ev1 electric car charging station?

Just as the EV1 era has progressed from heavy and toxic lead-sulfuric acid batteries to non-toxic lithium manganese oxide batteries with 10's of kilowatt-hours of stored energy capacity, so has charging technology and requisite electrical safety requirements to meet UL standards.

The new standard is called SAE J1772. It allows for either 120VAC (any household outlet) or 208/240VAC Single-Phase (dedicated circuit) charging. The new chargers also cleverly communicate the amperage available, so the vehicle can charge as rapidly and efficiently as the power source will allow.

For safety, there is a built-in 20mA ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) that continuously self-tests and is self-resetting. This varies from the standard bathroom/kitchen GFCI that is rated 5mA, which would cause nuisance tripping if used to charge vehicles, depends upon manual testing to verify functional safety, and does not self-reset. The charger also continuously verifies that the grounding conductor is present and electrically sound. There is also a low-energy pilot signal that verifies that the connector is fully and securely engaged with the vehicle before allowing the cable to become fully energized. Lastly, the J1772 connector is designed such that the grounding pin always electrically mates first, and always detaches last.

Why so many layers of safety? It is expected that drivers will occasionally have to plug and unplug their vehicles in the rain or while standing in puddles. And yes, you can.

There is also Level 3 fast DC charging, which uses the CHAdeMo interface, and available as a $700 option on the Nissan Leaf (that comes standard with the J1772). However, a Level 3 charger requires a 480VAC 60A 3-Phase power source, that's 50 kilowatts, and seldom found outside of industrial or other special dedicated situations. Nevertheless, it is anticipated that Level 3 charging stations will proliferate in the future on interstate and major highways, enabling long distance travel for pure electric vehicles such as the Leaf.

It may be wise to wait just a little longer: A new standard is being developed that is being expected to come out as SAE J2954 to be published early next year.1

Although EE seems to have an impressive knowledge of the J1772 standard, the information about the EV1 batteries and its charging system is not entirely accurate. The advanced battery technology of the time was Nickel Metal Hydride battery chemistry and not the cheaper lead acid batteries we find in golf carts or to start petrol vehicles.2 The EV1 charging system was an advanced system that is described as a non conductive contact (paddle) chargers under SAE J1773.. In some ways, it may have been better than the J1772 standard as it used no contacts at all but a wireless system similar to charging today of an electric toothbrush.

Such systems have advanced today so that you could use a totally wireless system to charge your EV today and never have to touch a wire or cable.3 Rather than scrap the existing non conductive contact wireless paddle chargers (SAE 1773) and use only the electric supply for a conductive contact charger (SAE 1772) it might be prudent to wait for the new standard and the possibility to adapt the entire charger to a non conductive, non contact wireless charger to the new standard (SAE J2954.) Regardless of how safe the SAE 1772 charger may be, a public wired connection between a vehicle and a post may not be our best choice of charging methods. New meta materials promise to make wireless charging even more efficient than the roughly 90% efficiency it now boasts.4

Someday we may have wireless roadways and substantially eliminate or reduce the need for batteries. At this time there will be no charging times, no stops to recharge and the vehicles could essentially have unlimited range: http://www.iav.com/us/index.php?we_objectID=15760

Lithium is very toxic and manganese has toxicity issues as well.

The real reason may have to do with product licensing or licensing that was associated with the Nickel metal hydride batteries that were used by the EV-1, which ExxonMobil now owns the patent rights to. They bought the rights to those batteries in order for the inventer of those batteries to scale up production to produce the batteries for the EV-1.

It boils down to the patent rights involved and that was the reason the EV-1 were shredded.

Because they can't make money doing that. Businesses aren't in business to do good; they are in business to make money. If they don't make money they go out of business.