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  • Drew Dowdell
    Drew Dowdell

    GM Teaming with Bechtel To Deploy Widespread Fast-Charging Station Network

      ...two forming a new company for EV charging station infrastructure...

    General Motors and Bechtel are teaming up to form a new company to deploy a widespread fast-charging network. Neither company plans to put any money into the project, outside investors are being solicited.  The network will help General Motors, which plans to introduce 20 new EVs by 2023.  It will also help other manufacturers of EVs. 

    General Motors will provide data to help decide where to locate the EV charging stations and Bechtel will use its own experts for the engineering and building of the stations. Much of the data will come from GM's OnStar system to help learn where people tend to park.  Data from both electric and gasoline powered vehicles will be used.

    Additional fast-charging infrastructure is seen as a requirement to increasing electric vehicle sales. According to a survey by AAA, one of the biggest concerns Americans have about EVs is having enough locations to charge them.  

    The network built by Bechtel and GM will not be limited to interstate highways where most fast charging stations have been located so far.  The company will also locate chargers in urban areas targeting apartments and condos where drivers cannot have a home charger of their own. 

    The new venture joins major initiatives from Electrify America, a Volkswagen funded EV station program, and Tesla with Supercharging, to build out a nationwide network of charging stations. 

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    6 minutes ago, Robert Hall said:

    In '97, I drove from Ann Arbor, MI to Colorado Springs, CO after I left grad school and heading out to my first corporate job in a new city and state.   I drove in my '87 Mustang GT stuffed full of clothes, computers, misc stuff.  Did stay in the Chicago suburbs a couple days visiting friends then spent one night outside Omaha.

    The Denver to Phoenix and back trips were all in my '00 Grand Cherokee,  and the 2017 Phoenix to Cleveland drive was in my '14 Grand Cherokee, had only had it a couple months and it only had 25k miles at the time.  It is great on long drives..smooth and comfortable.   But tight inside w/ two people, luggage and dog crates.  Good thing the 6 dogs all weigh between 6lbs and 15lbs. 

    My ONE cat weighed as much as those two dogs lol. The things we do for our animals. 

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    15 hours ago, balthazar said:

    Observation : if most EV owner's simply charge at home overnight, Teslas give a minimum of -what- 250 miles range AND the average driver drives only 30 miles per day, what are all the Teslas I see at Superchargers at 10AM or 3PM?? They can't all be interstate travelers; are 250-300 miles range Tesla owners still feeling range anxiety??

    Supercharging is free.  There is a subset of Tesla drivers who believe that they should never have to pay to fill up their vehicles and for that reason, they only charge at Superchargers.  This has become an issue in some California cities where people will park their Tesla at a supercharger station all day.  Tesla was taking measures against certain high use owners for hogging the superchargers.

    My friends who have a Volt said their electric bill went up by $30 a month and they rarely ever use the gas engine... they go 3 months without filling up the gas.  But these Tesla owners are being cheapwads and won't charge at home. 

    Supercharging was always intended to be a system to fight range anxiety, not a primary fuel source.  Of course, people start abusing the system. 

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    3 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

    Supercharging is free.  There is a subset of Tesla drivers who believe that they should never have to pay to fill up their vehicles and for that reason, they only charge at Superchargers.  This has become an issue in some California cities where people will park their Tesla at a supercharger station all day.  Tesla was taking measures against certain high use owners for hogging the superchargers.

    My friends who have a Volt said their electric bill went up by $30 a month and they rarely ever use the gas engine... they go 3 months without filling up the gas.  But these Tesla owners are being cheapwads and won't charge at home. 

    Supercharging was always intended to be a system to fight range anxiety, not a primary fuel source.  Of course, people start abusing the system. 

    I could see that happening... I just wished Id seen it sooner and for myself as I serve many of these types of cheapwads in my restaurant. 

    Not necessarily cheapwad Tesla owners, but just cheapwad human disgraces in general.  

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    1 hour ago, Drew Dowdell said:

    Supercharging is free.  There is a subset of Tesla drivers who believe that they should never have to pay to fill up their vehicles…
    ...Tesla owners are being cheapwads and won't charge at home. 
    ...Of course, people start abusing the system. 

    Ah- that explanation makes sense. Doesn't work any other way- if they charged overnight, they wouldn't even be down 10% by 9:30 in the morning. I just read Tesla was going to limit Supercharging to a max of 80% to hurry people along. Tesla needs to charge everyone to use them, at least something.

    One time I filled my tank when it was about a 3rd full, because I was heading for an interstate with no rest stops & I have a diesel. Other than that, I fill it to the brim, and run it to 'E' every time. I just last year learned Chevy gives the DuraMax a FIFTEEN GALLON buffer, so when it reads 'E' it's got like 15 gals in it. I've driven 2 days locally on the 'low fuel light' a few times.

    Edited by balthazar
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    3 hours ago, ocnblu said:

    Something else funny:  olds posted his diesel powered party boat to put me in my place.  Nice boat!

    That wasnt to put you in your place.

    I figured, I bitched at you long enough two weeks ago or so....so...that "diesel|" party boat was just that...a party boat...meant for us to have fun posting in here.

    I figured, why be bitter? 

    We might as well all have fun in here...

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    Now that we've  done finished  with throwing around all these nice pleasantries...

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