RB;
Ah, yaass, Bahstan;
"I dwell 'neath the shades of Harvard
In the State of the Sacred Cod,
Where the Lowells speak only to Cabots
And the Cabots speak only to God."
But I hear excessive inbreeding has pretty much put paid to all that ...
I was thinking more like placing one charger 150 to 200 miles outside every big city on major interstate highways, kind of along the same lines as David posted above. Looking at a map that should cover all major travel destinations with a few exceptions.
It would give plenty of coverage in case of bad weather with a 300 mile battery. In good weather a 240 mile battery would do just fine. I think most of us agree that the 160 miles battery is more of an around town car.
I think the cities themselves will end up with chargers on their own.
SO for example that would be one charge between (using my neck of the woods):
St. Louis and Kansas City
St. Louis and Chicago
St. Louis and Memphis
St. Louis and Indianapolis
St. Louis and Tulsa
Kansas City and Tulsa
Kansas City and Denver
Kansas City and Sioux Falls
Chicago and Minneapolis
Chicago and Indianapolis
Chicago and Cleveland
Memphis and New Orleans
Memphis and Dallas (might need two)
Memphis and Atlanta
Memphis and Knoxville
Memphis and Oklahoma City
Indianapolis and Cleveland
Indianapolis and Nashville
Indianapolis and Pittsburgh
Indianapolis and Knoxville
Indianapolis and Charleston
Just keep on extrapolating from there. Those 22 chargers cover a huge amount of travel.
RB: Yes, and there's great shopping and food in Kittery, Freeport (home of L.L.Bean) and Portland. After that, Camden is nice - they have a great overlook at the park on Mt. Battey (sp?) that overlooks beautiful Camden Harbor.
It's not as high volume as other stretches of I-95, but I think they would get good use, at least from June to October.
I am going to just quote Robert Boston's suggestions for new england on a previous 100+ post thread on exactly the same topic:
@ncn: Agreed! An east-coast charging network would be easy and helpful. The I-95 corridor is the primary backbone. Working from the north, charging stations in New England should be set:
1. Augusta, ME: University of Maine at Augusta campus, I-95 exit 112. Between the state and university, this should be easy. From here, all of the tourist areas is reasonable (118 miles to Bar Harbor, 142 miles to Baxter State Park, even 240 miles to St. John, NB)
2. Kennebunk rest area (north- and south-bound). This is 25 miles into Maine, and gets you to all the south and mid-coast of Maine (105 miles to Camden ME).
3. (north-bound) NH welcome center, NH-MA state line; (south-bound) MW welcome center, MA-NH state line. This point is just north of the I-95 / I-495 split.
4. I-90 (Mass Pike) Charlton rest area: just east of the I-84 / I-90 split.
5. I-95, MA Exit 7. Not much here, but this is strategically located at the intersection of I-95 and I-495. Charge here and Cape Cod is entirely in range (117 miles to Provincetown). Also, hits just north of the I-95 / I-295 split around Providence RI.
6. New Haven. I-91 joins I-90 here, connecting easily to charging stations #4 and #5 above.
7. Greenfield, MA. About 100 miles north of #6, 125 miles west of #3, and along the important Rte 2 east-west route. Also a hotbed of sustainable farming.
8. Danbury, CT. About 110 miles west of #4, and just east of the I-84 / I-684 split.
9. White River Jct, VT. 84 miles north of #7, at the cross-roads of I-91 and I-89. 185 miles to Montreal.
10. Concord, NH. At the cross-roads of I-91 and I-93. Puts all of NH in play, including the White Mtn resorts.
I think that pretty well covers it -- 10 stations to serve 14.5 million people. Not a bad ratio.
Thanks Robert for the well thought out network. Just the idea of it puts a grin on my face.
Something to keep in mind for placing these stations: expanding battery range.
You don't want to place these chargers too close or when the 400 mile, 500 mile, etc battery come along those chargers will see a LOT less use.
@mvbf: thanks for resurrecting that old post of mine!
@Vawlkus: As batteries become less expensive, you can put more kWh into a car at the same price point, or lower prices and keep the kWh (or some mix of lower prices and greater range). To expand the market for EVs, their price has to drop. So, I expect that a robust charging network spaced ~150 miles apart will continue to be valuable for decades -- if for no other reason to provide EV drivers peace of mind.
Vawlkus, I agree with Robert.Boston. In addition, less use due to longer-range batteries will probably be more than offset by many more EVs on the road! Think of how many gas stations there are, despite the fact that many gassers have ranges of more than 300 miles. More charging stations will simply allow for more flexible route planning, very welcome.
100 mile separation is a bit close for the first phase of a rollout. With the Roadster, I prefer charging sites about every 130 - 160 miles. For the Model S, I think I would extend this slightly to maybe 150 - 180 miles.
This could be done with the 230 mile (60 kW) vehicles driving economically. Since I'm assuming those who really expect to be doing road trips will opt for the 300 mile (85 kW) version, they won't have to stop unreasonably often.
The second phase of rollout would undoubtedly split the gaps to allow 75 to 90 miles between stops, enabling a lot more flexibility as well as enabling shorter range EVs such as the Leaf.
I think it's wrong to assume that the stations should be spaced something like 2/3 to 9/10 of the range of the expected vechicles. It has to be more often than that.
The equivalent would be if gas stations were spaced out every 250 miles on interstates. People don't only travel in straight lines, and they don't start with the same amount of charge or from the same place.
If you want to assume cars have at least 150 miles of range, then 50-125 miles apart would not be bad spacing. If I'm driving with less charge than can make it to the second charger, I have to stop. If I've plenty to make it, I don't. Why would some of us want to stop after 60 miles just to synchronize with the charging network spacing?
Actually, with Tesla pointing out 150 miles (on 85kWh pack) in 30 minutes, I suspect that's what they'll be aiming at. I wish they could at least get the I-5 route finished by the end of 2012. That's a total of 9 superchargers counting the end points. The question is then "Can they be located near restaurants and other desirable businesses at those distances?" Of course, I want one at Barstow as well.
Comments
Ah, yaass, Bahstan;
"I dwell 'neath the shades of Harvard
In the State of the Sacred Cod,
Where the Lowells speak only to Cabots
And the Cabots speak only to God."
But I hear excessive inbreeding has pretty much put paid to all that ...
;p
Dallas
I35 Station I45 Station
San Antonio I10 Station Houston
Definitiely not to scale or direction, but these are three of this countries great cities, and we Texans move between them.
It would give plenty of coverage in case of bad weather with a 300 mile battery. In good weather a 240 mile battery would do just fine. I think most of us agree that the 160 miles battery is more of an around town car.
I think the cities themselves will end up with chargers on their own.
SO for example that would be one charge between (using my neck of the woods):
St. Louis and Kansas City
St. Louis and Chicago
St. Louis and Memphis
St. Louis and Indianapolis
St. Louis and Tulsa
Kansas City and Tulsa
Kansas City and Denver
Kansas City and Sioux Falls
Chicago and Minneapolis
Chicago and Indianapolis
Chicago and Cleveland
Memphis and New Orleans
Memphis and Dallas (might need two)
Memphis and Atlanta
Memphis and Knoxville
Memphis and Oklahoma City
Indianapolis and Cleveland
Indianapolis and Nashville
Indianapolis and Pittsburgh
Indianapolis and Knoxville
Indianapolis and Charleston
Just keep on extrapolating from there. Those 22 chargers cover a huge amount of travel.
Its a good place to spend an hour or more, and a great half way point between Denver and Southwest Colorado.
It's not as high volume as other stretches of I-95, but I think they would get good use, at least from June to October.
Something between Dallas and Houston preferably where there is some good BBQ. :-)
@ncn: Agreed! An east-coast charging network would be easy and helpful. The I-95 corridor is the primary backbone. Working from the north, charging stations in New England should be set:
1. Augusta, ME: University of Maine at Augusta campus, I-95 exit 112. Between the state and university, this should be easy. From here, all of the tourist areas is reasonable (118 miles to Bar Harbor, 142 miles to Baxter State Park, even 240 miles to St. John, NB)
2. Kennebunk rest area (north- and south-bound). This is 25 miles into Maine, and gets you to all the south and mid-coast of Maine (105 miles to Camden ME).
3. (north-bound) NH welcome center, NH-MA state line; (south-bound) MW welcome center, MA-NH state line. This point is just north of the I-95 / I-495 split.
4. I-90 (Mass Pike) Charlton rest area: just east of the I-84 / I-90 split.
5. I-95, MA Exit 7. Not much here, but this is strategically located at the intersection of I-95 and I-495. Charge here and Cape Cod is entirely in range (117 miles to Provincetown). Also, hits just north of the I-95 / I-295 split around Providence RI.
6. New Haven. I-91 joins I-90 here, connecting easily to charging stations #4 and #5 above.
7. Greenfield, MA. About 100 miles north of #6, 125 miles west of #3, and along the important Rte 2 east-west route. Also a hotbed of sustainable farming.
8. Danbury, CT. About 110 miles west of #4, and just east of the I-84 / I-684 split.
9. White River Jct, VT. 84 miles north of #7, at the cross-roads of I-91 and I-89. 185 miles to Montreal.
10. Concord, NH. At the cross-roads of I-91 and I-93. Puts all of NH in play, including the White Mtn resorts.
I think that pretty well covers it -- 10 stations to serve 14.5 million people. Not a bad ratio.
Thanks Robert for the well thought out network. Just the idea of it puts a grin on my face.
You don't want to place these chargers too close or when the 400 mile, 500 mile, etc battery come along those chargers will see a LOT less use.
@Vawlkus: As batteries become less expensive, you can put more kWh into a car at the same price point, or lower prices and keep the kWh (or some mix of lower prices and greater range). To expand the market for EVs, their price has to drop. So, I expect that a robust charging network spaced ~150 miles apart will continue to be valuable for decades -- if for no other reason to provide EV drivers peace of mind.
I don't know about the majority but I certainly don't agree. Put the chargers 90-100 miles apart and let the 40Kwh battery be charged by them too.
This would also improve the availability of the chargers as more Tesla make it on the road.
So you're saying they should place batteries so that the distance is 40kWh-friendly even though no 40kWh Model S can use them? Odd.
This could be done with the 230 mile (60 kW) vehicles driving economically. Since I'm assuming those who really expect to be doing road trips will opt for the 300 mile (85 kW) version, they won't have to stop unreasonably often.
The second phase of rollout would undoubtedly split the gaps to allow 75 to 90 miles between stops, enabling a lot more flexibility as well as enabling shorter range EVs such as the Leaf.
The equivalent would be if gas stations were spaced out every 250 miles on interstates. People don't only travel in straight lines, and they don't start with the same amount of charge or from the same place.
If you want to assume cars have at least 150 miles of range, then 50-125 miles apart would not be bad spacing. If I'm driving with less charge than can make it to the second charger, I have to stop. If I've plenty to make it, I don't. Why would some of us want to stop after 60 miles just to synchronize with the charging network spacing?