ElectricVehicle
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This thread is to discuss and reocommend good locations for Level 3 Quick Chargers (Nissan) / Level 3 Fast Chargers (CARB). Even the name for these changes depending on who you're talking with!
Things to consider in picking Quick Charge sites:
1. The should be in useful locations to facilitate longer distance travel or to serve apartment dwellers and EV rentals that don't have charging at home or the hotel, etc.
Longer distance travel means plagin them alojng transportation corridors, like major highways that connecct frequent destinations. Major cities are also reasonable locations, though if the city is your destination and your spending some hours there, 240V level 2 charging may suffice. So a Quick Charger in a major city may be on one or two major highways going through the city, but dozens of quick chargers in a single city would be a waste of the limited number of quick chargers that are coming in the next one (maybe 50 QC stations in all of CA) to 5 years (maybe a couple hundred QC stations).
With the 75 mile range of a LEAF at 65 MPH full charge, but presuming the last charge was a Quick Charge for a multiple charge hop trip, so 80% of 75 is 60 miles, further allowing a 15 mile reserve for battery pack degradation over time and slight battery imbalance, or just plain getting lost, leaves a usable 65 MPH Quick Charge to Quick Charge range of 45 miles.
So Quick chargers for multi-hop travel along transit corridors, like major highways should be spaced no more than 50 miles apart. Later, we may want more than one at a location or have them spaced 20 or 30 miles apart to allow for issues like a site being out of order, vandalized or in use by another EV driver.
2. The site must have 3 phase power available to support 50 kW high power requirement of a Quick Charger.
3. Quick Chargers are expensive to install and operate.
The Quick Charge units start at $10,000 and go up to $50,000. Installation, even at a site that already has 3 phase power is likely to exceed $10,000 and more typically $15,000 to $30,000. So your small neighborhood espresso stand won't have the power or funding to support a Quick Charger. Think more along the lines of major park and ride lots, major malls, large business installations that have large facilities and power budgets with plenty of 3 phase power. Demand energy charges for a quick charger, because of the high peak energy (50kW) used by a quick charger will cost around $500 to $1300 per month (Using typical demand charges of $10 to $25/kW peak load). kWh Energy costs during the day time for a single Nissan LEAF Quick Charge of roughly 18 kWh AC (from the grid - or solar) will run from $2.88 to $18. ($0.16/kWh to $1.00/kWh) Yes, that's $1/kWh, during peak demand electricity costs can hit or exceed $1/kWh in a commercial setting. San Diego Gas and Electric being one example of the higher rates.
So a Quick Charger will likely run in excess of $1,000 per month just for the energy charges. In areas with higher energy costs and including other cost factors - cost of capital, etc., the monthly cost is in the $2,000 to $4,000 range. I haven't looked up exact numbers for these figures and it will vary significantly for different sites, but think in terms of at least $1,000/ month and more like $2,000 or $3,000. Keep in mind that commercial establishments already subsidize vehicles to the tune of $200/month per vehicle or more to pay for the real estate and construction costs of the parking space.
4. Utilization of a single Quick Charger is finite.
If each charge takes 30 minutes + 5 minutes to swtich between cars, is 41 Quick charges per 24 hour day, assuming it is used all 24 hours. So a Qhuick Charger is an expensive piece of equipment that realistically - day time and evening hours - may only serve 10 to 20 vehicles a day, and at that level of usage, people will often being waiting for other peopple to finish charging. Less usage means you're spending a similar amount of money and capital but not serving that many people. (On the other hand, maybe we should run the ecoonomics of a gasoline pump which is very expensive but can serve 100-300 people per day, per pump.)
As we evaluate the feasibility of each site, we can try to estimate our usage of the site to help see what the economic case is, pick a general area, find a willing host and the funding to make it happen. With the costs involved, this may be just identifying good areas and passing that along to funded organizations for their consideration, like EcoTotality/EVProject/Blink, BAAQMD, interested Nissan dealers, West Coast Corridor Coalition etc.
Related MNL threads
San Francisco Bay Area Quick Chargers Getting them sooner
How often would you use the Vacaville, CA Quick Charge?
Things to consider in picking Quick Charge sites:
1. The should be in useful locations to facilitate longer distance travel or to serve apartment dwellers and EV rentals that don't have charging at home or the hotel, etc.
Longer distance travel means plagin them alojng transportation corridors, like major highways that connecct frequent destinations. Major cities are also reasonable locations, though if the city is your destination and your spending some hours there, 240V level 2 charging may suffice. So a Quick Charger in a major city may be on one or two major highways going through the city, but dozens of quick chargers in a single city would be a waste of the limited number of quick chargers that are coming in the next one (maybe 50 QC stations in all of CA) to 5 years (maybe a couple hundred QC stations).
With the 75 mile range of a LEAF at 65 MPH full charge, but presuming the last charge was a Quick Charge for a multiple charge hop trip, so 80% of 75 is 60 miles, further allowing a 15 mile reserve for battery pack degradation over time and slight battery imbalance, or just plain getting lost, leaves a usable 65 MPH Quick Charge to Quick Charge range of 45 miles.
So Quick chargers for multi-hop travel along transit corridors, like major highways should be spaced no more than 50 miles apart. Later, we may want more than one at a location or have them spaced 20 or 30 miles apart to allow for issues like a site being out of order, vandalized or in use by another EV driver.
2. The site must have 3 phase power available to support 50 kW high power requirement of a Quick Charger.
3. Quick Chargers are expensive to install and operate.
The Quick Charge units start at $10,000 and go up to $50,000. Installation, even at a site that already has 3 phase power is likely to exceed $10,000 and more typically $15,000 to $30,000. So your small neighborhood espresso stand won't have the power or funding to support a Quick Charger. Think more along the lines of major park and ride lots, major malls, large business installations that have large facilities and power budgets with plenty of 3 phase power. Demand energy charges for a quick charger, because of the high peak energy (50kW) used by a quick charger will cost around $500 to $1300 per month (Using typical demand charges of $10 to $25/kW peak load). kWh Energy costs during the day time for a single Nissan LEAF Quick Charge of roughly 18 kWh AC (from the grid - or solar) will run from $2.88 to $18. ($0.16/kWh to $1.00/kWh) Yes, that's $1/kWh, during peak demand electricity costs can hit or exceed $1/kWh in a commercial setting. San Diego Gas and Electric being one example of the higher rates.
So a Quick Charger will likely run in excess of $1,000 per month just for the energy charges. In areas with higher energy costs and including other cost factors - cost of capital, etc., the monthly cost is in the $2,000 to $4,000 range. I haven't looked up exact numbers for these figures and it will vary significantly for different sites, but think in terms of at least $1,000/ month and more like $2,000 or $3,000. Keep in mind that commercial establishments already subsidize vehicles to the tune of $200/month per vehicle or more to pay for the real estate and construction costs of the parking space.
4. Utilization of a single Quick Charger is finite.
If each charge takes 30 minutes + 5 minutes to swtich between cars, is 41 Quick charges per 24 hour day, assuming it is used all 24 hours. So a Qhuick Charger is an expensive piece of equipment that realistically - day time and evening hours - may only serve 10 to 20 vehicles a day, and at that level of usage, people will often being waiting for other peopple to finish charging. Less usage means you're spending a similar amount of money and capital but not serving that many people. (On the other hand, maybe we should run the ecoonomics of a gasoline pump which is very expensive but can serve 100-300 people per day, per pump.)
As we evaluate the feasibility of each site, we can try to estimate our usage of the site to help see what the economic case is, pick a general area, find a willing host and the funding to make it happen. With the costs involved, this may be just identifying good areas and passing that along to funded organizations for their consideration, like EcoTotality/EVProject/Blink, BAAQMD, interested Nissan dealers, West Coast Corridor Coalition etc.
Related MNL threads
San Francisco Bay Area Quick Chargers Getting them sooner
How often would you use the Vacaville, CA Quick Charge?
