SAE Combo, CHAdeMO & Tesla Supercharger network comparison. Sept. 12, 2017
Last December when the first Chevy Bolts were being delivered in California, I wondered if it was possible to drive a Bolt EV from coast to coast using SAE Combined Charging Standard (CCS) fast charging stations. I went to the Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuel Data Center (AFDC) website to see the locations of CCS chargers in the US.
I reported that, as of December 15, 2016, there were 884 CCS charging locations listed but they were mostly concentrated on the east and west coasts with some concentrated islands sprinkled around the middle of the country.
While the number of CCS charger sites has grown about 32% in the past nine months, there hasn’t been much progress in distributing the CCS or CHAdeMO fast chargers along the main travel routes to enable long distance travel through the middle of the country.
As of September 12, 2017 there are 357 Tesla Supercharger locations (2,492 outlets) in the US according to the AFDC Station Locator. There are 1,677 CHAdeMO locations (2,045 outlets) and 1,166 SAE Combo locations (1,413 outlets) in the Station Locator. These numbers include both public and private stations.
Tesla Superchargers: 357 stations (up from 327)
SAE Combo: 1,166 stations (up from 884)
CHAdeMO: 1,677 stations (up from 1,464)
There are more CHAdeMO and SAE Combo charger locations than Tesla Supercharger stations in the US but the Tesla Superchargers are more evenly dispersed and the network is better designed to enable coast-to-coast drives via northern, central and southern routes.
The Chevy Bolt EV and other long-range electric cars could benefit from a coordinated effort to install SAE Combo and CHAdeMO stations along the transcontinental Interstate routes. Perhaps the Electrify America program funded by the VW Diesel Settlement will widen the distribution of DC fast charging infrastructure in the US.
Let’s see where things stand in another nine months or so.
