U.S. should install electric car charging stations, Nissan says

[wtmusic]

"NEW YORK (Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration's goal of putting 1 million hybrid and electric vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015 is "reasonable" if the government builds hydrogen fueling and electric-charging stations nationwide, a Nissan Motor Co. executive said.

"Carmakers can't go and put hydrogen fueling and charging stations throughout the U.S., but the government can," Andy Palmer, a senior vice president at Nissan said in an interview at a conference in New York Wednesday.

There are 722 electric car charging stations in the U.S., with 60 percent of those in California, according to the Energy Department. There are 58 hydrogen fueling stations in the nation, again with the most in California than any other state. U.S. sales of hybrid and electric vehicles could reach 1.6 million by the end of the decade, or 9 percent of all cars, Albert Cheung, a Bloomberg New Energy Finance analyst said in a presentation at the conference."

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110406/OEM05/304069792/1186#ixzz1J4OyNc1M

California has already contracted ClipperCreek to equip all 440 existing charging stations with the SAE-J1772 receptacle (compatible with Leaf and Volt) over the next year:

California Energy Commission Selects EV Connect, ClipperCreek to Upgrade Existing EV Charging Infrastructure

"As implementation partner for the $1.9 million project, EV Connect will upgrade legacy chargers intalled in the 1990’s throughout California, providing adaptations to accommodate existing electric vehicles, while updating charger stations to the new SAE-J1772 standard of new car models.

“By upgrading existing electric vehicle charger stations across the state, California continues its leadership in promoting alternative fuel and plug-in vehicle technology,” said Energy Commissioner Anthony Eggert. “This investment will help prepare California for a clean, energy efficient future and advance the state's transportation infrastructure.”

In anticipation of new car models entering the market from companies such as Nissan, Coda Automotive, General Motors, Ford and Fisker Automotive, among others, work is slated to start in the fall of 2010 and finish by winter of 2011."

http://www.green-energy-news.com/nwslnks/clips810/aug10013.html

[HopeHoops]

1. Nissan makes shitty go-carts, but they're right on this issue.

There should be charging stations everywhere. They've got sensors at BWI that know which parking spaces are occupied and register the number of empties for the deck AND for each row. They could easily put in a plug-in box in front of each space, or at least a section of them.

[Zoigal]

2. Our local Costco (Torrance, CA) has had charging stations ever since they opened some years ago.

And i notice a few of the local gas stations also have them.....z

[wtmusic]

3. They're probably being used mostly by spiders right now

When I started driving my first EV a few years ago they looked like they had been untouched in a decade.

[LAGC]

4. How long does it take to completely recharge an EV?

Is it something that can be done as quickly as filling up the conventional gas tank?

[wtmusic]

6. Depends on the voltage of the source

For a Nissan Leaf a complete charge takes:

21 hours at 120V
7 hours at 240V

and it can be charged to 80% of full charge in 30 minutes with 480V. That's 100 miles, if driven very judiciously.

IMO a lot of these charging stations will be obsolete in a few years. As battery tech and capacity increases, charging at home will be sufficient in most cases.

For long distance drives a high-voltage charge while stopping for lunch would get you to your overnight location.

[txlibdem]

5. Hydrogen is not a viable energy system

It takes 3 times the electricity to make enough hydrogen to go 100 miles than it would to use that electricity in a battery electric vehicle. What a foolish, wasteful idea.

We only need to ramp up to full production on bio-fuels made from cellulosic plant matter (not corn) and algae; only use it for the vehicles that truly need to go more than 100 miles per day.

Every parking space could have an EV charger, especially if it has a parking meter. Most all of them are electric nowadays and therefore have a power connection. I suppose I should specifically exclude the "old timey" mechanical ones since those may exist in some parts still.

[wtmusic]

7. But...but...what to do with all the gas stations?

We might have to turn them into parks or something. :)

[txlibdem]

8. Good one

I really bleed for those poor gas stations.