EV Empowered
I see hybrids and EV’s driving around Coeur d’Alene just about every day now! I’m happy to
see them and am certainly considering getting one when it comes time to replace my current
car. I’d love to forget all about gas prices, oil changes and the fact that every gallon of gas I
use pumps about 20 pounds of C0 2 into the air we all breathe! I’ve done a little digging into
some of the options around hybrids and EV’s and want to share some of what I’ve learned.
A hybrid has both a gas-powered engine and an electric motor powered off a small battery that makes the car go. The electric motor alone will move the car from a stop and the and the engine joins in at higher speeds.
A plug-in hybrid also has both a gas-powered engine and an electric motor powered off a battery but in this case, the battery is bigger than the one used in a hybrid. This larger battery can be as much as 10 to 20 times the size of a hybrid’s battery which allows for a fully electric driving range of up do 50 miles depending on the size of the battery vs. the size of the car.
An Electric Vehicle or EV is just that, a fully electric vehicle without a gas-powered engine and has one or more electric motors powered off a battery that make the car go.
A hybrid will improve your gas mileage over a traditional gas-powered car. A plug-in hybrid will improve on those savings and depending on how you drive, you can average over 100 miles per gallon!
An EV is cheaper to operate than a gas-powered car with the average EV driver paying 60% less in fueling costs. EV’s also have fewer moving parts which results in less maintenance like oil changes. They’re also quieter and smoother than traditional cars. The main environmental advantage of an EV is their total lack of local emissions in the towns and cities in which they operate. They can also drastically cut the amount of greenhouse gasses they're responsible for, but that depends on how the electricity they use was generated. We’re fortunate to have Avista for our local electricity provider with 60% of their power generated by renewable sources and they plan to exit out of what remains of their coal-produced power.
Charging an EV takes longer than fueling a traditional car, so range of an EV is something to consider. The average range for an EV can range from 100-250 miles, depending on the model of the vehicle. Currently, on the market, the longest mileage range of an EV is a Tesla Model S that has a range of 402 miles while the longest range for a non-Tesla EV at 259 miles.
There are different types of chargers for your car and availability of those chargers are a consideration as well. As a matter of fact, I’ve heard from two different people that lack of charging was the reason why they could not buy an EV. One person who lives in a condo complex, told me she couldn’t buy an EV because her complex didn’t have a charger, and second person told me that they couldn’t buy an EV because they didn’t have a 220V circuit in their garage. A 220V circuit, like the one that powers a typical clothes dryer, delivers more power than a typical 120V electrical outlet that you’d plug a lamp into.
But is this really true? I have a gas-powered car but don’t have a gas pump in my garage and that works out fine. So, I did some more digging and found a new set of terminology I wasn’t familiar with!
Level 1 Charger – This is a charger that is plugged into a 120V outlet, like you would a lamp, and as you guessed the rate of charging is slow. It will take between 40 and 50 hours to charge a battery that is empty. But bear in mind that the average US driver only drives about 31 miles a day so a Level 1 Charger might just be enough for daily needs.
Level 2 Charger – This is a charger that is plugged into a 220V outlet like my friend wanted in his garage. The rate of charging is much faster than Level 1 and you can charge your battery from empty in from 4 to 10 hours. Possibly if you have a long daily commute, you’d want a Level 2 Charger.
Level 3 Charger – Also known as a direct current fast charger (DCFC) which can charge your EV from empty in as little as 20 minutes. These public chargers are more expensive to use but are particularly great when on a long-distance road trip.
In addition to the levels, there are different types of chargers. For Level 1 and Level 2 charging all EV’s sold in the US (besides Tesla) use a J1772 plug or “J plug”. For Level 3 chargers all EV’s sold in the US (besides Telsa) use a combined charging system or “CCS” plug or a CHAdeMO plugs depending on the type of car. All Tesla’s use their own proprietary plug also known as NACS for all levels of charging and even come equipped with a J plug adapter.
What I definitely did not know and what came as the biggest surprise to me was how many public chargers are available right here in Coeur d’Alene and some of them are even free! Using Plugshare (https://www.plugshare.com/) as a guide, I’ve located 41 publicly and have included pictures of several of the sites.
So, what I learned from this is that there are several options for charging a plug-in hybrid or EV if you live in an apartment or condo that does not have charging on premise or if you don’t have 220V already wired to your garage. Please consider a hybrid, plug-in hybrid or EV when you’re looking for a new car and help protect the beauty of our local area that we all love.
A sincere thank you to the great sources I found to pull this information together including Car and Driver Magazine, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Re-volv Clean Energy Insights.
