ElectricMotorcycleForum.com
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Mike Werner on April 20, 2016, 09:34:10 PM
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It would seem that everyone involved in the electric vehicle industry are making all the beginner mistakes that make it very difficult for the industry to grow at a faster rate.
Here's my case in point. Last week, I needed to bring my BMW C-Evolution to the city of Rouen, living in Le Havre. That's a distance of 105% of the real range of the bike. Riding as low power as possible will still not make it, since there are some very steep hills.
I used Chargemap and found a few charging points towards the end of the itinerary. Great I thought. So I went to check it out by car, doing a scout trip.
Four charge points, each with a different charging/cable standard. So that already makes it much, much, more difficult.
Then the chargers. You need a badge to open them, not a credit card. So after wasting 2 hours looking for a place to get one, I finally fell upon a small office that actually would be able to deliver one. But there I fell upon the 2nd big problem; you need proof of residence of the area.
In other words, all the charge points in and around the city of Rouen requires you to live in that area. The same applies to where I live, only residents can use it (but it's free; the card and the juice).
So here I am, planning to make a "long" trip and find I needed to load up several cables that are useless out of my city.
And that's where it all falls to bits. Different standards for chargers, stupid civil servants/bureaucrats who can think further than their desk.
If there would only be one charger standard and chargers were either all free or at least all allow the use of credit cards, then things would be easier to buy an EV.
What do you think?
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That is odd. In the US we have the standard J1772 connection that is used universally for level 2 (220V) charging.
You still need to have a variety of key fobs, but most chargers can be initiated with a phone call and a credit card.
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That is odd. In the US we have the standard J1772 connection that is used universally for level 2 (220V) charging.
You still need to have a variety of key fobs, but most chargers can be initiated with a phone call and a credit card.
I'm talking about Cat 1,2,3 Cademo, camping car and normal house plug....
Looks like the US has got the Chargers sorted out. I know in The Netherlands it works similar with credit cards.
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That is odd. In the US we have the standard J1772 connection that is used universally for level 2 (220V) charging.
You still need to have a variety of key fobs, but most chargers can be initiated with a phone call and a credit card.
I'm talking about Cat 1,2,3 Cademo, camping car and normal house plug....
Looks like the US has got the Chargers sorted out. I know in The Netherlands it works similar with credit cards.
We don't use credit cards but we do have one card to rule charge them all. Except fastned but you use an app for that(that can be linked to your card, so one invoice at the end).
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Its true that here in France there are several badges available depending on the station you use.
For some stations different badges are accepted and a few of them cover large areas. But I didn't know that the badge delivering was subjected to residential area...
it's such a shame that our government is so late in the process of making every station accessible with a credit card!
The problem is that each department or region is responsible of the development of its stations network and thus there is no global coordination between them!
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Its true that here in France there are several badges available depending on the station you use.
For some stations different badges are accepted and a few of them cover large areas. But I didn't know that the badge delivering was subjected to residential area...
it's such a shame that our government is so late in the process of making every station accessible with a credit card!
The problem is that each department or region is responsible of the development of its stations network and thus there is no global coordination between them!
Plus they haven't figured out that allowing its residents to recharge is stupid, since most of them can recharge at home - which is close by. So most chargers are empty most of the day. They should promote the fact that they have chargers available for all cities in the area. Slogan "Come to the beach in your electric vehicle, and while you enjoy the beach, charge you car for free!".
But I guess that's too "out of the box" thinking...
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Well it wouldn't be French if it wasn't a total bureaucratic nightmare.
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Here is an article (21/03/2016) relating the futur decision of the french government concerning the process for charging (cables, no subscription required, credit card payment...)
It sounds good even with 2 years late!