Comment on Wireless EV charging hits 90% efficiency in Swiss real-world trials
bluGill@fedia.io 17 hours agoinconsiderate people may leave their car plugged in for longer than needed.
This is a wrong take. It needs to be normal to leave your car plugged into a charger.
Cars take too long to charge for us to consider it reasonable for someone to stand next to their car waiting while it charges (even worse - as I write this the temperature is -17C, but even when things are nice). We need to expect that people will be doing something else while charging and only come out sometime latter to move their car. If someone is at work they can't leave work until lunch time. If someone is at the symphony/theater it is impolite to leave when the car is done charging as it disturbs everyone else.
Of course if your car just as enough range to get back home so you don't need to charge for normal trips that is better. However when someone needs a charger it should be considered normal to stay there for 6 hours, there needs to be enough to handle that. (obviously people making a road trip will disconnect as soon as the car is charged so they can continue on, but if you make the trip to a distance city for an event you may need to charge during the event to get back home).
vinceman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 hours ago
If we’re talking level 2 chargers I might agree, but no, you should never be leaving your vehicle parked for 6+hours at a level 3. We can’t just build football stadium sized parking lots because people can’t charge at home or work.
bluGill@fedia.io 15 hours ago
My city is full of level 2 chargers, and I get nasty messages when I use them because when my car is finally charged I'm in the middle of something else (I have a PHEV that only does level 2 charging, and I need a charge to get back home on electric only on the rare case I go downtown) Even with level 3 though, the time is long enough that you will need something else to do for that half an hour and nobody can plan that close. Most cars with level 3 charging have enough range that most people won't need to charge on a normal day, but when you do you will need something to do in the mean time and if that something else isn't about the time of a charge there is a problem.
vinceman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 hours ago
Why not just drive home on gas, you said it yourself it’s a rare case you go downtown. It’s not acceptable to leave a vehicle parked in front of a gas pump, this is fundamentally no different. You’re inconveniencing people because you don’t want to drive on gas once in a while.
bluGill@fedia.io 13 hours ago
That is what I do - but there are a number of reasons it isn't a good answer. Electric is a lot cheaper, and much better for the environment (My city is powered 100% via wind). However if I have to sit around waiting for my car to charge so I can move it on demand instead of doing those things I'm there to do the whole isn't acceptable.
GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 11 hours ago
There are reasonable limits. Let’s say his car takes 30 minutes. Is 31 minutes total connection time acceptable? I think everyone would say yes. How about 35 minutes? 45? An hour?
Where people draw the line is going to vary. I agree with the premise that you shouldn’t have to wait by your car to charge, whether it’s 30 minutes or 2 hours. That is wasted time, and drastically reduces the attraction of having an EV. For myself, having to wait an extra 15 minutes isn’t too bad, and extra half hour or more is probably too much. I think context also really matters. If I’m parking at a station in a garage where most of the users are there for work, I expect to be there for at least 2 hours, possibly 4 (and would pick a charger I could use most of the time). At a mall, where people are in and out, if I was going to be there much more than 30 minutes I would probably plan to be back at my car to move it when it was charged. Especially since most of the chargers I’ve seen bill based on connection time and not electricity used.