Owners of the E-Tron will be happy to hear that the car will be compatible with 80% of the charging stations in Europe. You'll be given an e-tron Charging Service card and billing will be handled under a single contract with pricing models, on a monthly basis. As standard the E-Tron will come with a compact mobile charging system which can be used on either a 230 volt household outlet or a 400 volt three phase outlet. An optional connect charging system will double the power to as much as 22kW.
as someone who lives in the U.S. being compatible with Tesla's chargers will be a big incentive because they are showing up in very convenient locations (malls, major destinations, etc.)
I do think that with future electrics we will be seeing far less exclusivity in terms of compatibility with charging stations. It's not to anyone's benefit to only be able to use certain brands/companies. This should also help to streamline things on the consumer side, because current owners have dozens of different memberships/cards.
I know that Shell has already begun placing their own charging stations at select gas stations around Europe. If this ends up becoming the norm and we see already established stations adding electric terminals, then infrastructure will increase two fold.
it should grow even more as this infrastructure moves past being just a proof of concept to mass scale. shell has the money to buy out other companies also working the supply.
Certain companies like Walmart have also begun to show an interest in having designated charging stations. A lot of shopping centers will start to go this route and I would expect that future projects will incorporate them from the beginning.
basically, where ever major destinations are located, you're bound to see charging stations; transportation hubs, big retailers, hotels, office towers, condo communities, etc.
It will also be much cheaper to place them during construction, rather than adapting them after the fact. Solar panels and other methods of energy recuperation will help to reduce the strain on the grid as well.
Vehicle to grid charging is also something that automakers are already developing. During peak times when electricity is in high demand, cars can actually serve as battery packs to feed into the grid. This will of course depend on your level of charge.
Heard about this with a program called Vehicle to Grid Britain and it will be one of the first we should look out for.
Lots of barrier to make it happen and it will happen slowly. Sourcing capital is the biggest issue but the U.K. is a front runner.
Nissan has already been doing pilot projects which hope to commercialize vehicle to home technology. Something that many people may not know about the Leaf, but the new gen model was produced with built in bidirectional charging capacity.