Comment by seanmcdirmid

Comment by seanmcdirmid 2 months ago

3 replies

> 17,800 supercharger stations.

Did they mean 17,800 supercharger units or 17,800 locations with super charger units. Because I've seen those numbers interchanged before.

The problem with chargers (and I say this as an EV owner) is that many people mostly charge at home, so they aren't using them even weekly. However, everyone goes for a road trip say around memorial day, and the EV chargers are PACKED. It is just a huge disparity between normal and peak usage. Or you go on a road trip and you need one in the middle of nowhere Idaho on the way from Seattle to Yellowstone.

Thankfully L3 charger units at least are cheaper to buy/install/maintain (in theory, if people didn't think the coords had copper worth scrapping) and can be installed in more locations than gas station pumps (like super market parking lots).

Given the disparity in peak usage, it makes sense, at least, to compete on availability rather than price, since even if you are paying $60 to charge up, it is only a few times a year. It is much more important that the chargers be where you need them, and to have free units when you need them, oh, and they should be working! ... than to be the cheapest price.

peutetre 2 months ago

> Did they mean 17,800 supercharger units or 17,800 locations with super charger units.

They mean 17,800 DC fast charging plugs open to GM cars (and say so in the article). Tesla has 2,397 DC fast charging sites (or stations) in the US and a total of 27,711 plugs.

toast0 2 months ago

> can be installed in more locations than gas station pumps (like super market parking lots).

I get a lot of gas in supermarket parking lots, several supermarket chains put gas stations in the parking lot of some stores.

  • seanmcdirmid 2 months ago

    You need a lot of things for a gas station, a giant tank under ground, a run off collection system for the spilled gas/oil, they have to be covered these days, I’m sure most of this is just environmental regulations. You only see them in the grocery store parking lot if they have all of that, it’s not just a few pumps put up at existing parking spaces (well, maybe in Thailand).