Future of All Charging Locations? What would you want to see at them?

[Lil'O Annie]

I have thought about this ever since I got my Bolt. Opportunity awaits you younger folks! I'd look into doing this myself if I wasn't at retirement age.
Elon is right on target, yet again. There is so much money to be made here as EV adoption soars.

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[kanundrum]

^^ That makes sense but is probably a bit extreme, I say give the contract to various companies that have a decent coffee shop, food, and minor supplies. Basically a Sheetz/Wawa but a bit more upscale imho would be pretty awesome. Going to a walmart every time we need a charge at a EA station which seems to be the case is a bit underwhelming lol.

 

[jcook01]

Pull thru charge lanes for those with vehicles in tow.

 

[Autolycus]

Maybe a stupid question, but why not put solar panels on top of the building as well? It also looks like they could probably get away with at least 1 more row of panels over the parking/charging spots on the right. Maximize the solar>battery potential for some amount of peak demand smoothing!

 

[MIG]

The future is not yet here. This is state of the art for solar. Great idea but nowhere near enough capacity for effective charging:

https://beamforall.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/BEAM-EV-ARC-2020-Info-Sheet-v1.1.pdf

 

[Big_Ike]

Coffee shop, sandwich shop, burger joint and frozen yogurt are what I'd like to see at a charging station... all with restrooms please!

I've only been to a few Tesla Superchargers, but the one in Indio, CA has most of these within a few steps. Makes for a pleasant stop.

 

[ajdelange]

They do say that the best way to make a small fortune in the restaurant business is to start with a big fortune.

 

[ajdelange]

The future is not yet here. This is state of the art for solar. Great idea but nowhere near enough capacity for effective charging:

https://beamforall.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/BEAM-EV-ARC-2020-Info-Sheet-v1.1.pdf

Neat gadget but look at it's numbers: 4.3 kW. In locale that delivers 6 hours full sun equivalent (summer) per day the operator would collect 25.6 kWh in a day. That's enough to charge 1 model X 25% (87 miles). Make the array 25 times as big (5 timed the width and 5 times the length and you could charge 6 model X fully in a day if you had say 400 kWh storage per array.

 

[MIG]

Neat gadget but look at it's numbers: 4.3 kW. In locale that delivers 6 hours full sun equivalent (summer) per day the operator would collect 25.6 kWh in a day. That's enough to charge 1 model X 25% (87 miles). Make the array 25 times as big (5 timed the width and 5 times the length and you could charge 6 model X fully in a day if you had say 400 kWh storage per array.

Uhh, that was my point.

 

[flabyboy]

I have thought about this ever since I got my Bolt. Opportunity awaits you younger folks! I'd look into doing this myself if I wasn't at retirement age.
Elon is right on target, yet again. There is so much money to be made here as EV adoption soars.

just get some Taco trucks or have a bunch of food trucks with covered dining area. No need to complicate it ?

 

[Big_Ike]

just get some Taco trucks or have a bunch of food trucks with covered dining area. No need to complicate it ?

I love the idea of tacos and food trucks, but at my age it's important to keep it kinda bland on road trips...

 

[TessP100D]

What you want and need is charging station ]s where you drive normally. That is not. is the woods some where.

Just copy Tesla. They figured it out 12 years ago.

 

[ajdelange]

I think you have missed the point that Rivian is aimed at the adventure travel market which wants to go beyond where one drives normally. Where you drive normally is already pretty well covered (though improvement is clearly still needed). Thus Rivian wants coverage in out of the way places so that its buyers have the same confidence that they can get to those places that Tesla drivers enjoy when they go to the places they go normally.

 

[ajdelange]

Uhh, that was my point.

That's nice.

To put it into further perspective let's suppose we had a 30 stall station (a big one) and that it was loaded for 2 hrs in the AM rush, 2 hrs in the lunch hour rush and 2 hrs in the PM rush and that during each of those two hour periods each stall charged 4 100 kWh vehicles half way taking 1/2 hour for each. The energy needed for each of these stalls would then be 12*50 = 600 kWh. If we have 6 hrs MSE then the array must be capable of producing 100 kW in full sun. Supposing combined cell and converter efficiency of 20% we then need 500 m^2 of panels for each stall. For 30 stalls we need 15,000 m^2. That's 1.5 hectare equal to 3.7 acres.

 

[EVSport7]

The restaurant in Santa Monica is just there for Tesla shills to be seen at, completely out of the way as a charger

I do like the idea with the bigger SC that has the lounge, I think it's in Kettleman City.

A few rows of covered chargers, larger stalls, pass through stalls on the ends for towing vehicles, and a simple lounge with AC, bathrooms, and a small convenience store assortment of food. That would be ideal for me. Small creature comforts and then get back on the road

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