Electric cars are doomed if fast charger reliability doesn’t get better

Electric cars are doomed if fast charger reliability doesn’t get better(arstechnica.com)

4 points by eysquared 3 years ago | 6 comments

moistly 3 years ago |

NIO's battery swapping is the future, IMO. It's faster, while still allowing opportunity to hit the washroom & candy isle at the station. Batteries will be tested with every swap, ensuring failing cells are detected extremely early. Enables battery companies to maintain ownership, which they desperately want because it guarantees their raw materials supply. Eliminates the need to run new electrical capacity to every house and neighbourhood. It's a much, much better solution.

m463 3 years ago | |

IMHO battery swapping - especially for passenger cars - will go nowhere.

I know many many EV drivers and I've known nobody who cares about this.

This seems to me about as likely as changing a car windshield instead of cleaning it, or swapping tires instead of airing them up.

Now EV charger reliability is a big deal. I had a leaf with a smaller battery and it was extremely challenging to go on long trips with it. And everything would grind to a halt if a fast charging station didn't work.

By the way: evgo - very reliable. chargepoint - very reliable. Blink - fast charging never ever worked.

Also, these systems usually had only two chargers per location which was terribly risky to depend on.

On the other hand, tesla did everything right. Cars have decent range. Chargers are very strategically placed. And chargers at each location are plentiful - sometimes to the point of overkill.

nradov 3 years ago | |

That can only be the future if manufacturers agree on a common standard battery form factor. If every company has a different incompatible battery then there will never be enough stations to eliminate range anxiety.

moistly 3 years ago | | |

Or if mandated, like seat belts, air bags, emissions, etc.

tamaharbor 3 years ago |

Perhaps start with a common, standard plug/outlet for all vehicles and chargers?

ndc55 3 years ago | |

are there so many? I know of: ChaDeMo - Japan; GBT - China; Type2 - EU; Type1 - US; Tesla - US.

Type1 and Type2 have the same signalling so they're compatible via adapters (you can import EU/US-only EVs to either region and they can be charged with adapters).

You can find some Chademos around EU and US due to the popularity of the old Nissan Leaf. Tesla uses Type 2 in the EU as do all other manufacturers, including Nissan with their new EVs.

In the EU Type2 is mandated since 2015 on all newly homologated EVs. In the US Type1 is recommended by the SAE since 2009. Early EVs imported to the EU had Type1. No such mandate in the US for using Type1, but Tesla is the only outlier which chooses to use another standard. Tesla has adapters to use on ChaDeMo and Type1 so, little issues there. Idk about the regulations in China and Japan.

Do you know of more plugs/sockets that are in use in the US and EU?