One would think that a place like LA would have operational charging stations, considering that California was the first state to mandate all of the peasants having to forgo petrol cars, well before Let’s Go Biden pushed his mandate
No Juice: WSJ Columnist Finds 40% of EV Chargers She Tried in LA County Were Out of Service
A Wall Street Journal journalist who owns an electric vehicle (EV) was dismayed to find that about 40 percent of the chargers she tried throughout LA county were out of service. A troubling data point for car companies and government officials claiming that the entire country will soon go electric.
A test of 30 non-Tesla fast-charging stations in LA County, the EV capital of America, revealed that at least 40 percent of them had some type of issue, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
“From the beach in Santa Monica to parking garages under Rodeo Drive, my video producer Adam Falk and I visited 30 different non-Tesla DC fast-charger stations in a Rivian R1T pickup. I ran into problems at 13 of them — that’s over 40%. Oof is right,” WSJ columnist and EV owner Joanna Stern wrote.
The WSJ columnist added that she had deliberately limited the experiment to Level 3 chargers, noting, “I ignored the more common chargers known as Level 2 because they’re just too slow for quick fill-ups.”
Stern explained that she came across “three problem categories” during her testing expedition: first, the charging station was broken, second, there was a problem with payment, such as it being rejected, and third, there was a software error between the charger and the vehicle.
In fairness, while this was a random check, it could have been just bad luck. That happens. Most likely not, though. If the chargers are not working properly in the middle and upper class areas in the LA region, what makes you think the ones in the working class areas (not that they will put many in) will work?
“After I repeatedly tried the credit-card reader with several different cards, the system demanded: ‘CASH ONLY,’” she wrote. “As if this was some hot-dog stand in the park — except there’s no money slot!”
Cash only. I cannot remember the last time I paid cash for gas. Or, heck, for most things these days.
Canada’s support for EV battery plants to cost C$5.8 bln more than announced -watchdog
Canada’s support for the construction of three of the country’s largest electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing factories is estimated to cost C$5.8 billion ($4.2 billion) more than initially announced, the country’s independent budgetary watchdog said on Friday.
Shocking! Of course, when government is involved they’re always going to get hit up for more money.
Would this one-seater electric car be enough for you?
Japan is king of the kei cars, or small-format vehicles designed mostly for urban use. But local startup KG Motors is taking that miniaturization to a whole new level with its one-seater electric car.
Inspired by North American startups, KG Motors CEO Kusunoki Kazunari explained that he wanted to bring the same kind of automotive entrepreneurial spirit to Japan, a company dominated by a few large automakers.
Designed for city use, it reaches a top speed of 60 km/h (37 mph) and features just a single seat in a center drive format.
If I lived at the beach it might be good, except for that whole 37 MPH thing. Rather buy a scooter or tiny motorcycle. Japan has crazy tiny cars. Most Hondas are no more than 58 inches wide. My Civic is a bit over 70 inches, and those are considered compact cars.
Just a guess, but probably has something to do with all the incentives focused on installation and counting number or devices installed, not on the number working or total KW of charging delivered. Sort of like the boondogles in China where the Chinese government determined factory production quotas for EVs so they could make the claim about how green they are, only for those cars to go be parked in a large field to rot.
I know, it’s shocking!
I’ve
harped onmentioned this before: a huge number of American residences do not have the capability to install secure and safe at-home chargers, and if you’re depending upon commercial chargers, you’re just SOL when the charging station is down.Gasoline stations ought to be more complicated, rather than less, than an electric charging station. Basically, all the charging station would have to maintain are the debit card readers and the switches which enable the charge, while gasoline stations have storage tanks which have to be monitored as well as pumps for each type of fuel, at each fuel pump. Do electric charging stations have selections for 87, 89, and 91 octane, plus diesel at each pump?
The GOAL has always been to disable our ability to move freely. Mission Accomplished.
Many American homes don’t have the capacity for more than level 1 charging which is practically useless for more than an occasionally used vehicle. Got a spare 50 amps? Don’t even consider that the ‘Grid’ doesn’t have the capacity for a significant increase in EV useage. Another issue is Brandon’s moronic drive to ban gas home appliances. What grid?
The charging issue will remain the bane of the EV push. Subsidizing the installation of charge stations will only get them installed, not maintained. Since the only profit is in the installation, don’t expect a high percentage of operable charge points. Commercial users will install their own and those aren’t accessible to the public. EV’s will remain a niche vehicle for years to come.
I think the little one seater electric is kinda cute, but I agree that the 37mph top speed is not enough. For a city car in the US it needs to be at least 60mph. I’m not sure they’ll be able to meet their $6500 target price. The US built Arcimoto has an 80+ top speed, and two seats but they couldn’t meet their target price either.
Only 40%? I figured it to be more.
Many American homes, particularly in the cities where EVs are most useful, don’t even have parking on their own property. Doubly so for people who live in apartments. Running extension chords out to the curb of a public street should be illegal. It’s already a bad idea.