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Toyota Exec Questions Fast Charging for EVs
Being able to quickly recharge an electric car during a long trip would appeal to buyers.
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Being able to quickly recharge an electric car during a long trip would appeal to buyers. But large numbers of EVs doing so would wreak havoc on the electrical grid, opines a Toyota Motor Corp. engineering chief.
Reuters reports that Yoshikazu Tanaka, who heads engineering for Toyota's Mirai fuel-cell car program, notes that high-current chargers in a few minutes draw enough power to operate hundreds of homes. He says such huge demands would distort rather than stabilize electrical load on the grid.
Takata emphasizes that Toyota recognizes the environmental benefits of electrics. But he says the company believes the best way to achieve those benefits is to use EVs for short trips during the day and recharge them overnight when other demands on the grid are low.
Not surprisingly, Tanaka considers fuel cell technology a more sensible alternative to longer range piston-powered vehicles. He made his comments in Japan on Thursday during the first new media test drives of the Mirai fuel cell-powered sedan.
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