On July 20, 2014 at 18:01, Mario said...
Does anyone know how the free charging stations get financed/paid for?
Is there a federal program that pays for this?
Is this a loan/lease that has finite number of months/years before the model becomes a paid service?
I only have 4 stations in my metro area of about 1,000,000 people.
From what I can tell:
1 is at a Nissan dealership
1 is at municipal building (not sure if it's accessible to non-employees)
1 is at a private company (not sure if it's accessible to non-employees)
1 is at a Latitude gas station (not sure if it's free)
I'm trying to picture how this charging in town would work for me or my wife.
I can see if the stations were available at the mall, grocery store or book store.
In my town, all but the 1 Latitudes location are not not a destination location, so if it takes 30-45min to get a quick charge, what do people do while they wait?
IMO, this is a problem that will become bigger as more EVs are sold. I believe right now, there are some tax breaks to businesses for putting in a charging station. But right now, these are novelties. A business puts one in as a perk to customers, occasionally someone uses it. The business eats the cost, just like free refills. But when all of their customers have EVs, what business wants to put in twenty chargers and eat that electric bill?
I saw something that Israel is building battery stations, and experimenting with cars with swappable batteries. Kind of like the Blue Rhino propane ranks. Pull in, get a new battery, move on in 10 minutes. This would probably bring back the service station attendant.
The whole idea of EVs just seems too inconvenient for Americans. I think, if Honda has success with their fuel cell car (they seem to be the leader with that right now), then it could end up killing the EV, because it would be more of a lateral move.
