lpickup
Well-known member
Atebit said:So I talked to one of the ABB reps for a few minutes before going into the show. IIRC he mentioned that one of their L III chargers cost somewhere around $25,000, and "what a deal it would be" for gas stations to install them. When I asked about the necessary infrastructure required for L III chargers, he agreed that could be a bit of a barrier to adoption in the near term.
I'm guessing he didn't, but did he mention the infrastructure requirements specifically? I'd be willing to bet that a gas station (and most typical commercial properties) already have the necessary infrastructure which would basically be 480V service. I don't even think 3-phase power is a requirement, but I would guess that a gas station would have that anyway.
I think the bigger barrier, at this point, is a business model that would allow the owner to make money. 24kWh of power is 24kWh of power regardless of how fast it's delivered. That represents about $2.50 in "fuel" costs as compared to how much we pay to charge at home. Of course the convenience factor is worth something. So let's say they can get away with charging $10 for a charge. Assuming $7 of that is profit after they pay their electric bill (they do have to pay demand charges to cover the instantaneous power requirements, which can get VERY expensive), that's still a lot of charges to pay for the equipment (over 3500). Even if there were a line of EVs waiting to charge 24 hours a day, at 30 minutes/charge (60 charges per day), they're only going to make $420/day on this and it will take several months to just pay off the equipment. At this point I would be willing to wager in NC they might get 1-2 customers a day, and maybe in the next 5 years that will climb to 10/day. That's only $70/day.
HOWEVER, think of this: the customer is captive for 30 minutes while their car is charging. I think the chances are pretty good that in the right setting you can get them to buy something that's going to make more money than the $7 they'll make charging your car. Some gas stations (like Sheetz) that have a pseudo-restaurant inside might be able to make money this way, but I think the real "killer app" for DC QC stations is going to be restaurants and coffee shops and other stores that have relatively high profit margin items for sale and would occupy a customer for 30 minutes or so.