Re: EV charging stations

[robert <http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert>]

OK.

 > From: Noelle <noelle>
 > Date: Sat, 3 Feb 2024 10:31:55 -0800 (PST)
 >
 > more, today:
 > 
 > J.L. in Los Angeles, CA, asks: Although I live in Los Angeles, I 
 > don't usually think about the chargers (maybe next year). However, 
 > your piece about the state of charging stations in the state (and 
 > other states) being in a state of continual disrepair led me to 
 > ponder a few questions. The first is: who is charged with fixing 
 > these chargers? Is it the government, or might there be a cottage 
 > industry aborning of entrepreneurial electricians who could make a 
 > fast buck doing fast fixes? Could the government subsidize these new 
 > businesses with tax incentives and the such to increase the speed of 
 > their growth? And how about subsidizing research in faster charging 
 > technology?
 > 
 > Also, I wonder whether and how the government could incentivize 
 > businesses with parking lots to install more charging stations. I 
 > already see some of these chargers in parking lots at crunchy 
 > granola places like Whole Foods... not many of them, but it's a 
 > start. Who pays to install and maintain a charging station at a 
 > supermarket or restaurant that can benefit from having customers 
 > come in while they wait for their EV to recharge? Who pays for the 
 > electricity used? And are these the kinds of things (installation, 
 > maintenance, and electricity cost for chargers on private property) 
 > that the government could also subsidize with some of that sweet, 
 > sweet Inflation Reduction Act money? Power to the People!
 > 
 > (V) & (Z) answer: In general, the company that owns the chargers is 
 > responsible for fixing them. They presumably could farm that work 
 > out, and maybe some of them do, but generally they seem to have 
 > concluded that it's cheaper to keep it in-house. It probably does 
 > not make it easier, from a flexibility standpoint, that roughly half 
 > the time the problem is with the electricity delivery (which is a 
 > pretty basic issue that a trained electrician should be able to deal 
 > with) and the other half of the time the problem is with the payment 
 > system (which tends to be proprietary). If the government is going 
 > to get involved (and it is already doing so, in some places), it 
 > will take the form of regulation, wherein the companies that operate 
 > the chargers suffer some sort of penalty if their chargers have too 
 > much downtime.
 > 
 > As to faster charging, that is entirely the province of the car 
 > companies, as faster charging is a major selling point. Unless it's 
 > in the form of NSF grants to people already working on this problem, 
 > it is improbable the government will get involved.
 > 
 > And the free chargers you see at some markets and some shopping 
 > malls are subsidized in one of two ways. The slight majority are 
 > paid for by advertising; in exchange for being able to place a 
 > billboard with ads that can be seen by anyone walking through the 
 > parking lot, a company (usually one that specializes in public 
 > advertising, like Gannett) pays for the charger and the electricity. 
 > The slight minority are paid for by the 
 > business/university/government office where the charger is located, 
 > as an incentive for customers in the former case, and usually to 
 > meet government-mandated climate goals in the latter two cases. It 
 > is worth noting that these are almost invariably slow chargers, such 
 > that a driver gets a little "bonus" electricity while shopping or 
 > dining or conducting other business, but does not get a full charge 
 > unless they are able to remain parked for 4-8 hours.
 > 
 > The government already operates chargers in some places, but 
 > generally it's on government property, quite commonly close to power 
 > stations (for obvious reasons). This was more common at the start of 
 > the EV age; these days the government tends to prefer to indirectly 
 > subsidize chargers by handing out money to private companies that 
 > build and run charger networks. Those private companies almost 
 > always build on private land, in cooperation with the owner. For 
 > example, IKEA locations tend to have a bank of for-profit chargers.