I feel the concept of EV charging might be democratized. These are the problems with EV stations:
It takes a while to charge up.
No matter what, only a very few people can be accommodated at once.
On the flip side, setting up a gas station is hard, but that’s not the case with EV charging stations — especially if battery swapping is innovated. It also takes time to deeply penetrate the market, but EV charging is much more suitable for two-wheelers.
So there’s a clear gap — the current gas stations can’t handle the volume of people waiting for EV charging. What is the way forward? I feel anyone with an EV charger can set up an EV charging station at home. This means all your malls, houses, and parks might be converted into EV charging stations, making it much more decentralized.
I anticipate that anyone with an EV charger and good parking space can make some extra bucks from it. I feel the whole idea of gas stations might be democratized. I’m not sure — this is just what I feel. Feel free to let me know your opinion.
Connecting EV charging stations to the grid is a significant problem. Balancing the peak grid maximum demand* against EV charging demand. While it may be okay to have a busy highway/motorway service station properly hooked up, it get's more difficult to apply that more broadly. How much charging capacity should a shopping centre provide? What about a occasionally-used sports venue?
I have worked with customers that have distribution centres in city locations to charge online-shopping vehicles overnight for the next day. All vehicles are plugged in and the software needs to charge different vehicles up at different times and rates, in order to spread the load.
It is far easier to dig a hole in the ground and fill a tank with delivered fuel - all the logistics for this already exists.
* Maximum demand is a well-known concept that relates to the maximum current draw in a 30-minute period, which is used to provide the necessary infrastructure from the electricity supplier.