Battery Vehicle Society

Just found this on a website in the states.

http://www.etecevs.com/supercharge/NEVs/products/lsv-100/lsv-100.php

Now they seem to support fast charging from a 240V supply rated at 48A. Now that's more than the standard 16A we're all used to, but it did get me thinking.

If this were adopted as a standard nationwide in EVs ( you can buy a kit to add the appropriate input on your car ( http://www.etecevs.com/supercharge/NEVs/products/evkit-100/evkit-100.php ) we could have charging points with that really famous fast recharge time we've all heard so much about.

It may not be appropriate for home installations (I believe 100A is now the standard mains breaker on a house (Chris?) so by the time you've accounted for everything else in the house finding another 48A may be too much for the supply, but this could open up a whole area of fast charging points for places like short range delivery services such as take aways etc. It'd also be really good for those of us who work from home and often have several trips out in the course of a day punctuated by time back in the office.

So yes. I think these are great. They do cost about $8k (eeep!) but it'd certainly help us get further and recharge quicker. (Though of course it may impact on battery life...)

Nikki.

(Dreaming of a future filled with fast charge stations nationwide so we could travel from Bristol to Norwich on electric power!)

Would be a great idea Nikki, But I can recall a similar idea a good few years ago regarding electric boats -- British Waterways along with one of the electricty supply companies were going to install charging points along the upper reaches of the Thames. Unfortunately like most good ideas it fell by the wayside -- whoops Quayside
But all joking aside it really does look like the way to go

electricvehicles wrote:Would be a great idea Nikki, But I can recall a similar idea a good few years ago regarding electric boats -- British Waterways along with one of the electricty supply companies were going to install charging points along the upper reaches of the Thames. Unfortunately like most good ideas it fell by the wayside -- whoops Quayside
But all joking aside it really does look like the way to go

I wonder how much of that was due to the difficult situation of trying to say that it is possible to mix water with electricity and not have problems.

If red Ken gets back in to London he has pledged something like 500 emmissions free busses to be introduced. The odd thing is that they would be run by private companies, so I wonder what is stopping them from doing it now already ? Anyways, 500 busses will need either battery change points or emergency charge points....which may require infrastructure....which hopefully will lend itself to other uses somewhere along the way...probably at a fee.....hhhhmmmmm...time will tell !

aminorjourney wrote:
It may not be appropriate for home installations (I believe 100A is now the standard mains breaker on a house (Chris?) so by the time you've accounted for everything else in the house finding another 48A may be too much for the supply................

You should be ok, 95% of the time I'd like to think most folks houses run most of the time under well under 15amps with it only peaking to 32amps short term.

I classify myself as a high energy user and have been measuring my energy usage for over a year and rarely do we exceed 9Kw ( about 40amps) for long periods, most of the time we run at about 1-1.5kw while we are in, the house at rest is normally about 500watts .....thats 24hrs a day I use that amount and I cant get it lower

So unless you have storage heaters on off peak which WILL make a difference (but only during night time)

So yeah you should be fine installing a 50 or 60amp supply for such a charger at home

ChrisB

aminorjourney wrote:
If this were adopted as a standard nationwide in EVs ( you can buy a kit to add the appropriate input on your car ( http://www.etecevs.com/supercharge/NEVs/products/evkit-100/evkit-100.php ) we could have charging points with that really famous fast recharge time we've all heard so much about..........

I dont think it will ever be possible to have charging points with actual chargers nationwide as there are so many variations in types of batteries and voltages etc over such a broad range of vehicles, the thing we need is more public access to 240v outlets be it 13A 16A or 32A, atleast then anyone can plug in what ever type of vehicle they have, it does of course mean you have to lug around your charger but most vehicles these are built in.

The 100amp fast chargers really I feel are only suitable for golf buggies airport vehicles, which if you read the bumf is what they are aiming them at.

ChrisB

Interesting

I had a 6kw 96v 55A charger for the van and Evan had or has a mighty 10kw plus charger for his Berlingo.

Made the light dim a bit on single phase power

Hi Peter,

What is the limit your house has? Is it 100A or 120A?

Obviously, if you had some kind of off-site gen you could probably help that a bit, right?

Chris,

I do see what you're getting at, but let's be honest, there's only ONE way of filling up a car with an Internal Combustion Engine, so why should EVs be any different?

I feel that all these different charging leads ( 13 A, 16 A etc etc ) don't do us any harm. Why not go for a fast charge system? This thing seems to cope with between 48 and 96V. Obviously it'd be nice if it could carry the higher DC voltages too for vehicles like the Berlingo.


Let's bash it about a bit

But ICE cars generally run on only 2 types of fuel: Diesel and Petrol. Evs run on 100s of different voltages, using numerous battery types, all requiring different charging techniques:?
Also what happens if the Charger Cooks your Nice New Set of Batteries
Who will be responsible ?

At least if using your own charger, its only you who is responsible for any problems arising from it.

Nice idea but in pratice I dont think it will become a reality

To an extent they already have charging posts in London particularly Westminster.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the maths here is all wrong.
Using the formula Power=Amps x volts charging at 45 amps and 96 volts gives power at the battery of 45 X 96 = 4320 watts.
Ignoring any power losses from heat etc as the electricity is transformed, the current supplied by the mains should be power divided by volts.
That is 4320 watts divided by 240 volts = 18 amps.
The mains then only needs to supply 18 amps, not 45 amps.

I believe this bears out as I already start my battery charging sequence at 35 amps on a 32 amp mains circuit breaker with no problems.
Peter