ICE Manufacturers not worried about the SuperCharger competition?

[paulkva]

DCFC stations like that would certainly help EV adoption. Ultimately, however, I think it would make more sense to target resources at providing L2 AC charging at a large fraction of long term parking spots. Initially, the focus can be on doing this for new construction, including commercial and government buildings, multi-family dwellings, hotels/motels/inns, and curbside. Assuming that autonomous cars for hire become popular, this problem will get easier, since there will be more flexibility as to where to park and charge those cars.

Good points: I agree large numbers of L2 AC stalls would be better bang for the buck than DCFC. Coupled with autonomous driving, if your home or office doesn't have its own charging infrastructure, your car could hypothetically drop you off at your building and then drive to a parking garage with L2 plugs for overnight charging. Or as you say, just hire an autonomous car and never worry about where & when it charges itself.

But I also think we're further away from that vision right now vs DCFC. Tesla has already proven the viability of a DCFC network, but it's not yet legal (anywhere I know of) for a car to drive itself without a human ready to take over instantly. And even if all new apartments and offices are built with massive banks of L2 (which would be great!), there's still a significant barrier to adoption for many people, i.e. moving or changing jobs. Building widespread curbside charging (even L2) would require substantial commitment and investment from local governments; I wouldn't expect many (if any) localities to take such initiative any time soon. I'd love to be proven wrong though!

 

[Rocky_H]

My observation around here is that the current S owners don't mind the 20-45 minute wait time, so that's comforting,

I think the key to this is that many of us find that alternating short and long stops seems to work out well to not notice the waits. Assuming approximately 2 hours’ drive in between Superchargers for simplicity, you take a short partial charge stop at two hours for maybe 15 minutes to get you through—not too noticeable. Then, at four hours, it’s time for a real meal break. The car fills up way more than you need while you’re still eating, so you don’t notice the wait. Then two hours later, you can do another short stop, etc.

 

[ecarfan]

Rocky, what you describe has been my experience as well. I have always preferred to have breaks from driving every couple of hours, to stretch my legs and move around. So the Supercharger stops are fine with me.

 

[RDoc]

Rocky, what you describe has been my experience as well. I have always preferred to have breaks from driving every couple of hours, to stretch my legs and move around. So the Supercharger stops are fine with me.

My wife and I have noticed that with the Tesla, we're kind of forced to stop every 3 hours or so, which we prefer, but always seem to not do in an ICE. The result, along with TACC and the car's low noise level is far more relaxed long distance driving. Apparently we have to be forced to take a break.

 

[vigge50]

It maybe already have been mentioned but Audi is planing to built together with other car companies a network of 150 kW chargers Audi e-Tron Electric Car To Offer 150-kW Quick Charging Sites

 

[abasile]

It maybe already have been mentioned but Audi is planing to built together with other car companies a network of 150 kW chargers Audi e-Tron Electric Car To Offer 150-kW Quick Charging Sites

I am glad that they are thinking along these lines! However, among other hurdles mentioned by that article, the CCS standard would need to be updated to support 150 kW. Design by committee doesn't happen overnight. Further, none of the other automakers supporting CCS have expressed any real interest in developing a charging network to compete with Tesla Superchargers. Even with their Bolt coming later this year, GM seems to be content to leave the charging infrastructure to others. So, while Audi (VW) and other automakers will hopefully, eventually make some real moves here, it's clear that Tesla will maintain their lead in charging infrastructure for at least the next few years. The prospect of competition is good, though; perhaps Tesla may feel the need to push harder at building out their SC network.