This is an easy problem to solve:
RV Parks. They are littered across the continent – and 99% have 120 VAC at 30 A. The few I canvased (about 40%) had 50-Amp service. Therefore the challenge becomes finding an RV slot within the
range of the vehicle:
I am not interested in the daily hunt for a welding shop or a tire center lurking for a line to lunch on for a pitty poverty-charge. It reminds me of spending far too much time looking for a bag of weed when I could be playing. I had enough of that last summer; it made me feel pretty bad to go over and ask for that. On the return leg of my journey I slowed down to reduce the drag and was able to get to where I needed to be without stopping. Do the math: Every hour sitting on yer bum charging is wasted trying to make up that time going fast! Better to slow down, put more effort on the legs which are cheap to feed and like the work, and make time peaceful easy. Anyway – that’s good enough for biking.
But what if yer a car? What if yer a lot of cars? Hospitality has its’ limits. You come into a new town; they’ve never seen an ebike – so asking for a charge is both odd and yet novel. Next year when 5 guys come through it becomes an annoyance. We need a different more reliable solution rather than hunting down for a place to prey and latch on like a vampire leeching off some other life.
RV Parks can offer services right away and patch us whilst we wait for the Charging Stations to sprout root. And who knows, maybe by this activity we spawn the fruition of a new type of holiday travel ...and seed 240V service
So let’s back up and see how far we can go which what is available: 120V * 30 A = 3.6 kW per hour; let’s derate by 20%; 2.88 kW/h. Derated 50-Amp service could offer 120 * 50 * 0.8 = 4.8 kW/h.
- Code: Select all
Service 8 hours 10 hours
--------------------------------
30 A 23.04 kW 28.8 kW
50 A 38.4 kW 48.0 kW
Obviously if we had access to 240V life could be awesome, and even though that infrastructure doesn’t exist for cross-country, this is the next best bet. Now that we’ve boxed in the upper limit, a review of our efficiency is required. I wouldn’t want my EV to suck so badly that I am forced to spend the night after a 3-hour cruise. The arguments for going slower would certainly have merit in range extension. Might also change the routes we take... and when we take them.
I wouldn’t encourage driving north on California Hwy 1 in August at Noon!
Anyways… I see the problem at both ends, and for the moment (being these next couple of years) my cross-country plans are hemmed in by these unequivocal facts. We can make trips like this accessible to the general public in this way without resorting to super-athletes. We need to think like Henry Ford: Creative production, affordable, commonly available to all, and easy to use.
RV Parks are the first step towards accessing the untapped resource that can feed our electric revolutions.
~
KF
