Electric vehicles will make up the majority (54%) of new car sales worldwide by 2040, according to a 2017 Bloomberg report. Environment wise, it means a significant global reduction for CO2 emissions but it also improves on efficiency by reduced fuel associated problems like shortage or price stability.
Advancement of plug-in all-electric and hybrid vehicles has seen the increased need for coordinating the charging process of different models of EVs. However, this is still under research and more is yet to be discovered particularly on the charging infrastructure.
Charging Infrastructure
Essentially, electric vehicle charging stations (EV stations) comprises of two main parts: the charging facilities and charging devices. The charging facilities refer to the fixed electrical installations and are grouped as either private or home charging and public charging.
The public charging infrastructure can be further classified and opportunity charging, fast charging and EV battery swapping stations. On the other hand, charging devices refer to the unit used to power plug-in electric vehicles and can be categorized based on their charging mechanism — conductive, inductive and wireless chargers.
Home EV Charging Solutions
Home EV station allows you to charge your electric vehicle at full capacity efficiently and conveniently. All you need to do is plug-in the EV onboard charger to the outlet on the charging point.
Home charging allows multiple fast charging than regular sockets even with limited available capacity, giving you up to 100 km driving range when the EV chargers for just a night. The average time for home EV charging is between 5 to 8 hours as the battery charges slowly.
In conclusion, home charging can be considered electric effective since EVs are often charged at night during off-peak hours. The best place to install a home charging point is in the garage where an indoor socket outlet can be installed. Meanwhile, outdoor socket outlets are ideal for apartments with attached car parking and each outlet should be separately operated and protected with independent circuits.
Public Charging Solutions
Public charging infrastructure refers to readily available charging facilities that are readily accessed by anyone who has an electric vehicle to conveniently recharge their EVs when necessary. Many businesses that are investing in setting up EV stations now understand the importance of having these recharging points for EV drivers.
Commercial electric car charging stations are helpful for employees, customers, and guests who want to juice up their electric cars at their places of work, shopping or entertainment, airports, schools and tourist sites. These are places you can expect to spend at least three hours, enough time to give your battery a boost.
Opportunity Charging Stations
The whole concept behind electric vehicles is the effectiveness of recharging them as one of the home gadgets — where you can charge at night during off-peak hours or anytime you’ve parked at home. However, these same EVs are expected to operate both day and night.
For that reason, the need for opportunity charging stations that allow EVs drivers to recharge whenever such opportunities arise. But don’t expect to get a full within just a few hours of plugging in, because the idea of public charging points is to increase your battery usable capacity so you enjoy the additional driving range, and also as an additional reserve.
Fast Charging Stations
Also referred to as rapid charging, this charging station is designed to recharge EV batteries quickly almost similar to that of refueling conventional gasoline vehicles. For 20 minutes of quick charging, you can juice up to up to 80% battery capacity.
This means that you can enjoy long hours of travel provided that there are adequate EV stations on the way with fast charging capacity. Despite the benefits of having to rapidly recharge your EV, the advancement can negatively impact your power system.
Battery Swapping Stations
The best EV charging solution between fast charging, which is associated with most of the EVs’ power system problems — and opportunity charging stations, is battery swapping. Here your drained EV batteries are swapped with fully charged batteries. Ideally, it’s like your borrowing a battery to return it later when you go for another round of battery swap.
Both home and public charging stations are some of the key infrastructures that we’ll be seeing more of in the coming years’ people shift to driving electric cars.