Sure, that’ll be easy.
Just means that every gas station will have to have its own utility substation next to it.
In the US, gas pumps for consumer use are limited to a flow rate of 10 gallons per minute.
Each gallon of gasoline contains about 130 megajoules of thermal (heat) energy.
If we assume 25% thermal efficiency for the typical car engine (probably too generous), that’s about 33 megajoules of mechanical energy per gallon; at ten gallons per minute, a gas pump is putting 330 megajoules per minute into your gas tank, which is 5.5 megajoules per second, or 5.5 megawatts.
Assuming you could charge your car from a 240 volt hookup, that would be 22,916 amps.
This would require cables with a cross-sectional area of about 23 square inches to carry safely; circular cables of that diameter would be at least 5.4 inches in diameter, not counting insulation and strand packing volume penalties. Call them six inches in diameter. Don’t forget you need two to complete an electrical circuit.
That means that when you’re filling your car from an ordinary gas pump in the United States, the rate at which energy is flowing into your gas tank is equivalent to a rate of electrical energy flow that would require two copper cables, each six inches in diameter, to conduct safely.
“Assuming you could charge your car from a 240 volt hookup, that would be 22,916 amps...This would require cables with a cross-sectional area of about 23 square inches to carry safely; circular cables of that diameter would be at least 5.4 inches in diameter, not counting insulation and strand packing volume penalties. Call them six inches in diameter. Don’t forget you need two to complete an electrical circuit.”
Thanks for the calculations, but I think they’re twice the voltage at the high charging rates - still 4” copper in the cables though!
And so with this cooling capability, they then are able to double the capacity of the copper, so maybe 2.7” copper. Ever try dragging a fire hose, then 2 at once, and then increase the weight about 5-fold. LOL.
Physics...not widely understood but difficult to overcome.
From what I’ve read 90% of charging is done either at home or at work when there is plenty of time.
The biggest advantage of a charger over a gas station is that a charger can be put anywhere and it’s much less expensive.
interesting calculations, but limiting the voltage to.240 volts is not honest. Commercial grade power can be had at 5000 volts or more to a industrial power panel. go outside look up at any power line count the number of ceramic insulators each averages 10000 volts in insulation capacity. typical three phase AC service in the USA at the street level is 15000 volts to the grey transformer on the pole. These 250kw operate at 500 volts or more there is little reason not to go to 1000 or even 5000 volt charge connections. they are only energize once a complex triple redundancy safety protocol between the charger and the vehicle have been met. there is zero risk of electrocution from a modern digital charge station to carry 5 megawatts at 1000 volts is 5000 amps and at 5000v it’s 1000 amps. 1000 amps is typical start current to the starter motor of your ICE car open your hood look at the wire running to the starter that is taking 1000amps at 12v to start your car not for more than a few seconds but its not arm thick cabling. 1megawatt chargers are coming they are inevitable. I take 10 plus hour road trips 5 or more times a year. my car has a 650 mile range which is twice as far as my bladder and backsides will take in one sitting at 300 miles I stop to strech ,piss and eat all of which takes longer than the 25 min it would take to add 300 miles to a tesla. 300 miles is 5 hours at a avg 60mph good luck getting that anywhere other than west Texas even with 75mph speed limits traffic always limits the avg to under 60.