On July 16, 2014 Elon Musk tweeted out to the world Tesla Motors would produce an affordable 200 mile range electric vehicle. Ever since that tweet nearly all major automakers around the world have been working towards their own version of an affordable 200 plus mile range electric vehicle (EV).
In 2021 that era of the 200 plus mile range on a single charge EV is here. GM was the first US manufacture to reach the market with its Chevy Bolt EV that had an EPA rated range of 238 miles. Renault reached the market in Europe with its 200-mile range Zoe soon after. On July 7, 2017, Tesla's first Model 3 rolled off its assembly line. Back in 2018 Hyundai came to the US market with long range cute SUV EV. And Ford will have its electric Mustang SUV in 2021. VW, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and other major automobile manufacturers have all announced 200 plus mile EVs for sale this year. And Ford will have its electric Mustang SUV in 2021. Last year Tesla sold nearly 500,000 200 plus mile EVs. This year it looks like there will be an onslaught of EVs all with 200 mile ranges or better thereby making the 200-mile range EV the de facto base range. This fact fundamentally changes how the United States should approach its development for EV charging infrastructure.
The number one problem that we are facing as a deluge of long range EVs reach the market is our wrong headed approach to EV charging infrastructure. The problem is with the charging infrastructure model that we have been following so far is based on low range vehicles of around one hundred miles range and low wattage charging stations known as level 2 chargers. Both home and work charging allow for long stretches of charging time where these low watt and slow charging level 2 stations using the SAE j1772 standard, are somewhat fine. The j1772 standard for these level 2 chargers is followed by all electric vehicle manufactures today, even Teslas can access these chargers with an adaptor. The j1772 plug also works with the portable level 1 charger that can use a regular household 110 volt outlet and typically comes with the purchase of your EV. The j1772 plug is also used with level 2 at home chargers that use 240volt household current. The level 2 standard is fine for this use. And it works perfectly fine when using your EV for commuting purposes and driving around your home to run errands. However, the low range low wattage model no longer enough with a base model 200 plus mile EV as the new base range.
Outside of home the old level 2 based charging model strategy was to develop convenience charging opportunities at very many places such as work, businesses, shopping centers, public parking, restaurants and more. Basically everywhere. Typically this type of charging can take a vehicle like my 75 mile range EV between 4 to 8 hours to charge. In the old model battery capacities were small and most charging was to be done at home where there is plenty of time to charge overnight. If you work at a place that is over half of your total range this model would require you to add a charging station at your work place so that you could get back home. If you are planning to go to an event that is over half of your available range you may want to find a place to charge near the event so you can charge while you are attending the event and hope you get enough juice while there to get you back home. Are you getting the picture? Low range EVs require a much greater infrastructure to deal with their low ranges. It also increases the hassle of owning an EV exponentially since you have to look for charging stations to help you complete even relatively short trips and hope that they are close to where you are going, hope that they are not occupied by other vehicles and hope that you get enough electric juice to get you back home.
Tesla figured out that there was a way out of this small battery and slow public charging hassle. They envisioned an electric vehicle future of much bigger batteries, with much longer ranges and much faster chargers. The legacy automakers realized this to a much lesser degree and halfheartedly responded by equipping their EVs with DC fast charging. These fast chargers can charge a vehicle like my 75 mile range EV up to 80% in about a half hour. A much larger battery for a 200 mile plus EV would take much, much longer even on one of these DC fast chargers. Also, unfortunately, there are three standards for fast charging in the United States. They are CHAdeMO, SAE CCS, and the Tesla Supercharger standards. Since Tesla vehicles were created with 200 plus mile ranges and much larger battery capacities in mind they needed a system that was much more powerful then the ones envisioned by the original CHAdeMO and SAE CCS offerings championed by the legacy automakers. For Tesla the idea behind quick charging was that long distance travel would not be out of reach for EVs. Cross country trips and long distance travel could be done with quick, half hour or so stops along the way.
Also, Tesla’s long ranging vehicles simply wouldn’t need an extensive infrastructure of convenience charging opportunities at many, many places like the other model since at 200-mile plus range Teslas would have plenty of range to do commutes, event trips and shopping and still have enough juice to return home. Home where the vehicle can easily charge overnight. According to the AAA nearly all vehicle owners use their vehicles typically on a daily basis for less than 32 miles. Where charging was needed for Tesla’s long ranging EVs was on long trips like those between cities.
The small battery slow charger model basically ruled out taking long road trips of any real length. You can only really drive for around an hour and then charge for around a half hour to travel another hour (about 50 miles) again, this with an around 100-mile range EV. That is if your 100-mile range EV was equipped with a CHAdeMO or SAE CCS onboard charger, which were many times only offered as an expensive option. To do long trips using level 2 charging is a mind boggling annoyance. That would be traveling an hour and then charge from 4 to 8 hours depending on the wattage of the onboard charger and the charging station, and then travel for about an hour again. Nuts. This would be an incredible hassle filled long distance trip taking far longer to do than in a standard gasoline powered internal combustion vehicle. Only a company not interested in advancing EVs would consider the old level 2 small battery model as legitimate.
The Tesla infrastructure concept, which should now be every EV manufacturer's concept since 200-miles EVs have become in large part the entry level model range for EVs, is to travel 3 hours or so, around 150 miles, stop at a Tesla Supercharger area, or other adequate fast charging station, plug-in, walk to a nearby place to get food, use the restrooms or just relax for about a half hour and then unplug and drive for another 3 or so hours again before repeating the process. For this charging model Tesla built out its own charging infrastructure to advance this concept. They focused their proprietary infrastructure on connecting cities and made it available to most of it’s Model S and X owners for free. It is possible to travel from coast to coast in the US via the network of Tesla Superchargers, as well as travel between most major cities.
With the other systems CHAdeMO and SAE CCS, when they were first being rolled out, their wattages were about a half to a third of that of a Tesla Supercharger. These other charging systems have been given a huge boost in the arm by being given money from the law suits against Volkswagen for their cheating on diesel engine emissions tests. With this money they have managed to spread SAE CCS chargers across the country. CHAdeMO as a fast charger standard is quickly dying and will most likely be extinct shortly. Europe has also been insisting that the SAE push up the wattages on the SAE CCS standard substantially and has gotten fast charger station manufactures and car makers in Europe to adjust to these much more powerful standards. They have done this for practical reasons as well as making the SAE CCS standard competitive with the Tesla Supercharger network. Tesla is responding by increasing the power of its Superchargers to reduce charging times even more. All this new activity has worked to solidify the vision of the future that Elon Musk had for EV infrastructure that he first articulated to the public in his tweet on July 16, 2014, a tweet that notified the world of the company’s plans that it had developed years before.
The move to 200-miles as the base range for EVs gives us an opportunity to rethink what we are doing when thinking about electric vehicle infrastructure. First, it means that most of the money being used to develop public level 2 charging infrastructure in very many places is unnecessary. With 200-mile range EVs the slow level 2 charging station doesn’t do enough to be useful at shopping centers, restaurants, convenience stores and places like these. They will still be useful at hotels since plenty of time can be devoted to charging overnight, however, they are not really needed in most other places. If a level 2 charger is to be installed it should be done with one caveat, that the wattage of these level 2 chargers be brought up to the maximum of the SAE j1772 level 2 standard which is 19.2 kW. With the maximum wattage in the standard these chargers will be able to fully charge the 200 plus mile range EVs as well as the very large batteries coming in the future, overnight. Also, new electric vehicles need to be equipped to accept these new much higher wattages through their j1772 charge ports.
I believe that the charging infrastructure model first conceived and championed by Tesla for 200 plus mile range EVs is what the charging infrastructure buildout from now on should be. Let the infrastructure for level 2 charging build out organically, based on requests, particular need, and personal/private funding. However, the focus of nearly all of the money available for developing charging infrastructure from government, major businesses and other similar sources should be used on developing a network of fast charging station locations connecting cities and supported by rest stop amenities. Fast charging locations should also be situated at strategic locations inside cities to promote commerce, tourism, sightseeing, and convenience for city dwellers who may not have access to reserved parking spots with level 2 charging.
The most surprising discovery of what I found when plotting out how the fast charging infrastructure should be built across America was how relatively few quick charging station locations are needed to service the entire country. I calculated that around 60 quick charging locations would meet all of the charging needs for my home state of Wisconsin. That covered the entire state, even into remote areas as long as there are good roads. Minnesota needs only 50, and that is with charging stations spaced 50 miles apart in both states. The entire United States including Alaska and Hawaii would be fully serviced with somewhere around 2900 charging station locations on good roads. This was so surprising to me that I went back and checked my assumptions. Especially when you think there are around 168,000 retail gasoline stations nationwide in comparison. The question I had to answer was why so few?
The reason why EVs need so much less publicly accessible infrastructure than gasoline stations needed for regular internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles is due to the fact that the infrastructure that powers electric vehicles is already at our homes. Remember electric vehicles get their “fuel” to move mainly at home through the electricity that comes to your house. Let me give you an image that might help you understand how EVs are different from ICE vehicles.
Imagine that you have a gasoline pump at your home where the gasoline was piped to it directly from the refinery. Think of it like a natural gas pipeline to your home, but in this case it is delivering gasoline to your gasoline pump. Also, imagine that you got in the habit of filling up your car every time you came home. You would have a full tank of gas every time you left your home in your car. The only time that you would ever need to go to a gasoline station would be on long trips that were beyond the range of the gasoline in your tank. Now imagine everyone in the country having the same home based gasoline pump as you do. The need for gasoline stations would drop dramatically because there would be no need to go to a local gasoline station. You have a gasoline station at home. You would only need a gasoline staton on long trips beyond the range of your gasoline powered car. Well, with electric vehicles that “gasoline” pump at your home exists with the electricity that comes to your house anyway for powering your lights, appliances, electronics, etc. Just like charging your smartphone before going out into the world away from the electric outlets in your house, your electric vehicle will charge up at home letting you to go out into the world, only needing to stop and access electricity again when your trip has gone beyond the range on your batteries. With the 2900 fast charging locations across the country, you will always be within 25 miles away from access to the charging you need to keep you going. Get it?
The paradigm shift to 200 plus miles range for electric vehicles is upon us. With production of these EVs by nearly all the major automakers happening now it has created a new paradigm that has changed our charging infrastructure needs going forward. Gone is the need to have a bunch of level 2 charging stations all over the place. The new EVs being built don’t really need them. Also, having quick chargers placed willy nilly based on random funding and support should give way to a plan having fast charging stations positioned at 50 mile intervals on all serious roads, as well as some strategically placed fast charging areas located inside cities and some road side towns to help out with keeping the cities and towns vibrant economically. There should also be DC fast charging areas providing a close place for those EV owners in the cities that have limited access to charging where they live. Government, businesses and other organizations investing in building out the EV charging infrastructure should concentrate their efforts on the 2900 or so quick charging locations needed across the country to make EVs fully competitive with fossil fueled vehicles as soon as possible.
The pieces for creating a world of truly cleaner and quieter transportation is nearly in place thanks in large part to the vision of Elon Musk and the willingness of the automotive industry to follow suit with 200 plus mile electric vehicles. All we need now is for us to be smart about how we build out the DC fast charging infrastructure needed by those EVs. We need to take the desperate pieces that make up our the vision of our electric future and put them together in an effective, appropriate and cohesive infrastructure plan of action that we can all follow.