Posted on 05/23/2021 7:10:50 AM PDT by DoodleBob
So you’re thinking about trading in your gas-guzzling SUV for a futuristic, energy-efficient, quiet-as-a-nun-walking-through-the-Vatican fully electric vehicle? Mazel Tov! But you’re wondering how long it takes to charge an EV? Well, fine sir or madam, you’ve come to the right place.
The electron pit-stop offers different charge rates based on capability, type of charger, weather, temperature, how many cars are connected to the station, time of day, and your car’s battery capacity. As such, EV chargers often require a quick tutorial by the manufacturer or dealer. But just like pumping gas, after a few fill-ups it becomes second nature.
To make understanding EV jargon easier, The Drive’s crack How-To department is here to answer just how long it takes to charge an electric vehicle, along with a handful of other frequently asked questions about EVs.
Game?
Nearly every electric vehicle comes with a factory-provided charger, but manufacturers and third-party businesses offer faster, more efficient chargers, too. These can be installed by an electrician or be gas station-like chargers installed throughout the country.
Here’s a quick rundown of the type of chargers available:
Now that you have an idea of the types of chargers available, here are The Drive’s estimates of how long it will take your electric car to charge, variables notwithstanding.
While conventional gasoline pumps have a predetermined flow rate, which can be somewhat affected by the number of cars fueling up, a charger’s is subject to a great many more variables that affect how quickly its EV juice is dispensed.
Here are some variables that affect an electric car’s charge speed:
In the U.S., the national average cost per kWh is around $0.13 but can reach $0.32 per hour in Hawaii—aloha. On average, however, you’ll spend less charging your EV than you would fueling a gasoline-powered vehicle.
There are also costs associated with your selected charger. Standard Level 1 chargers are normally included in the price of a vehicle, but if you want a faster Level 2 charger, that’ll require more investment as they’re more than just a plug-and-play setup.
Tesla offers its Gen 3 wall charger for $500, and third-party chargers can range from $400 to $900, plus $1,500 to $2,000 for installation.
How far you can travel in an electric vehicle has become a sticking point, with many potential buyers citing “range anxiety” as the biggest hurdle to adoption.
Just like a gasoline-powered car, the estimated electric range varies from car to car. Consumers can get anywhere from 84 miles in a Fiat 500e to well into the 300-mile range in an EV like a Tesla Model 3 Long Range or Porsche Taycan.
Considering the average American’s commute is 16 miles, any of the current EVs offer more than enough range. Charging stations are also becoming more common along highways making long-distance road trips achievable.
Electric vehicles are still in their infancy and as such can still suffer from build quality issues that commonly affect the first-generation system. That will change.
As subsequent evolutions of the electric vehicle roll off the assembly line, EVs have the real potential to be more reliable than any gasoline-powered car. An electric car requires only a few moving parts, as well as few parts that require fluids that could be corrupted by the elements, fuel, particulates, or grease. Thus, electric cars won’t need as much maintenance and could triple a car’s longevity.
You've got questions, The Drive has answers!
A. As shown about, they'll supply about 30 miles of range in one hour. Though, at-home chargers are getting faster as the tech proliferates.
A. That would be either the Porsche Taycan or Audi E-tron GT, both of which ride on the same electrical architecture and can make use of the 800v ultra-fast charging.
A. You can and can't. Most manufacturers have built-in safe guards so that you don't overcharge your vehicle. Tesla actually released a patch that modifies its car's thermal loads and charge capabilities after a handful of cars spontaneously combusted.
A. According to GMC, it'll take about 10 minutes to restore 100 miles of range when the truck goes on sale in 2022.
The estimates they give you are meaningless since they don't tell you specifically how all the "variables" affect the charge time.
I’ve been thinking about that too. Inevitably, an EV will take much longer to charge that it would to fill your car with gas, and often the wait will exceed one-half an hour. At some point, someone is going to realize the commercial opportunity that exists when motorists are both captive and bored at the same spot. EV charging stations will merge with some other form of diversion, but of what type I cannot imagine. A mini mart is good for five or ten minutes, but not longer. An IHOP is one thing that comes to mind, but maybe some type of digital vaudeville will arise to amuse the waiting motorists and their families.
Sorry, boss, I couldn’t come to work yesterday because I was charging my car.
Just in time for Kalifornica’s next wildfire season. These people won’t be able to evacuate. No electricity and dead batteries.
Really cheeses off the leftists.
Ha ha. I'm going to start using that. Thanks. It amuses me that so many people who think electric cars are the solution to pollution and energy problems, real or imagined, don't realize that the electricity needed to power those cars will still have to come from fossil fuels for a long time to come.
I stop laughing when I realize that the true goal of the leftist would-be oligarchs who are laboring to make this unworkable plan our future may not be as stupid as I think they are. The real objective is to limit our mobility, making it easier to control us.
At this minute, at the Westbound Charlton meal stop/fuel stop on the Mass Turnpike, there are 167 cars parked with people inside eating or going to the bathroom. There are ten fuel pumps and no lines.
Please analyze and describe recharging architecture that can service these 167 vehicles simultaneously in the time frame it takse to eat a Big Mac or have a Cinnabon and coffee.
Oh, by the way, it's 78 degrees in Charlton right now. Please provide a similar analysis for an average December day around Christmas travel season when the temperature is 19.
The whole thing is absurd.
A. According to GMC, it’ll take about 10 minutes to restore 100 miles of range when the truck goes on sale in 2022.
Complete, marketing BS.
If the range of a Hummer is 300 miles, they are implying to stupid people it would only take 30 minutes to fully charge the battery.
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Indeed, that is an physical barrier with current battery tech. The initial charging of the battery to 25% capacity is fast. It slows down more and more as you attempt to bring it up to 100%. It’s tough herding electrons.
Just like army uniforms, they come in two sizes - too large and too small.
Math is racist apparently. A full sized Tesla model S goes 4 miles per kWh. The NHTSA has decades of data that proves the average American drives less than 40 miles per day not just the avg person 80% of all Americans drive less than 40 miles total per day. That means 80% of all Americans will need less than 10kWh per day to cover that distance. Ten kWh is two cloths dryer loads or a two hour roast in the oven or two to three hours of AC use or one half hour of electric heating with resistance heat which 60% of Texans have resistance heaters fyi. Hardly grid crashing the luddites are well luddites.
For those like myself with solar panels on the roof it like having a gas pump that runs for free. My 15kw system has never made less than 100kWh in a day with sunlight that was January with still ten plus hours of daylight. My homes energy use in January is less than 20 kWh per day leaving 80kWh to charge a pack up with. That’s 320 miles worth on the least sunny day of the year. In August with both my HVAC roaring at 68 degrees I use 80 to 90 kWh per day and my panels in the 14+ hours of daylight make nearly 200 kWh. My location gets 220+ days of sunlight per year as recorded by Noaa.gov over a 30 year avg at DFW airport the official climate data. My solar tracker program confirms that in 2020 we had 230 days of sunlight. I could drive a Model S for over 88,000 miles per year just on the excess power coming from my panels on one large time in sunny North Texas. Or I could send that excess to 5 other Tesla cars and they all could drive the avg 12500 miles per year along with my 15,000 miles. That’s one home with 4500+sqft of roof line even a 1500sqft roofline would power a single Tesla for 20,000+ miles per year. Math is hard we know.
“Our electrical grid cannot handle charging everyone’s car.”
By about 2050, cars will typically be charged up at workplaces during the workday (which is when the sun shines).
One khw means about ten 2’ by 4’ solar panels during peak sunshine hours. These ten panels charging over the eight-hour workday might typically effectively add about 18 miles of charge to a four-mile/kwh car after taking into account various factors.
A friend of mine here in NM installed 220 3-phase at his business to operate a slab saw for fabricating countertops. The cost was a little north of $4k turn key. The 3-phase powerline was directly across the street BTW. If 3-phase power is not readily available close by, the power company will charge you to bring it in.
Forget going to grandma’s for Christmas. You’ll never make it. Drive a hundred miles and hope you can find a charging area. Hang around half the day waiting to get fully charged. Well, not half a day because you’ll be murdered and raped within the first 30 minutes.
I take it every employer will have a charging station for each employee or will allow time during the day to go charge your vehicle?
A pig in a poke! No thank you. Forget long distance travel. Seems like we’re going back to the horse and buggy.
Only the very most efficient electric cars achieve 4 miles per kwh and only under carefully monitored conditions in tests the manufacturers and government have conceived to make them seem more fuel efficient than they really are... In real life the results people get are typically about much less than what is claimed and this is more true for electric vehicles than gasoline. It is no secret that people in the EPA are pushing people toward electric vehicles.
Once your air conditioner gets your room or house down to the desired temperature the thermostat turns off the compressor. So depending on the outside temperature and how well your house is insulated an air conditioner is using its rated power only a fraction of the time. Only whole house heat pumps use 3kw per hour. Your typical 6000 btu window unit uses less than 500 watts 1/6th of the load you are mentioning.
Is anyone else tired of people pushing “green energy” schemes who make misleading statements?
$70,000 car??? Not many of us on fixed income can afford that price.
Yup. Charge it at night when demand is lower. If you have electric appliances and mechanicals that could be tricky to avoid overloading.
I would disagree with that. For example, the first gas-powered internal-combustion automobiles rolled off the assembly line with no infrastructure of gas stations in place. Early drivers had their gasoline delivered with their home heating oil and then had to carry cans of gasoline around with them when they took longer trips. I'm sure there were many people at the time (who were sticking with their horse-and-buggy) who were shaking their heads in ridicule at these early adopters of horseless carriages. The darn fools!
So as more people purchase electrical cars, we will see the infrastructure build out accordingly to support them.
That said, for now, I'm perfectly happy with my gas-powered automobile.
Range and recharging time are major constraints for me.
I drive an F-150 for work with the turbocharged EcoBoost V6 engine and a 36-gallon tank.
At normal highway speeds I can get over 800 miles on a tank of gas. That means if I drive west from New York City, my first fuel stop is west of Chicago. If I go south, I can get to Florida on one tank of gas.
Until electric vehicles can match that kind of performance, I wouldn't even consider one for my business.
How long to recharge if you and your neighbours plug in super fast units and melt your overhead wires?
Will your non-EV neighbours be pissed at the smug self righteous EV owners every time the EV owners bring down the grid?
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