With gas prices rising, is there an electric vehicle (EV) in your future? A survey by the American Automobile Association found that 20 percent of Americans said an EV would be the next car they buy. When gas prices rise, so does interest in EVs. But to many people, EVs are still a mystery.
EV Charging Capacity
Some of the AAA respondents worried about finding charging facilities or running out of a charge. An average day’s driving of around 35 miles can be recharged at home in a couple of hours using a 240-volt plug (the same plug a clothes dryer uses) and charger. Charging a 110-volt standard U.S. outlet would take longer, about 4 miles per hour.
Battery electric vehicles can go 124 to 335 miles without recharging depending on the vehicle. Manufacturers also make plug-in hybrid EVs such as the Chevrolet Volt, which goes 53 miles on battery power and has a combustion engine that provides range like a normal gas car.
EV Charging Networks
A growing fast-charging network makes road trips practical in BEVs. Most fast chargers produce 50 kilowatts (kW), which charges 100 miles of range in less than 30 minutes. Tesla has a nationwide network of 113, 344 Superchargers that can charge 100 miles of range in 15 minutes. Superchargers are usually within 50 to 100 miles of each other near major highways and interstates, making countrywide travel in a Tesla practical. Duke Energy has a network of charging stations in North Carolina and introduced its Park & Plug network in Florida.
Charging Apps
Charging an electric vehicle couldn’t be easier today. Both Tesla and ChargePoint use apps to charge (check out this video of ChargePoint charging units’ phone app). You can even use Alexa to manage the charging of your vehicle. ChargePoint’s goal is to get everyone behind the wheel of an EV and make it easy to charge wherever they go, even if a station isn’t on the ChargePoint network. They believe the best way to make this happen is with peer-to-peer roaming agreements between charging networks. ChargePoint is leading the effort to create peer-to-peer roaming agreements that make it easy for drivers to charge wherever they go.
Roaming
Peer-to-peer roaming doesn’t add surcharges for the driver, eliminates any middleman and provides access to more drivers without any additional effort for station owners. Best of all, the driver doesn’t have to sign up for any additional accounts or networks. Everything is taken care of by their existing network. This makes it convenient for the driver to charge their EV, gives them confidence in being able to drive electric and increases their choice of where they charge.
EV Installation
Yes Solar Solutions is a ChargePoint partner and a Tesla certified installer and our Project Coordinator can walk you through exactly what you need for installation and an estimate of what it will cost. Contact us to be EV ready no matter when you are buying an electric vehicle or what kind. We are here to help. 919-459-4155 or learn more here.