As EV batteries improve, ChargePoint debuts 600 kW fast charger

(arstechnica.com)

18 points | by PaulHoule 13 hours ago ago

12 comments

  • 4fterd4rk 11 hours ago ago

    Probably useful for trucks, marginal utility for your typical EV owner. Articles like this seem to be speaking to people who don't own an EV and are still focused on the ICE car model of "plugging in" your car periodically at a public location. That isn't how EVs work for the vast majority of people.

    • devolving-dev 9 hours ago ago

      Right now, EVs are only good for people who have houses with garages that let them charge. If you need to use street parking or something then EVs don't work. But maybe if such technology improves everyone can use EVs.

      • circuit10 4 hours ago ago

        If there are charge points in the street or there’s a way to run a cable there then I don’t see why that has to be an issue

      • tonyedgecombe 8 hours ago ago

        I must tell my brother in law that as he has neither a garage nor off street parking but has been driving an EV for the last five years.

    • thibaut_barrere 9 hours ago ago

      BYD has cars supporting this afaik. And working in the electrical charging point data sector at the moment, we see that fast charge is a breaking point to make people decide the switch is worth it.

    • NetMageSCW 11 hours ago ago

      Why do EVangalists constantly think people don’t take road trips in cars, when the vast majority do?

      Reducing 20 - 30 minute stops to 10 - 15 minutes is very worthwhile for road trips, and makes shorter range vehicles usable for those trips.

      • 4fterd4rk 11 hours ago ago

        That is a marginal improvement to a use case that, for most people, happens once or twice a year tops.

        • PaulHoule 6 hours ago ago

          Even back in the 1970s there was a lot of talk along the lines that the overwhelming fraction of trips are short (<50 miles) so EVs would not necessarily need large batteries to be successful.

          It ran into the problem that (rationally) people do do road trips to a certain amount and (irrationally) the whole reason people like cars is you can just get in your car anytime and go anywhere and if you wanted just to go where someone else decides when they decide you can go you can always... ride the bus.

          For a long term the go-to-market picture people had for EVs was that they were going to start out as short range vehicles that were just marginally acceptable to people, we know now that Tesla's decision to position them as premium vehicles [1] rather than glorified golf carts was key to getting them accepted.

          A counter though is that many families have multiple vehicles and if you have one gas car whoever needs to go a long distance can take the gas car and the others can drive a Nissan LEAF or something.

          [1] ... look at how many automakers wish they could sell cars at a premium price but don't really have a differentiated product.

      • bdcravens 11 hours ago ago

        You're right, but many EVs today can't take full advantage of the faster chargers currently available. I have one of the faster charging vehicles available (EV6) and even at 350kW chargers, I've never seen faster than 200kW, and usually much lower than that.

      • officeplant 10 hours ago ago

        I like the current 30-45minute charging stops. Gives me more time to piss and stretch than the typical stop for gas.

    • ZeroGravitas 11 hours ago ago

      This is their first model that will be rolled out in the EU and the US so they might be more likely to see faster charging EVs including some that would peak at nearly twice that speed.

    • JumpCrisscross 10 hours ago ago

      Probably also useful for taxi and ridesharing fleets in cities.