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Rheinmetall pilot project for curb stone chargers for EVs

rheinmetall.com

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Re: Rheinmetall pilot project for curb stone chargers for EVs

#111
post #69

On the one hand, I think that ICE cars should be banned from cities, the air would be much better, and these curbside chargers look like it could help with that. On the other hand, a city filled with parked EV cars is not very different from a city filled with ICE cars. Curbside parking should be abolished or at least significantly reduced. People should just park in underground garages and walk the remaining 200m, t…

Cologne is a city with roots that reach back to the Roman empire. It has grown and developed over hundreds of years. Where would all these underground parking lots come from? Why not go a step further and demand that all roads should be put underground, too, so that pedestrians can enjoy an idle stroll on green meadors above ground without all the annoyances that come from car traffic?

>Why not go a step further and demand that all roads should be put underground, too, so that pedestrians can enjoy an idle stroll on green meadors above ground without all the annoyances that come from car traffic?

I'll do you one better!

Since the cars are going to be electric, why not put charging inside the road, so that the car would charge while rolling?

In fact, we can forgo the battery entirely, making the cars lighter, by powering them through the road!

While we're at that, we could allow cars going to the same destination to link to each other to optimize traffic.

Oh, and we could also reduce rolling friction by putting these vehicles on rails.

There you go, we could do much better with underground roads on which electric vehicles roll on rails in metropolitan areas.

We could call these system metros.

Ah, if only such utopian dreams could be implemented. I guess we'll never see it in our lifetimes.

Re: Rheinmetall pilot project for curb stone chargers for EVs

#112

On the one hand, I think that ICE cars should be banned from cities, the air would be much better, and these curbside chargers look like it could help with that. On the other hand, a city filled with parked EV cars is not very different from a city filled with ICE cars. Curbside parking should be abolished or at least significantly reduced. People should just park in underground garages and walk the remaining 200m, t…

I agree, outside space in cities is too valuable to be taken up by parked cars. New multi family construction should have requirements for underground parking spaces with EV loading infrastructure.

Re: Rheinmetall pilot project for curb stone chargers for EVs

#113

On the one hand, I think that ICE cars should be banned from cities, the air would be much better, and these curbside chargers look like it could help with that. On the other hand, a city filled with parked EV cars is not very different from a city filled with ICE cars. Curbside parking should be abolished or at least significantly reduced. People should just park in underground garages and walk the remaining 200m, t…

> ICE cars should be banned from cities

> a city filled with parked EV cars is not very different

> Curbside parking should be abolished

> just park in underground garages

> walk the remaining 200m

I appreciate the humor. I certainly hope that's how it was intended.

The last part was particularly funny. I get it. Let's dig-up every city and build huge underground car garages --which require massive amounts of concrete, materials, digging, etc.-- generate monumental amounts of pollution and CO2 doing so. And then we park our electric cars underground.

And this is where you really got me: The requirement is to be able to walk 200 meters to every destination within a city. Brilliant! I mean, can you imagine the digging under every city on earth to build massive swiss-cheese networks of parking caverns every, say, 400 meters or so? What are we going to do with all the underground water lines, gas, sewer and, in some cases, power lines?

Yes, as a joke, it's really funny.

Re: Rheinmetall pilot project for curb stone chargers for EVs

#114
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cologne is a city with roots that reach back to the Roman empire. It has grown and developed over hundreds of years. Where would all these underground parking lots come from? Why not go a step further and demand that all roads should be put underground, too, so that pedestrians can enjoy an idle stroll on green meadors above ground without all the annoyances that come from car traffic?

> Why not go a step further and demand that all roads should be put underground Like a subway. Throw in some bicycles or e-scooters for the last ~200 meters.

Good luck hauling 100lbs of groceries through the subway.

Re: Rheinmetall pilot project for curb stone chargers for EVs

#115

On the one hand, I think that ICE cars should be banned from cities, the air would be much better, and these curbside chargers look like it could help with that. On the other hand, a city filled with parked EV cars is not very different from a city filled with ICE cars. Curbside parking should be abolished or at least significantly reduced. People should just park in underground garages and walk the remaining 200m, t…

> ICE cars should be banned from cities > a city filled with parked EV cars is not very different > Curbside parking should be abolished > just park in underground garages > walk the remaining 200m I appreciate the humor. I certainly hope that's how it was intended. The last part was particularly funny. I get it. Let's dig-up every city and build huge underground car garages --which require massive amounts of concret…

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Re: Rheinmetall pilot project for curb stone chargers for EVs

#116

I think this is cool, but as the owner of a (non-Tesla) EV, I'd just be glad for chargers that usually work . People ask me sometimes if I have "range anxiety" - I don't really have range anxiety so much as charger anxiety. When I'm not at home my options are pretty much Chargepoint chargers, and there is an Electrify America DC fast charging station about 20 mins away. I'd say about 50% of the time the Chargepoint s…

Not having charging at home would make me not want to own an EV. The constant management of battery charges with the possibility to do permanent damage when charge gets too low would just be too much of a hassle.

Re: Rheinmetall pilot project for curb stone chargers for EVs

#117
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why not go a step further and demand that all roads should be put underground Like a subway. Throw in some bicycles or e-scooters for the last ~200 meters.

Good luck hauling 100lbs of groceries through the subway.

100 pounds! We'll need at least 2400 pounds of automobile to handle such an unweildy load.

I jest but people handle shopping in a myriad of ways, if you live somewhere with good transit it's really not an issue.

The Big Shop is a bit of a symptom of suburbia's unavailability problem anyway, since it's such a pain in the butt to get groceries I would optimize it all into one big shop with the car. It's really similar to living remotely, I used to live in rural Aus and the closest shops where a town over, so you drove half an hour or so to get your groceries.

Living in the city, you do more shops but less per shop, and it is totaly managable on foot with good transit or by bike with good panniers/bags.

Re: Rheinmetall pilot project for curb stone chargers for EVs

#118
post #86

On the one hand, I think that ICE cars should be banned from cities, the air would be much better, and these curbside chargers look like it could help with that. On the other hand, a city filled with parked EV cars is not very different from a city filled with ICE cars. Curbside parking should be abolished or at least significantly reduced. People should just park in underground garages and walk the remaining 200m, t…

You might as well ban cars entirely at that point. The biggest criticism of EVs is that they are still cars. They are still the most resource and footprint intensive form of transportation out there.

We really should ban cars from certain parts of city centres, and cities have been doing so. Changes per city of course, but we don't need to accomodate cars up to the businesses doorstep. If your business actually required car access, you probably wouldn't have survived in a city centre anyway. IKEA requires car access, and you can tell by how much parking they need. A dress shop doesn't need car access, one (taken) car spot versus the hundreds of people on foot. Give me a break.

I am salty because of all the beneficial works that get turned down by the encumbent store owners who can't let go of their measly parking affordance for the sake of hundreds of people actually using the streets.

Re: Rheinmetall pilot project for curb stone chargers for EVs

#119
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why not go a step further and demand that all roads should be put underground Like a subway. Throw in some bicycles or e-scooters for the last ~200 meters.

Good luck hauling 100lbs of groceries through the subway.

“But we’re going to need a car” is a reason some people don’t sign up for a CostCo membership.

Re: Rheinmetall pilot project for curb stone chargers for EVs

#120
post #103

The idea is good; but this implementation will not work. Curbs take a lot of kinetic knocks from cars, trucks and other vehicular traffic. If you have a snow season, these will get torn up. They have to be at least a meter high on sturdy posts --like the guard posts at service stations.

You seem pretty confident that no one can design a robust... plug? Set in concrete? Because of car tires and snow? Try having a little bit more faith in mechanical engineers pls

Road salt alone in a city with actual winters will destroy these things... Not to mention that they'll be pretty thoroughly encased in ice and buried under feet of snow for months on end.

Add onto that it is a completely inaccessible design from a disability accessibility perspective, and you have a nice proof of concept for something that wouldn't pass muster in many places.

It needs to go back to the drawing board on pretty much every level before it could be considered for deployment where I live, at least.

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