GaslessInSeattle said:
I used to think lots of QC's linking distant places was the key to better adoption, now not so much. it helps perception by proving capability and I'm glad they are there, but it doesn't change usability as much as I thought it would. QC's, for a limited range car like the Leaf are needed mostly where the car is used the most, in highly populated metro areas and then fanning out throughout the state over time. A car with the limited range of the Leaf will never be popular for long distance travel no matter how fast it can charge, since frequent stops kill average speed, adding considerable travel time to a trip. no matter the size of the pack, most charging of EV's happens at home. it's the unexpected trips or bad weather/high discharge rate during the daily commute that make the value of an occasional QC s so high. I've driven the Leaf out to Wenatchee and back and Portland and back and quite a few other distant places and I have to say it's not all that practical to do with any kind of regularity, not for the masses anyway. a 3 hour trip to Portland quickly becomes a 6.5 hr trip with lots of stops and waiting around killing time at charging stations along the way, and that's when all the fast chargers are in working order. really, IMHO, the QC roll out should have started in the densely populated areas and gradually fanned out, with realistic expectations of what task the Leaf is most suited for. on a cold day in the winter, when energy use is at it's peak and battery performance is at it's low, QC's are key even in the city where commutes are relatively short. even 10 minutes on a QC lowers the anxiety level quite a bit and makes the Leaf a fun car to drive in a metro area rather than a fogged out stress machine.
mortisier said:
2 million people driving E.V's? People who use there cars in the city dont need quick charging, the overwhelming majority of them charge at home over night. ...
You have basically nailed exactly what current EV'ers already know (if they have chargers to use)
It is really amazing that something so obvious to us is such a foreign concept. part of it is due to the fact that Puget Sound is very much a regional area. So many things to see and do that require 1-2 fast charge stops which is very doable without much inconvenience as long
as they are properly positioned
as far as what that means, we need to realize that probably less than 10% of LEAF owners in Puget Sound live in Seattle but at the same time, Seattle is a prime destination for the state, region, country and World. Obviously World travelers wont see a benefit in fast charging but you get the point right?
the WCGH is a great project and links outlying areas in a way that is valuable and needed but it is not enough. OR has taken that project as a start and expanded it to cover the rest of the state. WA has not and its a big fail. We have vast areas of the state that are big big big destination areas that are geographically close but still unreachable with the LEAF for all but the brave which naturally means I have done it but had Nissan Roadside on Speed dial but as one would guess, most people wont travel that way.
I coined a term the "Forgotten 5"
1)Thurston/Pierce County (the most populated area in the state with only 3 FCs, only 2 publicly available)
2)The Olympic Peninsula which harbors Bald Eagle Sanctuaries, Great fishing, the Hood Canal, Rain Forests and nearly pristine beaches (they have none and not even a handful of L2's)
3) The Washington Coast. Gray's Harbor County has been hit very hard by WA's movement away from the Timber Industry (fueled by Weyerhaeuser getting out of the biz) But still offer a lot of potential for tourism. Putting fast chargers here will help encourage more visitors. Now, a group of us venture to the area in their LEAFs now but we would hardly qualify as "normal"
This area proves to be the most challenging (there is not a Nissan Dealer within 50 miles Aberdeen, the largest city in the area) and where the State needs to step up.
4)The Cascades which might be taken off the list soon since WA has committed more money to the WCGH fund and hopefully this MAJOR tourist, hiking, camping and ski resort area will be well accessible. (lots of elevation challenges here!)
http://www.thereflector.com/news/article_1ef5ebd2-a616-11e2-b9d0-0019bb2963f4.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
5)Eastern WA. I add this at the risk of being called out since this kinda goes against the premise of the post of the LEAFs use as a Local/Regional/interstate vehicle (since most consider E WA to be another planet much less another state!)
and there are some people addressing that issue with private donations in Central WA to install a series of high capacity AC chargers (great for Tesla i guess...)
