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Where Can You Find an Electric Vehicle Charging Network? Estonia

Posted by timothy on from the can't-get-there-from-here-by-electric-car dept.

MatthewVD writes "How hard can it be to find an electric car charger? So hard that New York Times reporter David Broder had to drive in circles and drain his Tesla's battery. Charging infrastructure has been ultimate chicken or egg problem for electric cars adoption but finally, there's a good test case. In Estonia, drivers need to travel only 37 miles to reach a CHAdeMO quick charger. There are 165 of the direct current plug-in chargers, that can charge a car's lithium battery in 30 minutes for an average cost of $3.25. The question now is, will the electric vehicles follow?"

7 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. all of Estonia, huh? by Trepidity · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's almost as big as West Virginia!

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    1. Re:all of Estonia, huh? by gl4ss · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I think he was upselling estonia a bit.

      let me tell you what estonia really is. it's the finnish mexico. no offence estonians but you know it's true. finns go there for cheap booze and they come over here as cheap labor. average income in estonia isn't that hot really.. and I don't know where he got that usa has higher poverty rate - they don't. as such this is kinda big deal for estonia, but this is far from the effort it would take to do the same thing for lapland.

      (average pay in 2012 was 823 euros / month. I think they got the poverty line drawn a bit differently than USA)

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      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    2. Re:all of Estonia, huh? by MightyYar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't want "leaders", I want "public servants". There are occasions when we need leaders, but these tend to be during a crises of some sort. People who fancy themselves to be leaders is what gets us to the state we are in.

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      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  2. Early adopters always have a hard time... by celticryan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seems like this is something technology always deals with - cars and roads OR cell phones and cell towers - early adopters always have difficulties. How is this surprising?

  3. Re:The Netherlands by hedwards · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A considerable portion of the Netherlands is below sea level. And because of the way that the laws of physics work, you can't just make the dikes taller, you have to ultimately replace them with ones that are stronger at the bottom as well, otherwise you start getting cracks. And I doubt the EU would be too fond of having numerous children skipping school to plug the holes with their fingers.

  4. Re:There's an app for that... by PRMan · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm looking for click-in standardized replacement batteries. I pull up to a station. Unclick my batteries and put them in the charger and immediately click in replacements and leave. I'm not waiting around for 30 minutes to charge my car.

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    Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
  5. Re:Standards by The+Wannabe+King · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, is that an average cost of $3.25 per gallon of amps? Or $3.25 per litre of voltage?

    $3.25 for ~30 KWh (charging rate for these things is about 65 KW).

    So, 330 of the things in Estonia, they each support one vehicle at a time...~8000 EV's per day supported by the entire network, assuming that every one of them is being used 24/7?

    Hmm, wonder how far your average EV goes on 30 KWh....

    You seem to lack experience with electric vehicles, so let me enlighten you. I have driven a Leaf 12 000 miles the last year and know a thing or two:

    Most EV owners will use these stations very rarely. Charging is usually done at night or at work when the vehicle is parked anyway. Any ordinary electrical outlet will supply enough energy in 8 hours for a lot of driving. Assuming 230V/10A 8 hours will give 230*10*8*0.9 ~= 16 kWh of energy (90 % charging efficiency) This is enough for at least 80 km, possibly more than 100 km, depending on roads and driving style. Most places, at least in my country, 16A is available most places which would add 60 % to the above figures.

    Quick charging is only ever used if you want to go much farther than usual, which should happen rarely. Few people will buy an EV if the daily commute cannot be done on a single charge, possibly charging in both ends. Luckily, most people commute much shorter than the range of current EVs and with this quick charger network, they can cover longer distances when needed, albeit spending some time charging. Thus this network can service a lot more than 8000 cars. It will be interesting to see if this will result in mass adoption of EVs in Estonia. The infrastructure is certainly there, but I fear EVs are still a tad too expensive for a population that isn't too rich generally.