I see a lot of charging stations popping up in the Seattle area, and I continue to be amazed by one thing: (as far as I know) there is not a single uniform charging plug or cable for all electric vehicles.
There's also not a single standard plug for high power appliances either. Your dryer takes a different plug than your range, and there's a couple choices for each, water heaters are typically hard wired, etc...
There are actually only 3 major connectors
Tesla - Propitiatory/Open sourced - While it was developed by Tesla only, they recently released all the specifications and requirements; anybody can built a tesla type charging station now. Capable of 120kW, with plans to increase to 160kW, they're currently the 'king' in fast charging. Also has the 'nicest' connector at the moment.
SAE J1772 - US & European manufacturers. 19kW at the moment, a 90kW standard is 'coming soon'.
CHAdeMO - Japanese standard; 62.5kW max
Tesla also gives it's owners a J1772 adapter cable along with a pile of other cables ranging from standard outlet 15A110V all the way to 50A240V RV connections. So if a Tesla owner visits you overnight and can reach your dryer outlet, they can use it. A maximum of 12 hours later and they have a full charge. They charge a hefty fee for a CHAdeMO cord though, so I wonder what's up with that.
There should be something similar to the standard for a gas pump nozzle: the physical object fits into all cars. The electric vehicle may have different on-board electronics/tranformers, but you should be able to use the same plug or cable at all charging stations. I would think this is a barrier to widespread use.
Pretty much all of them have the capability to use 110V outlets, but things get interesting because over a certain amperage it's better to have the transformer outside of the car, so that's where the special connectors come in because you're doing something like feeding 400V@80A DC over the wires.
that is a 60 mile round trip from the office and longer from home, most of it on the freeway. Could I make it there and back, or would I have to cool my heels for several hours charging from a 110 volt wall socket?
From what I understand you'd be best off spending at least a couple hours there with it plugged in. One benefit of an electric motorcycle is that the battery is so much smaller that charging from a 110V socket is practical. I don't think any of them are even capable of using standard EV chargers.
^^^ So can you plug that into a Volt, a Prius, a Leaf and a C-Max? Or do charging stations like that only fit one or two types of vehicles, I wonder.
It's a CHAdeMO charger, thus:
Volt No(J1772)
Prius plug-in
J1772?Leaf Yes(but modern ones also have J1772)
C-Max plug-in hybrid : J1772
On the other hand, you're covered if you installed a J1772 charger instead. Still, 3 of the 4 are hybrids and not EVs, so shouldn't even really NEED a fast-charger. Or be capable of benefiting all that much, most of these have a battery around 6 kWh, so from empty to full is only 5 hours on a bottom barrel socket.
