[.HEM]

If this Rumour NEWS in Team-BHP : "Only electric 3-wheelers to be sold from April 2023" becomes true;

Then battery swapping stations along with charging stations can be a profitable business model. The battery swap stations can be more useful for commercial 3 wheelers, as they can Just swap the battery and continue their daily run, instead of charging the battery and losing time waiting.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by GutsyGibbon

Other EV owners may make short trips, but not Tesla LR owners. It make a great road trip vehicle. True, the need for Quick charge stations is to mainly address range anxiety. .

How often does anybody drive more than a couple of hundred kilometres a day? Sure road trips is different.

As long as you drive 200-350 km a day only there is no need to stop for charging. You will charge at home. More convenient and cheaper.

The whole idea of having to charge along the route, ie not at home is a dated concept tied into the traditional way of getting petrol/diesel.

That is why a business case for EV charging stations versus petrol station is likely to very different. Today everybody needs to visit a petrol station no matter what every couple of hundred kilometres, no matter what. With a home charger for your EV that is simply not necessary anymore.

Jeroen

[LiCoO2]

There's an article on the PlugIn India Blog on the cost of charging stations and expected revenue. I am in this industry and I think their revenue estimates are too optimistic. But their cost estimates are spot on.

costs:



revenue:

[Shreyans_Jain]

Perhaps a business case can be made for 5 star hotel chains and other premium properties to offer fast charging. Drive down to Jaipur from Delhi in your swanky new electric car with 400km range for the weekend. No issue of charging as your hotel has paid fast charging facility. Holiday of the future!

[Jeroen]

I do not know how it will play out in India. But here in Europe you can charge your EV just about everywhere. Street parking in many major cities have dedicated charging spots, same on parking places/garages. Shopping malls offer EV charging, office parking places have dedicated charging places etc.

Fast charging is only required along motorway. Everywhere else, where cars are parked for several hours, you do not need fast charging. As long as it gets you back home, that will do. And many people tend to charge at home only not that many people around who drive more than 200-250 km a day. Most EV are getting into that range easily these days. So you can leave your EV on charge at home over night.

You reslly cant compare EV charging infrastructure with Petrol Station infrastructure. Very different useage.

Jeroen

Jeroen

[alisajid]

Charging price point will increase if e-vehicles become commercial. Govt will start applying similar taxes like they do on fossil fuels to balance their tax revenue. Quick charging technology will be premium and will be kept expensive. It will be a good commercial venture if we start a charging firm and tie up with real estate developers right away, with taxes and all even a 50 paisa margin on KW will not be bad. Specially for above 50 flats projects.

[A M]

Originally Posted by .HEM

If this Rumour NEWS in Team-BHP : "Only electric 3-wheelers to be sold from April 2023" becomes true;

Then battery swapping stations along with charging stations can be a profitable business model. The battery swap stations can be more useful for commercial 3 wheelers, as they can Just swap the battery and continue their daily run, instead of charging the battery and losing time waiting.

Following are the problems I think a battery swapping business will face:

1. It would really depend on the EV manufacturers what architecture they use for their vehicles. If they decide to make battery swapping an arduous task, people would be happier charging them anyway.

2. Also, how does a customer ensure they are getting a battery in as good health as the one they are swapping with.

3. And when it is time to discard the battery, who takes the financial hit?

[Swing Singh]

I am currently working with the Govt in Karnataka in helping them replace their entire fleet of diesel buses to electric. Just going by what we have seen in the market, there is little understanding on the energy mix, the charging infra, electricity grid balancing and the discharge rate. I am not sure if India is ready for all electric vehicles yet. Perhaps in the next 2-3 years.

[V.Narayan]

There are fundamental differences in the way the two energy forms are distributed ie conventional fuel and electricity. Conventional fuel requires an elaborate fire safe infrastructure at a concentrated point of real estate to distribute it. Electricity can reach anywhere where there is a grid.The single biggest cost for a conventional petrol pump is the real estate and the civil infrastructure to house underground tanks with fire safety. EV charging will do away with that. It is possible that EV charging will become a distributed additional paid service available at public parking spots (by the Municipality), at Mall parking lots (by the Mall's management), at your club (by the Club management) and so on. The value of the real estate in the top 50 towns/cities of India is so high that the space occupied by petrol pumps today will get more profitably used for other purposes. And with real life ranges now getting past the 250 kms mark most of us (who can) will simply charge overnight at home. Multi-car charging stations may then become a feature mainly of highways. Now to go check out the Hyundai Kona in July :-)

[Sebring]

EV charging points are mushrooming in the IT capital. Was pleasantly surprised to see one near my house, right on the main road!

[payeng]

All I can Visualize is long rows of vehicles waiting for their turn to charge.

Charging stations aren't the solution unless there comes a tech that provides a Charge Top in in LESS THAN A MINUTE

[GutsyGibbon]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

It is possible that EV charging will become a distributed additional paid service available at public parking spots (by the Municipality), at Mall parking lots (by the Mall's management), at your club (by the Club management) and so on.

For cars, this would hold true for trickle charging that adds a few miles in an hour. For something like fast charging , it needs lot of infrastructure. A Tesla supercharger is a 480V DC connection that can pump 250KW. All the race for fast charging is about creating a power substation to pump crazy power, into a battery that manages temperature very well. This is the only model to make money.

Like you said, trickle charging with our real estate prices doesn't make sense

[NAVREVV]

The other day i saw Delta automation has installed two EV charging stations side by side at Connaught Place inner circle in New Delhi so definitely big companies are lining up in this big business in times to come.

[ksameer1234]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Conventional fuel requires an elaborate fire safe infrastructure at a concentrated point of real estate to distribute it. Electricity can reach anywhere where there is a grid.The single biggest cost for a conventional petrol pump is the real estate and the civil infrastructure to house underground tanks with fire safety. EV charging will do away with that. It is possible that EV charging will become a distributed additional paid service available at public parking spots (by the Municipality), at Mall parking lots (by the Mall's management), at your club (by the Club management) and so on.

Thank you sir for such a nice post. We have mastered the art of electricity distribution long ago. It won't be a surprise to find charging point next to every parking spot in the city.

Originally Posted by GutsyGibbon

Like you said, trickle charging with our real estate prices doesn't make sense

Not sure if I misunderstood but high real estate prices in India are actually a boon. Cars can get charged wherever people park, be it office or a mall. Also, existing pumps in city can be repurposed as parking lot with charging points for each spot. That would mean two revenue streams for the real estate.

[racer_ash]

The single biggest advantage of gasoline and diesel are the enormous energy density that they come with. From my chemistry class, I can remember the calorific value of petrol to be around 34MJ/litre. That means, if it takes 5 minutes to top up around 50 litres of petrol, we are storing an equivalent of 1500 MJ for use of energy in just 300 seconds. This means we are gaining close to 1.6 kms of travel for every second of fuel we fill (assuming range of 500kms for a full tank)

The fast charger for the Kona takes about an hour to charge 80%. The range with 80% charge is about 250kms. Thats 4kms of charge gained every minute. This is roughly 1/25th of the range gained while using conventional petrol pump. This with a 'FAST' charger.

The calculations above show how impractical an EV charging station seems currently. Unless some genius thinks of a way to Super super charge the battery.

The other more practical alternative is battery swapping stations. If a typical swap takes just 2 or 3 minutes and this helps us gain close to 300km range, we now have a petrol like energy gain.

Again, how practical is a frequent battery swap, what with manufacturers integrating this with the monocoque.