https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/biden-sets-standards-for-…
This money for charging stations for EV will mean Tesla will need to change its standards. Or Tesla cars wont be charged along the highway in many instances unable to plug in.
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Tesla can make these changes to comply with the new standards.
Biden administration officials have pointed to electric vehicles as an answer to climbing gas prices; electric cars are generally much cheaper to operate than vehicles that burn gasoline. The administration is also promoting electric vehicles as a way to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil and to fight climate change.
Administration officials said they believe the charging station hurdle is on its way to being solved. Mr. Biden has set a goal of building 500,000 charging stations across the country by 2030.
Sales of electric vehicles now amount to 4.6 percent of new purchases in the United States. Ms. Granholm noted that sales of electric vehicles doubled last year and are on pace to double again in 2022, despite supply chain problems and semiconductor shortages.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/09/climate/electric-vehicles…
Jaak
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I don’t know much about EVs but I would like to ask: Why are the new standards differnt than the Tesla charger? Is there a technical reason?
Wendy
There are 3 levels of charging.
Level 1 is 117vac…you add a few miles an hour. A full charge can take 24+ hours. Some communities put in Level 1 chargers at gyms, rec centers, public buildings and some super markets and stores put in Level 1 chargers. You might get 10 miles in 2 hours of shopping.
Level 2 is 220V - 40 amp circuit. You can charge up your EV in 5-6 hours at home.
Level 3 - fast charging - but there are differences. Some are 24 KWH, some are 35 and some 60 KWH. To charge up a battery in a hour that is 90% depleted - you want the highest rate. Not all cars can take the highest rate but will cut back.
Even a Level 3 charger will give you typically 80% charge in half hour to hour…the other 20% of battery can take another 2-3 hours as it slows down as the charge level increases.
Tesla put in a chain of “Super chargers” - 60 KWH type deals that were limited to Tesla cars.
The ‘Infrastructure’ bill promised to pay for 500,000 ‘charge points’…but of course, along interstates, you might have 8 or 10 or 12 charge points at one location. The goal was a Level 3 charger every 50 miles along interstates and main routes.
If EV sales take off, that might not be enough on Holiday weekends …
Now, a multiple charge point Super Charger takes a LOT of electricity - your local 7-11 will have to redo the entire electrical system, have a big step down transformer from 440VAC service, etc. It might be a while before they jump on board.
Of course, the rate for EV charging away from home will be 3-5 times what you pay at home per KW.
t
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Most of what Tesla is installing these days is 250kwh.
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I don’t know much about EVs but I would like to ask: Why are the new standards differnt than the Tesla charger? Is there a technical reason?
I don’t think it’s so much about the chargers as about the plugs! At our marina we had a bunch of converters to deal with the various world wide standards. Here in Portugal the chargers have three different plugs. One charger, three plugs!
The Captain
I don’t know much about EVs but I would like to ask: Why are the new standards differnt than the Tesla charger? Is there a technical reason?
It is the auto industry in the US v Tesla. While Tesla has the market share currently one standard would be better for the consumers. Tesla does everything the expensive way. Meaning when you need parts only Tesla seems to supply them. The charges wont be the same sort of expensive and very limited results. Leaving the Tesla plugs behind is a must.
Tesla does everything the expensive way. Meaning when you need parts only Tesla seems to supply them.
This is an incomplete description of why Tesla has a different charger plug. When the first standards were being set Tesla was, essentially, a nobody and their proposal didn’t get accepted. The standards people were very slow to adopt anything so Tesla went with what is had, which is arguably a bit better but different than the CCS standard which took many years to come to market.
In Europe the Tesla Superchargers do have the same CCS plug. So Tesla is making both CCS and Tesla plugs. Most of the equipment at all the US Tesla locations could be, relatively cheaply, swapped out with new plugs and some software changes.
Are the Tesla Superchargers “expensive” compared to all the others? Hard to say since Tesla makes and installs them and maintains them. They are certainly incentivized to make them as robust and low cost as possible. While the EA chargers, which are the CCS standard, are being mostly (all?) installed by VW as required by their dieselgate settlement and have widespread reports of not being maintained.
Also, if you just look at the Tesla plug vs the CCS plug, you’d have to give a win to Tesla since it is smaller and sleeker and easier to handle.
Back when the standards were being debated the fastest charger was ~50 kw and Tesla wanted to go to 150 kw. This was their version 2. CCS took very long to set their standard they upped it to have a max of 350 kw in order to leapfrog Tesla which was now a real car maker. Tesla then came out with a version 3, using the same physical plug which is 250 kw.
Realistically, there isn’t much of a difference between 250 and 350 because in both cases after a few minutes (maybe 5) they both throttle down to a lower amount due to heat buildup in the battery and cable and charging station.
Mike
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Mike,
I appreciate a very interesting good read on that.
telegraph incorrectly stated: Level 3 - fast charging - but there are differences. Some are 24 KWH, some are 35 and some 60 KWH…Tesla put in a chain of “Super chargers” - 60 KWH type deals that were limited to Tesla cars.
Wow, tele, this is WAY off, in a lot of ways. First as an engineer you should know that the measure of a charger’s power is kilowatts (KW) not kilowatt-hours (KWH). Describing a charger as 24 KWH is nonsensical.
Furthermore, while it’s true that some Level 3 chargers are as slow as 24-60 KW, newer chargers being installed today are generally quite a bit more powerful, 150KW and go all the way up to 350 KW.
Lastly, even way back in 2012 when Tesla introduced the first Superchargers, they were 90KW and soon increased to 120 KW, twice as powerful as the 60 KW you mention above. Over the years they’ve increased power to 150KW in the V2 Supercharger, and now 250KW for the V3. Most Superchargers are the V2 150KW variety.
There are some urban Superchargers that are in center city parking lots and similar, that are 72KW, designed to be used while shopping and so are lower power.
The Biden administration’s new standards will have no effect on Tesla’s private network of charging stations and their proprietary standard. The new standards just discuss how the money included in his infrastructure law for upgrading charging around the nation can be spent. I don’t think anyone ever expected any of that money to go to Tesla. There is an adaptor available for Teslas to charge on the CCS chargers that are going to be built out with the public money.
Maybe at some point Tesla will convert their Superchargers to CCS along with new Tesla vehicles. As noted upstream it’s not a big deal technically speaking, though there’s then a problem for all the Tesla owners with now obsolete charging plugs. I suppose Tesla would have to provide a CCS adaptor to them, or at least make them cheap to purchase.
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Maybe at some point Tesla will convert their Superchargers to CCS along with new Tesla vehicles.
Actually Tesla is installing new chargers at such a past pace right now that they would likely just add to their existing chargers some new CCS chargers. Or just change out 2 or 4 of the existing chargers with CCS cables.
On average, the typical Supercharger location has about 9 chargers (well above the proposed rule of 4) with many having over 40.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Supercharger
Mike
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