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I hope you can help solve this problem. It follows your comment to another reader about his new version. In that case, he was in the country and planned to install a three-phase power supply.

Given that fast charging stations are nearby (if I’m not mistaken), you mentioned that three-phase power may not be needed in cities. I am constructing a new building in Shoreham on the West Harbour side of the Mornington Peninsula. There is no way out in the country, but there is no way out in the city either. There is no charging station nearby (as far as I know).

We will almost certainly get an electric car in the next year or two, so we want to make sure we are prepared for charging facilities. Should we make sure that the house is ready to provide three-phase power to the house? Or we can use a single-phase power supply, as our electrician recommends? What is your opinion on the relative cost of installing three-phase now and installing single-phase and three-phase later?

Hi Mark-this is an interesting question, because electric vehicles (and electric vehicle charging systems) are rapidly developing towards longer cruising range and flexible and simplified charging management, so do you really need a three-phase power supply? Charge electric cars. Therefore, I will update my last answer based on these changes.

As an example of the development of electric vehicles, my new Hyundai Kona Electric (full battery electric vehicle, or "BEV") uses a single-phase 32A (7kW) EVSE (electric vehicle power supply equipment: <please refer to the FAQ here>) ) Fully charged and ready to use in about 9 hours.

Based on driving 200 to 400 kilometers per week, I only charge it once a week or every two weeks.

On the other hand, my old Leaf needs 4.5 hours at 3.6kW (its fastest charging rate) and needs to be charged 3-4 times a week. In addition, because of its short cruising range, I need to take time to recharge it occasionally during the day between trips. (And take my ICE car to travel more than 90 kilometers back to L).

And I should point out that Kona Electric (like many electric car models currently on the market) does not have a three-phase charging system, so it simply cannot get faster AC charging on three-phase.

Some electric vehicles do use three-phase charging (especially Renault Zoe, which can charge up to 22kW and can be fully charged in three hours), but currently Kona is a typical representative of most electric vehicle brands and cannot charge more than 7kW Single phase. (See Table 1 below).

Table 1: List of Australia’s new BEVs and their charging rates

1: The actual data given is the US EPA range rating (closest to the range achievable under Australian conditions).

2: The manufacturer's "real world" rating used by Renault will not be sold to the US market.

As you can see, with the exception of Jaguar I-Pace and Tesla Models S and X, all other models will be fully charged at night by single-phase 7kW charging, but Jag will not perform AC charging over 7kW in order to be able to do better . Even for Tesla S and X, on single phase, they are still close to full charge when charging at 7kW at night.

Therefore, unless you completely level the battery every day during these last three hours, all BEVs currently on the Australian market will be fully charged when you finish breakfast and unplug/take off in the morning.

Therefore, for a single EV family, even if it can use it, you must become an extreme outlier on the vehicle usage curve to justify installing a 3-phase power supply to charge it. For ordinary vehicle users, it is still unreasonable to install it as a "future proof" for vehicles that can be charged with 11 or 22 kilowatts in the future.

However: electric cars will eventually replace all ICE cars. If only one person can fully charge overnight, what happens when the family replaces the second (or even the third) ICE car with an electric car? Do families need to plan ahead and establish an electric car charging roster? Or do EV owners have to set an alarm clock to get up at 2 a.m. in exchange for a lead? ? ?

There are already multiple answers to the question of not needing to connect three-phase power to run multiple EVSEs. One option is to get a multi-lead EVSE. If two EVs are charging, they share 7kW, so if one is close to charging and completes early, after the first one is completed, all 7kW will be used for the second EV.

In addition, most new electric cars provide a "maximum charge level" setting-so household electric cars can be set to 60% or 80% to suit most use cases, if someone wants 100%-their car can set For that setting.

You can also buy an EVSE that can be programmed to share information between them and monitored and adjusted through an app-so you can control all charging at home. (There is no need to wear slippers to run at midnight outside J).

Even if your car is not fully charged in the morning, because modern electric vehicles provide longer range, you are unlikely to run out of battery due to standard work commutes or local shopping and picking up children.

Even so, there are more and more options for communicating with workplaces and destinations for charging. (Destination charging is a general term for AC charging in a workplace or a destination other than the home. For example: shopping malls, motels, BnB, etc.). All of these are current options.

In the future, if you really want to pay for the convenience of high electricity bills, you will also be able to perform DC fast charging along your route. The last one (so far) is still limited to some major intercity routes-but DC chargers are now being introduced at an ever faster rate.

The point I want to make is that the lack of three-phase power is not an obstacle to owning an electric car-in fact, for most people, installing it is an unnecessary expense.

From the perspective of the benefits of installing a three-phase power supply, in a new construction, installing on a single-phase does not require much additional cost: the cost of single-phase wiring and equipment may be higher than 1,000 to 2,000 US dollars. (If it is modified later, the cost will be much higher).

In addition, ongoing metering and power supply costs are usually only slightly higher than single-phase installations. (By the way: these costs may vary by supply authority.

Before deciding to install, you need to do your homework and check your local electricity connection and electricity price).

In addition, if you need a three-phase power source (such as running a three-phase machine in the workshop, running a large air conditioner, or installing a larger balanced solar photovoltaic system) instead of EV charging, installing a three-phase EVSE is the lowest cost "extra".

I am sure that in other cases, it is reasonable to install a three-phase power supply for charging electric vehicles at home-I want to say that it is very worthwhile to consider these options beforehand, because the battery size is becoming less and less as a reason for the vehicle to do so. Increasing, household electric vehicle charging systems continue to develop, and AC destination chargers (and DC fast chargers) networks are launched.

If you are still not sure what to do-you can also ask an experienced EVSE supply and installation business to conduct a personalized EV and EVSE evaluation and make suggestions based on your needs.

The last point-if you have a three-phase power supply, you can choose to install an 11 or even 22kW DC fast charger. However, 11kW is only 1.5 times that of 7kW, so the extra cost of EVSE may not be worth it, and 22kW may require upgrading your power cord-so there is an additional cost!

Bryce Gaton is an electric vehicle expert and a writer for The Driven and Renew Economy. He has been working in the field of electric vehicles since 2008 and is currently an electric vehicle electrical safety trainer/supervisor at the University of Melbourne. He also supports EV Transition for businesses, governments and the public through his EV Transition consulting company EVchoice.

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