WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.070 --> 00:00:04.610 I just watched the most recent video by Jason of Engineering Explained about electric vehicles 00:00:04.610 --> 00:00:06.360 and the future of transportation. 00:00:06.360 --> 00:00:11.110 Now, I myself strongly believe that EVs are the future of transportation, and Jason’s 00:00:11.110 --> 00:00:13.269 video was great and very thorough. 00:00:13.269 --> 00:00:17.380 But when discussing their use Jason made an oversight that so many people make that I 00:00:17.380 --> 00:00:19.050 feel we need to discuss it now. 00:00:19.050 --> 00:00:23.599 In the video, Jason brought up that if you live in an urban setting, with shorter travel 00:00:23.599 --> 00:00:28.189 distances and where the charging infrastructure is there, then an EV makes sense, but if you 00:00:28.189 --> 00:00:31.980 live in a rural setting, where the travel distances are longer and the infrastructure 00:00:31.980 --> 00:00:36.079 isn’t necessarily there, then they don’t make as much sense. 00:00:36.079 --> 00:00:40.590 Now I take issue with the rural point because my mom and dad, who live in a decidedly rural 00:00:40.590 --> 00:00:47.059 setting are living happily with their Bolt EV, but the more broad issue is one of infrastructure. 00:00:47.059 --> 00:00:50.990 Saying that there’s more infrastructure in the city than in rural areas is, while 00:00:50.990 --> 00:00:53.920 technically true, kind of irrelevant. 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:54.920 Why? 00:00:54.920 --> 00:00:59.789 Well, because most people with an EV build their own charging infrastructure! 00:00:59.789 --> 00:01:04.949 And they can do so because 99% of that infrastructure is already in place. 00:01:04.949 --> 00:01:08.520 The generation stations are electric vehicle infrastructure. 00:01:08.520 --> 00:01:10.310 These power lines are infrastructure. 00:01:10.310 --> 00:01:11.820 This substation is infrastructure. 00:01:11.820 --> 00:01:13.520 This transformer is infrastructure. 00:01:13.520 --> 00:01:15.420 These meters are infrastructure. 00:01:15.420 --> 00:01:18.240 This distribution panel is infrastructure. 00:01:18.240 --> 00:01:23.299 All that’s missing to turn all of this into an electric car charging station is an EVSE, 00:01:23.299 --> 00:01:26.950 a new circuit breaker, and a run of wire to wherever your car is. 00:01:26.950 --> 00:01:32.560 I have seen time and time again from the people who doubt the feasibility of electric vehicles 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:36.979 that the cost of creating charging infrastructure for them will be enormous. 00:01:36.979 --> 00:01:42.020 They see the thousands of fueling stations for petroleum cars and imagine that an EV 00:01:42.020 --> 00:01:44.590 will have to be refueled in a similar way. 00:01:44.590 --> 00:01:49.930 In their head, they see a need to convert all of these fueling stations into charging 00:01:49.930 --> 00:01:52.170 stations, but that simply isn’t true. 00:01:52.170 --> 00:01:58.270 An EV can charge overnight every day when you have an EVSE installed where you live. 00:01:58.270 --> 00:02:03.070 Every morning you wake up to a fully charged vehicle, ready to take on your daily needs. 00:02:03.070 --> 00:02:08.080 A charging station like this Clipper Creek HCS-40 will add about 200 miles of range to 00:02:08.080 --> 00:02:11.210 a typical EV with 8 hours of charging. 00:02:11.210 --> 00:02:16.830 So even if you drive 200 miles every day, which would be putting more than 70,000 miles 00:02:16.830 --> 00:02:22.360 on your car annually, every morning your home charging station will have topped off your car. 00:02:22.360 --> 00:02:26.670 And if you have 200 amp service from your utility, then the charging station is only 00:02:26.670 --> 00:02:29.860 16% of your home’s electrical capacity. 00:02:29.860 --> 00:02:34.470 Because you already have electrical service from your utility, the cost of adding an EVSE 00:02:34.470 --> 00:02:35.940 can be very low. 00:02:35.940 --> 00:02:40.720 The chargers themselves are typically around $400, and if your circuit breaker panel is 00:02:40.720 --> 00:02:46.030 near your garage or parking location, you may very well spend less than $500 having 00:02:46.030 --> 00:02:48.270 an electrician install it for you. 00:02:48.270 --> 00:02:52.630 So essentially, depending on your situation, you can build a fueling station at home for 00:02:52.630 --> 00:02:54.980 less than $1,000 all in. 00:02:54.980 --> 00:02:58.100 And sometimes there are tax incentives for this process. 00:02:58.100 --> 00:02:59.970 Of course, there are caveats. 00:02:59.970 --> 00:03:04.030 One of the most difficult things to figure out is how to add charging stations to homes 00:03:04.030 --> 00:03:08.770 such as apartment buildings, or urban areas with on-street parking only. 00:03:08.770 --> 00:03:13.290 But these are tiny investments compared to building a fueling station. 00:03:13.290 --> 00:03:17.640 I myself live in a multi-family home - a condo building with more than 50 units. 00:03:17.640 --> 00:03:21.310 I took the initiative to jump through the hoops, and now there’s a charging station 00:03:21.310 --> 00:03:22.580 in my spot. 00:03:22.580 --> 00:03:25.630 I made a whole video on this experience if you’re interested. 00:03:25.630 --> 00:03:30.330 Thanks to this charging station and the station where my parents live, their Bolt EV has travelled 00:03:30.330 --> 00:03:37.370 nearly 10,000 miles now and has only ever been charged with this EVSE, or that EVSE. 00:03:37.370 --> 00:03:42.270 It has never visited a public charging station because I have built my own infrastructure, 00:03:42.270 --> 00:03:43.920 and so have my parents. 00:03:43.920 --> 00:03:48.040 This may sound harsh, but what will likely happen is that gas stations as we know them 00:03:48.040 --> 00:03:50.770 today will largely disappear. 00:03:50.770 --> 00:03:55.171 If level 2 charging equipment is available where you live, you simply will never visit 00:03:55.171 --> 00:03:56.171 a fueling station. 00:03:56.171 --> 00:03:59.620 It’s just something you don’t have to do anymore. 00:03:59.620 --> 00:04:04.380 There is no need to replicate the fueling experience of a gasoline or diesel powered 00:04:04.380 --> 00:04:06.830 car for electric vehicles. 00:04:06.830 --> 00:04:11.040 This is very hard to contextualize, and I don’t blame anyone who can’t right now, 00:04:11.040 --> 00:04:14.110 but with an EV you simply plug it in and walk away. 00:04:14.110 --> 00:04:19.420 It never goes to a gas station because you have your own gas station in your parking spot. 00:04:19.420 --> 00:04:25.060 I fear that as DC fast charging become feasible, people might imagine these charging stations 00:04:25.060 --> 00:04:28.070 as a fueling station replacement. 00:04:28.070 --> 00:04:31.790 While this might be a workable solution to the barriers to a home charging station that 00:04:31.790 --> 00:04:37.150 some people face, I think it makes far more sense to eliminate those barriers than to 00:04:37.150 --> 00:04:39.850 rely on public fast charging. 00:04:39.850 --> 00:04:43.810 If you only have on-street parking, then perhaps the utility and local government should get 00:04:43.810 --> 00:04:48.300 involved to help people like yourself install an EVSE near the road. 00:04:48.300 --> 00:04:52.240 For apartment buildings, management might consider adding a bank of chargers and allow 00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:54.390 access to them for a fee. 00:04:54.390 --> 00:04:59.090 Or better yet, workplaces can start to install level 2 chargers for their associates. 00:04:59.090 --> 00:05:03.740 If charging is limited to those who cannot charge at home, then their 8 hour day at work 00:05:03.740 --> 00:05:08.170 would get them the same 200 miles that an overnight charge can for everyone else. 00:05:08.170 --> 00:05:12.860 Now I get it, these solutions require new ways of thinking and adjustments to behavior. 00:05:12.860 --> 00:05:17.770 If gas stations simply turn into banks of DC fast charging stations, then no real change 00:05:17.770 --> 00:05:19.690 in behavior is required. 00:05:19.690 --> 00:05:21.560 Just visit the station when needed. 00:05:21.560 --> 00:05:25.780 But it will take far less effort to simply add basic level 2 charging stations at home 00:05:25.780 --> 00:05:26.910 or at work. 00:05:26.910 --> 00:05:33.240 It will cost a small fraction of installing big honking 350 kW DC fast chargers everywhere--particularly 00:05:33.240 --> 00:05:37.220 because these stations will almost certainly require the utility to upgrade the service 00:05:37.220 --> 00:05:38.970 wherever they’re installed. 00:05:38.970 --> 00:05:44.260 Where DC fast chargers will be needed is along interstate corridors to enable long distance travel. 00:05:44.260 --> 00:05:47.700 That’s what Tesla Superchargers do, and that’s what the Electrify America initiative 00:05:47.710 --> 00:05:49.290 is going to do. 00:05:49.290 --> 00:05:53.300 We do need fast charging infrastructure, but it’s a fundamental mistake to think that 00:05:53.300 --> 00:05:58.340 this infrastructure needs to replace the fueling infrastructure we use day-to-day. 00:05:58.340 --> 00:06:02.970 Home charging or work charging will be what replaces your neighborhood gas station. 00:06:02.970 --> 00:06:06.500 DC Fast Charging will replace the truck stops along the highway. 00:06:06.500 --> 00:06:10.980 And smart truck stop owners might consider installing DC fast chargers, if their long 00:06:10.980 --> 00:06:13.290 term future is in their sights. 00:06:13.290 --> 00:06:17.630 To conclude, EV charging infrastructure should not be thought about in the terms of the fueling 00:06:17.630 --> 00:06:19.250 infrastructure we use today. 00:06:19.250 --> 00:06:22.540 In fact, it cannot be thought in this way. 00:06:22.540 --> 00:06:27.200 When you have an EVSE at home, longer range cars like the Bolt EV or Teslas or any number 00:06:27.200 --> 00:06:31.520 of future offerings won’t need to rely on public charging at all. 00:06:31.520 --> 00:06:36.230 That’s where the infrastructure challenge really is--homeowners with garages face almost 00:06:36.230 --> 00:06:38.870 no challenge to installing an EVSE. 00:06:38.870 --> 00:06:42.880 But apartment dwellers, renters, and urban homeowners with on-street parking do face 00:06:42.880 --> 00:06:44.040 a barrier. 00:06:44.040 --> 00:06:48.180 I think it’s a wiser investment to eliminate their barriers and get them their own level 00:06:48.180 --> 00:06:53.060 2 charging stations than to build up a DC fast charging infrastructure for their daily needs. 00:06:53.060 --> 00:06:57.720 Plus, it’s a lot more convenient to just plug in at home and walk away than to wait 00:06:57.730 --> 00:06:59.500 at the DC fast charger. 00:06:59.500 --> 00:07:03.160 My fairy-tale solution to this problem is for local utility companies to form their 00:07:03.160 --> 00:07:05.480 own EV charging operations. 00:07:05.480 --> 00:07:09.520 There might be regulations preventing this, but what I see as a great solution is a system 00:07:09.520 --> 00:07:15.360 where the utility can add the electric consumption from any charger to an individual’s electric bill. 00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:19.620 Possibly through an RFID tag on the car and a reader on the charge cord, the charger will 00:07:19.630 --> 00:07:23.600 know what car it’s plugged into, and can directly bill the owner for their electricity 00:07:23.600 --> 00:07:26.590 use, regardless of where they plugged in. 00:07:26.590 --> 00:07:30.250 I think this would be a great solution for multi-residential buildings with unassigned 00:07:30.250 --> 00:07:32.840 parking, or public on-street charging. 00:07:32.840 --> 00:07:37.230 To finance the cost of the installation, the utility could perhaps charge $5 per connection 00:07:37.230 --> 00:07:42.780 until the unit’s upfront cost has been recouped, after which point the energy is sold at standard rates. 00:07:42.780 --> 00:07:48.000 In any case, what needs to be understood is that an EV is charged opportunistically, pretty 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:50.020 much whenever it’s parked. 00:07:50.020 --> 00:07:53.480 Going to a place to refuel is just not how they work. 00:07:53.480 --> 00:07:58.090 Though it can be hard to keep this in mind, it’s absolutely essential to understand 00:07:58.090 --> 00:08:00.430 the type of infrastructure we need. 00:08:00.430 --> 00:08:05.100 When you understand that, you’ll start to get the sense that this isn’t as hard as it seems. 00:08:05.500 --> 00:08:06.680 Thanks for watching.