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So, let’s say you’re considering an electric car

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but you don’t know what living with one might be like or what you might need to keep it charged up.

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You’ve landed on the right video!

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I’ll be covering the ins-and-outs
of living with and charging EVs in 2022,

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from what chargers are out there for home use,

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how to choose the right one based on your needs, vehicle, and situation,

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what traveling long-distance is like now and what needs to be improved,

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and what hiccups to look out for particularly in cold weather.

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This will be a largely US-centric conversation,
especially when we talk about stuff like volts, amps, and

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miles... per gallon... of gasoline,

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but the broad strokes apply no matter where you are.

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My goal here is for you to have a fairly complete
understanding of electric cars

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so you can make the most educated and rational choices
for your personal needs.

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Before we get started, you’ve probably already
noticed that this video is…

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quite long.

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I want this video to answer as many questions
and concerns as someone entirely unfamiliar with electric cars might have,

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and all in one place.

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So there’s a lot of information here.

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Chapter markers are there to help you move around.

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But I want to stress that in day-to-day life,
I’m not thinking about any of this stuff!

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I simply plug in my car and walk away, and in the morning it’s full again.

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Although it takes my car several hours to charge,

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I spend seconds plugging it in and it charges while I'm asleep.

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That means I actually spend much less time refueling compared to negotiating a gas pump transaction every week or two.

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I can tell you with absolute certainty that
I would never go back to a gas-powered car.

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An EV is simply much more convenient and easier
to live with when you can charge it at home.

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And I know not everyone can do that right now.

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That’s something we need to work on.

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But if you can, here’s the situation in a nutshell:

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If you drive the typical average distance daily, a regular household outlet
might actually meet your needs.

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And if you need or want a little more power,
don’t assume you’ll need an electrical service upgrade;

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a basic 20A 240V circuit can easily
cover very long commute distances

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- up to 100 miles - every day, charging only overnight.

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And any car can plug into any charger of any capacity -

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don’t chase the fastest charging
speed a car supports unless you really need it.

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How do you know if you really need it?

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Well, do I have a video for you!

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It’s… it’s this one.

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♫ Music ♫

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With that, we need to start with the basics,

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and I mean the really basic core tenet of everything: energy.

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How much energy does an electric car use?

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How much can it store in its battery pack?

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How far will that take you?

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And how long does it take to replenish that used energy?

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For a while I was struggling
with how to begin answering these questions -

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electric vehicles require different thinking
than what you might be used to and as we go on you’ll see why.

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But, well I kinda forgot that we can in fact translate most concepts from a combustion vehicle to an EV.

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Since more of you are familiar with those than EVs, let’s start with this:

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the battery pack is the new gas tank, and the kilowatt-hour is the new gallon.

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An electric car’s battery pack doesn’t have a capacity in gallons, of course, but it does have a capacity.

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Rather than giving that capacity in volume of a liquid chemical concoction,

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we define its capacity in raw energy terms.

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Energy. It makes the world go ‘round!

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But what is it really?

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This section is going to feel like we’re deep in the weeds but it’s fundamental to understanding how charging works.

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First, you need to understand the difference between power and energy.

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This trips a lot of folks up because it’s a bit confusing.

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You probably have a general sense
of how much power things in your life use,

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for instance light bulbs are given a wattage.

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The watt, though, is a unit of instantaneous power, not energy.

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Quantifying energy from power requires a time component,

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and in the realm of electricity we use the watt-hour.

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Watt-hours are what they sound like.

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It’s simply the average power draw in watts
that occurs over a period of one hour.

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As an example, a 10 watt light bulb that has run for 1 hour
will have consumed 10 watt-hours of energy.

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When you change the power level,
you change the speed at which energy is consumed.

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A more powerful light bulb will burn through energy more quickly.

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For instance a one hundred watt light bulb only needs to run for six minutes
to have consumed the same 10 watt-hours

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as our 10 watt bulb does over an hour.

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It uses 10 times as much power, so the same total
energy use is reached in one tenth the time.

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Watt-hours are pretty small, though, so when
talking about electrical energy

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we usually use the kilowatt-hour - which is just
one thousand watt-hours.

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Your electric utility probably bills you in this unit.

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And the battery pack capacity of an electric car is given in kilowatt-hours.

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Battery-electric vehicles on the market today (meaning those which are purely electric, not hybrid powertrains)

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usually have battery packs of at least 30 kilowatt-hours,
though 50+ is more typical in the US market.

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Many models are available with different pack sizes to choose from,

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for instance my car - a Hyundai Ioniq 5 - can be had with either a 58 kWh pack
in its base configuration,

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or a 77.4 kWh pack, the size I have.

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Of note, right now, car manufacturers tend to be a little vague

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on whether the figure they give their battery packs is the pack’s
actual capacity or a usable capacity.

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See, to prolong battery life most cars only give
you access to a certain range of the pack’s charge levels.

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It puts more wear and tear on a battery cell when you push it to its extremes,

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so somewhat typical is for a 100% indicated charge
to really be something like a 95% charge,

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and when the battery is “dead” at an indicated 0%,
 it’s really more like 5% charged still.

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To be clear, this is a good practice!

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But I wish every manufacturer would give distinct gross and usable capacity metrics for their battery packs

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so we can understand how much they’re pushing the cells.

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For what it’s worth, many EVs will let you be gentler on their batteries
by allowing you to set a maximum charge level.

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I have my car set to stop charging at 80% because honestly it has way more range than I need,

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and limiting charge levels is thought to prolong battery pack life.

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Anyway, let’s go back to what I said earlier.

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The battery pack is the new gas tank,
and the kilowatt-hour is the new gallon.

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So, my car’s “tank” holds 77.4 kWh.

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And how many miles can each of those 77.4 kWh take me?

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On the highway, about three.

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This car, like lots out there, actually gives you efficiency
in miles per kilowatt-hour,

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and just like miles per gallon, a higher number is better.

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Some cars will flip that and tell you how many watt-hours you consume to go a mile,

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but I find distance-driven per kilowatt-hour to be much more human-friendly,

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especially since I pay for electricity in that unit.

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How far can a full “tank” take me, then?

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It’s the same math as a combustion
vehicle, just with different units.

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3
(our distance we can go with a kWh of energy)

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multiplied by 77.4
(how many of those kWh our pack holds)

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gives about 232 miles of range, a bit shy
of the 256 miles my car is rated by the EPA to go.

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That’s because the EPA rating includes
mixed driving, and in the realm of EVs,

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highway driving is less efficient than stop-and-go.

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I’ll explain why later, but for instance around town I’m regularly hitting 4 miles per kWh in this car,

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but at sustained highway speeds that just isn’t possible.

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Heh, right, speaking of the EPA,

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some knucklehead thought that MPGe was a good idea.

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If you look at the window sticker of an electric car
it’s gonna be prominently given a fuel efficiency in

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Miles Per Gallon-gasoline Equivalent.

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[exasperatedly]
Here’s how that works:

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we assume a US gallon of gasoline contains 33.7 kWh of energy.

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Then, based on the actual energy consumption of the vehicle in real units,

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a backhanded calculation is done to give you
Miles per Pretend Gallon.

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I... it’s not exactly meaningless,

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it’s nice to see how much farther an EV will take you
with the same amount of energy.

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But nobody buys electricity by the gallon,
so miles per kilowatt-hour makes way more sense.

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That would be too easy, though, so if you want to use real units

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the EPA gives them to you, but they tell you how many
 kWh of electricity the car needs to go 100 miles.

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Look, playing around with different energy units is fun
and you can do it however you like,

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but MPGe is just a wee bit silly, dontcha think?

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Anyway, that’s the basics.

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Electric cars have a battery capacity in kWh,

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and we measure a car’s driving efficiency
in much the same way as miles per gallon.

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And that efficiency multiplied by the pack’s capacity gives
you its driving range.

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If you’d like to get an idea of how much it will cost
to charge your electric car,

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well again the basic math is the same as with a gas-powered car,
just with different units.

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Take your commute distance and divide by your car’s efficiency.

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I’ll do a 40 mile commute as an example,
and divide by my car’s 3 mi/kWh highway efficiency.

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I should expect an all-highway 40 mile commute to need 13.3 kWh.

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Now it’s a simple matter of determining
how much your electric utility charges per kWh.

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Supposing a cost of $0.15/kWh, that commute will cost $2.00.

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Now I’ve ignored charging losses with this calculation;
adding 10% will give a more accurate cost.

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Public charging tends to be more expensive,
but we’ll get to that in a bit.

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♫ Music ♫

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I know the next thing a lot of you want to know is
how long it takes to charge a car back up

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and thus refill its proverbial tank.

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The answer is actually so simple it only needs two words.

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Are you ready?

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Now, don’t worry, once you get your head around a few variables,
you’ll be able to answer this quite confidently.

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That’s literally my goal, here!

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For now, we’re going to focus
on “slow” AC charging.

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If you have regular access to a "slow" charger which can fill your car up overnight
(or perhaps when you’re at work),

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you’ll never even think about
visiting a charger when you’re out and about.

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And one of the most beautiful things about
the power grid is that it’s everywhere!

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Level 1 and 2 AC charging simply connects
a car to the grid in the same way you do anything else,

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from a table lamp to a clothes dryer.

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But I’m getting a little ahead of myself.

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To answer how long it takes to charge, there’s really only one critical factor:

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how much power you can deliver to the car.

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We’ll get into details on how exactly that’s accomplished shortly,

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but when you know how much power you have available
and you know the size of your battery pack,

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solving for time to fill it is really simple math.

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All you do is take the battery pack size in kWh
and divide it by the power supply in kilowatts

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and there, you’ve solved for hours!

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Here’s an example for determining charging time.

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Say you have a car with a 60 kWh battery pack,
and a charger which can supply 5 kilowatts.

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60 divided by 5 is 12,
so that car would need 12 hours to charge from empty to full

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with a 5 kW charger.

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But if you had twice the power, 10 kW,
the charging time would be cut in half to six hours.

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60 kilowatt-hours divided by 10 kilowatts is 6 hours.

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And if you only had 3 kW to play with, charging time would be stretched to 20 hours using the same math.

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But it’s important to keep in mind that charging time also depends on how charged the battery already is.

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A half-full battery… is already half-full!

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So in our 60 kWh example car,
a 50% charge means only 30 kWh actually needs to be fed to it.

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That cuts all those charging times in half.

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This is because on AC charging, since the
battery pack is so large and the power input is relatively low,

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the charging curve is essentially linear.

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We’re not dealing with the effects you might be used to
with a phone or laptop battery.

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What really matters is how much energy was taken out of the battery,
and how much power we have to refill it.

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Again, this is in the case of AC charging.

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DC fast charging is another story, which we’ll get to later.

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Now, manufacturers will give you a required
charging time for their cars.

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But honestly, you should probably just ignore that.

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See, if you were to look at Hyundai’s information on my car,

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they’ll tell you that it takes a little less than 7 hours
to charge it from 10% to 100% on a 240V charger.

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That’s pretty good for an up-to 300 mile EV.

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But, I don’t like that answer.

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At all.

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To be clear it’s not wrong - that speed is absolutely possible!

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But only if you have a charger with enough
capacity to support that speed.

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Which I don’t because, frankly, I think it’s very much
overkill for virtually anyone.

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But again, getting ahead of myself here.

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A while back I made a video on what exactly an EVSE -
the technical name for a car charger -

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is, does, and how it works.

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I won’t get into the specifics here, if you’re curious watch that video!

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But the key thing to know is that the actual charger,

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meaning the device that takes AC power from the grid
and converts it to DC for charging the battery cells,

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lives in the car.

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The voltage conversion and all that stuff is entirely the car’s job.

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The EVSE is just a very-slightly-smart power cord

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which delivers raw AC voltage to the charge port and tells the car how much power it’s allowed to pull.

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That’s all this does, plus a few safety things.

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Hyundai’s charging time claim comes from the fact that the Ioniq 5’s onboard charger can accept a maximum of 48 amps,

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and at 240 volts that’s 11.5 kW.

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77.4 kW-hours divided by the car’s maximum power input of 11.5 kW

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tells us that we need 6.73 hours of charging time 
to deliver an entire battery pack’s worth of energy,

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exactly what Hyundai claims.

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Now, hang on, they claimed that time from 10 to 100%,

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and we did the math for 0 to 100% - why the discrepancy?

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Well, there is about a 10% loss when charging a battery,

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in other words only about 90 of every 100 kWh pulled
by the car ends up stored in the battery.

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The rest is lost as heat in chemical processes
and various charging components.

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But in the end, and this goes for any car,

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all you need to know to determine
charge time are three variables:

211
00:16:01,961 --> 00:16:03,616
the size of your battery pack,

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00:16:03,616 --> 00:16:06,009
how much of its capacity you need to recover,

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00:16:06,009 --> 00:16:08,655
and how much power your charger can deliver.

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Add 10% to the end result
if you want to be really accurate.

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00:16:12,413 --> 00:16:19,250
Manufacturers are generally going to quote an empty-to-full
time on the fastest charger the car will support -

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that’s useful to know and is a simple selling point,
but the real world is messier.

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Usually in good ways!

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♫ Music ♫

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00:16:34,416 --> 00:16:38,822
So now, let’s talk about what sort of charging
solution you might need.

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First, let me acknowledge that I know there are lots of you out there who need to drive a car

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but don’t have a dedicated place to park and charge one.

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Trust me, I’m not trying to be dismissive of your situation.

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I’m just as frustrated as you are!

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00:16:53,708 --> 00:16:57,871
See, the beauty of AC charging is that it’s simple!

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It’s incredibly straightforward infrastructure to deploy,

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and there’s no reason it shouldn’t spread to multi-family
dwellings and areas with on-street parking

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other than finicky details like permitting,
billing structures, maintenance concerns, building codes,

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and miscellanea like that.

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The good news is that there are plenty of creative solutions in the works and I’m sure we’ll see more of them with time.

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So while I don’t have answers for you here,
keep your eyes peeled.

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For those lucky ones who have a garage or
even a driveway close to their home or other electrified structure,

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well you’re probably pretty good to go.

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In fact you might already be set.

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00:17:37,005 --> 00:17:41,597
Actually, right, here’s a misconception
I keep seeing pop up from time to time:

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00:17:41,597 --> 00:17:48,913
This connector design is waterproof — there’s a gasket in here which seals the pins from the elements when a connector is attached.

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00:17:48,913 --> 00:17:51,955
And charging your car outside is totally OK.

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00:17:51,955 --> 00:17:55,262
There is plenty of charging equipment
meant to go outdoors,

238
00:17:55,262 --> 00:17:58,364
so don’t assume you’ll need a covered parking spot.

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00:17:58,364 --> 00:18:02,140
You can simply install a charger on an outside wall near to where you park.

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00:18:02,140 --> 00:18:09,650
And plenty of cars these days can lock the connector to the car to keep bored teens from unplugging it while you sleep.

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00:18:09,650 --> 00:18:12,538
The other thing to mention is that in the US market,

242
00:18:12,538 --> 00:18:18,739
this J1772 connector is an industry standard followed by all players...

243
00:18:18,739 --> 00:18:20,488
except Tesla.

244
00:18:20,488 --> 00:18:24,880
Tesla uses a proprietary charging connector, for better or worse.

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00:18:24,880 --> 00:18:31,457
I’m not going to relitigate this whole debacle as I’ve done it several times now with increasing levels of exasperated snark,

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but you should know that throughout this video
I’m assuming that you’re looking for a charger

247
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that is directly compatible — no adapters needed — with literally every
plug-in car sold since 2010

248
00:18:43,442 --> 00:18:50,070
and literally every option on the market today except for
those models made by That Company.

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Even if you want a vehicle made by That Company,

250
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I would suggest installing a J1772 charger as a simple adapter which is provided with their vehicles will allow you to plug into it.

251
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And if you want one of the dozens of options that
aren’t S, 3, X, or Y, you’ll charge in dongle-free bliss.

252
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But there’s a good chance that you might
not even need to install a charger at all.

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♫ Music ♫

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00:19:23,025 --> 00:19:27,158
If you drive a fairly average amount, say up to 50 miles a day,

255
00:19:27,158 --> 00:19:31,929
one of these little guys might actually take care of you just fine!

256
00:19:31,929 --> 00:19:36,191
Level 1 charging is charging on 120V power,

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00:19:36,191 --> 00:19:43,188
and most of the time this involves simply plugging your car into a household outlet through a portable EVSE like this one,

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which many vehicles come with.

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00:19:45,224 --> 00:19:49,848
Here in the US an EV can draw 12 amps through this sort of supply.

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At 120V that’s 1.44 kilowatts.

261
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That’s not a lot, but in a very efficient EV,
50 miles of highway driving might take as little as 12.5 kWh.

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Assuming some losses that will take about 10 hours of charging to recover.

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00:20:06,795 --> 00:20:09,975
Now, that’s admittedly a long time.

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But I’m willing to bet that you sleep for long enough
to cover the bulk of your charging.

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Level 1 charging isn’t for everyone and has drawbacks,
but I would argue it’s more useful than many realize.

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When I first got my 2013 Chevy Volt, which only had about a 40 mile electric range from its 10.5 kWh pack,

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I just plugged it into a regular outlet.

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Its small battery pack meant that it only ever
took 10 hours for a complete charge.

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And with a 32 mile round-trip commute, I was driving
entirely on electricity every day.

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My next job was nearly twice as far away at a 60 mile
round-trip,

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but by asking nicely and bringing a cord protector with me to keep folks from tripping on it,

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I was also able to plug-in during my workday - again, to a bog standard outlet.

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Usually I’d be topped off by the end of my shift, so even then I was doing an all-electric 60 mile commute

274
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with only level 1 charging and a 40 mile range.

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I would shortly move a little further from work,

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proving that even a 70 mile commute was possible in
the Volt with only Level 1 charging at both ends.

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At least, for the seven or eight warm-enough
months of the year....

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OK, I spent too much time on this so here’s
a condensed voiceover.

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Level 1 charging is slow, and since cold weather decreases driving range, if you live in a cold climate a 40 mile commute might be cutting it close.

280
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And I'm not gonna pretend everyone can plug in at work.

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00:21:38,900 --> 00:21:41,494
I just wanted to give you an example of its potential.

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L1 charging is also less energy efficient since the car’s charging electronics need their own power to operate,

283
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and with only 1.4 kW controls and monitoring
start to take up a larger percentage of the power available to the car.

284
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That effect can also be problematic if you park outside and the car needs some power to heat its battery pack,

285
00:22:00,776 --> 00:22:06,292
leaving little power for actual charging - but that’s very model and circumstance dependent.

286
00:22:06,292 --> 00:22:11,447
Plugging into a standard outlet may also present
problems depending on what else is on the same circuit.

287
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That is especially notable in older homes.

288
00:22:14,195 --> 00:22:21,595
And, a 12 amp load on a normal socket is kind of a lot, and old,
 worn-out receptacles present a hazard.

289
00:22:21,595 --> 00:22:25,813
That’s easy to fix by replacing the receptacle,
but you should be aware of that.

290
00:22:25,813 --> 00:22:31,821
And in case you’re watching from one of those 240V countries
where boiling a liter of water takes 2 minutes in a kettle,

291
00:22:31,821 --> 00:22:37,829
you should definitely not rule out charging off a standard outlet because you have more zippy zappy to play with.

292
00:22:37,829 --> 00:22:41,034
The last main drawback of Level 1 charging is that,

293
00:22:41,034 --> 00:22:44,658
since you need your car to be charging essentially whenever it can,

294
00:22:44,658 --> 00:22:49,816
you won’t be able to take advantage of time-of-use rates if your utility offers them.

295
00:22:49,816 --> 00:22:56,709
Since my power is a lot cheaper at night,
I benefit from having a more powerful supply to my car.

296
00:22:56,709 --> 00:23:03,844
So I have one, and the car is programmed to wait to charge until midnight,
a feature nearly all EVs offer.

297
00:23:03,844 --> 00:23:09,413
My more powerful charger is a 240V charger, so it’s classified as

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LEVEL TWO.

299
00:23:12,533 --> 00:23:21,820
Now, an annoying thing about the classification “Level 2” is that it can be anything from 2.5 all the way up to 19.2 kW.

300
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That’s all

301
00:23:22,881 --> 00:23:25,331
LEVEL TWO

302
00:23:25,331 --> 00:23:28,254
so as a category it’s just not that useful.

303
00:23:28,254 --> 00:23:35,457
It’s another reason I don’t like Hyundai saying it takes 7 hours on “a 240V charger” to charge my car.

304
00:23:35,457 --> 00:23:39,947
And wait ‘till we get to the fact that sometimes 240 is 208.

305
00:23:39,947 --> 00:23:45,002
Anyway, let’s say you need or want a Level
2 charger installed.

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What’s that gonna look like?

307
00:23:46,700 --> 00:23:49,591
Here comes that 2-word answer again:

308
00:23:49,591 --> 00:23:51,045
it depends.

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00:23:51,594 --> 00:23:57,007
♫ Music ♫

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00:23:58,339 --> 00:24:02,160
First thing I want to say — if you are building a home or buying new construction,

311
00:24:02,160 --> 00:24:04,899
even if you don’t have an electric car right now,

312
00:24:04,899 --> 00:24:07,743
ask to have one of these installed in your garage.

313
00:24:07,743 --> 00:24:16,318
This is a NEMA 14-50 receptacle, and it supplies enough power to charge
virtually any EV from empty to full overnight.

314
00:24:16,318 --> 00:24:21,143
Many inexpensive car chargers are out there which
plug straight into this nasty fella

315
00:24:21,143 --> 00:24:26,022
and it’s sort-of becoming an unofficial standard EV charging plug over here.

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00:24:26,022 --> 00:24:28,425
To clear up a sort-of mistake of mine,

317
00:24:28,425 --> 00:24:34,887
in my video on EVSEs I suggested a NEMA 6-50
which doesn’t have the fourth, neutral pin.

318
00:24:34,887 --> 00:24:39,403
See, I had already bought a charger
from Costco which featured a 6-50 plug

319
00:24:39,403 --> 00:24:44,378
and thought since an EVSE doesn’t need the neutral
that's probably what most EVSEs are gonna plug into

320
00:24:44,378 --> 00:24:45,379
but nope!

321
00:24:45,379 --> 00:24:49,094
There are way more options for 14-50 plugs out there,

322
00:24:49,094 --> 00:24:54,192
possibly because big RVs use that plug
so it’s fairly common at campsites.

323
00:24:54,192 --> 00:24:55,475
But moving on…

324
00:24:55,475 --> 00:25:01,394
Here’s another fun angle, do you have an electric clothes dryer and is it close to where you charge your car?

325
00:25:01,394 --> 00:25:05,587
If you have a conventional electric dryer, and it’s in or near to your garage,

326
00:25:05,587 --> 00:25:10,014
you already have a 30A 240V circuit at your disposal.

327
00:25:10,014 --> 00:25:14,204
And inexpensive chargers are available which’ll plug right into it.

328
00:25:14,204 --> 00:25:17,662
A 30A circuit won’t give you the fastest charge out there,

329
00:25:17,662 --> 00:25:22,431
but it’s over 5 kilowatts which is, trust me, plenty.

330
00:25:22,431 --> 00:25:27,854
Now, don’t worry, you don’t need to keep unplugging
and replugging your dryer every laundry day.

331
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There are simple splitters on the market designed to let you
have both an EVSE and a dryer plugged into the same receptacle,

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but you will have to remember to unplug your car before you use the dryer should you go that route.

333
00:25:39,794 --> 00:25:43,553
Really, though, if you have this option - take it!

334
00:25:43,553 --> 00:25:45,278
But if you’re not in that lucky boat,

335
00:25:45,278 --> 00:25:52,480
to add a charger to your existing home you’ll need a new circuit run from your electrical panel to wherever you charge your car.

336
00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:58,751
If your panel is in or near your garage, this will be a cinch
and should only cost you a few hundred dollars.

337
00:25:58,751 --> 00:26:01,773
If it’s farther away, expect to pay more.

338
00:26:01,773 --> 00:26:09,984
Since Level 2 chargers are 240/208V and require both hot legs 
you will need two free spaces in your breaker panel.

339
00:26:09,984 --> 00:26:14,425
If you currently have none, you may
be able to consolidate some circuits together -

340
00:26:14,425 --> 00:26:19,202
consult your electrician for whether or not that’s possible or allowed where you live.

341
00:26:19,202 --> 00:26:24,781
Oh, and definitely don’t assume you
need an electrical service upgrade to drive electric -

342
00:26:24,781 --> 00:26:27,899
I would argue you almost certainly don’t.

343
00:26:27,899 --> 00:26:34,086
There are also some pretty exciting developments when it comes to breaker panels which will come up in a future video.

344
00:26:34,086 --> 00:26:37,907
But assuming you do have the space for a new
breaker in your service panel,

345
00:26:37,907 --> 00:26:40,397
well here’s broadly what’s gonna happen.

346
00:26:40,397 --> 00:26:44,109
A new two-pole circuit breaker will take up two spots in the panel,

347
00:26:44,109 --> 00:26:49,164
and a two-conductor with ground cable will be connected with the hot wires to the breaker’s lugs,

348
00:26:49,164 --> 00:26:51,231
and the ground to your ground block.

349
00:26:51,231 --> 00:26:56,628
That cable will then exit the panel and run through walls, attics, or whenever code allows

350
00:26:56,628 --> 00:26:59,152
until it gets to where you want your charger.

351
00:26:59,152 --> 00:27:04,178
If you’re hardwiring a charger,
you’ll stick a junction box on the wall where that cable ends up,

352
00:27:04,178 --> 00:27:09,165
pull the wires into the box
and connect them through to an EVSE’s incoming power wires.

353
00:27:09,165 --> 00:27:13,226
If you’re installing a high-power receptacle, it’s much the same idea.

354
00:27:13,226 --> 00:27:15,066
Close up the panel and box,

355
00:27:15,066 --> 00:27:17,350
close in the breaker and energize the wires,

356
00:27:17,350 --> 00:27:19,206
and you’re done.

357
00:27:19,206 --> 00:27:25,038
This is a really straightforward process,
so much so that I’ve done it myself two times now:

358
00:27:25,038 --> 00:27:28,000
once for my parents, and later for me.

359
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:32,642
DIYing it’s not for everyone, and different chargers may need different things -

360
00:27:32,642 --> 00:27:37,748
for instance, really big EVSEs actually need a disconnect switch as well.

361
00:27:37,748 --> 00:27:41,932
But when it comes to electrical work this is really simple stuff,

362
00:27:41,932 --> 00:27:49,259
and the simplicity here is one of many reasons I’m much more excited about EVs compared to, say, hydrogen.

363
00:27:49,259 --> 00:27:52,359
And when you have a circuit like this available in your home,

364
00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:56,136
you are seriously never going to think about charging.

365
00:27:56,136 --> 00:28:03,366
You can have a full battery every day
and the idea of stopping somewhere to get a top up will just leave your mind.

366
00:28:03,366 --> 00:28:07,810
It’s truly amazing and I hope everyone who needs to drive can experience this.

367
00:28:08,867 --> 00:28:14,785
♫ Music ♫

368
00:28:15,647 --> 00:28:18,571
Assuming you have the option of running a new circuit,

369
00:28:18,571 --> 00:28:23,359
well now comes the time when you’ll need to decide
how large of a circuit you want to run.

370
00:28:23,359 --> 00:28:29,768
And here I’d like to whip out my Midwesterner card
and strongly convince you to not go overboard.

371
00:28:29,768 --> 00:28:38,810
There are a lot of people who think that they’re gonna need
a big honkin’ 50A circuit with expensive 6 gauge wiring to charge their car.

372
00:28:38,810 --> 00:28:48,177
And I’ve seen multiple folks in two car families presume that they’ll need two of those very large and expensive circuits to drive electric.

373
00:28:48,177 --> 00:28:49,716
Here’s my spicy take;

374
00:28:49,716 --> 00:28:51,104
ya don’t.

375
00:28:51,104 --> 00:28:55,399
The only scenario where you would actually need that much power

376
00:28:55,399 --> 00:29:01,742
is if you and your partner *each* drive over two hundred miles every single day.

377
00:29:01,742 --> 00:29:06,792
I’ve seen so many folks in comments, product reviews, and really wherever else online

378
00:29:06,792 --> 00:29:11,178
get into this mindset that they want the fastest charger possible.

379
00:29:11,178 --> 00:29:15,867
They’ll immediately start looking for massive high-power charging stations

380
00:29:15,867 --> 00:29:24,317
and often seem to assume that if they were to buy a car which *can* charge at 10 kW,
they'll need a 10 kW charger for it.

381
00:29:25,335 --> 00:29:29,270
I mean, if you can swing it go ahead but that’s not how it works.

382
00:29:29,270 --> 00:29:36,483
Any car will work on any charger and simply limit its power draw
based on a capacity signal coming from the charger.

383
00:29:36,483 --> 00:29:38,708
That’s how the standard works.

384
00:29:38,708 --> 00:29:42,177
So don’t just rush out and buy the fastest charger for your car -

385
00:29:42,177 --> 00:29:46,679
it’s expensive and may come with more headaches
than you bargained for.

386
00:29:46,679 --> 00:29:49,931
How do you know what sorta charger you actually
need?

387
00:29:49,931 --> 00:29:51,725
Simple, you just listen to me!

388
00:29:51,725 --> 00:29:54,884
It’s 7.2 kW. That’ll do fine!

389
00:29:56,255 --> 00:30:00,142
I’m kidding, but actually not really...

390
00:30:00,142 --> 00:30:05,034
I consider that to be the “very good” speed that’ll
work for just about anyone

391
00:30:05,034 --> 00:30:09,709
but to give you some real information in the realm of
electric vehicle supply equipment,

392
00:30:09,709 --> 00:30:12,430
amps are what matters first and foremost.

393
00:30:12,430 --> 00:30:16,240
Wires of a given thickness can only handle so much current,

394
00:30:16,240 --> 00:30:20,301
ultimately making amps allowed on a circuit the limiting factor.

395
00:30:20,301 --> 00:30:25,020
So when you look for a charger, you’re gonna find them listed by amperage.

396
00:30:25,020 --> 00:30:30,423
Thanks to the 80% rule which limits continuous loads to 80% of a circuit’s capacity,

397
00:30:30,423 --> 00:30:39,228
you’ll usually find two amperages listed: the size circuit a given unit requires, 
and the actual amperage it can deliver to a car.

398
00:30:39,228 --> 00:30:43,511
Now, I know we’ve been talking in kilowatts
and now I’m throwing amps at you.

399
00:30:43,511 --> 00:30:44,942
Sorry about that.

400
00:30:44,942 --> 00:30:47,843
To know the power output of a charger in kilowatts,

401
00:30:47,843 --> 00:30:52,401
you simply multiply amps it can supply by the voltage of that supply.

402
00:30:52,401 --> 00:30:59,372
That is usually gonna be 240V, but in some settings
(mainly in large buildings which have three-phase power)

403
00:30:59,372 --> 00:31:02,216
it might be 208V.

404
00:31:02,216 --> 00:31:05,692
It’s a relatively small difference, so it’s not worth getting too hung up on,

405
00:31:05,692 --> 00:31:11,994
but be prepared for the same charger in a home setting to be just a little bit slower in a commercial setting.

406
00:31:11,994 --> 00:31:16,917
Here’s a chart of all the common circuit sizes and
how much power that nets you.

407
00:31:16,917 --> 00:31:21,555
To make comparisons to real life a little easier, we can use a cheat.

408
00:31:21,555 --> 00:31:26,984
You will somewhat commonly see circuit capacities
be given a “miles per hour” figure.

409
00:31:26,984 --> 00:31:30,265
This is useful, but a little messy.

410
00:31:30,265 --> 00:31:35,664
A “typical” vehicle will gain about 10 miles of range per hour on a 20 amp charger,

411
00:31:35,664 --> 00:31:38,549
15 miles per hour on a 30 amp unit,

412
00:31:38,549 --> 00:31:41,055
20 mph on a 40A unit,

413
00:31:41,055 --> 00:31:43,211
and I’ll let you do the rest as homework.

414
00:31:43,211 --> 00:31:47,377
Oh and Level 1 charging, remember that’s just plugging into a household outlet,

415
00:31:47,377 --> 00:31:54,185
gives you about 4 miles of range per hour,
maybe 5 with a really efficient EV in perfect conditions.

416
00:31:54,185 --> 00:32:00,791
Using these miles-per-hour speeds is a decent starting point 
but now that bigger EVs are on the market,

417
00:32:00,791 --> 00:32:02,721
it’s beginning to fall apart.

418
00:32:02,721 --> 00:32:08,050
My car lines up with those figures pretty well
at 3 miles per kilowatt-hour on the highway,

419
00:32:08,050 --> 00:32:13,343
but of course in winter it needs a little more time since it uses
more energy to go the same distance.

420
00:32:13,343 --> 00:32:17,865
And a vehicle like an F-150 Lightning will, 
based on what the EPA says,

421
00:32:17,865 --> 00:32:24,371
only gain about ⅔ as much range per hour it’s plugged in as
the conventional speeds wisdom.

422
00:32:24,371 --> 00:32:31,333
So I’d argue it’s better to think about this in energy terms,
but giving a charger a speed like that is handy.

423
00:32:31,333 --> 00:32:34,108
So handy, I’m gonna use it right now!

424
00:32:34,108 --> 00:32:38,567
The next thing to do to help you determine
how large of a charging circuit you might need

425
00:32:38,567 --> 00:32:43,562
is to multiply that miles-per-hour figure by
hours plugged into a charger

426
00:32:43,562 --> 00:32:47,252
to get a sense of how many miles are regained in that time.

427
00:32:47,252 --> 00:32:52,605
I’m gonna go ahead and work with a 10 hour overnight charge time
since lots of you sleep for 8 hours

428
00:32:52,605 --> 00:32:56,133
and a morning and evening routine tacks on a bit at each end.

429
00:32:56,133 --> 00:33:02,713
If you’ve been following along then you’ll know a 20 amp circuit gets you 100 miles of range overnight,

430
00:33:02,713 --> 00:33:06,533
30 amps gives you 150, 40 amps 200.

431
00:33:06,533 --> 00:33:09,714
And again - I'll leave the rest for homework.

432
00:33:09,714 --> 00:33:15,128
Notice how the smallest number I just gave you was 100 miles.

433
00:33:15,128 --> 00:33:18,713
I’m going to stress this point.
And I’m going to be obnoxious about this

434
00:33:18,713 --> 00:33:22,353
because I really need y’all to know this and deeply:

435
00:33:22,353 --> 00:33:24,454
A 20 amp circuit.

436
00:33:24,454 --> 00:33:26,050
Which is not a whole lot.

437
00:33:26,050 --> 00:33:29,075
And which can be run with cheap 12 gauge Romex,

438
00:33:29,075 --> 00:33:38,850
can make even a crossover-sized EV like mine go 100 miles every single day, charging exclusively in the overnight hours.

439
00:33:39,594 --> 00:33:42,061
You do not need a giant charger.

440
00:33:42,061 --> 00:33:46,585
Yes, I hear you, what about all those "but sometimes!" situations you’re thinking of?

441
00:33:46,585 --> 00:33:48,559
Like winter, for instance!

442
00:33:48,833 --> 00:33:53,378
Well, even if we assume an extreme 40% winter range loss,

443
00:33:53,378 --> 00:33:58,509
you’re still getting a 60 mile round trip commute recovered every evening.

444
00:33:58,509 --> 00:34:05,249
And let’s be real, you can probably charge your car for a bit more than 10 hours every night if you really needed to.

445
00:34:05,249 --> 00:34:11,901
Now I’m not saying everyone should limit
themselves to 20 amp circuits for their car chargers.

446
00:34:11,901 --> 00:34:15,317
I myself use a charger which is twice as powerful.

447
00:34:15,317 --> 00:34:21,659
But I’m only doing that so I can drive 100 miles in a day
(a thing I regularly do)

448
00:34:21,659 --> 00:34:27,539
and top the battery up entirely during off-peak hours,
taking advantage of low overnight power rates.

449
00:34:27,539 --> 00:34:35,392
If I didn’t care about that, frankly my life would not change
one bit if I were limited to a 3.8 kW charger.

450
00:34:35,392 --> 00:34:38,132
Even my long drives would be recovered overnight,

451
00:34:38,132 --> 00:34:43,780
but I might need to charge from 9:00PM to 7:00AM rather than midnight to 5:00 AM.

452
00:34:43,780 --> 00:34:47,089
The reason I’m so passionate about spreading this gospel

453
00:34:47,089 --> 00:34:52,001
is that I know there are lots of you with only 100A service or possibly even less

454
00:34:52,001 --> 00:34:57,255
that have ruled out an EV because you’ve assumed you’ll need a service upgrade.

455
00:34:57,255 --> 00:35:02,314
I’m not gonna tell you that you definitely won’t because
I don’t know your particular situation,

456
00:35:02,314 --> 00:35:07,836
but you should know that a car charging on a 20A circuit only pulls 16 amps.

457
00:35:07,836 --> 00:35:12,143
That’s only 16% of your capacity if you have 100A service.

458
00:35:12,143 --> 00:35:15,365
And yet, that can take you quite far.

459
00:35:15,365 --> 00:35:22,648
A conservative 20,000 miles annually
charging only 10 hours a day and only on work days.

460
00:35:22,648 --> 00:35:29,201
It’s important to note that you can’t just add up the breakers in your panel to see how close you are to using up your service level.

461
00:35:29,201 --> 00:35:35,446
In nearly all homes you’ll find the total circuits far
and away exceed the main breaker’s rating.

462
00:35:35,446 --> 00:35:39,599
You need to think through what’s on those
circuits and how often they get used -

463
00:35:39,599 --> 00:35:42,321
an electrician should be able to help you with that.

464
00:35:42,321 --> 00:35:50,490
The other reason I’m pretty gung-ho about basic level 2 chargers is that the wiring needed for them is cheap and plentiful.

465
00:35:50,490 --> 00:35:56,620
So long as your garage or driveway is close enough to the service panel that voltage drop doesn't become an issue,

466
00:35:56,620 --> 00:36:02,940
this stuff is all you need and the going rate right now is about $80 for 50 feet.

467
00:36:02,940 --> 00:36:10,580
And heck you can step up to the orange stuff, 10 gauge,
and run a 30 amp circuit the same length for about $50 more.

468
00:36:11,403 --> 00:36:18,822
And, uh, those of us who live where Romex isn’t legal can cry
in a corner and hope that armored cable is up to code.

469
00:36:18,822 --> 00:36:23,376
Anyway, before you get scared off thinking
you need panel or service upgrades,

470
00:36:23,376 --> 00:36:29,702
I’d encourage you to think long and hard about
whether that’s truly necessary in your situation.

471
00:36:29,790 --> 00:36:33,628
I can tell you from experience that a 20A
charger on wiring like this

472
00:36:33,628 --> 00:36:41,317
would have easily taken care of my 70 mile commute even in the dead of winter,
and even with my crossover-sized vehicle.

473
00:36:41,317 --> 00:36:47,130
If you have the wiggle room, though, I would personally suggest 
that you run a 40 amp circuit

474
00:36:47,130 --> 00:36:49,788
for a 30 or 32 amp charger.

475
00:36:49,788 --> 00:36:55,975
I consider 7.2 kW to be the Certified Midwestern Gold™ standard of charging.

476
00:36:55,975 --> 00:37:02,481
You have to drive an awful lot and with a pretty inefficient vehicle for this to not meet your daily needs.

477
00:37:02,481 --> 00:37:08,598
Over 10 hours, such a charger will push something like 65 kWh into a battery pack after losses,

478
00:37:08,598 --> 00:37:10,712
which is about 200 miles in my car.

479
00:37:10,712 --> 00:37:13,013
It’s the vast majority of the pack.

480
00:37:13,013 --> 00:37:21,207
And even with a vehicle as large as a Ford F-150 Lightning,
 that’s 130 miles of range recovered every night, nothing to sneeze at.

481
00:37:21,207 --> 00:37:25,964
To give you some sense of how Absolutely Fine™ I consider that charging speed,

482
00:37:25,964 --> 00:37:34,052
well at home I do indeed have a 50 amp circuit going to this receptacle so I could charge at 9.6 kW,

483
00:37:34,052 --> 00:37:42,621
but I only bought a 7.2 kW charger (because it was a lot cheaper)
and I see absolutely no reason to upgrade.

484
00:37:42,621 --> 00:37:46,391
Aha, but what if your household,
through the magic of having two of them,

485
00:37:46,391 --> 00:37:48,245
needs to charge up two cars?

486
00:37:48,245 --> 00:37:50,677
What now, Toaster Boy?

487
00:37:50,912 --> 00:37:56,815
Well, the first thing I’d like to point out is when you get your hands on a 200+ mile EV,

488
00:37:56,815 --> 00:37:58,712
a funny thing happens.

489
00:37:58,712 --> 00:38:01,649
You stop bothering to plug it in every day.

490
00:38:01,649 --> 00:38:08,540
It begins to feel kinda silly never discharging the battery pack below 80%,
so you just sorta…

491
00:38:08,540 --> 00:38:13,928
end up behaving like you did back in the dino juice days
and only plug it in when you really need to.

492
00:38:13,928 --> 00:38:19,968
I guess I shouldn’t speak for everyone
but honestly at this point I really only plug the car in after a long journey,

493
00:38:19,968 --> 00:38:23,342
otherwise I'll go a solid week without charging it.

494
00:38:23,342 --> 00:38:25,825
200 miles is a long distance, folks!

495
00:38:25,825 --> 00:38:30,576
That’ll get you from Chicago all the way across Illinois
and solidly into Iowa.

496
00:38:30,576 --> 00:38:33,220
I really hope you’re not commuting like that.

497
00:38:33,220 --> 00:38:39,422
So if you have to charge two cars, first don’t
jump to the conclusion that you’ll need to run two circuits.

498
00:38:39,422 --> 00:38:42,594
A single charger can easily be shared.

499
00:38:42,594 --> 00:38:47,380
If you feel like that’s too hard or have some weird parking space
restrictions or something like that,

500
00:38:47,380 --> 00:38:52,253
well there are also options in which two EVSEs share a single circuit.

501
00:38:52,253 --> 00:38:58,215
They talk to each other and split power between two cars if
they’re both charging at the same time.

502
00:38:58,215 --> 00:39:04,700
But trust me, the simple and free solution of just figuring out a system works pretty friggin great.

503
00:39:04,700 --> 00:39:07,161
On Mondays, Carl parks on the left,

504
00:39:07,161 --> 00:39:09,254
and on Tuesdays, Brenda does.

505
00:39:09,254 --> 00:39:10,927
Alternate and then switch on the weekends.

506
00:39:10,927 --> 00:39:12,598
You can do it, I believe in you!

507
00:39:12,598 --> 00:39:17,856
And if one of you gets in the habit of backing in
you might not even need to switch places!

508
00:39:17,856 --> 00:39:21,672
Obviously if you’ve got a bigger family
where more than two people drive cars,

509
00:39:21,672 --> 00:39:27,681
this gets more complex and there may very well
be value in having multiple charge points in your situation.

510
00:39:27,681 --> 00:39:32,987
But think long and hard about how powerful those chargers actually need to be.

511
00:39:32,987 --> 00:39:38,323
Remember, a 40 amp circuit can
push 200 miles of range in a car over 10 hours.

512
00:39:38,323 --> 00:39:40,864
Even if there are four drivers in your household,

513
00:39:40,864 --> 00:39:48,034
your daily miles driven need to add up to over 200 miles
before that power level really starts to limit you.

514
00:39:48,034 --> 00:39:52,928
But we’re getting well into edge cases now, let’s reel it back in a bit.

515
00:39:52,928 --> 00:39:57,871
At this point we’ve covered pretty much
everything I think you need to know about AC charging.

516
00:39:57,871 --> 00:40:02,204
Bottom line: Level 1 might work for you, so don’t rule it out right away.

517
00:40:02,290 --> 00:40:07,750
But if you need more power, even a really
basic Level 2 charger can take you places.

518
00:40:07,750 --> 00:40:12,900
If you can swing a 7.2 kW charger, I think
you’ll be happy no matter what you drive.

519
00:40:12,900 --> 00:40:15,468
And going above that level might be necessary,

520
00:40:15,468 --> 00:40:20,271
but really only if you drive a big vehicle very far every day.

521
00:40:20,271 --> 00:40:23,174
Now let’s talk about DC fast charging!

522
00:40:24,740 --> 00:40:29,563
♫ Music ♫

523
00:40:30,346 --> 00:40:32,787
First, and I know I sound like a broken record,

524
00:40:32,787 --> 00:40:38,225
DC fast charging should really only be necessary to enable long-distance travel.

525
00:40:38,225 --> 00:40:45,388
I hope you can see why “slow” AC charging at home
(or even at work if you have that option) is where it’s at -

526
00:40:45,388 --> 00:40:52,005
it’s cheap infrastructure to set up, and it’s way more convenient
to charge while you’re sleeping (or working).

527
00:40:52,005 --> 00:40:54,670
Then you’re never actually waiting.

528
00:40:54,670 --> 00:41:00,342
We just need to figure out ways for it to spread outside of the easy targets of single-family housing and the like.

529
00:41:00,342 --> 00:41:07,776
I promise you that’s a much better future for all involved than turning today’s gas stations into fast charging stations.

530
00:41:07,776 --> 00:41:12,569
We’ll need some of those in-town for getting
folks out of a jam or for day trips and whatnot.

531
00:41:12,569 --> 00:41:17,234
But DC charging should really be the exception and not the norm.

532
00:41:17,234 --> 00:41:20,838
I’m not going to talk too too deeply about
DC fast charging here

533
00:41:20,838 --> 00:41:23,691
because I’ve made a video already on that tech.

534
00:41:23,691 --> 00:41:25,306
Clicky thing, link below, you know the drill.

535
00:41:25,306 --> 00:41:30,649
But that video didn’t touch much on the more persnickety
details of today’s battery tech.

536
00:41:30,649 --> 00:41:34,324
It was mainly about the chargers and how powerful they are.

537
00:41:34,324 --> 00:41:37,307
Which, to be clear, they’re very powerful!

538
00:41:37,307 --> 00:41:41,634
These chargers have an output in
kW and we can do the same math we did for AC charging

539
00:41:41,634 --> 00:41:43,744
to figure out charge times.

540
00:41:43,744 --> 00:41:53,804
The quasi-standard 150 (!) kW chargers are fast enough to completely charge my car’s 77.4 kWh battery pack in 30 minutes,

541
00:41:53,804 --> 00:41:58,591
and a 350 kW charger could do the same in only 13 minutes.

542
00:41:58,591 --> 00:42:00,611
Except, they can’t.

543
00:42:00,611 --> 00:42:04,170
Not because of the chargers but because of the batteries.

544
00:42:04,170 --> 00:42:10,341
When DC fast charging, those effects you might be used
to with a phone or a laptop are now in play.

545
00:42:10,341 --> 00:42:13,920
Today’s battery chemistries can only be charged so quickly,

546
00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:17,264
and how fast you can do that changes based on a number of factors,

547
00:42:17,264 --> 00:42:21,283
most prominently how charged the battery currently is.

548
00:42:21,283 --> 00:42:27,556
Right now it’s common for car manufacturers
to give a 10% to 80% charge time.

549
00:42:27,556 --> 00:42:35,477
My car manages that in 25 minutes at a 150 kW charger, and
18 on a 350 kW charger.

550
00:42:35,477 --> 00:42:42,327
Beyond 80% state of charge, charging speed drops quite a lot because,
 for physics and chemistry reasons,

551
00:42:42,327 --> 00:42:46,215
it becomes a lot harder to push electrons into the battery cells.

552
00:42:46,215 --> 00:42:53,990
I’ve seen a few folks fixate on this and even view it as some sort of cheating
or false advertising on the part of automakers but,

553
00:42:53,990 --> 00:42:55,797
well here’s the thing.

554
00:42:55,797 --> 00:42:59,463
You don’t actually need to top up every time you charge.

555
00:42:59,463 --> 00:43:06,090
It’s a huge waste of your time to get that last 20%
when there’s another charger 100 miles away.

556
00:43:06,090 --> 00:43:13,189
Sure, you’ll end up needing to charge more frequently since you’ll effectively only be using 70% of your range between stops,

557
00:43:13,189 --> 00:43:16,618
but in my car that’s still over 170 miles.

558
00:43:17,010 --> 00:43:22,819
Stopping for a 20 minute charge after every two and a half hours of driving isn’t nearly as bad as you might think.

559
00:43:22,819 --> 00:43:25,732
I legitimately quite enjoyed it,

560
00:43:25,800 --> 00:43:29,002
though to be fair my car charges exceptionally quickly.

561
00:43:29,002 --> 00:43:34,837
I’d be very surprised if just-as-fast-to-charge models
don’t become the norm pretty quickly, though.

562
00:43:34,837 --> 00:43:39,097
Many EVs will help you plan a route in their navigation software

563
00:43:39,097 --> 00:43:44,476
which optimizes for the least time required at chargers
based on their battery pack’s charging curve,

564
00:43:44,476 --> 00:43:48,923
although you can also play around with apps such as
A Better Route Planner if you’d like.

565
00:43:48,923 --> 00:43:52,821
Or if, like me, you have a car which just…

566
00:43:52,821 --> 00:43:55,306
doesn’t help with route planning.

567
00:43:55,306 --> 00:43:58,210
I’m not too bummed by my car’s omission there, though,

568
00:43:58,210 --> 00:44:06,975
because I fully expect DC fast charging stations along highway corridors to proliferate pretty quickly, and make that sort of planning ahead less necessary.

569
00:44:06,975 --> 00:44:13,931
However, there is one thing my car doesn’t really do, 
at least not yet, that it absolutely needs to:

570
00:44:13,931 --> 00:44:16,097
battery preconditioning.

571
00:44:16,097 --> 00:44:20,197
Today’s battery chemistries are happiest
within a certain temperature range.

572
00:44:20,197 --> 00:44:28,414
Nearly every EV on the market - even the original Chevy Volt -
has means to heat and cool the battery pack to keep it in its happy place.

573
00:44:28,414 --> 00:44:34,499
But when DC fast charging, to get the fastest possible speeds the battery cells need to be pretty warm -

574
00:44:34,499 --> 00:44:37,754
warmer than they otherwise need to be to drive.

575
00:44:37,754 --> 00:44:43,375
And in the winter, if the battery isn’t warm enough DC fast charging may be…

576
00:44:43,375 --> 00:44:45,075
not so fast.

577
00:44:45,075 --> 00:44:51,170
At least, not at first. Once the car realizes it’s on a fast charger
 it’ll start heating the pack up as fast as it can,

578
00:44:51,170 --> 00:44:55,687
but since the battery is so massive, that can take a while.

579
00:44:55,687 --> 00:45:01,115
You could easily see a 20 to 30 minute increase in charging time when it’s cold out.

580
00:45:01,115 --> 00:45:07,615
Certain EVs, notably Teslas and a few others as well, will start expending energy to warm up their battery packs

581
00:45:07,615 --> 00:45:10,517
as you approach a DC fast charger.

582
00:45:10,517 --> 00:45:17,264
This battery preconditioning allows them to accept maximum power, or close to it anyway, as soon as it’s plugged in.

583
00:45:17,264 --> 00:45:22,622
This is an important feature that needs to roll out to all EVs, in my opinion.

584
00:45:22,622 --> 00:45:31,776
Frankly I don’t care if it’s as fancy as Tesla's or Porsche’s implementation where it knows you’re headed to a fast charger because you’re navigating to one -

585
00:45:31,776 --> 00:45:37,740
as a matter of fact I kinda don’t like that as someone
who navigates with Waze using Android Auto.

586
00:45:37,740 --> 00:45:41,567
I’d rather there just be a button I can
press or a voice command I can give

587
00:45:41,567 --> 00:45:44,865
when I’m 15 miles or so from the next charger.

588
00:45:44,865 --> 00:45:50,527
But I do appreciate how the automated schemes
would keep me from forgetting to do that.

589
00:45:50,527 --> 00:45:54,691
With all this said, the biggest issue with DC fast charging today

590
00:45:54,691 --> 00:45:57,690
is that we barely have enough chargers right now.

591
00:45:57,690 --> 00:46:04,846
Already some popular corridors are experiencing charging queues, 
and this will get worse as more EVs are sold.

592
00:46:04,846 --> 00:46:10,545
The good news of course is more EVs that are sold
means there’s more demand for chargers,

593
00:46:10,545 --> 00:46:12,955
but we’re in the midst of growing pains.

594
00:46:12,955 --> 00:46:21,561
Like, for instance, charger reliability is a growing concern, and some network operators are less-than-great at operating their networks.

595
00:46:21,561 --> 00:46:28,858
My personal belief is that a lot of this comes from the fact that DC fast charging technician is a very rare job title right now,

596
00:46:28,858 --> 00:46:33,086
and with the current makeup of sparsely-spaced chargers,

597
00:46:33,086 --> 00:46:36,991
getting to them when they need parts or repair is a chore.

598
00:46:36,991 --> 00:46:43,490
I don’t mean to use this as an excuse, but it does make me fairly confident
this will get better with time.

599
00:46:43,490 --> 00:46:45,584
But let’s move on from DC fast charging

600
00:46:45,584 --> 00:46:49,328
and finish up with some pointers on factors which affect your driving range.

601
00:46:51,248 --> 00:46:54,838
♫ Music ♫

602
00:46:57,345 --> 00:47:03,970
I’ve brought it up a few times already but if you live in a cold place,
in winter driving range drops.

603
00:47:03,970 --> 00:47:09,540
And I’d like to tell you it’s just a little bit,
but unfortunately it can be significant.

604
00:47:09,540 --> 00:47:13,178
I do want to stress again, though, that with today’s EVs,

605
00:47:13,178 --> 00:47:21,535
so long as your commute is reasonable and you have access to a charger at home, these range losses are unlikely to impact your day to day needs.

606
00:47:21,535 --> 00:47:25,960
They will extend charging time and cause you to spend a little
more money on charging,

607
00:47:25,960 --> 00:47:32,364
but when you are only driving an average of 40 or even 80 miles a day,
it’s not a big deal.

608
00:47:32,364 --> 00:47:35,378
Long distance driving does have some challenges, though.

609
00:47:35,378 --> 00:47:40,019
You might want to ask, why does this cold-weather range loss happen?

610
00:47:40,019 --> 00:47:45,531
Well, a huge part of the range loss comes from using the cabin heat.

611
00:47:45,531 --> 00:47:53,009
In a combustion vehicle, the explodey machine under the hood is so bad at turning chemical energy into mechanical energy

612
00:47:53,009 --> 00:47:56,672
that it ends up with all this waste heat it needs to get rid of.

613
00:47:56,672 --> 00:48:02,974
There’s literal explosions happening over a thousand times per minute,
and explosions are hot.

614
00:48:02,974 --> 00:48:07,524
Dealing with that heat is what the car’s cooling system and radiator is for,

615
00:48:07,524 --> 00:48:13,865
and by running a second circuit of engine coolant into the cabin and through a small radiator called the heater core,

616
00:48:13,865 --> 00:48:18,190
the excess heat from the combustion can be used to keep you warm.

617
00:48:18,190 --> 00:48:21,416
Since it would otherwise be wasted, it’s free heat.

618
00:48:21,416 --> 00:48:25,632
Electric vehicles, though, don’t produce much waste heat at all.

619
00:48:25,632 --> 00:48:29,047
This is cool! It’s why the world is excited about them,

620
00:48:29,047 --> 00:48:32,728
they’re just much, much, much more energy-efficient.

621
00:48:32,728 --> 00:48:38,810
But that means that when you want to warm
the cabin, you have to take energy out of the battery pack.

622
00:48:38,810 --> 00:48:42,219
And that leaves you with less for driving the car.

623
00:48:42,219 --> 00:48:48,196
With an EV that has a resistive cabin heater, you’ll start to notice range dropping around mid-fall.

624
00:48:48,196 --> 00:48:51,471
Basically as soon as you start needing to use the heater.

625
00:48:51,471 --> 00:48:58,531
It will be pretty mild at first, but once you’re into the true winter months,
you can expect about 30% range loss.

626
00:48:58,531 --> 00:49:09,283
My family’s 2017 Chevy Bolt went from reliably hitting 230 miles of highway range in the summer down to between 160 and 170 from December to early March.

627
00:49:09,283 --> 00:49:13,585
Using seat heaters more and cabin heat less can help,

628
00:49:13,585 --> 00:49:18,342
but whenever you need to use your defroster
you’re kinda stuck running the heat.

629
00:49:18,342 --> 00:49:24,316
Unless of course you have one of those cool direct-heated
windshields, a feature I think should be standard on EVs!

630
00:49:24,316 --> 00:49:29,204
Speaking of features, one feature that’s finally spreading to more and more EVs is,

631
00:49:29,204 --> 00:49:30,821
drumroll please,

632
00:49:30,821 --> 00:49:32,510
HEAT PUMPS!

633
00:49:32,510 --> 00:49:35,263
If you’re not familiar with this channel, I love heat pumps.

634
00:49:35,263 --> 00:49:37,521
They’re the hottest cool things around.

635
00:49:37,521 --> 00:49:45,866
By doing what essentially amounts to running an air conditioner backwards, you can collect and concentrate heat energy from outside and move it inside.

636
00:49:45,866 --> 00:49:49,182
And since pretty much every EV out there has air conditioning,

637
00:49:49,182 --> 00:49:52,191
making it reversible was an obvious next step.

638
00:49:52,191 --> 00:49:54,224
I don't know why it took so long.

639
00:49:54,224 --> 00:50:00,272
Doing this allows an EV to cut its energy consumption for cabin heat by up to 75%,

640
00:50:00,272 --> 00:50:04,499
as moving heat takes a lot less energy compared to creating heat.

641
00:50:04,499 --> 00:50:10,339
For the 2022 model year, Hyundai gave all-wheel-drive Ioniq 5 models a heat pump.

642
00:50:10,339 --> 00:50:15,776
I’m hoping they make that standard soon because let me tell you,
it makes a big difference.

643
00:50:15,776 --> 00:50:22,176
I took delivery of my car in February 
so I haven’t yet experienced the worst of the worst winter conditions,

644
00:50:22,176 --> 00:50:29,141
but from what I did get to see earlier in the year,
a 15 to 20% winter range drop seems fairly typical.

645
00:50:29,141 --> 00:50:37,028
When it gets extremely cold, the heat pump does need to be supplemented by a resistive heater so larger range drops are possible, though.

646
00:50:37,028 --> 00:50:44,593
Oh, and I’d like to dissuade fears of running out of battery juice
should you get stuck in traffic or worse stranded in a blizzard.

647
00:50:44,593 --> 00:50:48,707
The car’s heater needs to work a lot harder when you’re in motion

648
00:50:48,707 --> 00:50:54,380
because all that wind rushing against your car does a great job
of sucking heat right out of it.

649
00:50:54,380 --> 00:51:00,058
But when you’re slowed or stopped, that’s not happening.
At least, not nearly as much.

650
00:51:00,058 --> 00:51:02,341
In the Chevy Bolt you’ve seen some adventures in,

651
00:51:02,341 --> 00:51:07,952
which doesn’t have a heat pump, I noticed that when stationary, even in subzero temperatures,

652
00:51:07,952 --> 00:51:15,275
the car was only consuming between 1 and 2 kilowatts, with the occasional blip up to 3 kW, to keep the cabin and battery pack warm.

653
00:51:15,745 --> 00:51:20,356
So, even with only one third battery charge, 20 kWh,

654
00:51:20,356 --> 00:51:25,768
you could expect that car to keep you warm for
at least 5 hours, probably more,

655
00:51:25,768 --> 00:51:31,341
and you can easily stretch that just by turning the temperature
down and bundling up.

656
00:51:31,341 --> 00:51:35,645
Aside from winter, let’s talk about what
other things affect your range.

657
00:51:35,645 --> 00:51:40,148
Earlier I mentioned that highway driving is less efficient than stop-and-go.

658
00:51:40,148 --> 00:51:42,100
Why is that?

659
00:51:42,100 --> 00:51:44,280
Well, with all else being equal,

660
00:51:44,280 --> 00:51:49,902
the single greatest factor to driving efficiency in an EV is your average speed.

661
00:51:49,902 --> 00:51:55,126
See, as you go faster, your car has to work a lot harder to push itself through the air.

662
00:51:55,126 --> 00:52:02,242
As a matter of fact, wind resistance and rolling resistance are essentially the only two things working to slow your car.

663
00:52:02,242 --> 00:52:08,263
Both increase with vehicle speed, but the drag created by air is not a linear function -

664
00:52:08,263 --> 00:52:13,079
as a matter of fact when calculating drag force, velocity is squared.

665
00:52:13,079 --> 00:52:18,258
So the faster you go, the harder a motor needs to work to push your car the same distance,

666
00:52:18,258 --> 00:52:21,580
and the effect gets worse as speed increases.

667
00:52:21,580 --> 00:52:23,581
That’s not unique to EVs, of course.

668
00:52:23,581 --> 00:52:25,266
The same goes for any vehicle.

669
00:52:25,266 --> 00:52:31,122
But because the vehicle doesn’t use any energy when it’s
not actively trying to push itself forward,

670
00:52:31,122 --> 00:52:34,109
you don’t get the waste of an idling engine.

671
00:52:34,109 --> 00:52:40,855
Even better, regenerative braking allows the car to get back most of the excess energy it used to accelerate from a stop

672
00:52:40,855 --> 00:52:43,908
when you return to a stop or slow down.

673
00:52:43,908 --> 00:52:52,580
Regen braking and zero idling waste make average vehicle speed essentially the only factor when it comes to energy efficiency.

674
00:52:52,580 --> 00:52:56,147
That is of course until we talk about wind.

675
00:52:56,147 --> 00:52:59,157
When you’re driving into a 10 mile an hour headwind,

676
00:52:59,157 --> 00:53:05,902
the effect of the wind is exactly the same as if you were driving 10 miles an hour faster than you really are.

677
00:53:05,902 --> 00:53:10,218
So wind conditions can rather drastically affect your driving range.

678
00:53:10,218 --> 00:53:15,892
On the road trip I took with Aging Wheels, we started our journey driving right into a nasty headwind,

679
00:53:15,892 --> 00:53:24,109
which reduced my car’s efficiency from my typical average of 3.2 miles per kWh down to 2.4 miles per kWh.

680
00:53:24,109 --> 00:53:31,575
That was about a 25% increase in power consumption, and
thus resulted in a 25% drop in range from what I was expecting.

681
00:53:31,575 --> 00:53:33,563
In the end, this wasn’t a problem.

682
00:53:33,563 --> 00:53:39,783
Our route planner was being so conservative that we actually hit
the expected energy consumption almost exactly.

683
00:53:39,783 --> 00:53:47,554
And, here’s the other thing to keep in mind, if we absolutely needed to stretch our driving range there’s a really easy way to do it:

684
00:53:47,554 --> 00:53:49,403
just slow down.

685
00:53:49,403 --> 00:53:56,170
Thanks to that head wind, we experienced a range similar to if we were driving perhaps 90 or 95 miles an hour,

686
00:53:56,170 --> 00:53:58,795
even though we were really doing 70.

687
00:53:58,795 --> 00:54:07,107
While it’s obviously annoying, dropping to 55 or 60 miles an hour would immediately have stretched our driving range considerably.

688
00:54:07,107 --> 00:54:10,802
So if all else fails, just slow down.

689
00:54:10,802 --> 00:54:17,747
Wind, average vehicle speed, and cold weather
are definitely the three biggest factors that will impact your driving range.

690
00:54:17,747 --> 00:54:23,549
But what surprised me the most when I started driving electric 
was the impact of wet roads.

691
00:54:23,549 --> 00:54:30,672
Light to moderate rain doesn’t have too much of an effect, but when it’s raining heavily enough that water is pooling on road surfaces,

692
00:54:30,672 --> 00:54:38,033
the extra drag created as your tires work to push it
out of the way is much more substantial than I would have expected.

693
00:54:38,033 --> 00:54:45,510
The absolute worst driving conditions when it comes to range are windy wintry days with slushy road surfaces.

694
00:54:45,510 --> 00:54:50,916
Add enough snow to keep you using the defroster
and you have a recipe for heavy range loss.

695
00:54:50,916 --> 00:54:58,712
It’s for these reasons that I feel we need much more density in DC fast charging options along highway routes than we currently have

696
00:54:58,712 --> 00:55:01,123
or are planning for.

697
00:55:01,123 --> 00:55:10,239
50 miles apart is a decent target, and realistically even if I had a 75% range loss that would at least keep me on the road.

698
00:55:10,239 --> 00:55:14,118
But since driving range can be less predictable than is ideal,

699
00:55:14,118 --> 00:55:17,556
I hope to see far more DC charging options.

700
00:55:17,556 --> 00:55:21,643
If we keep driving cars on long trips at the rate we do now,

701
00:55:21,643 --> 00:55:28,432
we are eventually going to need as many charging stops along the highway routes as there are gas stations today.

702
00:55:28,432 --> 00:55:31,780
So there’s a lot of work to be done, to be sure.

703
00:55:31,780 --> 00:55:40,269
But perhaps my favorite thing about electric cars is the chicken-and-egg problem that normally comes with changing fuels is sidestepped.

704
00:55:40,269 --> 00:55:44,076
Those of us with home charging can get an electric car right now.

705
00:55:44,076 --> 00:55:49,001
It can take care of all of our daily needs and we don’t need to rely on public charging.

706
00:55:49,001 --> 00:55:54,658
And now that those vehicles exist, there’s a market for DC fast charging on highway routes.

707
00:55:54,658 --> 00:56:01,859
And when owners of today’s EVs sell them, less expensive options are on the market which encourages more adoption,

708
00:56:01,859 --> 00:56:08,320
and that will increase pressures to install charging infrastructure at apartment complexes and other hard-to-serve areas.

709
00:56:08,320 --> 00:56:15,416
There’s a lot of work to be done, and many would argue that electrifying cars is just trading one problem for another.

710
00:56:15,416 --> 00:56:22,521
And to be honest, I’m increasingly upset with how car-centric our infrastructure and cities tend to be.

711
00:56:22,521 --> 00:56:25,399
But frankly, right now I need a car.

712
00:56:25,399 --> 00:56:27,862
And I’m not gonna poo poo harm reduction.

713
00:56:27,862 --> 00:56:33,523
The fact is going electric is really quite easy once you understand the ins and outs.

714
00:56:33,523 --> 00:56:38,540
If you can run a wire to use a dryer you can charge a car and go real far.

715
00:56:38,540 --> 00:56:41,436
Now we just have to do it.

716
00:56:41,906 --> 00:56:43,377
Thanks for watching.

717
00:56:44,277 --> 00:56:46,760
♫ energetically smooth jazz ♫

718
00:56:47,896 --> 00:56:51,619
Hey, I’m gonna be recording an unscripted video on my second channel

719
00:56:51,619 --> 00:56:56,890
talking about some potential options for multi-family buildings
and other finicky-to-serve places.

720
00:56:56,890 --> 00:56:59,434
Clicky thing, link below, you know the drill.

721
00:57:00,962 --> 00:57:05,219
How to choose the right one for your… *sigh*

722
00:57:05,219 --> 00:57:07,725
didn’t get through the FIRST LINE!

723
00:57:07,725 --> 00:57:09,101
Here we go.

724
00:57:10,473 --> 00:57:11,584
What is happening?

725
00:57:12,211 --> 00:57:13,501
What... what is that?

726
00:57:14,676 --> 00:57:16,856
Oh, it’s velcro from the thing.

727
00:57:16,856 --> 00:57:17,634
Got it.

728
00:57:17,634 --> 00:57:19,659
Any car will work… eh,

729
00:57:19,659 --> 00:57:20,159
Bah!

730
00:57:20,159 --> 00:57:20,668
PEH!

731
00:57:20,834 --> 00:57:21,468
PLEH!

732
00:57:21,650 --> 00:57:22,529
BAH!

733
00:57:22,529 --> 00:57:24,875
…with different pack sizes to chooge from.

734
00:57:24,875 --> 00:57:25,675
Chooge?

735
00:57:25,675 --> 00:57:28,443
But again, getting my getting a… getting myself ahead of here?

736
00:57:28,443 --> 00:57:32,147
It puts a lot of wear and tear… oh no, I changed that on purpose you dingo!

737
00:57:33,831 --> 00:57:38,642
I hope those of you who like That Company aren't too put off by my suggestion that folks install a J1772 charger.

738
00:57:38,642 --> 00:57:42,275
It just seems to me that there's more value in the standard which benefits from industry cooperation

739
00:57:42,275 --> 00:57:45,862
than the one made by a single, if currently dominant, player.

740
00:57:46,841 --> 00:57:49,399
Don't like putting all me eggs in one basket, y'know.