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  • 2021-07-12 (xsd:date)
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  • Is This a 'Diesel Car Charging Station' for Electric Cars? (en)
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  • A photograph that supposedly shows an electric car inefficiently charging at a station powered by diesel fuel is frequently shared on social media, along with messages denigrating the electric vehicle industry: This photograph does show an electric car charging at a power station fueled by diesel fuel in 2018. However, the accompanying message contains several incorrect or misleading claims. To start with, the types of stations are not popping up everywhere. The photograph captures a privately-funded charging station dubbed the Chargepod in the Australian outback, an area of the world that does not currently have the infrastructure to support long-distance travel in electric cars, where station was built by retired engineer and electric vehicle owner Jon Edwards as a stopgap until more permanent (and greener) stations could be installed. In other words, this picture is of a one-of-a-kind charging station built to solve a specific problem in a rural area. We're not sure where the statistics in the accompanying text came from, but they were not the product of Edwards' testing. In 2018, Edwards installed the ChargePod on his property and invited several members of the Tesla Owner’s Club of Western Australia (TOCWA) to come test it. Although the station did not provide a perfectly green solution for supporting electric cars (they were still burning fossil fuels, after all), the results were much better than described in the above-displayed meme. Edwards and the TOCWA found that this charging station provided about the equivalent of 100 kilometers of travel per 5.6 liters of fuel, a rate approximately equal to 42 miles per gallon. More information about the fuel efficiency of the ChargePod is available here: While Edwards' initial version of the ChargePod used diesel fuel, he has since improved upon his original design by modifying his self-funded station to run on biodiesel (a non-fossil fuel), as the Driven reported: This viral photograph truly shows an electric vehicle charging via a diesel fuel generator, but the picture is often shared with misleading or inaccurate claims. This photograph does not depict a common charging station but rather a rather unique charging station which was privately funded as one person's attempt to provide a temporary solution enabling electric vehicles to drive long distances across the sparsely populated Australian outback. The fuel-efficiency of the diesel Chargepod was far better than stated in this meme, and the station has since been upgraded to use non-fossil biodiesel. (en)
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