Comments on: Coulomb Promises Gas-Pump-Style EV Rapid Charging

By: tapra1

tapra1 — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 11:32:14 +0000

of electric cars on US roads expands, the emergence of an open system of free or low-cost Business Hosting Reviews

By: judas

judas — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 17:50:13 +0000

what about where dealers make thier money? servicing $30-$120 every 40,000-60,000 miles thats if nothing goes wrong. what maintence is required on a EV? check battery levels? and for dead cells after 100,000 miles or once a year after the summer heat and i bet thats mostly computerized

By: ex-EV1 driver

ex-EV1 driver — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:48:30 +0000

J,
Think about it. Your car leaves you only one method of refueling today – essentially my option 3. That is to go out of your way once per week (I’d have to do it at least twice per week since I have a long commute) to your friendly neighborhood gas station and sit there for about 5 minutes while you refuel with expensive gasoline. You don’t have the option of shopping for cheaper sources such as your home (much of my electricity comes from the sun directly) or stores that might want to offer you free energy to lure you in.
My car’s ‘tank’ is full every morning, ready for up to 200 miles of driving and I can always charge at work if I have to go places for business during the day. This handles all my needs 5 days of the week. If my car were bigger, then it would probably handle at least 3/4 of my weekend usage (that’s about 93% of my usage). Fast charging or opportunity charging would handle the remaining 7% of my needs. Or, I could just go to the local fast charger all the time like you do and pay the provider for the privilege. I, however, get to choose.
I guess you’re right. I happened to have money to spend so I did so – to help jumpstart an EV industry for the benefit of all (including me).
If sticking it to the oil companies and oil producing countries that hate me is making a statement then let the records show that I’m making it
Are you trying to make a statement that you aren’t willing to pay a little more today, to provide a chance that your children or grandchildren will live the same mobility-enabled lifestyle that you conveniently enjoy today?

By: J

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:46:18 +0000

--ex-EV1 driver,

Three types of charging? Are you listening to yourself when you say that? I don't want my car dictating how I go about my life. Right now I can fill up on Sunday and go to the middle of the following week with no worries. EV's are not economical, efficient or convenient. They are for people that have money to spend and or are wanting to make a statement. Until the time comes where charging is as quick as fueling up is now and will take me at least 400 miles on a single charge, EV's are not ready for taking over the ICE's or hybrids.

By: Shines

Shines — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:01:29 +0000

Of course I was not suggesting a 3rd rail running the length of our interstate highway system. I suggest something like weigh stations (interspersed) along the interstate system. You pull your EV off the main road onto a parallel lane and connect to a something LIKE a 3rd rail (or maybe an overhead wire system as ex-EV1 suggests) that CHARGES the EVs battery (for maybe a mile?) as it continues to roll towards its destination.
Clearly though – the many suggestions and discussions on this thread show that many people are thinking about ways to overcome percieved shortcomings of EVs. This must be seen as positive for EVs!

By: ex-EV1 driver

ex-EV1 driver — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:33:17 +0000

Idea,
What you suggest can help up to a point, assuming that your charging speed is limited by the power available.
Charging speed is determined by the power put into the battery.
This can be limited by the ability of the battery to handle the amount of power into it as well as the amount of power that can be supplied.

Just as a bit of electrical engineering background, the Power (P) is determined by the Voltage (V) available and the Current (I - not sure why Electrical folks use I as the abbreviation for Current but they do so let's just follow convention). The formula is simply P=I x V.
Normal US home wiring provides two 120 Volt 'rails' from the grid, into the house electrical breaker box. Most outlets and lights in the house take one of these 120 Volt 'rails' to operate. High Power appliances such as Air Conditioners, Electric Stoves, Electric Ovens, Electric Clothes Dryers, Spas, Pool Filters, and Electric Heating put the two 120 Volt rails together in series to provide 240 Volts.
The current (measured in Amps) available at an outlet or the appliance is determined by the wire size and the breaker between it and the breaker box. Standard US outlets have 15 Amp breakers so they can handle 12 Amps. Electric Dryers generally have 30 Amp breakers at 240 Volts. Electric Stoves and Ovens generally have 50 Amp breakers.
Most modern EV owners will hard wire a charger into a dedicated 240 Volt circuit. The RAV4EV and the EV1 drew 30 Amps so they required a 40 Amp (a little extra) circuit at 240 Volts.
The Tesla Roadster is very flexible. You can set it to draw anything from 12 Amps to 70 Amps at anywhere between 120 Volts and 240 Volts. You charge faster as either the voltage or the current increases.
This means that if you don't have a dedicated circuit to charge your vehicle and you are stuck using standard outlets, you might be able to help yourself by connecting outlets together IF you do it correctly and select your outlets carefully.
This is not recommended and is generally in violation of electrical wiring codes. I highly advise against this unless you have a lot of expertise in electrical wiring, ie, if you learned anything from or don't 100% understand anything I've written above, DON'T try it.
The best approach is simply to get an electrician to wire up a 240 Volt circuit to your garage to charge your car. This may require a new 'entrance' to your house from the street if you don't have any extra capacity in your breaker box or you could trip your main breaker if charging your car at the same time as other things are using power.

By: Idea

Idea — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 06:10:22 +0000

I’m not literate on electrical charging. But rather than having high power stations, what happens if an EV is able to connect more than one charge outlets? Can this achieve faster charging? Sort of the like good old days of dial up modem trying to achieve higher speeds by combine two independent data streams.

By: sting

sting — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 03:55:18 +0000

Hmmmm a 15 minute rapid charge will do for a hundred miles and this chargers can be put in a small area of a gasoline station or a convenience store. Other than that the owners of these establishments if safe would put wifi hotspots on those establishments so people will have time using their laptops or pda’s while waiting. On the other hand i hope these ev manufacturers would add solar panels on the roofs of those vehicles for trickle charge and ensure their 100 mile trip before charging again

By: Max Reid

Max Reid — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 01:29:34 +0000

Liz : Dont try to jump in and make a money right away. You cannot charge $5 for using the charger, since people would like to pay money only for the kwh of electricity they consume. You can only charge a few cents premium / kwh.

As I said, initially its the Post Offices, Public Libraries, Big Stores who are going to install this, only as the number of Plugins & EVs increases, small business owners can get in.

It will take some time, so you have to wait.

By: ex-EV1 driver

ex-EV1 driver — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:11:38 +0000

Shines,
I can't see it being very economical to run many miles of 3rd rail but it is an intriguing idea. I drove my EV1 in San Francisco a few times and thought how tempting it would be to put a couple of poles on it to grab electricity from the electric bus overhead wires that run down several of SF's streets.
Since the EV1 was a lease and was taken away from me before I'd have been ready to start hacking on it, I never got the chance to be crazy and actually try.
Maybe some day.