AC charging can do and that overnight charging takes care of all local needs full stop. That's me, wishing we focused on this.
The other imagines EVs getting used like ICE vehicles, and pulls the trigger assuming this makes sense.
I would wager every report you see from someone being dissatisfied with an EV is someone who could not charge at home and got one anyway.
And every report you see where EV owners question what on Earth people are thinking comes from people who can charge at home.
And by focusing so much on DC fast charging built up and effectively not at all on getting slow charging at apartment buildings and workplaces, we are setting up a whole class of folks to not understand the best ways to use their EVs.
This includes policy makers who could help renters.
Workplace charging is really underrated and totally key in inner and older cities where home charging are hard. It's got the potential to solve a lot of the West's duck curve problem, too, by providing a useful sink instead of a coming overnight problem.
100%, and much of the infrastructure is already in place.
Missing from the discussion here is that a huge bottleneck for DC installs is the transformers. AC charging can tap into the overhead capacity that's already there in the vast majority of buildings
That's true to a point. Yes, there's a certain amount of capacity present in existing transformers that could totally be utilized. But in an all-EV future, we're still going to need more than the latent capacity in industrial and commercial settings where people work.
One interesting possibility is in parking lot lighting- it's often 277V, which is awesome for L2 charging, and it was originally sized for sodium or other high-power lighting. Now with LED replacements, there's actually a bunch of spare capacity already in the lot.
Now, I'm not *certain* that every EV on the market can take 277V, some may be limited to 240V. But center-tapping that single 277V phase would yield two 138V circuits, which is sufficient for workplace charging where you're normally there 7-10 hours.
