Retail Watchers

I had no idea Electrify America charging stations were owned by Volkswagen. Those were the ones I saw at Walmart, Lucky, and Safeway in the San Francisco Bay Area.

They have a green glow and make a noise when cars are charging. The chargers attract your attention. What is that noise? So you follow the sound until you see the charging towers.

The charging stations require installation of large electrical boxes. Some of them are so huge that they put them far away from the charging stations. They look like electrical substations.

What happens when there is a Brownout? Blackout?

You order an Uber.

jamcool wrote: ↑February 18th, 2022, 5:42 pm What happens when there is a Brownout? Blackout?

You go into the Walgreens store and complain to the employees about it...

You hope the sun is out and the solar panels save it.

Maybe they will come up with wireless charging for the vehicles. Wireless that somehow won't require any power. Don't ask questions; trust the science(tm).

jamcool wrote: ↑February 18th, 2022, 5:42 pm What happens when there is a Brownout? Blackout?

Gas pumps don't work during blackouts either.

babs wrote: ↑February 19th, 2022, 8:11 am

jamcool wrote: ↑February 18th, 2022, 5:42 pm What happens when there is a Brownout? Blackout?

Gas pumps don't work during blackouts either.

Wrong. Some do. It doesn't take much energy to power a gas pump. They will also process credit cards "offline" (you won't know this happened... until you see the pump stop at a low amount like $50)... at least Shell does... basically letting you get up to $50 of gas and hope your card authorizes when they come back online. An EV charger on the other hand... uses a ton of energy. I do not think a generator could help much to power many EVs. Actually that is a huge safety risk for folks needing to leave during a natural disaster.

https://www.abcactionnews.com/simplemos ... lectricity

Now, I suppose you could, if you live in an area prone to disasters (I certainly don't live in such an area), have EVs then keep one gas vehicle as a back up (until your west coast state decides to ban gas vehicles from being available for purchase). The problem with that is- if you rarely drive the gas vehicle, the gas supposedly goes stale, or so they say, and may cause problems to the vehicle. The other problem is of course you have to leave your EV behind, in the disaster, so it may end up destroyed since you can't get the power to charge it to get it far enough out of the disaster area.