LOL
I always like to ask the question, how thick would a wire have to be to fully charge a tesla battery in five minutes.
My math is very rusty, but let me take a stab at it.
A Tesla Model 3 has an 82kWh battery pack. For simplicity's sake, round that down to 80kWh.
The size of the wire will depend on the voltage applied, but let's choose 480V for a commonly used voltage.
In order to deliver 80kW of energy in 5 minutes, that's the equivalent of delivering 960,000kW of energy in an hour.
960,000W/480V = 2,000 Amps of current.
So you would need to have a wire capable of providing 2,000 amps at 480V to the car. I can't find an online wire gauge calculator that will work with current ratings that high.
And you would need a charging station capable of providing 2,000 amps of current at 480V, too.
Depends on the charging voltage. Go high voltage and you can get away with a fairly thin wire.
LOL
If most people drive less than 100 miles a day, the routine for charging an electric vehicle will not normally involve a trip to a charging station. If the owner has a Level 2 charger at home, they can start the next day with a full battery from an overnight charge. It’s going on longer trips, that will call for a stop at a commercial charging station. As you suggest, there are practical limits which will always prevent an EV from recharging as fast as one could fill their tank with gas. The need to accommodate a driver who must wait half an hour or more for a recharge will inevitably make these charging stations wholly different from a gas station. Beyond merging a charging station with a restaurant, like an IHOP, I cannot imagine what the diversions will be.