WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.089 --> 00:00:02.784 So, let’s say you’re considering an electric car 00:00:02.784 --> 00:00:07.818 but you don’t know what living with one might be like or what you might need to keep it charged up. 00:00:07.818 --> 00:00:09.613 You’ve landed on the right video! 00:00:09.613 --> 00:00:14.869 I’ll be covering the ins-and-outs of living with and charging EVs in 2022, 00:00:14.869 --> 00:00:17.604 from what chargers are out there for home use, 00:00:17.604 --> 00:00:21.413 how to choose the right one based on your needs, vehicle, and situation, 00:00:21.413 --> 00:00:25.400 what traveling long-distance is like now and what needs to be improved, 00:00:25.400 --> 00:00:29.346 and what hiccups to look out for particularly in cold weather. 00:00:29.346 --> 00:00:36.462 This will be a largely US-centric conversation, especially when we talk about stuff like volts, amps, and 00:00:36.462 --> 00:00:39.297 miles... per gallon... of gasoline, 00:00:39.297 --> 00:00:41.891 but the broad strokes apply no matter where you are. 00:00:41.891 --> 00:00:46.824 My goal here is for you to have a fairly complete understanding of electric cars 00:00:46.824 --> 00:00:51.536 so you can make the most educated and rational choices for your personal needs. 00:00:51.536 --> 00:00:56.205 Before we get started, you’ve probably already noticed that this video is… 00:00:56.205 --> 00:00:57.797 quite long. 00:00:57.797 --> 00:01:04.985 I want this video to answer as many questions and concerns as someone entirely unfamiliar with electric cars might have, 00:01:04.985 --> 00:01:06.818 and all in one place. 00:01:06.818 --> 00:01:08.985 So there’s a lot of information here. 00:01:08.985 --> 00:01:11.481 Chapter markers are there to help you move around. 00:01:11.481 --> 00:01:16.842 But I want to stress that in day-to-day life, I’m not thinking about any of this stuff! 00:01:16.842 --> 00:01:21.489 I simply plug in my car and walk away, and in the morning it’s full again. 00:01:21.489 --> 00:01:24.056 Although it takes my car several hours to charge, 00:01:24.056 --> 00:01:28.578 I spend seconds plugging it in and it charges while I'm asleep. 00:01:28.578 --> 00:01:36.564 That means I actually spend much less time refueling compared to negotiating a gas pump transaction every week or two. 00:01:36.564 --> 00:01:42.613 I can tell you with absolute certainty that I would never go back to a gas-powered car. 00:01:42.613 --> 00:01:48.658 An EV is simply much more convenient and easier to live with when you can charge it at home. 00:01:48.658 --> 00:01:51.146 And I know not everyone can do that right now. 00:01:51.146 --> 00:01:53.257 That’s something we need to work on. 00:01:53.340 --> 00:01:56.566 But if you can, here’s the situation in a nutshell: 00:01:56.566 --> 00:02:02.866 If you drive the typical average distance daily, a regular household outlet might actually meet your needs. 00:02:02.866 --> 00:02:08.437 And if you need or want a little more power, don’t assume you’ll need an electrical service upgrade; 00:02:08.437 --> 00:02:14.116 a basic 20A 240V circuit can easily cover very long commute distances 00:02:14.116 --> 00:02:18.436 - up to 100 miles - every day, charging only overnight. 00:02:18.436 --> 00:02:22.912 And any car can plug into any charger of any capacity - 00:02:22.912 --> 00:02:27.999 don’t chase the fastest charging speed a car supports unless you really need it. 00:02:27.999 --> 00:02:30.311 How do you know if you really need it? 00:02:30.311 --> 00:02:32.510 Well, do I have a video for you! 00:02:32.510 --> 00:02:34.603 It’s… it’s this one. 00:02:35.504 --> 00:02:40.862 ♫ Music ♫ 00:02:41.763 --> 00:02:44.437 With that, we need to start with the basics, 00:02:44.437 --> 00:02:49.242 and I mean the really basic core tenet of everything: energy. 00:02:49.242 --> 00:02:51.802 How much energy does an electric car use? 00:02:51.802 --> 00:02:53.913 How much can it store in its battery pack? 00:02:53.913 --> 00:02:55.405 How far will that take you? 00:02:55.405 --> 00:02:59.416 And how long does it take to replenish that used energy? 00:02:59.416 --> 00:03:03.480 For a while I was struggling with how to begin answering these questions - 00:03:03.480 --> 00:03:10.171 electric vehicles require different thinking than what you might be used to and as we go on you’ll see why. 00:03:10.171 --> 00:03:18.404 But, well I kinda forgot that we can in fact translate most concepts from a combustion vehicle to an EV. 00:03:18.404 --> 00:03:23.536 Since more of you are familiar with those than EVs, let’s start with this: 00:03:23.536 --> 00:03:29.283 the battery pack is the new gas tank, and the kilowatt-hour is the new gallon. 00:03:29.283 --> 00:03:35.355 An electric car’s battery pack doesn’t have a capacity in gallons, of course, but it does have a capacity. 00:03:35.355 --> 00:03:40.000 Rather than giving that capacity in volume of a liquid chemical concoction, 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:43.469 we define its capacity in raw energy terms. 00:03:43.469 --> 00:03:46.839 Energy. It makes the world go ‘round! 00:03:46.839 --> 00:03:49.200 But what is it really? 00:03:49.200 --> 00:03:55.485 This section is going to feel like we’re deep in the weeds but it’s fundamental to understanding how charging works. 00:03:55.485 --> 00:03:59.787 First, you need to understand the difference between power and energy. 00:03:59.787 --> 00:04:03.821 This trips a lot of folks up because it’s a bit confusing. 00:04:03.821 --> 00:04:08.149 You probably have a general sense of how much power things in your life use, 00:04:08.149 --> 00:04:11.170 for instance light bulbs are given a wattage. 00:04:11.170 --> 00:04:16.073 The watt, though, is a unit of instantaneous power, not energy. 00:04:16.073 --> 00:04:20.256 Quantifying energy from power requires a time component, 00:04:20.256 --> 00:04:23.959 and in the realm of electricity we use the watt-hour. 00:04:23.959 --> 00:04:25.821 Watt-hours are what they sound like. 00:04:25.821 --> 00:04:31.470 It’s simply the average power draw in watts that occurs over a period of one hour. 00:04:31.470 --> 00:04:39.232 As an example, a 10 watt light bulb that has run for 1 hour will have consumed 10 watt-hours of energy. 00:04:39.232 --> 00:04:44.905 When you change the power level, you change the speed at which energy is consumed. 00:04:44.905 --> 00:04:48.961 A more powerful light bulb will burn through energy more quickly. 00:04:48.961 --> 00:04:56.021 For instance a one hundred watt light bulb only needs to run for six minutes to have consumed the same 10 watt-hours 00:04:56.021 --> 00:04:59.222 as our 10 watt bulb does over an hour. 00:04:59.222 --> 00:05:06.126 It uses 10 times as much power, so the same total energy use is reached in one tenth the time. 00:05:06.126 --> 00:05:10.343 Watt-hours are pretty small, though, so when talking about electrical energy 00:05:10.343 --> 00:05:14.969 we usually use the kilowatt-hour - which is just one thousand watt-hours. 00:05:14.969 --> 00:05:18.712 Your electric utility probably bills you in this unit. 00:05:18.712 --> 00:05:23.704 And the battery pack capacity of an electric car is given in kilowatt-hours. 00:05:23.704 --> 00:05:29.969 Battery-electric vehicles on the market today (meaning those which are purely electric, not hybrid powertrains) 00:05:29.969 --> 00:05:36.969 usually have battery packs of at least 30 kilowatt-hours, though 50+ is more typical in the US market. 00:05:37.831 --> 00:05:41.026 Many models are available with different pack sizes to choose from, 00:05:41.026 --> 00:05:48.384 for instance my car - a Hyundai Ioniq 5 - can be had with either a 58 kWh pack in its base configuration, 00:05:48.384 --> 00:05:53.186 or a 77.4 kWh pack, the size I have. 00:05:53.186 --> 00:05:57.702 Of note, right now, car manufacturers tend to be a little vague 00:05:57.702 --> 00:06:04.567 on whether the figure they give their battery packs is the pack’s actual capacity or a usable capacity. 00:06:04.567 --> 00:06:11.497 See, to prolong battery life most cars only give you access to a certain range of the pack’s charge levels. 00:06:11.497 --> 00:06:15.803 It puts more wear and tear on a battery cell when you push it to its extremes, 00:06:15.803 --> 00:06:23.458 so somewhat typical is for a 100% indicated charge to really be something like a 95% charge, 00:06:23.458 --> 00:06:30.746 and when the battery is “dead” at an indicated 0%, it’s really more like 5% charged still. 00:06:30.746 --> 00:06:33.598 To be clear, this is a good practice! 00:06:33.598 --> 00:06:40.181 But I wish every manufacturer would give distinct gross and usable capacity metrics for their battery packs 00:06:40.181 --> 00:06:43.413 so we can understand how much they’re pushing the cells. 00:06:43.413 --> 00:06:50.649 For what it’s worth, many EVs will let you be gentler on their batteries by allowing you to set a maximum charge level. 00:06:50.649 --> 00:06:56.389 I have my car set to stop charging at 80% because honestly it has way more range than I need, 00:06:56.389 --> 00:07:00.483 and limiting charge levels is thought to prolong battery pack life. 00:07:00.483 --> 00:07:03.102 Anyway, let’s go back to what I said earlier. 00:07:03.102 --> 00:07:08.432 The battery pack is the new gas tank, and the kilowatt-hour is the new gallon. 00:07:08.432 --> 00:07:13.380 So, my car’s “tank” holds 77.4 kWh. 00:07:13.380 --> 00:07:17.713 And how many miles can each of those 77.4 kWh take me? 00:07:17.713 --> 00:07:20.539 On the highway, about three. 00:07:20.539 --> 00:07:26.049 This car, like lots out there, actually gives you efficiency in miles per kilowatt-hour, 00:07:26.049 --> 00:07:29.421 and just like miles per gallon, a higher number is better. 00:07:29.421 --> 00:07:34.484 Some cars will flip that and tell you how many watt-hours you consume to go a mile, 00:07:34.484 --> 00:07:39.224 but I find distance-driven per kilowatt-hour to be much more human-friendly, 00:07:39.224 --> 00:07:42.347 especially since I pay for electricity in that unit. 00:07:42.347 --> 00:07:45.522 How far can a full “tank” take me, then? 00:07:45.522 --> 00:07:49.287 It’s the same math as a combustion vehicle, just with different units. 00:07:49.287 --> 00:07:53.113 3 (our distance we can go with a kWh of energy) 00:07:53.113 --> 00:07:58.396 multiplied by 77.4 (how many of those kWh our pack holds) 00:07:58.396 --> 00:08:05.787 gives about 232 miles of range, a bit shy of the 256 miles my car is rated by the EPA to go. 00:08:05.787 --> 00:08:10.814 That’s because the EPA rating includes mixed driving, and in the realm of EVs, 00:08:10.814 --> 00:08:14.447 highway driving is less efficient than stop-and-go. 00:08:14.447 --> 00:08:21.052 I’ll explain why later, but for instance around town I’m regularly hitting 4 miles per kWh in this car, 00:08:21.052 --> 00:08:24.550 but at sustained highway speeds that just isn’t possible. 00:08:24.550 --> 00:08:27.071 Heh, right, speaking of the EPA, 00:08:27.071 --> 00:08:30.948 some knucklehead thought that MPGe was a good idea. 00:08:30.948 --> 00:08:36.913 If you look at the window sticker of an electric car it’s gonna be prominently given a fuel efficiency in 00:08:36.913 --> 00:08:40.720 Miles Per Gallon-gasoline Equivalent. 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:42.269 [exasperatedly] Here’s how that works: 00:08:42.269 --> 00:08:48.405 we assume a US gallon of gasoline contains 33.7 kWh of energy. 00:08:48.405 --> 00:08:53.467 Then, based on the actual energy consumption of the vehicle in real units, 00:08:53.467 --> 00:08:58.279 a backhanded calculation is done to give you Miles per Pretend Gallon. 00:08:59.486 --> 00:09:01.601 I... it’s not exactly meaningless, 00:09:01.601 --> 00:09:06.329 it’s nice to see how much farther an EV will take you with the same amount of energy. 00:09:06.329 --> 00:09:12.022 But nobody buys electricity by the gallon, so miles per kilowatt-hour makes way more sense. 00:09:12.022 --> 00:09:15.584 That would be too easy, though, so if you want to use real units 00:09:15.584 --> 00:09:22.030 the EPA gives them to you, but they tell you how many kWh of electricity the car needs to go 100 miles. 00:09:22.931 --> 00:09:27.849 Look, playing around with different energy units is fun and you can do it however you like, 00:09:27.849 --> 00:09:31.163 but MPGe is just a wee bit silly, dontcha think? 00:09:31.163 --> 00:09:33.403 Anyway, that’s the basics. 00:09:33.403 --> 00:09:36.949 Electric cars have a battery capacity in kWh, 00:09:36.949 --> 00:09:41.733 and we measure a car’s driving efficiency in much the same way as miles per gallon. 00:09:41.733 --> 00:09:46.876 And that efficiency multiplied by the pack’s capacity gives you its driving range. 00:09:46.876 --> 00:09:51.033 If you’d like to get an idea of how much it will cost to charge your electric car, 00:09:51.033 --> 00:09:56.256 well again the basic math is the same as with a gas-powered car, just with different units. 00:09:56.256 --> 00:10:00.326 Take your commute distance and divide by your car’s efficiency. 00:10:00.326 --> 00:10:07.290 I’ll do a 40 mile commute as an example, and divide by my car’s 3 mi/kWh highway efficiency. 00:10:07.290 --> 00:10:13.330 I should expect an all-highway 40 mile commute to need 13.3 kWh. 00:10:13.330 --> 00:10:18.845 Now it’s a simple matter of determining how much your electric utility charges per kWh. 00:10:18.845 --> 00:10:24.698 Supposing a cost of $0.15/kWh, that commute will cost $2.00. 00:10:24.698 --> 00:10:31.731 Now I’ve ignored charging losses with this calculation; adding 10% will give a more accurate cost. 00:10:31.731 --> 00:10:36.365 Public charging tends to be more expensive, but we’ll get to that in a bit. 00:10:37.383 --> 00:10:42.655 ♫ Music ♫ 00:10:43.713 --> 00:10:48.985 I know the next thing a lot of you want to know is how long it takes to charge a car back up 00:10:48.985 --> 00:10:51.458 and thus refill its proverbial tank. 00:10:51.458 --> 00:10:55.677 The answer is actually so simple it only needs two words. 00:10:55.677 --> 00:10:57.330 Are you ready? 00:10:59.441 --> 00:11:05.293 Now, don’t worry, once you get your head around a few variables, you’ll be able to answer this quite confidently. 00:11:05.293 --> 00:11:07.777 That’s literally my goal, here! 00:11:07.777 --> 00:11:12.267 For now, we’re going to focus on “slow” AC charging. 00:11:12.267 --> 00:11:18.733 If you have regular access to a "slow" charger which can fill your car up overnight (or perhaps when you’re at work), 00:11:18.733 --> 00:11:23.230 you’ll never even think about visiting a charger when you’re out and about. 00:11:23.230 --> 00:11:28.384 And one of the most beautiful things about the power grid is that it’s everywhere! 00:11:28.384 --> 00:11:35.227 Level 1 and 2 AC charging simply connects a car to the grid in the same way you do anything else, 00:11:35.227 --> 00:11:38.021 from a table lamp to a clothes dryer. 00:11:38.021 --> 00:11:40.021 But I’m getting a little ahead of myself. 00:11:40.021 --> 00:11:44.472 To answer how long it takes to charge, there’s really only one critical factor: 00:11:44.472 --> 00:11:47.649 how much power you can deliver to the car. 00:11:47.649 --> 00:11:51.349 We’ll get into details on how exactly that’s accomplished shortly, 00:11:51.349 --> 00:11:56.269 but when you know how much power you have available and you know the size of your battery pack, 00:11:56.269 --> 00:12:00.035 solving for time to fill it is really simple math. 00:12:00.035 --> 00:12:06.367 All you do is take the battery pack size in kWh and divide it by the power supply in kilowatts 00:12:06.367 --> 00:12:09.554 and there, you’ve solved for hours! 00:12:09.554 --> 00:12:12.365 Here’s an example for determining charging time. 00:12:12.365 --> 00:12:18.946 Say you have a car with a 60 kWh battery pack, and a charger which can supply 5 kilowatts. 00:12:18.946 --> 00:12:24.889 60 divided by 5 is 12, so that car would need 12 hours to charge from empty to full 00:12:24.889 --> 00:12:27.097 with a 5 kW charger. 00:12:27.097 --> 00:12:33.074 But if you had twice the power, 10 kW, the charging time would be cut in half to six hours. 00:12:33.074 --> 00:12:37.357 60 kilowatt-hours divided by 10 kilowatts is 6 hours. 00:12:37.357 --> 00:12:44.226 And if you only had 3 kW to play with, charging time would be stretched to 20 hours using the same math. 00:12:44.226 --> 00:12:50.883 But it’s important to keep in mind that charging time also depends on how charged the battery already is. 00:12:50.883 --> 00:12:54.440 A half-full battery… is already half-full! 00:12:54.440 --> 00:13:02.627 So in our 60 kWh example car, a 50% charge means only 30 kWh actually needs to be fed to it. 00:13:02.627 --> 00:13:05.568 That cuts all those charging times in half. 00:13:05.568 --> 00:13:12.179 This is because on AC charging, since the battery pack is so large and the power input is relatively low, 00:13:12.179 --> 00:13:15.296 the charging curve is essentially linear. 00:13:15.296 --> 00:13:20.061 We’re not dealing with the effects you might be used to with a phone or laptop battery. 00:13:20.061 --> 00:13:26.537 What really matters is how much energy was taken out of the battery, and how much power we have to refill it. 00:13:26.537 --> 00:13:29.281 Again, this is in the case of AC charging. 00:13:29.281 --> 00:13:33.520 DC fast charging is another story, which we’ll get to later. 00:13:33.520 --> 00:13:38.806 Now, manufacturers will give you a required charging time for their cars. 00:13:38.806 --> 00:13:41.725 But honestly, you should probably just ignore that. 00:13:41.725 --> 00:13:44.698 See, if you were to look at Hyundai’s information on my car, 00:13:44.698 --> 00:13:52.742 they’ll tell you that it takes a little less than 7 hours to charge it from 10% to 100% on a 240V charger. 00:13:52.742 --> 00:13:55.864 That’s pretty good for an up-to 300 mile EV. 00:13:55.864 --> 00:13:58.840 But, I don’t like that answer. 00:13:58.840 --> 00:14:00.466 At all. 00:14:00.466 --> 00:14:04.697 To be clear it’s not wrong - that speed is absolutely possible! 00:14:04.697 --> 00:14:09.682 But only if you have a charger with enough capacity to support that speed. 00:14:09.682 --> 00:14:15.355 Which I don’t because, frankly, I think it’s very much overkill for virtually anyone. 00:14:15.355 --> 00:14:18.231 But again, getting ahead of myself here. 00:14:18.231 --> 00:14:24.794 A while back I made a video on what exactly an EVSE - the technical name for a car charger - 00:14:24.794 --> 00:14:27.512 is, does, and how it works. 00:14:27.512 --> 00:14:31.643 I won’t get into the specifics here, if you’re curious watch that video! 00:14:31.643 --> 00:14:34.496 But the key thing to know is that the actual charger, 00:14:34.496 --> 00:14:40.640 meaning the device that takes AC power from the grid and converts it to DC for charging the battery cells, 00:14:40.640 --> 00:14:42.774 lives in the car. 00:14:42.774 --> 00:14:47.120 The voltage conversion and all that stuff is entirely the car’s job. 00:14:47.120 --> 00:14:52.352 The EVSE is just a very-slightly-smart power cord 00:14:52.352 --> 00:14:58.550 which delivers raw AC voltage to the charge port and tells the car how much power it’s allowed to pull. 00:14:58.550 --> 00:15:02.496 That’s all this does, plus a few safety things. 00:15:02.496 --> 00:15:10.373 Hyundai’s charging time claim comes from the fact that the Ioniq 5’s onboard charger can accept a maximum of 48 amps, 00:15:10.373 --> 00:15:14.195 and at 240 volts that’s 11.5 kW. 00:15:14.195 --> 00:15:19.860 77.4 kW-hours divided by the car’s maximum power input of 11.5 kW 00:15:19.860 --> 00:15:26.543 tells us that we need 6.73 hours of charging time to deliver an entire battery pack’s worth of energy, 00:15:26.543 --> 00:15:28.670 exactly what Hyundai claims. 00:15:28.750 --> 00:15:33.111 Now, hang on, they claimed that time from 10 to 100%, 00:15:33.111 --> 00:15:38.266 and we did the math for 0 to 100% - why the discrepancy? 00:15:38.266 --> 00:15:42.540 Well, there is about a 10% loss when charging a battery, 00:15:42.540 --> 00:15:49.987 in other words only about 90 of every 100 kWh pulled by the car ends up stored in the battery. 00:15:49.987 --> 00:15:55.159 The rest is lost as heat in chemical processes and various charging components. 00:15:55.159 --> 00:15:57.742 But in the end, and this goes for any car, 00:15:57.742 --> 00:16:01.961 all you need to know to determine charge time are three variables: 00:16:01.961 --> 00:16:03.616 the size of your battery pack, 00:16:03.616 --> 00:16:06.009 how much of its capacity you need to recover, 00:16:06.009 --> 00:16:08.655 and how much power your charger can deliver. 00:16:08.655 --> 00:16:12.413 Add 10% to the end result if you want to be really accurate. 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 - 00:16:19.250 --> 00:16:24.959 that’s useful to know and is a simple selling point, but the real world is messier. 00:16:24.959 --> 00:16:26.892 Usually in good ways! 00:16:27.754 --> 00:16:33.163 ♫ Music ♫ 00:16:34.416 --> 00:16:38.822 So now, let’s talk about what sort of charging solution you might need. 00:16:38.822 --> 00:16:44.101 First, let me acknowledge that I know there are lots of you out there who need to drive a car 00:16:44.101 --> 00:16:47.974 but don’t have a dedicated place to park and charge one. 00:16:47.974 --> 00:16:51.172 Trust me, I’m not trying to be dismissive of your situation. 00:16:51.172 --> 00:16:53.708 I’m just as frustrated as you are! 00:16:53.708 --> 00:16:57.871 See, the beauty of AC charging is that it’s simple! 00:16:57.871 --> 00:17:01.555 It’s incredibly straightforward infrastructure to deploy, 00:17:01.555 --> 00:17:06.586 and there’s no reason it shouldn’t spread to multi-family dwellings and areas with on-street parking 00:17:06.586 --> 00:17:12.072 other than finicky details like permitting, billing structures, maintenance concerns, building codes, 00:17:12.072 --> 00:17:14.150 and miscellanea like that. 00:17:14.150 --> 00:17:20.896 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. 00:17:20.896 --> 00:17:25.778 So while I don’t have answers for you here, keep your eyes peeled. 00:17:25.778 --> 00:17:31.635 For those lucky ones who have a garage or even a driveway close to their home or other electrified structure, 00:17:31.635 --> 00:17:34.184 well you’re probably pretty good to go. 00:17:34.184 --> 00:17:37.005 In fact you might already be set. 00:17:37.005 --> 00:17:41.597 Actually, right, here’s a misconception I keep seeing pop up from time to time: 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. 00:17:48.913 --> 00:17:51.955 And charging your car outside is totally OK. 00:17:51.955 --> 00:17:55.262 There is plenty of charging equipment meant to go outdoors, 00:17:55.262 --> 00:17:58.364 so don’t assume you’ll need a covered parking spot. 00:17:58.364 --> 00:18:02.140 You can simply install a charger on an outside wall near to where you park. 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. 00:18:09.650 --> 00:18:12.538 The other thing to mention is that in the US market, 00:18:12.538 --> 00:18:18.739 this J1772 connector is an industry standard followed by all players... 00:18:18.739 --> 00:18:20.488 except Tesla. 00:18:20.488 --> 00:18:24.880 Tesla uses a proprietary charging connector, for better or worse. 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, 00:18:31.457 --> 00:18:36.296 but you should know that throughout this video I’m assuming that you’re looking for a charger 00:18:36.296 --> 00:18:43.442 that is directly compatible — no adapters needed — with literally every plug-in car sold since 2010 00:18:43.442 --> 00:18:50.070 and literally every option on the market today except for those models made by That Company. 00:18:50.070 --> 00:18:53.306 Even if you want a vehicle made by That Company, 00:18:53.306 --> 00:19:02.188 I would suggest installing a J1772 charger as a simple adapter which is provided with their vehicles will allow you to plug into it. 00:19:02.188 --> 00:19:10.600 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. 00:19:10.600 --> 00:19:15.572 But there’s a good chance that you might not even need to install a charger at all. 00:19:16.551 --> 00:19:21.576 ♫ Music ♫ 00:19:23.025 --> 00:19:27.158 If you drive a fairly average amount, say up to 50 miles a day, 00:19:27.158 --> 00:19:31.929 one of these little guys might actually take care of you just fine! 00:19:31.929 --> 00:19:36.191 Level 1 charging is charging on 120V power, 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, 00:19:43.188 --> 00:19:45.224 which many vehicles come with. 00:19:45.224 --> 00:19:49.848 Here in the US an EV can draw 12 amps through this sort of supply. 00:19:49.848 --> 00:19:53.248 At 120V that’s 1.44 kilowatts. 00:19:53.836 --> 00:20:02.433 That’s not a lot, but in a very efficient EV, 50 miles of highway driving might take as little as 12.5 kWh. 00:20:02.433 --> 00:20:06.795 Assuming some losses that will take about 10 hours of charging to recover. 00:20:06.795 --> 00:20:09.975 Now, that’s admittedly a long time. 00:20:09.975 --> 00:20:15.018 But I’m willing to bet that you sleep for long enough to cover the bulk of your charging. 00:20:15.018 --> 00:20:22.166 Level 1 charging isn’t for everyone and has drawbacks, but I would argue it’s more useful than many realize. 00:20:22.166 --> 00:20:30.292 When I first got my 2013 Chevy Volt, which only had about a 40 mile electric range from its 10.5 kWh pack, 00:20:30.292 --> 00:20:32.658 I just plugged it into a regular outlet. 00:20:32.658 --> 00:20:37.519 Its small battery pack meant that it only ever took 10 hours for a complete charge. 00:20:37.519 --> 00:20:44.047 And with a 32 mile round-trip commute, I was driving entirely on electricity every day. 00:20:44.047 --> 00:20:48.927 My next job was nearly twice as far away at a 60 mile round-trip, 00:20:48.927 --> 00:20:54.002 but by asking nicely and bringing a cord protector with me to keep folks from tripping on it, 00:20:54.002 --> 00:20:59.127 I was also able to plug-in during my workday - again, to a bog standard outlet. 00:20:59.127 --> 00:21:05.894 Usually I’d be topped off by the end of my shift, so even then I was doing an all-electric 60 mile commute 00:21:05.894 --> 00:21:09.526 with only level 1 charging and a 40 mile range. 00:21:09.526 --> 00:21:12.475 I would shortly move a little further from work, 00:21:12.475 --> 00:21:20.235 proving that even a 70 mile commute was possible in the Volt with only Level 1 charging at both ends. 00:21:20.235 --> 00:21:24.194 At least, for the seven or eight warm-enough months of the year.... 00:21:24.194 --> 00:21:27.748 OK, I spent too much time on this so here’s a condensed voiceover. 00:21:27.748 --> 00:21:36.078 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. 00:21:36.078 --> 00:21:38.900 And I'm not gonna pretend everyone can plug in at work. 00:21:38.900 --> 00:21:41.494 I just wanted to give you an example of its potential. 00:21:41.494 --> 00:21:47.967 L1 charging is also less energy efficient since the car’s charging electronics need their own power to operate, 00:21:47.967 --> 00:21:54.901 and with only 1.4 kW controls and monitoring start to take up a larger percentage of the power available to the car. 00:21:54.901 --> 00:22:00.776 That effect can also be problematic if you park outside and the car needs some power to heat its battery pack, 00:22:00.776 --> 00:22:06.292 leaving little power for actual charging - but that’s very model and circumstance dependent. 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. 00:22:11.447 --> 00:22:14.195 That is especially notable in older homes. 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. 00:22:21.595 --> 00:22:25.813 That’s easy to fix by replacing the receptacle, but you should be aware of that. 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, 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. 00:22:37.829 --> 00:22:41.034 The last main drawback of Level 1 charging is that, 00:22:41.034 --> 00:22:44.658 since you need your car to be charging essentially whenever it can, 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. 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. 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. 00:23:03.844 --> 00:23:09.413 My more powerful charger is a 240V charger, so it’s classified as 00:23:09.413 --> 00:23:12.533 LEVEL TWO. 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. 00:23:21.820 --> 00:23:22.881 That’s all 00:23:22.881 --> 00:23:25.331 LEVEL TWO 00:23:25.331 --> 00:23:28.254 so as a category it’s just not that useful. 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. 00:23:35.457 --> 00:23:39.947 And wait ‘till we get to the fact that sometimes 240 is 208. 00:23:39.947 --> 00:23:45.002 Anyway, let’s say you need or want a Level 2 charger installed. 00:23:45.002 --> 00:23:46.700 What’s that gonna look like? 00:23:46.700 --> 00:23:49.591 Here comes that 2-word answer again: 00:23:49.591 --> 00:23:51.045 it depends. 00:23:51.594 --> 00:23:57.007 ♫ Music ♫ 00:23:58.339 --> 00:24:02.160 First thing I want to say — if you are building a home or buying new construction, 00:24:02.160 --> 00:24:04.899 even if you don’t have an electric car right now, 00:24:04.899 --> 00:24:07.743 ask to have one of these installed in your garage. 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. 00:24:16.318 --> 00:24:21.143 Many inexpensive car chargers are out there which plug straight into this nasty fella 00:24:21.143 --> 00:24:26.022 and it’s sort-of becoming an unofficial standard EV charging plug over here. 00:24:26.022 --> 00:24:28.425 To clear up a sort-of mistake of mine, 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. 00:24:34.887 --> 00:24:39.403 See, I had already bought a charger from Costco which featured a 6-50 plug 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 00:24:44.378 --> 00:24:45.379 but nope! 00:24:45.379 --> 00:24:49.094 There are way more options for 14-50 plugs out there, 00:24:49.094 --> 00:24:54.192 possibly because big RVs use that plug so it’s fairly common at campsites. 00:24:54.192 --> 00:24:55.475 But moving on… 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? 00:25:01.394 --> 00:25:05.587 If you have a conventional electric dryer, and it’s in or near to your garage, 00:25:05.587 --> 00:25:10.014 you already have a 30A 240V circuit at your disposal. 00:25:10.014 --> 00:25:14.204 And inexpensive chargers are available which’ll plug right into it. 00:25:14.204 --> 00:25:17.662 A 30A circuit won’t give you the fastest charge out there, 00:25:17.662 --> 00:25:22.431 but it’s over 5 kilowatts which is, trust me, plenty. 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. 00:25:27.854 --> 00:25:34.472 There are simple splitters on the market designed to let you have both an EVSE and a dryer plugged into the same receptacle, 00:25:34.472 --> 00:25:39.794 but you will have to remember to unplug your car before you use the dryer should you go that route. 00:25:39.794 --> 00:25:43.553 Really, though, if you have this option - take it! 00:25:43.553 --> 00:25:45.278 But if you’re not in that lucky boat, 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. 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. 00:25:58.751 --> 00:26:01.773 If it’s farther away, expect to pay more. 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. 00:26:09.984 --> 00:26:14.425 If you currently have none, you may be able to consolidate some circuits together - 00:26:14.425 --> 00:26:19.202 consult your electrician for whether or not that’s possible or allowed where you live. 00:26:19.202 --> 00:26:24.781 Oh, and definitely don’t assume you need an electrical service upgrade to drive electric - 00:26:24.781 --> 00:26:27.899 I would argue you almost certainly don’t. 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. 00:26:34.086 --> 00:26:37.907 But assuming you do have the space for a new breaker in your service panel, 00:26:37.907 --> 00:26:40.397 well here’s broadly what’s gonna happen. 00:26:40.397 --> 00:26:44.109 A new two-pole circuit breaker will take up two spots in the panel, 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, 00:26:49.164 --> 00:26:51.231 and the ground to your ground block. 00:26:51.231 --> 00:26:56.628 That cable will then exit the panel and run through walls, attics, or whenever code allows 00:26:56.628 --> 00:26:59.152 until it gets to where you want your charger. 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, 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. 00:27:09.165 --> 00:27:13.226 If you’re installing a high-power receptacle, it’s much the same idea. 00:27:13.226 --> 00:27:15.066 Close up the panel and box, 00:27:15.066 --> 00:27:17.350 close in the breaker and energize the wires, 00:27:17.350 --> 00:27:19.206 and you’re done. 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: 00:27:25.038 --> 00:27:28.000 once for my parents, and later for me. 00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:32.642 DIYing it’s not for everyone, and different chargers may need different things - 00:27:32.642 --> 00:27:37.748 for instance, really big EVSEs actually need a disconnect switch as well. 00:27:37.748 --> 00:27:41.932 But when it comes to electrical work this is really simple stuff, 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. 00:27:49.259 --> 00:27:52.359 And when you have a circuit like this available in your home, 00:27:52.359 --> 00:27:56.136 you are seriously never going to think about charging. 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. 00:28:03.366 --> 00:28:07.810 It’s truly amazing and I hope everyone who needs to drive can experience this. 00:28:08.867 --> 00:28:14.785 ♫ Music ♫ 00:28:15.647 --> 00:28:18.571 Assuming you have the option of running a new circuit, 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. 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. 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. 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. 00:28:48.177 --> 00:28:49.716 Here’s my spicy take; 00:28:49.716 --> 00:28:51.104 ya don’t. 00:28:51.104 --> 00:28:55.399 The only scenario where you would actually need that much power 00:28:55.399 --> 00:29:01.742 is if you and your partner *each* drive over two hundred miles every single day. 00:29:01.742 --> 00:29:06.792 I’ve seen so many folks in comments, product reviews, and really wherever else online 00:29:06.792 --> 00:29:11.178 get into this mindset that they want the fastest charger possible. 00:29:11.178 --> 00:29:15.867 They’ll immediately start looking for massive high-power charging stations 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. 00:29:25.335 --> 00:29:29.270 I mean, if you can swing it go ahead but that’s not how it works. 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. 00:29:36.483 --> 00:29:38.708 That’s how the standard works. 00:29:38.708 --> 00:29:42.177 So don’t just rush out and buy the fastest charger for your car - 00:29:42.177 --> 00:29:46.679 it’s expensive and may come with more headaches than you bargained for. 00:29:46.679 --> 00:29:49.931 How do you know what sorta charger you actually need? 00:29:49.931 --> 00:29:51.725 Simple, you just listen to me! 00:29:51.725 --> 00:29:54.884 It’s 7.2 kW. That’ll do fine! 00:29:56.255 --> 00:30:00.142 I’m kidding, but actually not really... 00:30:00.142 --> 00:30:05.034 I consider that to be the “very good” speed that’ll work for just about anyone 00:30:05.034 --> 00:30:09.709 but to give you some real information in the realm of electric vehicle supply equipment, 00:30:09.709 --> 00:30:12.430 amps are what matters first and foremost. 00:30:12.430 --> 00:30:16.240 Wires of a given thickness can only handle so much current, 00:30:16.240 --> 00:30:20.301 ultimately making amps allowed on a circuit the limiting factor. 00:30:20.301 --> 00:30:25.020 So when you look for a charger, you’re gonna find them listed by amperage. 00:30:25.020 --> 00:30:30.423 Thanks to the 80% rule which limits continuous loads to 80% of a circuit’s capacity, 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. 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. 00:30:43.511 --> 00:30:44.942 Sorry about that. 00:30:44.942 --> 00:30:47.843 To know the power output of a charger in kilowatts, 00:30:47.843 --> 00:30:52.401 you simply multiply amps it can supply by the voltage of that supply. 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) 00:30:59.372 --> 00:31:02.216 it might be 208V. 00:31:02.216 --> 00:31:05.692 It’s a relatively small difference, so it’s not worth getting too hung up on, 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. 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. 00:31:16.917 --> 00:31:21.555 To make comparisons to real life a little easier, we can use a cheat. 00:31:21.555 --> 00:31:26.984 You will somewhat commonly see circuit capacities be given a “miles per hour” figure. 00:31:26.984 --> 00:31:30.265 This is useful, but a little messy. 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, 00:31:35.664 --> 00:31:38.549 15 miles per hour on a 30 amp unit, 00:31:38.549 --> 00:31:41.055 20 mph on a 40A unit, 00:31:41.055 --> 00:31:43.211 and I’ll let you do the rest as homework. 00:31:43.211 --> 00:31:47.377 Oh and Level 1 charging, remember that’s just plugging into a household outlet, 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. 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, 00:32:00.791 --> 00:32:02.721 it’s beginning to fall apart. 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, 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. 00:32:13.343 --> 00:32:17.865 And a vehicle like an F-150 Lightning will, based on what the EPA says, 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. 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. 00:32:31.333 --> 00:32:34.108 So handy, I’m gonna use it right now! 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 00:32:38.567 --> 00:32:43.562 is to multiply that miles-per-hour figure by hours plugged into a charger 00:32:43.562 --> 00:32:47.252 to get a sense of how many miles are regained in that time. 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 00:32:52.605 --> 00:32:56.133 and a morning and evening routine tacks on a bit at each end. 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, 00:33:02.713 --> 00:33:06.533 30 amps gives you 150, 40 amps 200. 00:33:06.533 --> 00:33:09.714 And again - I'll leave the rest for homework. 00:33:09.714 --> 00:33:15.128 Notice how the smallest number I just gave you was 100 miles. 00:33:15.128 --> 00:33:18.713 I’m going to stress this point. And I’m going to be obnoxious about this 00:33:18.713 --> 00:33:22.353 because I really need y’all to know this and deeply: 00:33:22.353 --> 00:33:24.454 A 20 amp circuit. 00:33:24.454 --> 00:33:26.050 Which is not a whole lot. 00:33:26.050 --> 00:33:29.075 And which can be run with cheap 12 gauge Romex, 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. 00:33:39.594 --> 00:33:42.061 You do not need a giant charger. 00:33:42.061 --> 00:33:46.585 Yes, I hear you, what about all those "but sometimes!" situations you’re thinking of? 00:33:46.585 --> 00:33:48.559 Like winter, for instance! 00:33:48.833 --> 00:33:53.378 Well, even if we assume an extreme 40% winter range loss, 00:33:53.378 --> 00:33:58.509 you’re still getting a 60 mile round trip commute recovered every evening. 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. 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. 00:34:11.901 --> 00:34:15.317 I myself use a charger which is twice as powerful. 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) 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. 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. 00:34:35.392 --> 00:34:38.132 Even my long drives would be recovered overnight, 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. 00:34:43.780 --> 00:34:47.089 The reason I’m so passionate about spreading this gospel 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 00:34:52.001 --> 00:34:57.255 that have ruled out an EV because you’ve assumed you’ll need a service upgrade. 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, 00:35:02.314 --> 00:35:07.836 but you should know that a car charging on a 20A circuit only pulls 16 amps. 00:35:07.836 --> 00:35:12.143 That’s only 16% of your capacity if you have 100A service. 00:35:12.143 --> 00:35:15.365 And yet, that can take you quite far. 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. 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. 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. 00:35:35.446 --> 00:35:39.599 You need to think through what’s on those circuits and how often they get used - 00:35:39.599 --> 00:35:42.321 an electrician should be able to help you with that. 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. 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, 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. 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. 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. 00:36:18.822 --> 00:36:23.376 Anyway, before you get scared off thinking you need panel or service upgrades, 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. 00:36:29.790 --> 00:36:33.628 I can tell you from experience that a 20A charger on wiring like this 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. 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 00:36:47.130 --> 00:36:49.788 for a 30 or 32 amp charger. 00:36:49.788 --> 00:36:55.975 I consider 7.2 kW to be the Certified Midwestern Gold™ standard of charging. 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. 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, 00:37:08.598 --> 00:37:10.712 which is about 200 miles in my car. 00:37:10.712 --> 00:37:13.013 It’s the vast majority of the pack. 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. 00:37:21.207 --> 00:37:25.964 To give you some sense of how Absolutely Fine™ I consider that charging speed, 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, 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. 00:37:42.621 --> 00:37:46.391 Aha, but what if your household, through the magic of having two of them, 00:37:46.391 --> 00:37:48.245 needs to charge up two cars? 00:37:48.245 --> 00:37:50.677 What now, Toaster Boy? 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, 00:37:56.815 --> 00:37:58.712 a funny thing happens. 00:37:58.712 --> 00:38:01.649 You stop bothering to plug it in every day. 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… 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. 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, 00:38:19.968 --> 00:38:23.342 otherwise I'll go a solid week without charging it. 00:38:23.342 --> 00:38:25.825 200 miles is a long distance, folks! 00:38:25.825 --> 00:38:30.576 That’ll get you from Chicago all the way across Illinois and solidly into Iowa. 00:38:30.576 --> 00:38:33.220 I really hope you’re not commuting like that. 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. 00:38:39.422 --> 00:38:42.594 A single charger can easily be shared. 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, 00:38:47.380 --> 00:38:52.253 well there are also options in which two EVSEs share a single circuit. 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. 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. 00:39:04.700 --> 00:39:07.161 On Mondays, Carl parks on the left, 00:39:07.161 --> 00:39:09.254 and on Tuesdays, Brenda does. 00:39:09.254 --> 00:39:10.927 Alternate and then switch on the weekends. 00:39:10.927 --> 00:39:12.598 You can do it, I believe in you! 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! 00:39:17.856 --> 00:39:21.672 Obviously if you’ve got a bigger family where more than two people drive cars, 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. 00:39:27.681 --> 00:39:32.987 But think long and hard about how powerful those chargers actually need to be. 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. 00:39:38.323 --> 00:39:40.864 Even if there are four drivers in your household, 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. 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. 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. 00:39:57.871 --> 00:40:02.204 Bottom line: Level 1 might work for you, so don’t rule it out right away. 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. 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. 00:40:12.900 --> 00:40:15.468 And going above that level might be necessary, 00:40:15.468 --> 00:40:20.271 but really only if you drive a big vehicle very far every day. 00:40:20.271 --> 00:40:23.174 Now let’s talk about DC fast charging! 00:40:24.740 --> 00:40:29.563 ♫ Music ♫ 00:40:30.346 --> 00:40:32.787 First, and I know I sound like a broken record, 00:40:32.787 --> 00:40:38.225 DC fast charging should really only be necessary to enable long-distance travel. 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 - 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). 00:40:52.005 --> 00:40:54.670 Then you’re never actually waiting. 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. 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. 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. 00:41:12.569 --> 00:41:17.234 But DC charging should really be the exception and not the norm. 00:41:17.234 --> 00:41:20.838 I’m not going to talk too too deeply about DC fast charging here 00:41:20.838 --> 00:41:23.691 because I’ve made a video already on that tech. 00:41:23.691 --> 00:41:25.306 Clicky thing, link below, you know the drill. 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. 00:41:30.649 --> 00:41:34.324 It was mainly about the chargers and how powerful they are. 00:41:34.324 --> 00:41:37.307 Which, to be clear, they’re very powerful! 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 00:41:41.634 --> 00:41:43.744 to figure out charge times. 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, 00:41:53.804 --> 00:41:58.591 and a 350 kW charger could do the same in only 13 minutes. 00:41:58.591 --> 00:42:00.611 Except, they can’t. 00:42:00.611 --> 00:42:04.170 Not because of the chargers but because of the batteries. 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. 00:42:10.341 --> 00:42:13.920 Today’s battery chemistries can only be charged so quickly, 00:42:13.920 --> 00:42:17.264 and how fast you can do that changes based on a number of factors, 00:42:17.264 --> 00:42:21.283 most prominently how charged the battery currently is. 00:42:21.283 --> 00:42:27.556 Right now it’s common for car manufacturers to give a 10% to 80% charge time. 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. 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, 00:42:42.327 --> 00:42:46.215 it becomes a lot harder to push electrons into the battery cells. 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, 00:42:53.990 --> 00:42:55.797 well here’s the thing. 00:42:55.797 --> 00:42:59.463 You don’t actually need to top up every time you charge. 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. 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, 00:43:13.189 --> 00:43:16.618 but in my car that’s still over 170 miles. 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. 00:43:22.819 --> 00:43:25.732 I legitimately quite enjoyed it, 00:43:25.800 --> 00:43:29.002 though to be fair my car charges exceptionally quickly. 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. 00:43:34.837 --> 00:43:39.097 Many EVs will help you plan a route in their navigation software 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, 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. 00:43:48.923 --> 00:43:52.821 Or if, like me, you have a car which just… 00:43:52.821 --> 00:43:55.306 doesn’t help with route planning. 00:43:55.306 --> 00:43:58.210 I’m not too bummed by my car’s omission there, though, 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. 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: 00:44:13.931 --> 00:44:16.097 battery preconditioning. 00:44:16.097 --> 00:44:20.197 Today’s battery chemistries are happiest within a certain temperature range. 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. 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 - 00:44:34.499 --> 00:44:37.754 warmer than they otherwise need to be to drive. 00:44:37.754 --> 00:44:43.375 And in the winter, if the battery isn’t warm enough DC fast charging may be… 00:44:43.375 --> 00:44:45.075 not so fast. 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, 00:44:51.170 --> 00:44:55.687 but since the battery is so massive, that can take a while. 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. 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 00:45:07.615 --> 00:45:10.517 as you approach a DC fast charger. 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. 00:45:17.264 --> 00:45:22.622 This is an important feature that needs to roll out to all EVs, in my opinion. 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 - 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. 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 00:45:41.567 --> 00:45:44.865 when I’m 15 miles or so from the next charger. 00:45:44.865 --> 00:45:50.527 But I do appreciate how the automated schemes would keep me from forgetting to do that. 00:45:50.527 --> 00:45:54.691 With all this said, the biggest issue with DC fast charging today 00:45:54.691 --> 00:45:57.690 is that we barely have enough chargers right now. 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. 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, 00:46:10.545 --> 00:46:12.955 but we’re in the midst of growing pains. 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. 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, 00:46:28.858 --> 00:46:33.086 and with the current makeup of sparsely-spaced chargers, 00:46:33.086 --> 00:46:36.991 getting to them when they need parts or repair is a chore. 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. 00:46:43.490 --> 00:46:45.584 But let’s move on from DC fast charging 00:46:45.584 --> 00:46:49.328 and finish up with some pointers on factors which affect your driving range. 00:46:51.248 --> 00:46:54.838 ♫ Music ♫ 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. 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. 00:47:09.540 --> 00:47:13.178 I do want to stress again, though, that with today’s EVs, 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. 00:47:21.535 --> 00:47:25.960 They will extend charging time and cause you to spend a little more money on charging, 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. 00:47:32.364 --> 00:47:35.378 Long distance driving does have some challenges, though. 00:47:35.378 --> 00:47:40.019 You might want to ask, why does this cold-weather range loss happen? 00:47:40.019 --> 00:47:45.531 Well, a huge part of the range loss comes from using the cabin heat. 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 00:47:53.009 --> 00:47:56.672 that it ends up with all this waste heat it needs to get rid of. 00:47:56.672 --> 00:48:02.974 There’s literal explosions happening over a thousand times per minute, and explosions are hot. 00:48:02.974 --> 00:48:07.524 Dealing with that heat is what the car’s cooling system and radiator is for, 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, 00:48:13.865 --> 00:48:18.190 the excess heat from the combustion can be used to keep you warm. 00:48:18.190 --> 00:48:21.416 Since it would otherwise be wasted, it’s free heat. 00:48:21.416 --> 00:48:25.632 Electric vehicles, though, don’t produce much waste heat at all. 00:48:25.632 --> 00:48:29.047 This is cool! It’s why the world is excited about them, 00:48:29.047 --> 00:48:32.728 they’re just much, much, much more energy-efficient. 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. 00:48:38.810 --> 00:48:42.219 And that leaves you with less for driving the car. 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. 00:48:48.196 --> 00:48:51.471 Basically as soon as you start needing to use the heater. 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. 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. 00:49:09.283 --> 00:49:13.585 Using seat heaters more and cabin heat less can help, 00:49:13.585 --> 00:49:18.342 but whenever you need to use your defroster you’re kinda stuck running the heat. 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! 00:49:24.316 --> 00:49:29.204 Speaking of features, one feature that’s finally spreading to more and more EVs is, 00:49:29.204 --> 00:49:30.821 drumroll please, 00:49:30.821 --> 00:49:32.510 HEAT PUMPS! 00:49:32.510 --> 00:49:35.263 If you’re not familiar with this channel, I love heat pumps. 00:49:35.263 --> 00:49:37.521 They’re the hottest cool things around. 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. 00:49:45.866 --> 00:49:49.182 And since pretty much every EV out there has air conditioning, 00:49:49.182 --> 00:49:52.191 making it reversible was an obvious next step. 00:49:52.191 --> 00:49:54.224 I don't know why it took so long. 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%, 00:50:00.272 --> 00:50:04.499 as moving heat takes a lot less energy compared to creating heat. 00:50:04.499 --> 00:50:10.339 For the 2022 model year, Hyundai gave all-wheel-drive Ioniq 5 models a heat pump. 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. 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, 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. 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. 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. 00:50:44.593 --> 00:50:48.707 The car’s heater needs to work a lot harder when you’re in motion 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. 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. 00:51:00.058 --> 00:51:02.341 In the Chevy Bolt you’ve seen some adventures in, 00:51:02.341 --> 00:51:07.952 which doesn’t have a heat pump, I noticed that when stationary, even in subzero temperatures, 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. 00:51:15.745 --> 00:51:20.356 So, even with only one third battery charge, 20 kWh, 00:51:20.356 --> 00:51:25.768 you could expect that car to keep you warm for at least 5 hours, probably more, 00:51:25.768 --> 00:51:31.341 and you can easily stretch that just by turning the temperature down and bundling up. 00:51:31.341 --> 00:51:35.645 Aside from winter, let’s talk about what other things affect your range. 00:51:35.645 --> 00:51:40.148 Earlier I mentioned that highway driving is less efficient than stop-and-go. 00:51:40.148 --> 00:51:42.100 Why is that? 00:51:42.100 --> 00:51:44.280 Well, with all else being equal, 00:51:44.280 --> 00:51:49.902 the single greatest factor to driving efficiency in an EV is your average speed. 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. 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. 00:52:02.242 --> 00:52:08.263 Both increase with vehicle speed, but the drag created by air is not a linear function - 00:52:08.263 --> 00:52:13.079 as a matter of fact when calculating drag force, velocity is squared. 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, 00:52:18.258 --> 00:52:21.580 and the effect gets worse as speed increases. 00:52:21.580 --> 00:52:23.581 That’s not unique to EVs, of course. 00:52:23.581 --> 00:52:25.266 The same goes for any vehicle. 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, 00:52:31.122 --> 00:52:34.109 you don’t get the waste of an idling engine. 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 00:52:40.855 --> 00:52:43.908 when you return to a stop or slow down. 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. 00:52:52.580 --> 00:52:56.147 That is of course until we talk about wind. 00:52:56.147 --> 00:52:59.157 When you’re driving into a 10 mile an hour headwind, 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. 00:53:05.902 --> 00:53:10.218 So wind conditions can rather drastically affect your driving range. 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, 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. 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. 00:53:31.575 --> 00:53:33.563 In the end, this wasn’t a problem. 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. 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: 00:53:47.554 --> 00:53:49.403 just slow down. 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, 00:53:56.170 --> 00:53:58.795 even though we were really doing 70. 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. 00:54:07.107 --> 00:54:10.802 So if all else fails, just slow down. 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. 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. 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, 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. 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. 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. 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 00:54:58.712 --> 00:55:01.123 or are planning for. 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. 00:55:10.239 --> 00:55:14.118 But since driving range can be less predictable than is ideal, 00:55:14.118 --> 00:55:17.556 I hope to see far more DC charging options. 00:55:17.556 --> 00:55:21.643 If we keep driving cars on long trips at the rate we do now, 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. 00:55:28.432 --> 00:55:31.780 So there’s a lot of work to be done, to be sure. 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. 00:55:40.269 --> 00:55:44.076 Those of us with home charging can get an electric car right now. 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. 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. 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, 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. 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. 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. 00:56:22.521 --> 00:56:25.399 But frankly, right now I need a car. 00:56:25.399 --> 00:56:27.862 And I’m not gonna poo poo harm reduction. 00:56:27.862 --> 00:56:33.523 The fact is going electric is really quite easy once you understand the ins and outs. 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. 00:56:38.540 --> 00:56:41.436 Now we just have to do it. 00:56:41.906 --> 00:56:43.377 Thanks for watching. 00:56:44.277 --> 00:56:46.760 ♫ energetically smooth jazz ♫ 00:56:47.896 --> 00:56:51.619 Hey, I’m gonna be recording an unscripted video on my second channel 00:56:51.619 --> 00:56:56.890 talking about some potential options for multi-family buildings and other finicky-to-serve places. 00:56:56.890 --> 00:56:59.434 Clicky thing, link below, you know the drill. 00:57:00.962 --> 00:57:05.219 How to choose the right one for your… *sigh* 00:57:05.219 --> 00:57:07.725 didn’t get through the FIRST LINE! 00:57:07.725 --> 00:57:09.101 Here we go. 00:57:10.473 --> 00:57:11.584 What is happening? 00:57:12.211 --> 00:57:13.501 What... what is that? 00:57:14.676 --> 00:57:16.856 Oh, it’s velcro from the thing. 00:57:16.856 --> 00:57:17.634 Got it. 00:57:17.634 --> 00:57:19.659 Any car will work… eh, 00:57:19.659 --> 00:57:20.159 Bah! 00:57:20.159 --> 00:57:20.668 PEH! 00:57:20.834 --> 00:57:21.468 PLEH! 00:57:21.650 --> 00:57:22.529 BAH! 00:57:22.529 --> 00:57:24.875 …with different pack sizes to chooge from. 00:57:24.875 --> 00:57:25.675 Chooge? 00:57:25.675 --> 00:57:28.443 But again, getting my getting a… getting myself ahead of here? 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! 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. 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 00:57:42.275 --> 00:57:45.862 than the one made by a single, if currently dominant, player. 00:57:46.841 --> 00:57:49.399 Don't like putting all me eggs in one basket, y'know.