Charging Challenges

The development of the electric vehicle supply equipment market may be one of the most interesting changes going on in the electrical products channel right now. Its potential is significant. But we're still looking at a market where the installations are done on speculation, trusting that a market will develop. At least now we have the perspective of the first year of large-scale electric car sales into the consumer market. What's different so far?

According to an article in Electrical Wholesaling's December issue, sales of electric vehicles have lagged the automotive industry forecasts on which EVSE manufacturers and suppliers based their calculus. Even before late November, the industry was reporting much lower sales volumes on their new electric cars than their initial production plans anticipated.

Executive Editor Doug Chandler writes that despite the setbacks, there is a lot of interest in EVSE, though actual sales of the systems haven't gained much momentum yet. The electrical distributors who have jumped into this market in a big way say it's been a little wobbly in the early going, though the wobbles were by no means unexpected. Like the distributors, electrical contractors are starting to get their feet wet in the EVSE installations. 

The impact of electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) on the electric grid has been a point of contention for some time, with some claiming that a proliferation of EV charging could cause serious trouble for power distribution systems while others predict that the potential for utilities to use car batteries as distributed energy storage could be the salvation of renewable energy and smart grid efforts..