How BYD got EV chargers to work almost as fast as gas pumps

Post by HWR_14 » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 1:50 PM UTC

duskdozer wrote: post #64

himata4113 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean if you really think about it china already has or is on the verge of: - energy independence - ASML level microchip production - the SOTA of AI - citizens that accept surveilence and lack of privacy - strong local manufacturing - eastern world support - yuan recognized as a stable world currency But they do suffer from issues as well: - Aging population - Autocracy (or well, one party system) - Brain drain (bet…

How much more surveillance and lack of privacy is there than the US? The US also has - surveilled cities and less dense places through doorbell cams - surveilled digital communications - social credit scores (try getting a bank account if you've opted out of things like lexisnexis etc)

Post by thelastgallon » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 2:57 PM UTC

doubled112 wrote: post #237

Shitty-kitty wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In NYC that would be the street. The great conundrum of ev's. People that have access to home-charging, worry about range. The one's that mostly sit idling in traffic, don't have access to charging.

The ‘burbs truly are the worst of all worlds. Some of the homes in my neighbourhood have 2 cars in the driveway and another two on the street. They all move regularly. Walkability is terrible. Public transit is iffy. People have to get places on time.

Post by thelastgallon » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 3:10 PM UTC

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #164

b112 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paying the fair share for road maintenance isn't a human rights issue.

The issue is not paying our fair share, the issue is paying more than we would if we drove gas vehicles. They assume we drove X miles (I’m in Washington state) and that is not even close to what I actually drive (it’s much less, I could game it if I drove more than the C miles they compute the fee on, but I don’t need to drive that much).

Post by sevenseacat » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 3:32 PM UTC

expedition32 wrote: post #232

torginus wrote: post #225

The fundamental problem of high-wattage charges (say 500kW), isn't to deliver power from the charger to the car, but that there needs to be crazy amounts of grid capacity to support them. A house has like 10kW peak sustained power consumption (an apt even less), which it rarely reaches, so a park of these fast chargers need the same infrastructure as a small town. These loads are so huge Cities like Beijing have stro…

In the Netherlands the energy network is undergoing a huge upgrade because of wind and solar- technologies nobody predicted in the 1970s. Things used to be simple: big power station makes energy and lines transport it to every home. Now you have vast wind farms far out on the North Sea and millions of buildings have solar panels. And to top it all off electricity replaces gas for heating and cooking. We're gonna need…

Post by seanmcdirmid » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 4:15 PM UTC

airspresso wrote: post #222

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Charging stations don't need all the environmental equipment that gas stations have to catch oil and gas run off. I guess we could convert old gas stations that don’t need extensive environmental cleanup, but building new ones just to charge EVs is huge overkill when you just need some space in a parking lot.

That's a good point. Charging stations benefit from being a service station too though, with amenities and a cafe etc, since people want something to do while they charge. So a gas station is a better candidate than a parking lot when decisions are made for where to place the new charging infrastructure. Lots of other factors too of course.