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Aachen 2 days ago

Also after you divide the amount of time required? So if an average charging session is 100 minutes and getting petrol is 5 minutes, you'd need 20 times more chargers to break even on availability. And I'm not sure that even works the same when considering that these events are probably bursty (most people will arrive at an energy station at a similar time of day)

In case it sounds like I'm gas station lobby: I'm not against EVs at all and don't own a car, I'm just wondering if this is a fair comparison

mattlondon 2 days ago | parent [-]

I don't think it even includes the ones at people's homes where probably "most" charging happens. No one has a gas station at home.

FWIW a fast charge is like 10-15 mins usually while you grab a coffee or something - in modern EV cars you have 100-200kw (or more!) charging where you can get like 400 or 500 miles in an hour, so 15mins gives you 100-125 miles extra range etc. If you time it, filling up a gas tank and going in to pay and all that is not like 40 seconds but more in the 5-10 mins mark, so 15 mins top up on a longer journey is not that much longer than filling up.

It's a bit of a different mentality really - with petrol/gas I'd fill up to the brim then drive until I was almost empty, but with an EV I wake up with a full tank and just do a quick top off here and there during the day (assuming I ever need it which 99% of the time I don't) until I can get home and charge overnight where is way way cheaper.

With petrol I'd never stop to just put in a few litres at a time, but doing it with an EV is so simple and easy, and you can go do something else while it's happening. Picking up some groceries, getting a coffee, bio break etc - perfect time for a top up

xyzzyz 2 days ago | parent [-]

Only a tiny fraction of EV chargers are 100+ kW. Most are 10-20 kW. These are great for office parking garages or shopping malls, but stopping at one for 15 minutes gets you nowhere.