GCR: Charging network EVgo goes tagless, tests battery buffers at stations

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

GRA

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 19, 2011
Messages
14,018
Location
East side of San Francisco Bay
https://www2.greencarreports.com/ne...oes-tagless-tests-battery-buffers-at-stations

At an event in Los Angeles on Monday, EVgo turned on the first DC fast charger in the nation that doesn't rely on RFID tags or even credit cards to be activated—other than the Tesla Supercharger network, of course.

The first of three new chargers to use the ISO Plug&Charge standard opened on Monday at a station in Venice used by ride-sharing cars from GM's Maven service, which operates in LA and 11 other cities in North America. Other chargers at the public station are in line to get the technology as well. . . .

EVgo calls the feature Autocharge, rather than Plug&Charge, a name which rival network Electrify America announced it will use. . . .

The Plug&Charge system which is not yet supported by all cars or automakers, stores payment data along with vehicle parameters in software on the car, and uses the data connection in the charge cable to transmit the payment and identification data to initiate charging. . . .

Based on a new ISO standard 15118, the technology is expected to begin rolling out to chargers that regular electric-car drivers can use later this year. So far, however, there are few EVs that can use it.

Storage batteries

Last week, EVgo also announced that it installed various configurations of 14 storage batteries at 11 of its DC fast charging stations to essentially act as buffers to help balance power demands, and thus minimize expensive demand charges from utilities.

The company will test different battery configurations to gather data on what's most cost-effective. Among the trials are used batteries from BMW i3s, batteries tied to single fast-chargers, and those tied to a pair of fast chargers. One of those chargers is at the University of California, San Diego, and another testbed is at a station in Baker, California, (adjacent to the world's largest thermometer) on the way from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, which also has solar panels. . . .
 
Good stuff. It is nice that Tesla ideas are slowly making their way to the poor and wretched. The DCFC network should be quite usable in another decade or so.
 
SageBrush said:
Good stuff. It is nice that Tesla ideas are slowly making their way to the poor and wretched. The DCFC network should be quite usable in another decade or so.
Are you referring to how long it's likely to be before Tesla completes I-94 or I-15 or the Trans-Canada Highway, each of which they've repeatedly promised for several years now?
 
GRA said:
SageBrush said:
Good stuff. It is nice that Tesla ideas are slowly making their way to the poor and wretched. The DCFC network should be quite usable in another decade or so.
Are you referring to how long it's likely to be before Tesla completes I-94 or I-15 or the Trans-Canada Highway, each of which they've repeatedly promised for several years now?
No, I was thinking of much more trivial examples like being able to leave Albuquerque.
 
SageBrush said:
GRA said:
SageBrush said:
Good stuff. It is nice that Tesla ideas are slowly making their way to the poor and wretched. The DCFC network should be quite usable in another decade or so.
Are you referring to how long it's likely to be before Tesla completes I-94 or I-15 or the Trans-Canada Highway, each of which they've repeatedly promised for several years now?
No, I was thinking of much more trivial examples like being able to leave Albuquerque.
Which you should have no trouble doing within a few months in a non-Tesla, as EA has QCs "Coming soon" in Gallup, Grant's, Santa Fe and Wagon Mound along with Albuquerque, plus Winslow and Flagstaff, Phoenix, Casa Grande, El Paso etc., and of course there are non-EA QCs in Albuquerque, Kewa Pueblo and Santa Fe now. Off-interstate will of course take longer; just ask the people who've been waiting for Tesla SCs in Kayenta, AZ or Kalispell, MT for several years already. Once Santa Fe and Wagon Mound are open you'll be able to drive to Denver, and on to Chicago or Indianpolis if you wish even if no more sites were to open, not that that's the case. As it is, in less than a year EA's opened 151 QC sites (and counting), vs. Tesla's 27 or 29 in their first year, so there's no doubt whether the CCS/CHAdeMO or Tesla network's expanding at a greater rate. Tesla has a several-years head start, but they've hardly expanded coverage at all in the past year, just capacity.
 
GRA said:
SageBrush said:
GRA said:
Are you referring to how long it's likely to be before Tesla completes I-94 or I-15 or the Trans-Canada Highway, each of which they've repeatedly promised for several years now?
No, I was thinking of much more trivial examples like being able to leave Albuquerque.
Which you should have no trouble doing within a few months in a non-Tesla, as EA has QCs "Coming soon" in Gallup, Grant's, Santa Fe and Wagon Mound along with Albuquerque, plus Winslow and Flagstaff, Phoenix, Casa Grande, El Paso etc., and of course there are non-EA QCs in Albuquerque, Kewa Pueblo and Santa Fe now.
Santa Fe is already possible for LEAFs newer than the 24 kWh model unless the battery is degraded. Oops.

As for brand new LEAFs, going East is out of the question with EA or not.
Westward to Gallup is ~ 140 miles with 2500 feet of net elevation. Forget about it in the winter or if there is a headwind.
I'm not sure about South in the new, brave EA world that is "coming soon."

Oh and by the way, of the 6 DCFC you see on your map, 6 are broken.
 
Charging providers always trying to reinvent the wheel by putting proprietary bullshit in between you and the charge. Gas stations do just fine with credit cards. I wish charge providers would get with the program.
 
SageBrush said:
GRA said:
SageBrush said:
No, I was thinking of much more trivial examples like being able to leave Albuquerque.
Which you should have no trouble doing within a few months in a non-Tesla, as EA has QCs "Coming soon" in Gallup, Grants, Santa Fe and Wagon Mound along with Albuquerque, plus Winslow and Flagstaff, Phoenix, Casa Grande, El Paso etc., and of course there are non-EA QCs in Albuquerque, Kewa Pueblo and Santa Fe now.
Santa Fe is already possible for LEAFs newer than the 24 kWh model unless the battery is degraded. Oops.
Of course, but you appeared to be talking about road trips, not intra-regional trips such as ABQ-Santa Fe.

SageBrush said:
As for brand new LEAFs, going East is out of the question with EA or not.
Westward to Gallup is ~ 140 miles with 2500 feet of net elevation. Forget about it in the winter or if there is a headwind.
I'm not sure about South in the new, brave EA world that is "coming soon."

Oh and by the way, of the 6 DCFC you see on your map, 6 are broken.
If you're referring to the EA ones, they're not broken, they're under construction ("Coming Soon"). EA only opened their first NM QC last week, in Deming. Which is why I wrote above that leaving ABQ "you should have no trouble doing within a few months in a non-Tesla".

As for Gallup being 140 miles westward from Albuquerque, that's why I listed the one they're also building in Grants, 78 miles west of ABQ. Deming to Benson is possible but much longer than desired at 168 miles, so presumably they'll add at least one more in between; Lordsburg seems most likely to me, but Wilcox, Chambers or Sanders are also possible.

Eastward via I-40 seems to be a bit behind, although since they've already opened Amarillo they'll presumably add something like Santa Rosa, Tucumcari, Shamrock and Weatherford (the last is "Coming Soon") to connect to OKC. In the meantime, if you want to go east you'll first have to go north (after Santa Fe and Wagon Mound open) to Denver, and then you can take either I-70 (needs the "Coming Soon" Salina to open) or I-76/80 (the "Coming Soon" Ogallala will shorten the 184 mile leg to North Platte from Ft. Morgan to 133 miles, still a bit far, but you can take parallel U.S. Hwys instead much of the way).

I-10 (and I-20 in TX) should open coast to coast this year, but I-25 from ABQ to Las Cruces isn't part of Cycle 1, so that will be awhile yet.
 
GRA said:
Which you should have no trouble doing within a few months in a non-Tesla.
Let's summarize:

In a new LEAF I can drive ~ 50 miles north to Santa Fe. Destinations further north are verboten.
Eastward ? LOL
Southward ? LOL
Westward: "Coming soon now," I can drive 70 miles to Grants and after charging continue another 70 miles to Gallup. Further west ? Nope

How about people starting outside Albuquerque who want to visit my fair city ? No DCFC available -- it is ALL broken.
Albuquerque is at the cross-roads of i-25 and i-40; it is the capital and largest city in New Mexico. Obvious destinations from Albuquerque are Denver, El Paso, Colorado, Flagstaff, Tuscon, Phoenix, Las Vegas, National parks, and Los Angeles.

NOT ONE of those destinations is reachable now, and so far as I know that remains the case after the EA build-out of the next few years. Think about that -- even with the $2B EA 'present' courtesy of dieselgate the CCS network is a non starter.
 
SageBrush said:
GRA said:
Which you should have no trouble doing within a few months in a non-Tesla.
Let's summarize:

In a new LEAF I can drive ~ 50 miles north to Santa Fe. Destinations further north are verboten.
Eastward ? LOL
Southward ? LOL
Westward: "Coming soon now," I can drive 70 miles to Grants and after charging continue another 70 miles to Gallup. Further west ? Nope

How about people starting outside Albuquerque who want to visit my fair city ? No DCFC available -- it is ALL broken.
Albuquerque is at the cross-roads of i-25 and i-40; it is the capital and largest city in New Mexico. Obvious destinations from Albuquerque are Denver, El Paso, Colorado, Flagstaff, Tuscon, Phoenix, Las Vegas, National parks, and Los Angeles.

NOT ONE of those destinations is reachable now, and so far as I know that remains the case after the EA build-out of the next few years. Think about that -- even with the $2B EA 'present' courtesy of dieselgate the CCS network is a non starter.
You have ignored all the EA sites that are currently open as well as all the ones I've listed that soon will be (again, they're not broken, they're under construction). As I've noted, you will able to reach Denver with the opening of two more sites, Santa Fe and Wagon Mound, and then continue on via Trinidad and Fountain to Denver.

Other routes that will provide access to most of the cities and sites you mention all have 'coming soon' sites and are due to complete this year, with the exception of I-25 between ABQ and Las Cruces. I expect there'll be at least one but more likely two or three CCS/CHAdeMO transcontinental routes by the end of the year as they close the remaining gaps; as it is, it's already possible to drive several routes of more than 1,000 miles in length, such as Chicago or Houston to Florida. The first X-C route will be PNW to Florida, as that only requires one or two more QCs to cross the Rockies between SLC and DEN, although to make the routes practical as opposed to possible some more QCs will need to be added to shorten some legs. Not that I personally consider X-C routes important, except for PR and psychological reasons.

Note that I only consider 200+ mile BEVs as suitable for road trips, as anything shorter-ranged involves a colossal waste of time. 150 mile BEVs like the 40kWh LEAF provide some limited capability.
 
Nubo said:
Charging providers always trying to reinvent the wheel by putting proprietary bullshit in between you and the charge. Gas stations do just fine with credit cards. I wish charge providers would get with the program.
Credit cards are a bad deal for the seller. They take a percentage, but perhaps more notably for EVs, they also take a fixed fee per transaction. It's only in the tens of cents, but given the cost of electricity, it's enough to make L2 charging in particular look uneconomical -- either you eat the fees and end up making nothing, or you pass the cost on to the customer and charge them vastly more than they'd pay at home. Gas stations don't have this problem because you can't fuel at home, and everybody buys at least a few dollars' worth at at time, which makes the fees absorbable. (Despite this, notice how many stations offer a discount for cash -- even though that's against the terms of their credit card agreements.)
 
Some gas stations also offer discounts for using their credit cards. I agree, credit cards are not likely to work well long term at unattended charging stations (think about the possibility of skimmers, etc.). Personally, I don't have a problem with charging network memberships. I have one RFID card (from the Nissan No Charge To Charge program that came with the 2015) registered with all of the networks in my area. I get a charge to my credit card once a month from each network I use during the month, simple and easy.
 
Back
Top