Standard Oil (Chevron) did that in China in the 1890s. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Oil
look for "standard oil in china", about 1/3 down the page.
But, for charge stations, I'm pretty sure such a monopoly wouldn't work.
It could work for gas stations, to a degree, because there are so many
of them and the demand to use them is high. Even partitioning among
manufacturers would still leave a fairly large economy of scale.
With EV charging, even if everyone used an EV, the demand for
not-at-home charging might not be high enough to gain economy of scale
to make it worth having a company's own charge network. That's
certainly true today with such a small market of EVs.
Looking at Tesla's exception is interesting. I think it's reasonably
clear their motivation is not to have a monopoly on charging stations
but to simply enable their drivers to charge without worry - creating
more value for purchasing a Tesla. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if
Tesla, once more stations are built out, starts letting non Tesla owners
use their stations (for a fee).
Peri
------ Original Message ------
From: "Lee Hart via EV" <[email protected]>
To: "Electric Vehicle Discussion List" <[email protected]>
Sent: 17-Mar-15 10:54:18 AM
Subject: Re: [EVDL] Battery Swap - the stupid idea that wont die...
EVDL Administrator via EV<[email protected]> wrote:
Can you imagine what refueling your ICEV would be like today if a
time
traveler to 1900 accidentally stepped on a butterfly, and today,
every car
made required a different blend of fuel?
I agree. The last thing that consumers want is to grant the auto
companies or power companies a monopoly on charging. Henry Ford once
tried to buy up gas stations, but was thwarted by the government on
anti-trust grounds. He reportedly said, "If I owned the filling
stations, I'd GIVE away the cars!"
Ed Blackmond via EV wrote:
But swapping packs is going to be rare in comparison to refueling an
ICEV today. Drivers will only need to swap when they need a larger
capacity pack and when they need to swap back to their normal capacity
pack.
Everything depends on the situation, and the customer. Some customers
will NEVER swap. Others will do it every day.
Swapping packs makes sense for fleet users. They may do it every day,
or even several times a day. It's not uncommon for fork lifts with
swappable packs to run 3 shifts a day, with a fresh pack swapped in
every shift (two on charge, one in use).
I can imagine taxicabs, buses, delivery trucks, and the like doing the
same thing. They might want the swap stations conveniently located
along their route.
-- We cannot waste time. We can only waste ourselves.
-- George Matthew Adams
--
Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, [email protected]
_______________________________________________
UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub
http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org
For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
_______________________________________________
UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub
http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org
For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
