Chargeway

I read about this new "effort" called Chargeway. It's basically "charging infrastructure for dummies" (i.e., the general population doesn't want to geek out, so use some method to make it easy to figure out how fast a car can charge and how fast a charging station can provide electrons).

Info : ... http://www.chargeway.net/


Example chart :




So the Bolt is a green '5' , and a LEAF is a blue '4'.


Comments?

I think the answer is for the entire EV industry to standardize on one connector - that will eliminate most of the confusion. It looks like CHAdeMO is on the way out in North America, that just leaves Tesla and CCS to duke it out.

I think that most consumers can understand L1 ("trickle charging" - it takes a LONG time) and L2 ("normal charging" - it takes overnight).

The trouble with quick charging is that it gets complicated and can vary a whole lot. For example, say I need to add 100 miles to my Bolt, and I pull into a "50kW" charger. If that charger can provide 120A (many can), it will take about 40 minutes if my battery is at 20%. If the charger only puts out 100A (many are at this level instead), it will take more like an hour. If my battery is at 50% instead, it will take more like an hour and a half either way. As an engineer, I can understand this. But how do you convey that to an average consumer who is used to pumping gas in 5 minutes or less?

Frankly, Chevy's "up to 90 miles in 30 minutes" is pretty good when you think about it. But you have to put a whole bunch of asterisks next to it, and the consumer needs to understand that sometimes it may take more like 90 minutes to add 90 miles. That factor of 3x would be a shock to someone not expecting it.