I feel like this is just the effect of a new and growing industry. Gas stations are free to set their own pricing, but if it’s more than a few cents off the next nearest place they won’t get any sales. Reliability is also only an issue if there’s few stations, if there’s a station on every block, like we have gas stations now, then people will just go to the next nearest station, which gives companies a pretty good incentive to keep the chargers working.
I’m also okay with allowing different charging structures, but again I think that settles itself when availability increases. If charging per joule is cheaper for the consumer than charging per minute then that’s the station they’ll choose. Really, we just need to make sure it doesn’t end up an oligarchy like the cell networks where everybody just colludes to keep prices and margins high. Or put in some high marginal corporate tax rates to disincentivize those large margins.
Yup, we’re all so spoiled by a hundred years of momentum in fossil fuel delivery. I remember my great uncle telling stories from the 70’s about getting stuck at his in-laws farmhouse for three days because the gas station in town was out of gas, and he didn’t have enough in the tank to make it the 70km to the next town with a gas station, and even if they did, they weren’t sure they had any gas either.
Yea FLO has a bad system for reporting problems, you need to record the station number, then goto a special web site and put in a ticket. No app button for it, even when you’re right there.
I’ve seen stations go out on my long route (500km) for a month, then I report them and they’re fixed in days. Turns out, many people drive up, find them broke, and ride off without reporting.
It does, but it’s likely the government incentives were to build the stations, not to keep them running. We had that problem in the US for a while until the rules for subsidies were recently updated.
Sometimes physical damage (like a frayed cable on the charger, or a damaged connector) can’t be monitored remotely – but they would certainly see that a station’s usage stats have suddenly dropped, and could send someone by to check on it.
Do most EV drivers use charging stations regularly? I would have thought most drivers would charge at home for day-to-day usage, and only use charging stations for long trips.
There’s no question that the lack of standards is stupid. I’m curious if industry will sort itself out or regulation will be necessary.
If you have an EV, unless you live in a condo/apartment that don’t let you charge, then you will only every use the stations on longer trips.
You also might not use the station on longer trips if you can charge your car overnight at your hotel, and “only” drive for like 5 hours at a time.
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