Archives

We have heard it all before, we need infrastructure if BEVs are to take over, and everyone parrots this and the governments across the world are throwing money are it. This story starts in the UK Leaf Forum here:

http://www.leaftalk.co.uk/showthread.php/3935-Charging-Systems

a member posts his frustration on having to pay £995 for a home EVSE, then a rep from Polar pops in and talks about his subscription system.. the rep states (and then edits it out):

"The intention is not to range extend EV's that are being used above their range capacity regularly - a use to which PHEV's are far more suited"

ALL the members jump on to say that what they really want is a network of pay-as-you-go L3 fast charging stations.. then it gets picked up by other forums at:

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1067518_electric-car-charging-networks-dont-use-em-to-travel-far-says-company

http://green.autoblog.com/2011/10/28/polar-charge-network-uk-top-up-electric-vehicles/

Its a small world after all :)

I'm glad that someone has the honesty to say "Don't use 'em to travel far". I think that BEV's are an excellent answer , but I wouldn't expect the the existing infrastructure to change overnight just so I can buy 250 miles of range at a 4-minute quick-charge for a quarter. That's not gonna happen. I imagine that 99.5% of all Leaf buyers also have an ICE car in their fleet. Use the ICE if you need more than 100 miles , okay ? And quit whining ! Duh !

They do whine a lot in the UK forum. I think is desperation over being able to drive freely again with cheap fuel, so they take fast charging very seriously. We would feel the same if gas was $9 a gallon here.