Nissan/BMW Team Up on Fast Charging; Sorry, North Dakota

by Aaron Cole

Updated: December 3rd, 2020 Published: December 21st, 2015

Nissan and BMW announced Monday that they would add 120 public fast-charging stations in 19 states to significantly expand electric vehicle infrastructure for cars not called Tesla.

The 120 stations would supplement to Tesla’s network of more than 200 Supercharger sites around the U.S. and Canada, placed throughout the countries that serve as a backbone for long-distance EV travel. (Coast to coast records are already a thing.)

Sorry, North Dakota, still no love for you. It’s a shame. Fargo is such a super town.

According to Nissan and BMW, the superchargers will accommodate CHAdeMO and SAE Combo connectors, which fit both the Nissan Leaf and BMW i3.

The 120 chargers would be a significant addition to the infrastructure or EV owners who don’t own Tesla cars. According to Chargepoint, which is the country’s largest network of chargers, there are roughly 225 fast charging stations around the country. A spokeswoman for Chargepoint said the company tracks roughly 70 percent of the networked chargers in the U.S.

Nissan and BMW effectively increased the number of fast chargers — which can charge a Leaf in roughly 20-30 minutes — by 50 percent in a day.

Unless you live in Grand Rapids. Then you’re still screwed.

#BMW #Charging #ElectricVehicles #FastCharging #I3 #Infrastructure #Leaf #Nissan #NorthDakota #Tesla

Aaron Cole

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15 comments

SCE to AUX on Dec 21, 2015

This is a game Nissan will lose. The lack of a mfr-harmonized EV rapid charging standard is a major impediment to EV adoption. I've said before that IMO Nissan should adopt the Tesla charging protocol because of its widespread deployment. Sadly, neither Nissan nor BMW have a long-range EV that makes sense to use with such a network, for at least another year or two. Besides, Nissan has ceded its EV sales lead to Tesla, which makes Nissan's efforts at developing charging infrastructure a day late and a dollar short. And paying $9.95 for a $3.00 fillup will be tough to swallow when you know that Tesla drivers don't pay anything.

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- Scoutdude on Dec 21, 2015
  
  Tesla drivers do pay for the charge at the super chargers. They just pay up front for it. When they first came out the ability to super charge was a $2000 option on the 60 when enabled at the factory. More if it was enabled after the sale. It is included on the higher model vehicles but that it built into the price. With the fast charger the Leaf can now do short road trips. I know a number of people with Leafs and they utilize the fast charger between Seattle and Portland to enable travel between the two cities and have done it multiple times.
  
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- Mcs on Dec 21, 2015
  
  @Scoutdude I've done Boston to Vermont and toured Vermont. Lots of CHAdeMO chargers up there. I put about 22k a year on my Leaf. It's running great so far and the new battery technology seems to be working well. Still have all twelve bars and ran it at 60 mph in 27f degree weather and was down to 50% after 43 miles. Couldn't do that with the old batteries on a 25k mile car.
  
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65corvair on Dec 21, 2015

There needs to be a universal charger that works on all brands. And a full charge in 5 minutes.

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- Mcs on Dec 21, 2015
  
  A full charge in 5 minutes or less is on the way, but current quick charging isn't as long as you might think in the real world. Once I had to make a 100 mile trip in a hurry. The weather was warm and my car was capable of 100+ miles that day, but I stopped near the midway point to top it up for a safe margin. That day the charge time was 12 minutes. I used the time for a bathroom break and to get snacks. You don't have to stay with the car squeezing a handle pumping in electricity, so you can do something else rather than devoting your full attention to fueling. Most of the time, the car seems like a perpetual motion machine. Plug in at home, plug in at work, and wave at the fools freezing their a$$e$ off pumping gas on a cold day. So, my question is when will ICE makers offer zero time fueling to match EVs?
  
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- Corey Lewis on Dec 22, 2015
  
  We can put Apple in charge of this project.
  
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- Corey Lewis on Dec 22, 2015
  
  @mcs "and wave at the fools freezing their a$$e$ off pumping gas on a cold day." Better warm up your electric car, cause you'll be plenty cold when you get in it. How long does it take for heat to come out of the vents in a Leaf in the winter?
  
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- AlfaRomasochist on Dec 22, 2015
  
  @Corey Lewis It takes no time at all. The Leaf has a timer you can use to pre-heat the car while it's plugged in. We set ours for 7:30 every morning so it's nice and toasty in time for the school run. The heater itself warms up much more quickly than in a regular car because the engine doesn't have to warm up before you get heat. Plus it has heated front and rear seats and a heated steering wheel. Beats the heck out of any ICE vehicle I've ever owned in the winter.
  
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- David C. Holzman on Dec 22, 2015
  
  @mcs For the two or three minutes it takes to refuel my Civic, I don't spend enough time in the frigid Massachusetts February to begin to freeze my derriere off. I would more stress worrying about stopping for a charge on a 100 mile trip. (And btw, I'm not some kid. My avatar was drawn in 1973, when I was a student at Berkeley.) I probably speak for most others on this. But I have nothing against EV drivers (except for the subsidies that I don't think they should get). In fact, I think EV mfgs really should collaborate on a standard fixture so that everyone with an EV can rechargel at any supercharger
  
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- SCE to AUX on Dec 22, 2015
  
  @CoreyDL: Even without preheating, Leaf heat is very quick because you don't have to wait for a lumbering ICE to warm up. My former 12 Leaf had a heater circuit of only about 2 quarts capacity, so it took no time to start feeling warmth. I miss that feature. Imagine heating a coffee pot 5 times faster than usual, and that's how it works.
  
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- SCE to AUX on Dec 22, 2015
  
  @David C. Holzman It took about a week of winter for me to appreciate passing by gas stations to refill my former Leaf in the comfort of home. But your point about range anxiety is well-taken. There simply isn't enough infrastructure to be confident you can refill if the destination charger is AWOL. Consequently, except for three occasions, I never drove the Leaf far enough to require a fill to make it home.
  
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- Jasper2 on Dec 23, 2015
  
  @mcs Great comment. Thanks. Makes me interested in a switch to electric. Waiting on NEVS SAAB or BMW for that.
  
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- PhotoJim on Dec 23, 2015
  
  The faster you charge the battery, the shorter the lifespan of that battery will be. So be careful what you wish for.
  
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Corey Lewis on Dec 22, 2015

"Nissan Leaf and BMW i3." Is the i8 a different sort of connector, or something?

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- SCE to AUX on Dec 22, 2015
  
  I'm sure it's the same, but there are only about 2100 of them in the US, compared to 16k i3s and 88k Leafs.
  
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