Motor Trend has noticed the charging infrastructure problem

[Joe schmoe]

I haven't seen anyone post this article, but it talks about a 2300 mile cross country in a Lucid, and points out that fast charging capability doesn't do you much good if the chargers aren't reliable.

Same issues those of us who've road tripped in the middle of the country have had with the Rivians.

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[Joe schmoe]

I'm not sure why the link isn't working--I typed the html in brackets (as is my habit) but for some reason it's not working.

Never mind, got it to work using the "insert link" button.

 

[Tahoe Man]

This isn't new news regarding the reliability of DCFC for CCS. It's in pretty rough shape, so bad that EV makers are drafting agreements to use the Tesla SuC. So why is MT just figuring this out now is beyond me.

 

[COdogman]

It’s a problem but it will get better. More networks and higher standards for those networks if they want government dollars. Nearly all the big truck stop franchises have deals in place now to add EV charging. Many fast food chains and gas station chains are doing the same.

 

[Duquesne]

You’d think gas stations would get in the business. Sheetz, a chain of gas/convenience stores, from
NC to PA just signed a charging station contract. I do not know who with but it seems this makes too much sense

 

[strykerwsu]

You’d think gas stations would get in the business. Sheetz, a chain of gas/convenience stores, from
NC to PA just signed a charging station contract. I do not know who with but it seems this makes too much sense

We have some new ones in the Midwest at truckstops that charge $.10 extra for credit on gas. They are now installing 2 100 kwh units at $.59 kWh. So happy to have more options but slow and crazy expensive for region. At those prices I might not sell my Ram. With my tent I’m averaging 1.6 to 1.8 so gets expensive fast.

 

[Tahoe Man]

You’d think gas stations would get in the business. Sheetz, a chain of gas/convenience stores, from
NC to PA just signed a charging station contract. I do not know who with but it seems this makes too much sense

Doesn't make any sense to me. I wouldn't do it. There's no money in it either besides losing it.

 

[Epicloop]

You’d think gas stations would get in the business. Sheetz, a chain of gas/convenience stores, from
NC to PA just signed a charging station contract. I do not know who with but it seems this makes too much sense

Many gas stations do not have adequate space to have vehicles sitting for 20-30min.

 

[Craigins]

They also may not have an extra MW+ of capacity for their location.

 

[240vPlug]

This is not new unfortunately. 3rd party charging is really broken. Especially in the southeast. Imagine towing a travel trailer behind the Rivian, getting 1 mi per kwh and dealing with the awful EA stations in SC. Been there and done that

 

[Yossarian]

Doesn't make any sense to me. I wouldn't do it. There's no money in it either besides losing it.

It seems that at least some companies think otherwise.

Another PA based gas/convenience chain, Wawa, has had chargers at some of its locations since 2017. Wawa is concentrated in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Florida, but has been expanding rapidly to other states. A recent press release stated that they planned to open new stores in Georgia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio in 2024 and 2025. At over $13 bn in annual revenue, they are a pretty large concern.

Wawa presently has chargers at over 100 of their 1,013 locations, and are partnered with both Tesla and EVGo. As you might expect, the Tesla partnership dominates and there are 92 Wawa locations with SuperChargers versus only eight EVGo chargers. I think that the partnership with EVGo is more or less in a state of suspended animation however; as far as I can tell, the last of those chargers was added in 2022 and with the recently opening of the Tesla SC network, I'd expect that new Wawa locations will have only Tesla chargers.

We can't know if Wawa is making money directly from EV charging but the company is certainly profitable and continues to add chargers to their many of their new store locations.

 

[SparkyR1t]

At this time only Tesla has a truly reliable charging network. Interesting Tesla installed the charging infrastructure before selling large quantities of EV’s probably to make sure that EV’s were successfull. A major investment on Teslas part to change the world.

 

[Sgt Beavis]

MotorTrend is VERY late to this party.

 

[jbssfelix]

It seems that at least some companies think otherwise.

Another PA based gas/convenience chain, Wawa, has had chargers at some of its locations since 2017. Wawa is concentrated in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Florida, but has been expanding rapidly to other states. A recent press release stated that they planned to open new stores in Georgia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio in 2024 and 2025. At over $13 bn in annual revenue, they are a pretty large concern.

Wawa presently has chargers at over 100 of their 1,013 locations, and are partnered with both Tesla and EVGo. As you might expect, the Tesla partnership dominates and there are 92 Wawa locations with SuperChargers versus only eight EVGo chargers. I think that the partnership with EVGo is more or less in a state of suspended animation however; as far as I can tell, the last of those chargers was added in 2022 and with the recently opening of the Tesla SC network, I'd expect that new Wawa locations will have only Tesla chargers.

We can't know if Wawa is making money directly from EV charging but the company is certainly profitable and continues to add chargers to their many of their new store locations.

The Kum & Go (ok, stop giggling) stations in Colorado have been quick to adopt DCFC charging stations, albeit mostly Tesla Superchargers. Both the examples below (Silverthorne and Idaho Springs, respectively) utilize the space behind the convenience store, and both are generally pretty busy, especially during the weekends as folks commute to/from the mountains.

As the charging time is 30-40 mins, this actually helps their business, IMO. We're more likely to walk in a grab a snack/drink/etc to kill time than if we were just filling up a gas tank. And that's really where the money is made for gas stations.

 

[sub]

They do have a really good point about how the car could ( and should ) warn you about defective and/or slow chargers.

Instead of having to manually look up details about each location on plugshare, the in-vehicle router planner should proactively provide that info.

Even if plugshare doesn't want their info used that way, it would be pretty easy for a vehicle manufacturer to collect that info themselves. After each charging session, the vehicle could phone home with stats about the charge. Success/failure and charging rate.

Then for each charging station on your route, the vehicle could provide stats about success rates and what charging rate other owners have recently seen and when possible avoid planning a route uses a charger that is known to be unreliable or slow.

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