Open Letter to Coulomb Technologies

The cost of the electricity is low. I think the hourly rate should be to "park" in the charging station parking spot.

The rate of the first hour should be low. Additional hours should rise logarithmically. The idea is to maximize the number plugin cars per charger and minimize one EV from hogging up the entire business hours. This will encourage EV owners to charge at home and use the public chargers to refuel it to comfortable range.

 

Updated my post to address your comment, but finman's comment was "ON AVERAGE PLEASE" (my emphasis), so while a few people may drive < 10miles per trip, on average there is PiP showing that type of range.).

And if < 10 the volt and piP would be the same.. (We don't yet have good data on when PiP will run for temp or for maintenance but both will only run a small amount for that), so the PiP is not more gas efficient then, just about the same.

 

Not offended here, I just think you are wrong about overdrive. People somehow think that putting 0.5:1 as the top gear in a transmission will give them 50 MPG and/or allow the car to keep up with a Ferrari on the autobahn. The latter is true, if you a talking about a Corvette The Honda Insight that I drive has an extraordinarily tall gearbox. 3rd is basically direct, 4th is over, and 5th is way over. The final drive ratio is 3.2 -- huge! 5th gear redlines at 160 mph, if you could get it to go that fast. But, I am also running the car without IMA, and while I can tell you that I get better mpg that way, it is not because I have a tall 5th. Without IMA, there is not enough power for 5th, unless going downhill. So I spend most of the time in 3rd or 4th, and think back to the days of driving a 4 speed Chevette. The high fuel economy is due to aerodynamics, light weight materials, a very small ICE with lean burn, tiny tires. Not tall overdrive.

I'm all for advancements in engines and transmissions that improve fuel economy, but as far as overdrive goes, that was one of the first things that car makers did in the 80s.

Anyway, I do agree with you that high charging rates will be a disincentive for people to buy plug-in hybrids.

 

Only 47 mpg? In a Prius? That wows me!

Here is someone who gets a bit more:

http://www.cleanmpg.com/index.php?page=garage&displayunits=MPG(US)&viewcar=721

 

Actually, the Prius gets most of its efficiency from the small, low-torque, high-efficiency Atkinson cycle engine, which is only possible because the electric motor can provide torque when needed; and from the fact that the battery serves as a buffer to allow the ICE to run closer to its ideal power output. Regen is a relatively small part of the Prius's overall efficiency.

With a 3-mile commute, my old Zap Xebra would be ideal.

That's good for cars like the PiP with a tiny battery. For a true EV, like the Leaf, your system would just discourage them from using the charger at all, unless it's L3.

The rate should be reasonable while the car is actually charging, and very high after, to encourage people to fill up and then move the car. And there should be a surcharge for cars that do not match the charger: A Leaf on L1 would get little benefit, while a PiP on a 9.6 kW charger would be hogging the charger without making good use of its capacity.

 

So going back to the original thread for a sec., my read on all this is public stations with a cost to fill a PiP over about $1 are just not worth it on fundamental economics. For some people it's worth it to pay more not to use gas.

For the most part, I see these stations as catering to the 100% EVs out there who will pay much higher prices because they HAVE to - have no choice if they need the energy to get home... We PiP owners can have an economic debate on price/value, but they have much less wiggle room on the value side.

So it won't surprise me to see most charging stations be somewhat pricey. I'll just charge at home, and pure EVs will have to make more serious decisions about where to charge and how far from home they can/want to go.

 

$8 for gas.
$72 for delivery to hazardous areas.

 

I'd like to see some addtional data on the Charge Point site. Currently on the page when you have the different color pins, you see green: available or blue: in use. What you can't see, without drilling into each pin, is whether the site is restricted or if there is a cost or not. I'd like to see, on this page, if I could actually use the site or not. If it is Google or Microsoft employees only, it does me no good to know it is there. I'd also like to see the price. If it is a restricted site, put an 'R' on the pin. If there is a cost, have that in the pin. If it is free, state that. Maybe something like:

(R):Restricted or (P)Public and (F)free or (1.00)1.00 per hour

So I might see on my map the following pins:
(RF)-Restricted, Free
(R1.00)-Restricted, 1.00/hr
(PF)-Public, Free
(P0.50)-Public, .50/hr
(P3.00)-Public, 3.00/hr (like I'm going to use that one!!!)
This would be very informative, without haveing to drill into all of the pins and also creat a bit of competition, thus keeping the price lower.

 

I think you can at least globally turn on and off restricted chargers on their map, in the area below the map itself. You can also set price ranges as well to filter the map pins.

 

Good info. I had to use the scroll bar to see it. I still think that the icons would be a good idea because I wouldn't have to filter but again, good info
Thank you.