First off, thanks for the kind words. As you might guess, I've been pondering this issue since I first heard about charging spaces being "Volted" some months back, and the recent discussion at plugincars motivated me to start writing some of it out. Bringing the issue up on this forum has led to every bit as interesting and thought-provoking a discussion as I'd hoped for. I think this topic isn't leaving the news (at least in our EV-oriented patch) for a while, so I'll probably post again under this topic from time to time.
I've read many interesting ideas here, and been reminded of some things I've thought about public charging since before buying my i-MiEV. Following are a few thoughts I've had to "adjust" a bit after mulling all this over.
CHARGING AT HOME -- I remember when I was EV shopping and found it very irritating to read columnists and bloggers arguing that EVs would not be practical until there was public charging infrastructure available. Just as bad were postings by "reviewers" consisting largely of idiotic accounts of scrounging around for places to charge. All of this writing seemed predicated on a misunderstanding of real life with an EV in 2013 -- they're not supposed to be charged at some electric "gas station"; they're meant to be charged OVERNIGHT, AT HOME. Once you understand that, everything else falls into place. Six to eight hour charge times don't matter, because you're sleeping. Apartment dwellers need not apply; even if your employer and/or landlord choose to offer charging as an amenity, do you really want that to be a constraint on your future employment and/or housing choices for the life of this car? If you need to drive much more than 50 miles every day and can't afford a Tesla, you'd probably best wait a while. But if you have your own garage with sufficient power supply, a second ICE/hybrid car for longer trips, a short to moderate commute, and a mild climate, go for it. If you don't need to charge anywhere but your house, who cares where the closest Blink station is, or for that matter how many Volts are using it?
But then comes along that special circumstance where it would sure be handy to tack on a bit more range while away from home . . .
UNPLUGGING PHEVS -- Getting back to the plugincars.com discussion that started all this, in fairness to Joule Thief, I think we were both deliberately talking past each other, at least a bit. While I did say "I am not suggesting it's okay for BEV drivers to unplug PHEVs when the mood takes them or for their own petty convenience", gratuitous unplugging wasn't really the focus of my comments, and it WAS the focus of JT's. What really frosts him is that some BEV drivers view pulling the plug from a PHEV as no different from grabbing it right off the charging station, because they think PHEVs have no right to use a resource "intended" for BEVs. And yes, when this is done just to "top off" along a trip that can easily be completed entirely within the BEV's current SOC, I agree that there's no excuse for it, and I hope none of us would do that. While there's nothing wrong with opportunistically topping off at a public charger, a plugged-in PHEV should be respected as a fellow EV trying to avoid fossil fuel use; the only justification for unplugging it is because you're genuinely concerned about having enough charge to finish your trip.
SMART NETWORKS -- I was intrigued by a number of the suggestions regarding the intelligence that could be added to charging networks to take reservations, facilitate communications for plug-sharing, and even enforce penalties for misbehavior. Intrigued, but unconvinced (though I do like the anonymous plug-sharing alerts idea - I really don't want to put my mobile number in the window and walk away). As a group we're optimistic about technology, with the old-time EVers having an especially strong DIY ethic, but as a consequence I think we tend to underestimate the resistance to perceived complexity that marks the vast majority of American drivers (I've seen this tendency at work when I read EVers blithely describing the "ease" of borrowing an outlet behind the 7-11 near the office to grab a few hundred Wh while checking out the morning paper over coffee). I fear anything that complicates the charging process is going to become grist for the "why should I bother?" mill. Reservations don't seem workable to me, and complicated penalty mechanisms are likely to seem arbitrary, only adding to the "secret society" aura of EV geekdom.
LEVEL 3 CHARGING -- What I'm reluctantly coming to conclude (and I certainly didn't start here) is that Level 3 charging may be the most straightforward way out of this swamp. Of course, it helps that existing Volts don't have Level 3 capability, and very few future ones will if SAE Combo (CCS) is an expensive option (as seems likely); the same is likely to be true for most PHEVs (Mitsubishi's own Outlander PHEV being a notable exception). But that's far from the whole story -- regardless of how common CHAdeMO equipped cars may become, journeys that stretch our range needs past the battery's capacity don't usually exceed it by all that much, and restoring 20-50% of the vehicle's charge takes a CHAdeMO stop no longer than that needed to fill a Hummer's gas tank. That will go a long way toward making the supplemental charging process (atop the essential foundation laid with home charging) as manageable and scalable as refueling gasoline cars, implemented using a model consistent with the expectations of current drivers. Compared to that, getting into piddly arguments about access to 10 miles worth of charging while we shop at Target doesn't seem very productive.
