EV Help (what kind of public charge port is this?)

[bennelson]

Jimbo - what EV are you driving?
(I had fun driving that Weego Whip!)

Is is just a 120V AC connection on that car?

On my Electro-Metro, I use a 12 GA, 25 foot extension cord between a 20-amp/120V wall outlet, and a Marinco 15 amp/120v charging port on the car.

It works great. However, I am NOT pushing 40 amps at 240V through there the way some of the new cars with the huge battery packs are going to want to.

[DJBecker]

You aren't looking toward the future at all.

Most chargers will be "smart" and draw their power during the early morning hours. They won't "semi-smart" like chargers just on a timer -- they will likely be hooked to a smart meter and will ramp up and taper off as power is available.

There will probably be options to put in a specific partial charge if you need a daytime boost. "Make certain I have a charge for my 20 mile trip this evening, no matter what the cost, but wait until cheap night rates to fully." And "I have normal day tomorrow, so only charge to 85% to extend the battery cycle life."

But the real thing you are missing is that we will *have* to use smart chargers. The government needs over $0.04 per mile driven to replace the lost fuel tax revenue. The only 'fair' way to do this is to tax the electricity when charging. It could well be that your "automotive" off-peak electric rate is higher than your "household" peak electric rate because of the taxes.

That opens the question of how to tax people with EV panels and electric cars -- they might completely avoid paying a road use tax.

[Angelus359]

Personally becker, I think we'd be better off with the only tax being sales tax. Very high sales tax.

[Angelus359]

I think the hardest sale for electric vehicles is to customers who don't park in garages.

I know people who park on the street in the city (chicago) every single day. There is no way for them to charge, and even if there was charging stations every so often, it gets so damn cold its unusable.


Personally I think each car should have a built in cord, and just jack in. Have the car be registered to yourself and then it can store the data, and transmit it to a billing center.

Of course someone will figure out a way to hack that...

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by DJBecker

But the real thing you are missing is that we will *have* to use smart chargers. The government needs over $0.04 per mile driven to replace the lost fuel tax revenue. The only 'fair' way to do this is to tax the electricity when charging. It could well be that your "automotive" off-peak electric rate is higher than your "household" peak electric rate because of the taxes.

Then there should be a shoe tax for people who walk and bicycle tax for bicycles because sidewalks cost money too!
Thing is, the heavier the vehicle and the more energy it uses the more wear it puts on a road, maybe when 1% of all miles driven are electric then we'll have to figure out another way but as it is it's not even close and will not be close for years.

[Frank Lee]

But the govt will never pass up an opportunity to tax the plebes! They're already evaluating a miles-driven based road taxing system as they fear the upcoming diversity of fuels other than gasoline.

[Oval_Overload]

Originally Posted by bennelson

Jimbo - what EV are you driving?
(I had fun driving that Weego Whip!)

Is is just a 120V AC connection on that car?

On my Electro-Metro, I use a 12 GA, 25 foot extension cord between a 20-amp/120V wall outlet, and a Marinco 15 amp/120v charging port on the car.

It works great. However, I am NOT pushing 40 amps at 240V through there the way some of the new cars with the huge battery packs are going to want to.

Hey Ben,
I'm currently (haha, get it?) driving a 2008 Miles ZX40S-AD. For those of you that would like me to decode that last bit of gibberish, its a Diahatsu Move five door hatchback with a 72 volt, 10 KwH AGM pack sending its wily joules to a Curtis 550 amp inverter and a 26 kilowatt 3-phase motor.

My boyfriend affectionately calls it "Toaster Car" for its fuel source and striking semblance to the classic wedding gift. Toaster buzzes and hums along at 35 mph for about 40 miles. On board is a 1 Kw DeltaQ charger connected to the grid via a "commando" IEC plug and socket on the car side, a NEMA 5-15 household plug and socket on the shore side, a 20 amp breaker in my garage, and my neighbor's electric meter. I should probably fix that last bit.

Toaster is a handy little car. I charge at work. I charge at home. I charge at the grocery store. I charge from roadside outlets in Uptown. I charge at the mall. According to Miles, I set a world record when I took my friend to her Senior Prom and covered 85 miles in a day in a Miles. Apparently women love older gay men who drive kitchen appliances. Who knew?

Somewhere I have a photo of all my stuff Tetris packed in Toaster when I moved this past summer.

~Jimbo