Electric Vehicle Charging: It’s easier than you think

As more and more EV’s make it onto our roadways, people start to freak out about how we’re going to charge all these things. The thing is, they shouldn’t. EV’s are so much more efficient than their gasoline powered counterparts that they don’t consume all that much electricity, in fact the size of the grid only needs to increase about 4.5% to accommodate an entirely electric commuter fleet. But people still worry about charging them. In this video, I explain why this shouldn’t worry you in the slightest. With my Chevy Volt, I never charge it with anything other than a standard household outlet, and this provides more than enough electricity to get me through my day. Granted, the Volt only has a 40 mile range, and I’ve got the gas engine to keep me going should I need it, but in the summer time I routinely make it home from work with 10 miles of range or more left. And it only takes 7 hours on my portable charger to get it full for the next day. A household outlet can provide enough electricity to add 80 miles of range to an EV every day, and if you take a look at how you actually drive, you’ll discover that for the vast majority of the time, that’s plenty. 1* 120V 16 A charging station: 2* Cost of parking garages: Average commercial electricity cost: Just a note: Level 3 charging, such as the Tesla Superchargers, is seen as a necessity by people looking into electric cars. There are many people that feel that having charging stations like these spread across the country is the only thing that will make electric cars feasible. Well, they certainly have their use, as the Superchargers allow Tesla owners to take roadtrips in their EVs. And it is true that DC fast charging is the only way to make an electric road trip possible. But road trips represent a tiny fraction of the miles driven by your typical car. People need access to Supercharger-like infrastructure *only* for road trips, as typical daily driving does not require fast charging. In fact, with a 200 mile EV, the battery can be completely recharged in 10 hours with 30 amp level 2 charging, the kind a dryer outlet can provide. People sleep every night, and when you’re asleep your car will be charging for the next day of driving. It really is easier than you think.