So (EV cars, obviously!): All cars come with a 3-pin plug ("standard" or "basic"). All cars can (presumably using the same hardware in the car) draw a little more than 13A - some only 16A, some 32A ("fast", though not really). But the "rapid" ones that look like a petrol pump, at motorway service stations and the like: can all cars _not_ use those then?
aka "granny lead"
don't know if it's all, or just most.
dunno, I'm a long way from having an EV.
It looks like most from about 2016 have a DC charge capability. Not all though the renault Fluence doesn't for instance.
They nearly all have a 7.7 kw charger if you have a suitable home charger point fitted.
230VAC ±10% surely - at least, until 31st October!
There are 3 connections used on the rapid chargers in Motorway service areas and the like. One is AC at about 400 volts (415, 3 phase?), with charging controlled by the car's hardware and software, one is DC capable of charging compatible cars to 80% in a couple of hours, and the Tesla types, which are high voltage, high current DC connections, capable of charging Tesla cars only to 80% very quickly indeed.
Both DC types talk to the car's onboard battery management systems, while the AC type has all the clever stuff on board the car, and the pillar only asks how much current and how many phases it needs to supply.
To refer back up ^^^ there somewhere, the 32 Amp home and hotel wall sockets are pretty much dumb, and only provide RCD protection, and, sometimes, a captive lead. For the hotel sockets as well as other publicly available sockets, the expensive bit is the part that talks to the power provider's server, and authorises power to be drawn in response to either an RFID card (Can be a contactless credit or debit card registered to the account) being held close enough to be read or a phone app.
Me too! I just replaced (one ?koda Diesel with another) in October. But, as the only one with any electrical/electronic background at all, when EV charging points came up at the (under strength) parish council I've been co-opted onto, I was tasked with looking into it. Hence my interest! (Sleepy little village in Kent.)
So for practical purposes, would it be correct to say that a reasonable (and presumably increasing) proportion of cars _can_ use the rapid chargers, though may do so because the charger has lots of different bits in it, rather than there being a common system? Or, are you saying that any one rapid charger will only be able to charge about a third of cars?
Understood. Obviously the rapid chargers have to have the (financial!) charging part as well - that'll be needed for all but home chargers and those cases where the local authority provide (presumably only the standard type of) charger to boost their green granny points, or where a business does as a marketing attempt.
Mine ranges between 245 and 251
The easy way is for the council to decide where the point(s) are wanted, then speak to one of the system operators. Polar Network(Part of BP) seem to be one of the largest. They will then organise the supplying and fitting for you as well as claiming the Government subsidy. The council then organise the marking out of a bay next to the post marked "EV Only" or some such with the appropriate signage, and there are formalities to go through to permit the creation of a dedicated parking bay, which vary according to the road class and maintenance responsibility.
The standard pillars come in a number of types. The universal ones are like the one I use to charge mine. The one I regularly use has a 13 Amp and a Type 2 socket fitted, which between them will put a charge into all EVs and a lot of plug in hybrids, as long as the owner has the charging cable in the car. The type 2 socket can supply up to 32 Amps (7.7kilowatts), and will charge about 90% of all electric cars on the market, as long as the owner has the correct cable with them.
The really fast ones (Trade name Ultracharge)have two or three cables, covering all models on the market that allow the use of the charger. The only ones they don't cover are Tesla cars, which have their own network, owned and run by Tesla, who also own most of the cars they sell in the UK.
I put out feelers to several of the companies; two - one in particular - almost bit my arm off, offering a complete turnkey solution (everything from site survey, handling planning, installation, and running), for free; what they'd want in return is a ten or more year contract to do the running.
This is tempting, both from the financial point of view, and the effort one (the parish council is under strength and I suspect likely to remain so, and has other things to deal with); however, I feel hesitant about recommending they take up such an option, as a lot might happen in ten years.
Thanks.
In message snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net>, John Williamson snipped-for-privacy@btinternet.com writes: []
So that's very roughly "overnight" (13A) or "4-6 hours" (32A/7.7kW). And do most cars.
So if a car _can_ use a rapid charger at all, the charger and car _are_ likely to be compatible (because the charger contains multiple mechanisms) - right? Thanks.
Yes, I knew about the Tesla network. And there are some other _very_ fast prototype ones about.
Thanks. []
If the contract gives them an exclusive right to provide the facility in the area, there may be a problem. If not, then whatever changes, you can adapt. The connections and billing methods are probably going to be fairly standard for the foreseeable future, as the installed base will make it hard for car makers to go their own way, as Tesla have done. The billing system uses the same RFID technology as contactless debit and credit cards, and I believe that Polar (Who I use) also allow the use of a normal debit card to connect as well as their own keyring tags.
The only downside is possibly the financial stability of the provider, and even then, the likelihood is that their customer base and service contract will be taken on by another provider.
It would be a good idea to check who is the largest provider in your area, and, if you get a lot of tourists visiting or passing through, the largest one with nationwide coverage.
But I fear that, if we've given a ten-year lease, even if it isn't area-limited, we'll be stuck with an arrangement that, though it looks good now, might not in, say, four or five years. In other words, it wouldn't be _us_ that is doing the adapting.
I wasn't thinking of the technology - as you say, that's more or less settled down both for the electricity and the money-collection - as much as the admin., and the rights/control.
Hardly any (-:
It's quiet except when operation Stack (or Brock) is in operation!
Do they give any indication of how much they'll charge the end users?
I didn't ask; I think one of them said twentysomething pence per kWh. One of the companies said it could also provide a revenue stream for the local authority - which is achieved just by adding a bit on the pence per kWh. One of the options one of the companies implements is actually pence per time unit rather than kWh, which they do to encourage people not to block the charger.
Wrong. All that is stated is that the charger has multiple *cables*.
Charging lithium batteries to minimise damage is tricky and needs a charge system adapted to the battery.
I think that is all in the car - and all that is supplied to the car - certainly in the case of 3kW and 7,7kW is AC mains voltage. At lower or higher current ratings...
My guess is that even faster charges are enabled by theh fact that a particular cable or socket is employed, and the car itself selects from the mains whatever current it thinks can be supplied, or is needed, whichever is less.
I cannot see a reason to do otherwise. To be able to charge from a 13A mains socket at all implies (fir weight alone) an SMPSU capavle of handling mains voltage and delverng whatever magic DC volts and amps the battery needs, and indeed monitoring the batteries characteristics and temperature.
All that changes with a higher power charge is that the SMPSU/charger drawos mor current at peak charge, than it does under other circumstances.
It makes no sense to put all that intelligence in the external part of the charge system: just present 240VAC or 400VAC or inded 10kVAC and have a charger that understands that, and the battery its connected to, inside the car.
The older non-smpsu devices were often labelled 220-250V, so the asymmetric standard shouldn't cause them any real problems.
I am old enough to remember when the supply voltage to the area I was living in then was 200V, and there was a policy to standardise on 240V nationwide. Someone came round to our house and replaced the element in our kettle, the immersion heater and the grill in our cooker (oddly the oven and hotplates were OK, it was just the grill element that wasn't). The valve radio had a shunt on the transformer to work on either 200V or 250V, and that was moved to the 250V setting.
I was only young at the time so I don't remember the details of how this was arranged. If that was done in everybody's house, then it must have been a costly exercise, and only worth it if 200V was problematic at the higher voltage.
Jim
I remember an old valve radio or TV that my grandpa had, which had a pegboard beside the main transformer which allowed one of a large number of mains voltages to be selected. I think it ranged from about 150 up to
260, maybe in 10 V increments. That suggests that the mains voltage in different areas varied over a wide range, but that it was fairly constant for a given location (otherwise the control would have been more accessible to the end user, to adjust for day-to-day changes).
Certainly, Cambridge in late 50s/early 60s had 200v mains.
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