I must say I sort of agree with BMW on this one, I have had my Leaf since May and have never used a post or a level 2 station yet, I have a type 1 to 2 cable just in case but I am pretty sure I wont use it, everyones usage is different but I do agree though I mostly charge at home, this is also because I prefer to charge my car off solar at least that way I know I am getting 100% renewable energy in to my car you are most certainly not when you charge elsewhere.
Most of my Rapid charging I would say 90% of it has been just because its there and its free not because I have needed to do it, The Leaf whilst a great car could be massively improved, they could adopt the chameleon charger of the ZOE so we could utilise the far simpler and more reliable 3 phase AC charging, they could improve the C rate of their cells, they are only rated at 3C which limits the fast charging capability of the cells, hence the not so rapid rapid charging experience people moan about, its quicker than level 2 but having looked at the model s its not rapid.
Watching Mark and Nikki take the model S from London to Bristol and back proves the point, they made the trip without any need to stop other than to change driving seats, I am changing my mind slowly partly thanks to the contributions of others on here and am starting to realise that the money they are spending on the charging infrastructure would be better spent elsewhere, I would say it would be better if they increased the government grant to help reduce the cost of the car for new owners but this can not always work as the manufacturers would only mark the car up to then pocket the difference.
With range being the bug bear for most the money would surely be better spent on a battery subsidy scheme which would give the cars more range but keep the prices down.
I agree we need a network of sorts but this must be reliable and it must be rapid to be useful, its not really any of that at the moment.
Range will sell cars, if my Leaf would do 200 miles and could be charged like a Model S at that speed I know so many of my friends would buy them, the range thing is always the kicker, when I talk about my Leaf to people who know nothing about them they are always super enthusiastic with my pitch until I tell them the range, I always say it will do 80 miles, their faces tend to drop a little, I then say quickly you can charge it for free though and in 20 mins (which is stretching it a little) and they still say err no...if they did 300 miles then maybe.
We know in practice they dont need a 300 mile range car but you are never going to change peoples perspective on that so why not work to get nearer to the magic range, its much better to have it and not need it.
