Many businesses are adding Electric Vehicle (EV) charging to their facilities. I'd like to encourage you to take that step. I'm one of a new generation of EV owners. The Nissan LEAF, which I own, is the first of a growing number of new EVs that are much improved over previous cars. They are also being built in much greater numbers than previous EVs. I have seen more EVs on the road in the last two months than I have seen in the previous ten YEARS. I believe you will see a growing number of business owners, employees, and clients wanting to charge their EVs when they are here. Because EVs take some time to charge, they need to be refueled in a different way from traditional cars. Most people will have charging facilities at home. Without any other charging facilities that means they can live, at most, half of the total range of the vehicle from the office. Using the LEAF and a normal freeway commute, for example, an EV driver can live 30-35 miles from the office. That doesn’t leave room for any other use of the car, so a more reasonable maximum commute distance might be 25 miles. Charging during the day changes this dramatically.
The new standard for EV charging is J1772. The J1772 standard is much more universal and robust than previous ones that were mostly supported by individual manufacturers. J1772 is currently supported by the Nissan’s LEAF, Tesla’s Roadster, and by GM's new Volt. Joining them in the next year or two will be Toyota's plug-in Prius, Tesla’s Model S, Ford’s Focus EV and Mitsubishi’s “i”, plus a number of smaller manufacturers. All of these vehicles will be able to use the same J1772 charging facilities. This kind of charging (also called L2) requires a 208v or 240v service and a device called an EVSE. All of the examples below are based on the Nissan LEAF, which I am most familiar, but the numbers presented below are typical for most electric vehicles. The Volt and the Prius are plug-in hybrids. While they have much longer ranges due to their gasoline engines, the ability to charge during the day extends their battery only range in the same way as the pure EVs, and greatly reduces emissions and gasoline consumption.
L2 charging typically adds 10 miles of range per hour spent charging. This means if an EV driver is able to get 6 hours of charging time while at the office, he gains another 60 miles of range, half of which can be used going in each direction. This more than doubles the maximum commute distance for our LEAF owner to 55 miles each way. This would allow EV drivers from almost of all of San Diego county and from southern Orange county to drive here. L2 installations fall into two main categories.
The first are the commercial networks like ChargePoint (http://www.chargepoint.com) and Blink (http://www.blinknetwork.com). These companies install and maintain the equipment, and require users to join their commercial network. They can handling billing if it is desirable to charge fees for EV charging. The other way to do L2 charging is to purchase and install simpler EVSEs that handle vehicle charging without the ability to authorize individual users. If it is desirable to restrict access or charge fees, you can do so by issuing or selling parking permits. For a rundown on L2 EVSE equipment visit http://www.pluginamerica.org/accessory-tracker?ul=listed&type=EVSE&level=2.
EVs can also use common 120v plugs, using an EVSE provided with their vehicle. This is called L1 charging. L1 charging can typically add 3 miles of range per hour of charging. Allowing for 6 hours of charge in a day, that adds 18 miles of range. Instead of 25 miles, our LEAF driver can live up to 34 miles away and still commute in his EV, or use the added range for other needs. This covers most of the local population centers. L1 charging, being just a standard plug, can be added at minimal cost by any electrical contractor and should definitely be part of any EV charging plan.
Thank you for your time and I hope this input is helpful.
), make sure you mention the greenwashing publicity benefits..
