The latest generation of cars and chargers don't need an hour to charge. A Tesla Model 3 can already charge at 250 kW, which is over 1000 miles per hour. Practically speaking, that means a decent charge in less than 20 minutes. On a long trip, most stops for gas take around that long anyway by the time you use the restroom, buy supplies, eat, etc.
The newest chargers being installed today go up to 350 kW, so the charging infrastructure is being future-proofed for even faster charging as the cars improve.
I buy the "use the restroom, buy the supplies, eat" argument for long road-trips, where it's probably a good idea to stop for 30 min to relax. But not for the fill-up during your commute to/from work when you can't charge at home.
Put the fast chargers at shopping centers.. Unless the car is run down to nearly a dead battery, it won't need but about 20 minutes on the charger. That's about how long a short trip to the grocery store takes.
Perhaps not today, because there aren't enough cars to use them - demand needs to catch up. But yes, it's feasible to fill entire parking lots with outlets at every parking spot. There are already examples of this in Norway.
The outlets can be built to share and distribute available power, so the grid connection required is not as huge as you might think. In practice this isn't an issue, as it's unlikely that every outlet will be drawing the maximum current at the same time.
> "Doesn't this re-introduce the original problem? If less power is available, you have to spend longer charging."
Not a realistic concern, at present, because the chances that a large parking lot will be filled with even 10% EVs is small. At any given time, most stalls will be occupied by fossil cars, cars not needing charging, or will just be empty.
In the future as demand increases, if you start to hit the limit then you can look at upgrading the electrical supply.
It's 1.4 kW / Tesla charging at 120 V [1]. That's basically one 15 Amp breaker per charging station. A 30 Amp breaker buys you two cars at once. That's a lot of circuits to run out to the parking lot.
Dedicated car chargers usually run on 240V. Typically you'll have 15/16A for ~3.5kW or 30/32A for ~7kW.
You certainly don't need to run separate circuits over long distances for every individual outlet. You can run one higher-power cable to a hub unit which then breaks out to many (maybe dozens) nearby outlets.
I don't see why not. The spikiness of the load can be handled via onsite battery packs. The battery packs can charge when power is cheap, discharge when it is expensive. The batteries can also be able to be used by shopping center tenants to help lower their costs.
Also, let's not forget that these chargers aren't there for everyone to use, but for those who cannot charge at home. For those who can charge at home, that will be a much simpler, cheaper solution.
Can it really? I saw something more like 130 kW when it started charging, because it was pretty low. It tapered off steadily. Still only took about 45 minutes overall, but I doubt the hardware could actually sustain 1000 miles/hour charging levels for more than a few minutes.
> "Can it really? I saw something more like 130 kW when it started charging, because it was pretty low."
You need to be using the new V3 superchargers, which are just starting to roll out, to get the 250 kW rate. V2 superchargers top out at ~130 kW.
The charge speed does taper off as state of charge increases, but reaches 70% in 19 minutes. This is well over 200 miles of range, hence "decent" charge.
The Model 3 is also compatible with Ionity CCS chargers in Europe, and gets about 190 kW on those.
The newest chargers being installed today go up to 350 kW, so the charging infrastructure is being future-proofed for even faster charging as the cars improve.