John Williamson wrote:
On 04/07/2018 10:07, wrote:
Seems to me the range and performance of electric vehicles is now good enough
for most people. The problem is charging. Along with probably the majority of
people in this country I don't have a driveway and trailing a cable out into
the street across the pavement simply isn't an option, nor is sitting at
a service station for 2 hours.
In a number of residential areas, they are now installing kerbside fast
chargers for residents to use.
The other side of it is that where there used to be a single charging
system, with connectors for all cars available and a single payment
method, which was academic, as they were mostly free, increased
popularity has led to queueing for charging points, and a number of
incompatible systems to pay for the charge, with Visa not being an
option, so electric car drivers now need to have a number of accounts
to ensure they can get a charge (Unless they are Tesla drivers, in which
case, they can only use Tesla chargers...(Are Tesla the Apple of the
electric car world?)).
That’s what Tesla wants to be, but there’s one minor problem: while Apple
is hugely profitable and generates billions in free cash, Tesla is hugely
loss-making, and consumes billions of cash. Apple outsources its
manufacturing to highly competent low cost suppliers in Asia; Tesla makes
its cars itself, very inefficiently, in expensive California.
A number of major manufacturers have now formed a consortium to roll out a
standard, high speed charging network. Most EVs are likely to be compatible
with it.
https://qz.com/1119770/german-carmakers-and-ford-launch-ionity-joint-venture-to-set-up-a-european-network-of-ultra-fast-ev-charging-stations/
http://www.21stcentech.com/shell-acquires-ev-charging-provider-joins-car-consortium-build-ev-station-network-europe/
http://nissaninsider.co.uk/nissan-leading-consortium-planning-network-of-rapid-chargers/