When it comes to electrics it's all about the range. People that live in areas that only have one gas station aren't likely to buy electrics until the fast charging stations are found in more places. Then it'll be very interesting to see if people lean toward the all electric. Co-worker got a tesla and says it's the only thing about the vehicle he does't like. Nowhere to charge it.
The companies also need to agree on a charging standard. Proprietary chargers will make sure they don't get market penetration. We don't want this situation with cars...
Fortunately, every car company has to realize that having availability of charging stations is crucial to the sales of their cars. It may be that a charging station might have 3 different sockets to match different companies, but the money-potential dictates that charging stations will be "universal".
The car companies are still likely to have their own standards. It doesn't seem like too much of a stretch to have a charging station where you enter a little information (like car and charge rate) and it will tailor the feed to fit your vehicle's specifications.
I don't know that we want a standard this early as I believe newer models are directing cooling (since you already have AC in your electric car) to the batteries to allow faster charging without overheating and compromising the battery life!
"Range anxiety" is probably the first hurdle ... 250 miles is good for me on any typical day, but I kind of feel like I'd want a second, gas car "just in case" even though I cannot, for the life of me, think of a scenario where I would need to drive non-stop cross country!
Secondly - It relates directly to range anxiety, but if you could get something like 200 miles (or ~4 hours) drive time out of a 15 minute charge, I'd be happy with that. Not as good as my gas car which gets 300 miles (or 6 hours) out of a 5 minute gas fill-up, but after you consider piss, snack/food, etc, my 5 minute gas stop usually becomes close to 10, and it is not often that I go the full 6 hours without stopping. Honestly, over he last decade (50 going to 60 years old),I get stiff enough after 4 hours of sitting! Not sure staying in the car without stretching for longer periods is really a good idea!
In any case, I think there is quite a ways to go before we get 200 miles of charge in 15 minutes!
