> talking thousands of chargers, for most parking structures

My home has an average of 10 chargers per room; I don't think it's really been a big driver of its cost.

I imagine the chargers you have are not drawing 3kW each though.

That's the main problem - your legacy infrastructure is most likely wired for 220V@32amps for the whole garage/street just to run the lamps from it, so 7.2kW. That's one EV charger, or two if you want to split them into 3.6kW feeds. If you want to run a proper 7.2kW charger from every lamp post or next to every parking space, that's a lot of brand new cabling that you need to add.

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stetrain 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

Yes, but potentially easier than adding 250kW per charger for a bank of DC fast chargers.

The grid connection for one fast charger could serve 50+ L2 chargers, potentially even 100 with load-sharing chargers.

There are good use cases for both kinds.

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alright2565 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

1.6kW is the limit; but no, they aren't. But you don't need 7.2kW all the time! There's no way that every single car would need to charge at every moment, and I know this from walking through parking garages and seeing some cars not move for days at a time.

A EVSE could easily serve multiple spots, and fairly (or unfairly, for profit!) distribute power between cars from a limited supply

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nomel 3 days ago | parent [-]

Please note, the context here is level 1 charging. 7.2KW is level 2.

With level 1 charging is only 3 to 7 miles per hour, so average of 35 miles in a 7 hour day (assuming you drive for your lunch break). Where I am, the average distance to work is around 27 miles (one way), so a net loss of charge.

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alright2565 3 days ago | parent [-]

But the reason you drive such a long distance to work is to be able to live in a suburb, right?

Looking at the actual stats, you're a bit of an outlier: https://aaafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/202309_... (p. 12). The average commute trip is 22 miles, and keep in mind you also could use a level 1 charger at home.

	▲	nomel 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		No, it's 22 miles to/from work, one way [1]! My commute distance is only a few miles more, and my commute time is almost exactly the average time listed there. For most, the purpose of living further from work is reduced total cost of living, especially if you're near a big city [2], where it's not usually an option. I save thousands a month by commuting a little, for the same number of bedrooms (which has a legal minimum where I am). If I wanted the same square footage, I'm saving > $10k/month, compared to being 1/3 the distance from work. [1] https://www.census.gov/topics/employment/commuting/guidance/... [2] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02723638.2022.2...