Electric vehicles (EVs) are gaining popularity amid rising gas prices and growing consumer interest in sustainability. But if you’ve never owned an electric car before, you may have questions like: How much do they cost to charge? Will you have to install a home charging station? And if so, how will it impact your electricity bill?
The average cost of charging an electric car varies from state to state, so while we can’t give you an exact amount, we can help you explore your options.
Here’s everything you want to know about electric vehicle charging stations, including public charging stations, home EV chargers, Tesla Superchargers, and more.
All cars have batteries, but in most vehicles, they’re just a relatively small 12.6-volt battery that’s used to ignite the engine. An electric car battery is different: it’s usually a much larger lithium-ion battery that can store as much as 100 kilowatt-hours of electricity.
These batteries need to be plugged in for extended periods in order to reach their full capacity. You can plug an electric car into a standard 120-volt wall outlet, but it could take a day or more to reach a full charge.
That’s where electric vehicle charging stations come in: also known as electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE), these stations are specially designed to charge EVs at faster speeds than you can get from a standard wall outlet.
The amount of time it takes to charge an electric car depends on how big your car’s battery is and which type of EV charger you use. Most home and public chargers are Level 2 chargers, while DC fast charging is available at some public locations.
A 240-volt Level 2 charger is faster than a wall outlet, capable of charging a Nissan LEAF or Tesla Model 3 in about eight hours.
DC fast charging stations are even more powerful, providing up to 480 volts of power and reducing charging times to less than an hour. Tesla claims that you can add 200 miles of range in 15 minutes at Supercharger stations.
However, frequent fast charging can degrade your battery over time, so it’s best to use DC chargers when you’re in a hurry and Level 2 chargers for everyday use.
source
According to Bluedot.co, the average cost of charging an EV is around $30–40. That’s assuming the charging station charges around 40–70 cents per kilowatt-hour.
But the exact amount will depend on the cost of electricity in your area and what type of charging station you use. DC fast chargers usually charge more per kilowatt-hour, so you can expect the cost of fast charging to be a little higher.
On the other end of the spectrum, some employers offer free workplace charging, while some retail businesses let you charge up for free in their parking lot while you shop.
You’ll also find variations in prices among charging networks such as EVgo and Electrify America. For example, EVgo offers incentives to EV drivers who purchase a monthly membership, including a lower charge per kilowatt-hour and no session fee.
Zip Code
I have a referral code
The best way to find EV charging stations is to use an app. Sites like PlugShare display charging locations from multiple charging networks, so you can compare rates and see how many chargers are available at a particular location.
But if you want to stick to a specific network, you may be able to use the onboard trip planner in your EV. Tesla vehicles can help you find the nearest Supercharger station or show you Destination Chargers at restaurants, hotels, and parking garages.
One interesting fact about electric cars is that they use regenerative braking to conserve energy while you drive. When you slow down or hit the brakes on a gas-powered car, you’re essentially “wasting” the energy that your engine just produced.
Regenerative brakes recycle that kinetic energy and use it to recharge the battery – so you could say that EVs do charge a little bit while they’re on the road.
But the more accurate answer is that they don’t. Regenerative braking is more efficient, but it doesn’t add any new energy to the battery. You’ll still have to plug your EV into a charging port, otherwise, it will eventually run out of steam.
If you happen to run out of battery while driving an EV, you can’t just walk to the nearest gas station and come back with enough gas to get you to a charging station. You’ll most likely have to call a tow truck to take you to the nearest charging location.
The good news is that running out of battery won’t damage the vehicle, and you should get plenty of warning before you actually run out of charge.
Most EVs will show you an estimate of your remaining charge on the dashboard. While this can be wrong – especially if you’re driving uphill or in other unusual conditions – it should be accurate enough to help you plan your next charging session.
You might be tempted to call AAA to bring you a mobile charger, but most roadside assistance plans don’t offer this service.
source
Are you thinking of going away for a long period and want to know if it’s OK to leave your EV in its usual parking space? In most scenarios, your car will be fine. An electric car battery can keep its charge for months on end when it’s not being used.
That said, you don’t want to leave your car sitting fully charged or fully empty for long periods of time. Both situations can lead to long-term battery damage.
Your best bet is to charge your car to around 80% and put it into power save mode or deep sleep mode if your car has one.
Also, be sure not to leave your car in direct sunlight or in an enclosed garage that heats up to more than 100°F. Extreme temperatures can degrade the battery.
source
Overheating is definitely bad for electric vehicles, but what about the cold? According to a study by AAA, electric cars can lose 12–41% of their range in cold weather. But Blink Charging points out that both electric and gas cars “struggle in cold weather,” so it’s more likely that your car is simply using more energy on cold days.
To get the best range out of your EV in the winter, leave it parked in a garage and turn on the heater before you unplug it from your home charger. This will avoid having to dip into the battery pack to get your car comfortable.
Electric car batteries can be expensive to replace – anywhere from $2,500 to over $20,000 if you have to pay for them out of pocket. But for most EV drivers, it won’t come to that.
First, modern EV batteries can retain their capacity for years, with some Teslas putting on 100,000 miles or more on their original battery pack. Second, even if your battery does degrade, your warranty may cover it: EV manufacturers are legally required to offer an 8-year/100,000-mile warranty on the battery pack.
The main thing to worry about is if you’re buying a used EV that’s nearing the end of its warranty. In that case, you may want to ask a mechanic to check its battery health.
We’ve talked a lot about public charging stations, but what about home chargers? Do you need to install one, and if so, how much will it cost?
The short answer is probably yes. Unless your city has free EV charging infrastructure or you live right next to a Tesla Destination Charging location, having a home charging station of your own is the most practical way to keep your battery topped up.
So how much does it cost to install a Level 2 charger at home? A ChargePoint Flex will cost you about $700, while a Tesla Wall Connector is $400. If you need a CCS adapter, that will set you back around $200–300.
Keep in mind that you’ll also need to factor in the cost of installation since you’ll likely need an electrician to install a 240-volt outlet. Fortunately, rebates and incentives are available in many states.
source
You might be wondering if it’s worth installing a home charging station. One study found that charging your EV at a public charging station could cost twice as much as charging it at home. That’s based on electricity costs of 16.58 cents per kilowatt-hour, or 4.42 cents per mile of charge.
Over time, that difference can add up. But it’s worth checking your local electricity rates and doing the math yourself since they can vary from state to state.
You’ll get the most bang for your buck if your electricity provider offers time-of-use (TOU) rates, such as free nights or weekends. By leaving your car charging overnight during off-peak hours, you’ll pay less than you would if you charged it during the day.
Zip Code
I have a referral code
While driving an EV is more energy-efficient than driving a gas car, that doesn’t mean you’re running on renewable energy. Charging stations are powered by whatever the power grid runs on, which might include oil, coal, and natural gas.
If you want to ensure that your car is powered by renewable energy, you’ll need to seek out charging stations that are powered by wind or solar. Or you can sign up for a green energy plan with your electricity provider to power your home charging station with renewable energy.
Just Energy offers green energy plans and time-of-use discounts, which are perfect for EV drivers. You can charge your electric vehicle during off-peak hours to get lower electricity rates or choose a green energy plan to offset 100% of your energy usage. Simply enter your ZIP code to explore your options!
Brought to you by justenergy.com
All images licensed from Adobe Stock.
Featured image:
Tesla Motors has received more than 325,000 preordersfor its hot new Model 3 electric car even though it will not be available for at least another year. That almost equals the 340,000 electric cars and plug-in hybrids now on American roads. Tesla has advertised its vehicles as having zero emissions, helping fuel the mania for the fun-driving sedan, but that's not necessarily true. Although the battery-powered car itself doesn’t produce any emissions, the power plant that generates the electricity used to charge those batteries probably does. Low emissions, much less zero emissions, are only true in certain places where most of the electricity comes from a mix of low-carbon sources such as the sun, wind or nuclear reactors.
Electric cars are great for eliminating oil from transportation, because very little U.S. electricity is generated by burning petroleum. But electric cars may or may not help the country combat climate change—and it all depends on where the electricity comes from.
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Cars and trucks are responsible for roughly 24 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas pollution—nearly 1.7 billion metric tons per year. Because those emissions come from hundreds of millions of tailpipes, this source of pollution seems difficult to control. Shifting it to hundreds of smokestacks at power plants that supply electricity to charge electric cars therefore seems like a more effective way to clean up the fleet.
But those smokestacks, many attached to coal-fired power plants, are the single-largest source of greenhouse gas pollution in the U.S., at two billion metric tons of CO2 per year. That source would grow as electric cars demand more and more electricity, unless tighter pollution controls are placed on power plants or electric utilities shift to less polluting sources such as solar. As it stands, a conventional Toyota Prius hybrid vehicle, which burns gasoline when its batteries are not engaged, and the all-electric Nissan Leaf produce roughly the same amount of greenhouse gas pollution: 200 grams per mile, according to data from the U.S. Department of Energy.
That's an average across the U.S. In California, which has one of the highest proportions of clean electricity in the country, the electric vehicle would produce only 100 grams per mile, half that of the hybrid. Ditto for Texas and even Florida. But in the Midwest and South, where coal fuels the bulk of electricity generation, a hybrid produces less CO2 than an electric car. In fossil fuel–dependent Minnesota an electric car would actually emit 300 grams per mile of greenhouse gases. As a result, some researchers suggest that a regional approach to clean vehicle standards makes more sense than national standards that effectively require electric cars across the board. Minnesota could go for hybrids and California could go for electric vehicles.
What time of day the recharging electrons flow form a wall plug into an electric car’s batteries also matters in this calculation. Nighttime is often when the wind blows but it is also when utilities like to run only their coal-fired power plants. A recent study found that an electric car charged by utilities at night in the regional grid that stretches across Ohio, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia creates more greenhouse gas pollution than if owners plugged in their vehicles at random times throughout the daytime, when the utility fuel mixes are more varied.
The same argument applies worldwide. Driving an electric car in China, where coal is by far the largest power plant fuel, is a catastrophe for climate change. And if the coal plant lacks pollution controls—or fails to turn them on—it can amplify the extent of smog, acid rain, lung-damaging microscopic soot and other ills that arise from burning fossil fuels. The same is true in other major coal-burning countries, such as Australia, India and South Africa.
The good news: the U.S. is making a tectonic shift from burning coal to produce the majority of its electricity to using cleaner natural gas. The changeover produces less CO2, making electric cars cleaner across the country, roughly equivalent to a hybrid. On the other hand, the primary constituent of natural gas—methane—is itself a potent greenhouse gas. If methane leaks from the wells where it is produced, the pipelines that transport it or the power plants that burn it, the climate doesn't necessarily benefit.
In short, electric cars are only as good as the electricity that charges them. (A fuel’s source also matters for conventional cars; gasoline derived from tar sands is more polluting than that from most other petroleum resources, for example.) In the absence of clean electricity, hybrid cars that can travel 50 or more miles on a gallon of gasoline produce the least emissions.
Electric cars still constitute less than 1 percent of U.S. car sales, and even less of the global fleet that is now approaching two billion vehicles. So their environmental benefit—dubious for now, until more power plants get off coal—is not very worrisome. The current shift back to SUVs that guzzle much more petroleum than other cars, prompted by low gasoline prices, is a more worrisome sign for future climate change. Perhaps by the time electric cars are ubiquitous, pollution from generating electricity will be zero.
If you are looking for more details, kindly visit 11kw Home Ev Charger, Wall Box Charger, Public Charging Stations.