San Francisco gears up for age of electric car - All new buildings to be wired with chargers

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/17/san-francisco-electric-cars

San Francisco gears up for age of electric car

All new buildings to be wired with chargers ahead of release of new vehicle models marketed to middle-class families

Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 17 February 2010 20.03 GMT

San Francisco has adopted building codes requiring all new homes and offices to be wired for electric car chargers, in an attempt to position itself as America's green car capital.

The move comes in advance of the release this year of the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt, which promise to deliver driving distances of 40 miles or more on a single battery charge and are being marketed to middle-class families.

Local authorities are launching a lending scheme next month to encourage homeowners to install their own charging stations.

"If you want to put an electric charging station in your home in anticipation of all these electric vehicles, you can do it through this green financing programme," said San Francisco's mayor, Gavin Newsom.

...

[slackmaster]

1. Stuck in my head: "This is the dawning of the Age of Electric Cars, Age of Electric Cars..."

:argh:

[nimvg]

2. My Understanding...

...is the charging unit for the Leaf (and probably the Volt) needs a dedicated circuit and has to be directly wired up. You can't just have a socket in the garage. Is that true?

[zipplewrath]

3. Dunno, but you want it to be

Ideally, you'd want a 240 circuit and for the kind of current you'd draw, you'd need a dedicated circuit breaker. Industrially though (like in a parking garage) it'd be handled competely different.

[azul]

4. Perhaps, if you want the faster charges.

My electric 914 is just a 110v 15 amp on-board charger. Many ev's have either 110 or 220v charger options. The higher voltage and amperage charge outlet needs to be wired like a 220v dryer or stove plug.

A bunch of fast chargers in a residential area might need bigger or more transformers, which is what this preparation is about, I would guess -helping the electric utilities gear up.

[M155Y_A1CH]

5. From Wiki

"The Volt's 16 kWh (8.0 kWh usable) lithium-ion battery pack can be fully charged by plugging the car into a 120-240VAC residential electrical outlet using the provided SAE J1772<8> compliant charging cord. No external charging station will be required"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Volt

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. Is there one standard fitting and one standard voltage ...

that applies to all cars, or is it too early for the competing standards to have been distilled down to one?

When Amtrak took over, it had to make sure that the fuel fittings on its locomotives matched the nozzles of the fuel supply nozzles of the host roads over which those locomotives were used. Similarly, one reason the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904 resulted in such extensive damage was that the hose fittings of the companies responding from other jurisdictions did not fit Baltimore's fire hydrants.

I know the fine folks at the National Fire Protection Association who write the National Electrical Code® will do their job; I just want to know when that will be settled.

[tinrobot]

7. The manufacturers have agreed on a standard plug.

It will handle 110v, 220v, and 440v as I recall.

Google 'SAE J1772' for the skinny...

[nimvg]

8. Whoa!

I don't think I'm gonna have 440V in my frickin' house, Maybe that's for commercial use.

[Statistical]

9. It is for "quick" carging stations.

While not as quick as a gastank it 440v can get you about 30% charge in 15 minutes.

Not enough for long distance travel but enough to prevent you from getting stranded on your commute if/when you realize you forgot to charge your car the night before.

[diane in sf]

10. Thanks--I enjoyed reading this. There were a bunch of dumb comments there

so I added the following:

Let me correct some of the misinformation I'm reading here.

In California most of our grid power comes from natural gas, renewables (hydro, wind and solar) and nuclear. If we were burning coal there would still be less energy used and less air pollution created by using grid based power than there is by burning gasoline to run autos. If you don't believe me go google this issue.

Most people's commutes are under 40 miles a day--even here in the land of the freeway. If you are driving a plug-in hybrid that doesn't require gasoline until after that limit you are getting very nice mpg. A strictly electric vehicle certainly needs more range and batteries are at the state that microchips were 20 years ago. But the all electric Rav4s that Toyota was making in the 90s had a 125 mile range. Many people in urban areas will have the all-electric plug-ins as errand running town cars. Also the state plans to have a large number of fast charging stations on the major freeways like 5 and 101.

There are other power possibilities for heavy trucking and not using electric power for trucks does not mean it's a joke for autos. We have natural gas and hydrogen powered buses here in San Francisco--it's easier to make hydrogen power storage for larger vehicles--it doesn't have to be miniaturized as it does for autos.

Re: the Bullitt comment. Electrical cars can have very fast pickup, again google if you don't believe this.