Consider a normal detached home installation has a maximum capacity to deliver 10-30 kW of power. Each DC charging station can deliver 250-400 kW. That’s 10 to 40 homes per charger. And when it’s on, it’s really pulling that and then some. Not only the conversion to DC not that efficient, the inefficiencies come out as heat, which must be extracted through active cooling systems (more power required). So you’re talking medium voltage transformers, switchgear, DC converters… These things aren’t cheap. And labor for medium voltage isn’t ubiquitous or cheap either.
That said, I thought 271k per charger a bit much too. Usually at each charge point you’ll have 4-10 chargers, and the shared infrastructure brings the cost per unit down.
From what I’ve seen, isn’t the energy from the grid stored in a big battery pack next to the chargers? This would cut down on ac to dc conversion since it only has to be done once (instead of each charger). Might also help with installing these in a way you don’t have to pull as heavy a load from the grid (discharge when in use, refill when not).
That would truly cause the installation and operational costs to skyrocket. It’s only economically viable if your grid would require an upgrade to install the chargers.
The big thing you see next to the chargers are the transformer and switchgear. They’re that big for that amount of power at that voltage.
Consider a normal detached home installation has a maximum capacity to deliver 10-30 kW of power. Each DC charging station can deliver 250-400 kW. That’s 10 to 40 homes per charger. And when it’s on, it’s really pulling that and then some. Not only the conversion to DC not that efficient, the inefficiencies come out as heat, which must be extracted through active cooling systems (more power required). So you’re talking medium voltage transformers, switchgear, DC converters… These things aren’t cheap. And labor for medium voltage isn’t ubiquitous or cheap either.
That said, I thought 271k per charger a bit much too. Usually at each charge point you’ll have 4-10 chargers, and the shared infrastructure brings the cost per unit down.
From what I’ve seen, isn’t the energy from the grid stored in a big battery pack next to the chargers? This would cut down on ac to dc conversion since it only has to be done once (instead of each charger). Might also help with installing these in a way you don’t have to pull as heavy a load from the grid (discharge when in use, refill when not).
That would truly cause the installation and operational costs to skyrocket. It’s only economically viable if your grid would require an upgrade to install the chargers.
The big thing you see next to the chargers are the transformer and switchgear. They’re that big for that amount of power at that voltage.