Walmart EV Charging Network - Finally Under Construction!

Brons2 said:
It was also said a while back that the grid could not handle the demand of every house in the South having AC.
Well guess what, it's pretty much ubiquitous now.

I'm not suggesting wishful thinking that it's just going to magically happen. But supply will come online in response to demand.
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Only time will tell, the USA is not prepared and honestly it's impossible to say. EVs only make up 2% of the cars on the road. Many states currently have power issues.
I never heard that about AC in the south ... but I can say this. Some state governments wanted gasoline sales banned in ten years. We all knew that wouldnt happen. The evolution to AC went on for 50 or more years.
Battery cars cannot be replaced by gasoline anytime in the next 100 years. A whole new power grid needs to be replaced in order to shut down the gasoline stations for 300 million cars.

Something else will come along is my feeling. But I do not think you or I will be alive when this debate is over. :)
(and I am not really debating you except to say current lithium battery cars are just a stepping stone and without government forcing it it will be never)
 
alarmguy said:
Something else will come along is my feeling. But I do not think you or I will be alive when this debate is over. :)
(and I am not really debating you except to say current lithium battery cars are just a stepping stone and without government forcing it it will be never)
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I'm a Gen-Xer and I hope to see a lot more electric cars on the road in my lifetime, and the infrastructure to support them. As for what they are a stepping stone to, I would say next generation solid state battery chemistries not based on lithium, sodium ion would be next level, and it's being researched.

I can understand California banning ICE vehicles by 2035, a lot of my family as well as my parents are from there. Prior to the 90s, LA was pretty much a brown or black cloud on many days. You descended from the mountains into the LA basin and you could see the swirling smog. It's better nowadays but sometimes when visiting the (clearer) air still burns my eyes. With almost half of the state's population living in SoCal, it's understandable that they want to mitigate this. $0.02.

I really question whether anyone under, say around 40, has this perspective. I visited Disneyland a few times when I was in my single digit age range and the air was so awful I coughed all day. Made a lasting impression.
 
Brons2 said:
...

I can understand California banning ICE vehicles by 2035, a lot of my family as well as my parents are from there. Prior to the 90s, LA was pretty much a brown or black cloud on many days. You descended from the mountains into the LA basin and you could see the swirling smog. It's better nowadays but sometimes when visiting the (clearer) air still burns my eyes. With almost half of the state's population living in SoCal, it's understandable that they want to mitigate this. $0.02.

I really question whether anyone under, say around 40, has this perspective. I visited Disneyland a few times when I was in my single digit age range and the air was so awful I coughed all day. Made a lasting impression.
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The air isnt like that anymore. Am I making a correct statement?

I know in the northeast NYC Metro area the air is clean. So clean a NOAA scientist says part of the reason for the more powerful Atlantic storms is because the air is much cleaner, the particles do not reflect as much sunlight hitting the ocean and warming it. The warmer Atlantic fuels more power storms.
 
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alarmguy said:
Yeah, it might surprise you to know that Walmart in Columbia, South Carolina has had public charging for maybe five years now. I can’t remember exactly when but we moved from there two years ago and I know they were in the parking lot for at least one to two years before we moved
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Not terribly surprising few know because "public charging" is a very low priority to EV owners. Only gets the attention of ICE drivers who presume EVs need "Gas Stations" same as ICE.

When one departs from home every morning with a "full" (or as much as one desires) charge then there is no need for charging at Walmart. The only time public charging becomes an interest is on travel to distant cities. This is how Tesla selected sites for the Supercharger network in its early days (and still gives priority to). Put Superchargers on travel corridors, not "on every street corner."

I think I have used a Supercharger once in the past 5 years. Was this past year and mostly I was curious to simply get a splash and go for a 230 mile day. Bought $6 of electricity at $0.39/kWh just to have a bit of a buffer.
 
alarmguy said:
I do agree as I posted, it is possible to innovate the grid to handle things but that will take 100 years. One must ask, if you think it can be done sooner. The public will revolt at the cost, actually its already happening and we are not out of the gate.
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The correct time and place to charge an EV is at home at night when the existing power grid has a 50% surplus generating capacity. Using this generating capacity produces revenue for the utility without having to enhance "the grid" or generating capacity. Easy revenue which can be used to lower rates for daytime use or invest in ever more capacity and wiring/grid updates.

The wrongest time to charge is during the day at public chargers. Especially the 250-400 kW fast chargers which hit the grid hard for 10-20 minutes and then off again. Home charging hits the grid with perhaps 10kW load for 1-5 hours.
 
GrumpyCat said:
The correct time and place to charge an EV is at home at night when the existing power grid has a 50% surplus generating capacity. Using this generating capacity produces revenue for the utility without having to enhance "the grid" or generating capacity. Easy revenue which can be used to lower rates for daytime use or invest in ever more capacity and wiring/grid updates.

The wrongest time to charge is during the day at public chargers. Especially the 250-400 kW fast chargers which hit the grid hard for 10-20 minutes and then off again. Home charging hits the grid with perhaps 10kW load for 1-5 hours.
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I charge at only 5.6kw. It is adequate and less draw is almost always better for every part of the system.
 
GrumpyCat said:
The correct time and place to charge an EV is at home at night when the existing power grid has a 50% surplus generating capacity. Using this generating capacity produces revenue for the utility without having to enhance "the grid" or generating capacity. Easy revenue which can be used to lower rates for daytime use or invest in ever more capacity and wiring/grid updates.

The wrongest time to charge is during the day at public chargers. Especially the 250-400 kW fast chargers which hit the grid hard for 10-20 minutes and then off again. Home charging hits the grid with perhaps 10kW load for 1-5 hours.
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34% of the population rents that is significant
Also most homes are not capable of charging 2 or 3 cars at night.
The purpose of my post is only to highlight, we have a LONG way to go, I stand by 100 years if every vehicle was to be electric in our country of 300 million vehicles. Right now there are less than 3 million electric vehicles. Many states already out of power. Even our economy which technology companies bring in a windfall of revenue. Alphabet Inc. Microsoft, META to name a few already car trying to source power to run their data centers.

Texas is out of power to do it and wondering who will pay the billions to upgrade the grid, just to handle the growing business. EVs are not even mentioned. Google wanted to start up the shut down 3 mile island nuclear plant for its own use as an example.
 
alarmguy said:
Yeah, it might surprise you to know that Walmart in Columbia, South Carolina has had public charging for maybe five years now. I can’t remember exactly when but we moved from there two years ago and I know they were in the parking lot for at least one to two years before we moved
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To clarify:

The chargers at the mentioned Walmart are Electrify America (EA) DCFCs, previously WM and EA had a partnership. This partnership has ended for new deployments. EA is now in a trial phase of a Costco partnership, there has been some media about that.

Also, now WM is in the early phases of deploying their own WM branded charging network.
 
Brons2 said:
To clarify:

The chargers at the mentioned Walmart are Electrify America (EA) DCFCs, previously WM and EA had a partnership. This partnership has ended for new deployments. EA is now in a trial phase of a Costco partnership, there has been some media about that.

Also, now WM is in the early phases of deploying their own WM branded charging network.
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Yes, I remember the Electrify America now that you mention it.
 
Ws6 said:
I charge at only 5.6kw. It is adequate and less draw is almost always better for every part of the system.
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5.6kW? 24A?

We get 7.2kW at 32A with the Mach-E. The $159 Amazon adapter is much more consistent than the Ford charger that the car came with.
 
alarmguy said:
34% of the population rents that is significant
Also most homes are not capable of charging 2 or 3 cars at night.
The purpose of my post is only to highlight, we have a LONG way to go, I stand by 100 years if every vehicle was to be electric in our country of 300 million vehicles. Right now there are less than 3 million electric vehicles. Many states already out of power. Even our economy which technology companies bring in a windfall of revenue. Alphabet Inc. Microsoft, META to name a few already car trying to source power to run their data centers.

Texas is out of power to do it and wondering who will pay the billions to upgrade the grid, just to handle the growing business. EVs are not even mentioned. Google wanted to start up the shut down 3 mile island nuclear plant for its own use as an example.
Click to expand...
Most newer homes with 200A service have enough juice to charge 3 EVs overnight and run the AC. Would probably work better at 32A per car if you're running additional appliances in the house beyond that AC unit, i.e. dishwasher, clothes washer/dryer, etc.

But you have to do the load calculations. Generalizations don't really help.

There are also smart panels and smart breakers available. Things like this that measure current usage and software integrate with your charger to reduce panel load based on household appliance usage: https://shop.emporiaenergy.com/coll...r-with-load-management?variant=44414260248831
 
alarmguy said:
34% of the population rents that is significant
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I didn't really break this down before. I think it's a lot easier to solve EV issues with a rental house or townhouse that has an actual garage or dedicated parking spot, as opposed to true apartment scenarios.

Consuling Bing Copilot AI, which is what we can use on our work machines, says that approximately "38% of renters live in apartment buildings with 5 or more units" and gives this as a source link, which in turn links to National Multifamily Housing Council.

https://getflex.com/blog/apartment-statistics

(Kind of depressing, the average monthly rent for 1 bedroom apartments is over $1100?!?!?!)
 
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