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I've been dabbling with portable home storage and a solar panel so I've been looking at electricity. We drove 2 EVs. 2,000 miles total per month.
At just over .10 per KwH the cars cost us $25 a month each to drive. And then the utilty sends me a check for $14 a month ($7 per car) if I charge after 10PM. I do, so 1,000 miles a month on the car costs us net $18 each.
Actually that's not the typical public charger experience from my 4+ years of driving pure electrics.
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GM was supposed to get access to Superchargers in February but they haven't done the software updates. It's just billing stuff related to plug and charge. Ford and Rivian have done the updates, GM hasn't yet. But I'd wait until they do and make sure the Bolt does get access an not just GM's newer Ultium EVs. Keep the Accord until then or just get a Tesla.
Quite a few Bolt owners have used the Tesla Magic Docks, where the supercharger already has a CCS plug on it. A lot of those around now.
Actually that's not the typical public charger experience from my 4+ years of driving pure electrics.
Quite a few Bolt owners have used the Tesla Magic Docks, where the supercharger already has a CCS plug on it. A lot of those around now.
There's very few. I've used the Scotts Valley Supercharger twice as it's one of the two Magic Dock locations. The issue there is there's less than 60 as of last month in the US and Canada Superchargers w/ Magic Docks which isn't exactly a lot. There's probably almost as many hydrogen fueling stations as Magick Dock Superchargers. Just wait for GM or whatever manufacturer to update their software rather than counting on 60 Superchargers to somehow work.
There's very few. I've used the Scotts Valley Supercharger twice as it's one of the two Magic Dock locations. The issue there is there's less than 60 as of last month in the US and Canada Superchargers w/ Magic Docks which isn't exactly a lot. There's probably almost as many hydrogen fueling stations as Magick Dock Superchargers. Just wait for GM or whatever manufacturer to update their software rather than counting on 60 Superchargers to somehow work.
I am a curious person with an interest in EVs, and I have probably read at least 200 articles and watched at least 200 YouTube videos on EVs, and the more that I have learned about DC fast-charging, especially on non-Tesla networks, the warier that I have become of it.
I am a curious person with an interest in EVs, and I have probably read at least 200 articles and watched at least 200 YouTube videos on EVs, and the more that I have learned about DC fast-charging, especially on non-Tesla networks, the warier that I have become of it.
The majority of DC fast chargers work fine, but I think the expectation is really that all of them always work pretty much all the time just as gas stations normally do. One good thing about apps like plugshare is that they have rating systems that you can use to filter out the bad ones, because usually the bad ones are the ones are bad for a while due to the hardware they were using for the era it was installed and only patching things up instead of completely replacing them. You'll see on some forums that the faulty chargers seem to be specific eras (and region!) of Electrify America and who they used as a hardware supplier at the time, and those are ones to avoid.
The often faulty chargers also happen to be the ones with the bad ratings on apps like plugshare which is why you have posters like H8PJs having done just fine with DC fast charging in the US despite not driving a Tesla, and posters like Malloric saying stuff they either just don't quite understand or are trying to be purposefully misleading.
I do think the changeover to NACS is also good in that it gives greater impetus for charging providers to swap out faulty hardware for hardware that is more reliable. I also wonder if these sorts of app services will do something to note that new hardware has been installed and thus are essentially "new" charging sites or if they'll have to carry over the poor scores from before. Ideally though, chargers would be so reliable once converted that no one cares about the scores for charging reliability as the basis would just be that they're all reliable.
EV use only added about $40-50 a month depending on when you charge vs abut $300 in gas. But it all depends how much driving you need. For example, when I drove EV I charged nightly and the more I drove the less time I am able to charge because I needed to use the car sooner and created more need for me to charge outside during trips. So you can't just measure household use only.
There's very few. I've used the Scotts Valley Supercharger twice as it's one of the two Magic Dock locations. The issue there is there's less than 60 as of last month in the US and Canada Superchargers w/ Magic Docks which isn't exactly a lot. There's probably almost as many hydrogen fueling stations as Magick Dock Superchargers. Just wait for GM or whatever manufacturer to update their software rather than counting on 60 Superchargers to somehow work.
There seems to be quite a few over here. In fact, there's one in Easton, MD out on the eastern shore that I only found out about recently, as it's halfway from my current house to my new house 3 hours from here on the southern tip of MD's eastern shore. Didn't expect that. I can now drive from here to upstate NY using Tesla Magic docks in my Bolt, something that couldn't be done even a year ago.
The majority of DC fast chargers work fine, but I think the expectation is really that all of them always work pretty much all the time just as gas stations normally do. One good thing about apps like plugshare is that they have rating systems that you can use to filter out the bad ones, because usually the bad ones are the ones are bad for a while due to the hardware they were using for the era it was installed and only patching things up instead of completely replacing them. You'll see on some forums that the faulty chargers seem to be specific eras (and region!) of Electrify America and who they used as a hardware supplier at the time, and those are ones to avoid.
The often faulty chargers also happen to be the ones with the bad ratings on apps like plugshare which is why you have posters like H8PJs having done just fine with DC fast charging in the US despite not driving a Tesla, and posters like Malloric saying stuff they either just don't quite understand or are trying to be purposefully misleading.
I do think the changeover to NACS is also good in that it gives greater impetus for charging providers to swap out faulty hardware for hardware that is more reliable. I also wonder if these sorts of app services will do something to note that new hardware has been installed and thus are essentially "new" charging sites or if they'll have to carry over the poor scores from before. Ideally though, chargers would be so reliable once converted that no one cares about the scores for charging reliability as the basis would just be that they're all reliable.
Yes, agree that the industry shift to NACS/Tesla network will be all to the good. The other networks have issues with availability/uptime, there could also be a line to access a working charger. Some of the big networks aren't good about upgrading their chargers to current standards - so a lot of those DC "fast chargers" are only capable of doing 50kW DC, and it's just not very fast. Then there's the fact that the automaker will also govern the actual charging rate so as to protect the batteries, and the stated maximum supported rate for the car may only be available within a narrow range of charge state, and you're software limited by the car to a small fraction of that upper limit... there are just a lot of ways for this to go slowly or go wrong... and I have seen so many videos of expert users, who like EVs, but are running into issues for any of a number of reasons on a longer trip. If you're motivated and have patience, it seems you can normally still prevail by waiting long enough or finding other charging sources, so actually running out of electrons may be rare, but running into trouble seems to be common. It's been pretty discouraging, OyCrumbler!
I'm almost tempted to start a new thread because posting about the public charging network seems to be a hijack here, but...
I have an EV and charge overnight at home, and very rarely at work. Occasionally some third location, but rarely. I live in SoCal.
On a recent trip to New England, I rented a Hyundai EV and did some homework beforehand to map out available chargers in proximity to where I would be each and every day. Here's what I experienced. Reminder I am a fan of EVs and will probably drive one for the rest of my driving life.
1. A Better Route Planner isn't a terrific app to navigate, especially on the fly, but at least it's agnostic as far as brand of charger. But it also shows (I think?) chargers on random private property. I'm not certain, to be fair, that these can be filtered out.
2. I needed to download 3 other apps to cover the different chargers I'd need to use over the 6 days. Not the end of the world, but unwieldy. I probably had the option of charging without the app, and just scanning a CC at the charging station, but the apps seemed to make it easier.
3. Way more low-amp charging stations out there as a % of total charging stations.
4. Some a-hole unplugged me TWICE while rapid charging. I had walked away for lunch both times. Plenty of stalls available, that wasn't an issue.
5. Overall, I'd say about 25% of total stations (all vendors) were broken.
Average household uses 900 kWh a month, 225 a week. So that's about right... for a Chevrolet Silverado 4WT or Hummer with 200 kWh batteries. Most EVs have batteries more in the 70-90 kWh range. Averages aren't all that useful though as there's huge swings. California most households use natural gas for heat, hot water, and then cooking/drier are more mixed between electric and gas. Coastal California here so I don't even have an air conditioner so electricity runs appliances and lights and that's about it. Lots of people have pools or hot tubs which hoover down the electricity. Household can mean an 700 square foot apartment with shared walls or a 3,800 square foot McMansion with walls of windows.
Just take the efficiency of whatever EV you're looking at and how much you drive. E.g., I'm still working from how part of the time, gas is better for longer trips so we take one of the gas cars. I do about 700 miles a month on the EV and it's 35 kWh/100 miles so 245 kWh per month charging. Plus some losses, call it 15% to be conservative and it's 282 kWh. I have solar though and it's looking like over a year I'll use about 2,000 kWh of grid electricity over the year for the house and EV. Makes sense. Solar system was calculated to generate slightly more electricity than I use for the house. I'll need to expand it to cover charging which I may/may not do. Rated efficiency is pretty accurate for non-Teslas (add 10-15% for Tesla) in mild climates. E.g., Rivian R1T is rated at 48 kWh/100 miles, Edmunds got 46 kWh/100 miles so slightly better than rated. Auto journalists tend to drive aggressively versus the average driver. Polestar 2 I have is rated at 38 kWh/100 miles, I get 35.
My Tesla app provides exactly how much I charged for the year which was 5402KW or about 45KW/MO. Since I pay about 9 cents per KW, my Tesla is costing about $40/mo on average and I drive about 1500 miles per month. To go the same distance in my X5 would cost about $330/mo so a monthly savings of $290/MO.
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