The new standards are part of a broad push to get more Americans into electric vehicles, and reduce the environmental cost of driving.
The new standards are part of a broad push to get more Americans into electric vehicles, and reduce the environmental cost of driving.
I see more and more stores and parking lots with EV parking/charging. Once it becomes a value-add for the average car user many apartments and shared parking spaces will start to include EV charging.
I don’t understand the comment arguing about upgrading power infrastructure. EVs don’t use more electricity to charge than say a fully electric water heater or any major appliances/tools that a maker has at their homes. Maybe in some more rural areas, but then again, those are the places that 3-phase 240v already exists to support farming/processing tools.
So I have an EV and solar. This gives me a very clear picture of my power usage. The EV adds a lot to my base power usage. And this is with a class 1 charger. A commercial class 2 charger is 4 times the power usage.
Orange is my power usage. Here is a day whew I came home at noon charged and then went out in the evening charging when I returned home. You can see how much it adds to the base draw. The spikes are my ac.
You probably already know this but a level 2 charger is actually more efficient than a level 1 charger. It’s counter intuitive, but the reason is that the car being powered on to accept a charge runs at around 400w, so immediately 1/5 of your draw on the level 1 charger goes to just keeping the car on. It’s better to charge faster and let the car sleep longer if you can.
Yeah i’ve considered putting in a level 2 charger but my level 1 does the job so i haven’t bothered.
You can set it to trickle charge too though right?
Not really. Level 1 chargers are basically trickle chargers that run off a 120v outlet. Level 2 are 4 times the power running off 240v. Then you have the big fast chargers like the tesla super charger or chadmo.
Some poking around tells me that those are the maximums and good chargers can slow down. Furthermore cars can also just not take as much, like a low power appliance. So no you’re not forced to run it at full power and most days you’ll likely trickle charge overnight when electricity is the cheapest.
They slow shown when the vehicle gets close to max charge about 95%. But i’ve yet to see one where it has a setting you can change.
https://www.primecom.tech/products/50-amp-level-2-adjustable-ev-charger
That’s av level 2 charger.
But it’s also adjustable to a lower rate.
You can change the amperage. That is actually one thing that makes people think they need a level 2 charger. Many charging cables that the dealership gives you default to 6A instead of 12A so people get like 16 miles charge overnight instead of over 30.
On a level 2 charger.
No. That is for level 1 chargers. Hyundai’s for instance default to 6A. People would be extremely pissed if their level 2 charger was defaulted to 6A since level 2 starts at 15A minimum.
If you add thousands of electrical car chargers to the grid without upgrading the carrying capacity of the transmission lines and the power generating capacity of the power plants you’ll have more demand than what the utilities can supply.
You’re right. The EV companies know it, the power companies are acutely aware, governments at all levels are wrestling with it, and people in older homes with old wiring find out. Many of these groups (not the old wiring homeowners) are actually pretty excited about it. It means infrastructure upgrades, funding for cities, new power company jobs, and reinvestment in old worn out wir s everywhere.
Of course a shift in our oil dependent car shit hole system will require a similar scale shift in the energy infrastructure and that provides lots of opportunities.