Charging stations (sites or individual chargers?)

General talk Tagging general discussion
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Here are a few observations from the import of over 2000 charging stations in Norway since 2018 and onwards:

  • Since 2018 most of the charging stations have been built by a few large brands. They typically build up to 20 (sometimes more) charge points at each location. They seldom (never?) build less than 2-3 charge points with a capacity of 4-6 cars, and these small sites tend to get expanded over the years. Many locations are next to a fuel station, next to a cafe/rest place or next to a mall. The highway administration typically plan for charging sites in new highway construction projects.
  • All the brands have apps where they present their charging stations on a map on a location/site basis, i.e. one symbol on the map for one location, even if there are 20 charge points at that location. If I select a location, a list of charge points are presented to show charge points which are not occupied, and I may then make a reservation. No charge points are shown on the map.
  • All charging stations have been mapped at the location/site level. Extremely few users here have been interested in the individual charge points within a site.
  • The most interesting information, as judged by discussions in local EV forums, seems to be the number of charge points (capacity) and the maximum charging output in kW. There is usually no information available on volt, ampere or phase.
  • Sockets are almost always CCS and Chademo for high capacity sites and Type2 at garages, hotels, offices etc.
  • It has turned out to be impossible to determine exactly how many sockets are available at the same time, even with very detailed information per charge point directly from the brands. The reason is that there are too many different configurations and versions/generations of the charge point devices. The individual charge points have therefore not been mapped, just the site. The capacity tag has often been determined by the number of market parking places in front of the charge points and the socket tag has been used to indicate the number of different socket types available at the site.
  • Payment method has not been tagged because it is RFID and apps everywhere.
  • Pricing has not been tagged because it varies a lot, even from day to day.
  • Access has been tagged and is very useful (customers, residents, employees etc).
  • Since new sites are being built all the time, they can seldom be seen on the aerials. Pictures in user forums are useful to determine exact locations.
  • The charging networks are being modified and expanded each week, so a method for updating is helpful. I use this script: GitHub - NKAmapper/update2osm: Updates OSM based on ref: tag
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