Beginner's Guide to EV Charging (2021)

ev charging is probably the most confusing part of the ev ownership experience and even after driving my model 3 for 20 000 miles and over a year and a half there are still some things that trip me up with it there's different power levels different plugs different looking stations all kinds of things that can be very confusing if you're coming from a gas car where everything is pretty standardized so if you are a new ev owner or are looking to make the switch to an electric vehicle this video should help you out i'm not going to make it too technical either just a brief overview of charging but if that is something you'd like let me know down in the comments and i will make that happen so unlike gas cars evs have to be charged with some sort of ev charging equipment these can be called ev chargers charging stations charging points or more formally evses which stands for electric vehicle supply equipment all of these mean the same thing it's just the piece of technology that takes power from the grid and adapts it so it's able to charge your car these can be found all over the place from highway exits to shopping centers to parks and even at home in fact all evs sold actually come with a little piece of charging equipment that can charge your car at home on a regular wall outlet but before we get into that let's back up for a second all these chargers are generally split up into different power levels of charging the higher the power level the more power it takes and the faster it will charge your car power is measured in kilowatts that's the standard unit of measure for electricity but just know that more kilowatts equals faster charging i'm also going to quote some charge times for these different power levels but just know that it varies by vehicle your state of charge and different environmental conditions that will vary by vehicle and these numbers are just based on my experience with my model 3. so level one is slow charging you're gonna get around one kilowatt of power but that isn't that much when you're charging something as big as a car you may hear this be called a trickle charge as it takes a long time to fully charge the vehicle when i trickle charge with my model 3 it takes around 20 hours to add 100 miles of range usually at a rate of about 5 miles of range per hour which means a full charge is going to take over 60 hours which is not very fast but if you aren't driving a ton you can easily add 40 to 50 miles overnight and have enough to drive the next day like i mentioned earlier all evs come with a little level one charger in the car that will allow you to charge off of regular wall outlet although it's going to be very slow which is where level two charging comes in level two is medium speed charging this is also sometimes abbreviated to l2 or called a destination charger since these are usually at your destination when traveling to some place like a hotel or a park this is also the power level most ev drivers have installed in their home since it strikes a good balance between cost and charging speed power levels for these chargers range anywhere from four kilowatts to 20 kilowatts but most often you'll see seven kilowatt chargers out and about because that's the same power that most high-powered appliances run on like your dryer and that's also what most utilities are set up to handle on these level 2 chargers my model 3 typically adds about 25 miles of range per hour that means you can add 100 miles of range in four hours and you'll be able to get a full charge in 12 hours which again is why i recommend upgrading over the out of the box charger that comes with the car even if you're driving 250 miles a day in an ev that has a 300 mile range you're easily going to be able to get that range back overnight but there is one more level to charging and that is dc fast charging this is sometimes called a level 3 charger but most often i hear dcfc for direct current fast charging but you might also hear high power dc charging all of these mean the same thing and they are the super fast chargers ranging anywhere from 50 to 350 kilowatts so tons of power that can charge you up really quickly these are the chargers you will use on the road for any kind of distance longer than the range of your car so if you have a 300 mile range you'll probably have to make a dc fast charging stop if you want to travel 400 miles many different companies and networks are working on building out our dcfc infrastructure but as it stands now there are tons of highway routes all across the us with charging infrastructure to make travel and an ev easier on long trips these are your superchargers lex fry america chargers and usually they are much bigger in size usually the size of a refrigerator so they are easy to spot i think level one and two charging is pretty straightforward but at level three that dc fast charging that's where things can get a little bit complicated just because power levels those kilowatt levels can be limited by either the charger or the car itself my car can handle up to 250 kilowatt charging but most of the chargers i go to do not ramp up to 250 kilowatts most of the ones i go to only top out at 150 so that is the maximum amount of power that my car is gonna be able to pull when i'm plugged into those stations but on the flip side of that if i am driving a car that can only handle a hundred kilowatt charging rates then i plug into a station that can output 150 my car is going to be limited to a hundred kilowatts just because it can't handle any more power than that and again higher power levels mean faster charging so if you and your friend are both driving electric vehicles you both pull up to 150 kilowatt stations but one car can only take let's say it's your car can only take 50 kilowatts but your friends can take 150 they are going to charge a lot faster than you and be done quicker than you in the 50 kilowatt car if you are shopping around for an ev and are looking for recommendation on a power level for your car i would recommend anything above 100 kilowatts or even 150 if you're able to most cars on the market now that are coming to market are above that rates and can handle that higher power but some of them can't so i would definitely check into that before buying but when you're charging at those rates that are above 100 kilowatts that's when you get into those really fast charging stops that are 15 to 30 minutes versus 45 to an hour and in my experience stopping at superchargers that even top out at 150 kilowatts i'm stopping for a maximum of 30 minutes and most stops are only 15 minutes but i think the biggest thing to understand about fast charging is it's really only necessary if you travel outside the range of your electric vehicle and for a lot of us that is not very often we're just using our cars to get to work or get around town and do things close to home but for example i live in columbus and i can get to indianapolis louisville pittsburgh cleveland detroit and more without stopping for a charge in cities that are a little bit further are just a quick 15-minute charging stop away so outside of charging levels and charging speeds there are also different plug types you should probably be familiar with if you're looking to switch to an ev i'll preface this by saying there are really only three main plug types and all you really need to know is what's going to work with your car you don't need to be an expert on all of them we'll start out with the most common first the sae j1772 super complicated name but you'll probably be heard it called a j plug but it looks like this and you can see an accompanying port on just about every other car except for teslas fortunately tesla cars do include a little adapter that allows you to use these stations that just pops onto the end of the port and the only problem with this plug type is that it cannot handle dc fast charging it is limited to levels one and two and that is where ccs comes in it looks very similar to the jplug that's because it is it uses the same port just with two additional contacts at the bottom of the handle for that higher power charging most cars with this plug type will have a little port for the jplug then a little flap that you flip down when you want to do that higher powered charging for fast charging there is also the chatimo plug but this is quickly going out of style few vehicles even included anymore and the difference here is that it only does dc fast charging not levels one or two so a nissan leaf is a very common one that is out there a lot has the j plug for levels one and two but then we'll also have the chatimo plug for level three then there's the tesla connector which fortunately can do all three levels of charging but if i want to charge at a non-tesla station i'll need an adapter luckily there is one included with the car for that plug so i can plug at most public level 2 stations and you can purchase an adapter for the chatimo plug but i generally don't recommend it just because superchargers are so common but unfortunately there is no official tesla adapter for the ccs plugs that do exist right now so if you are new to evs or just kind of starting to do your research and came across this video this is probably a little bit overwhelming but i will tell you that once you kind of find your charging routine is what i like to call it charging gets exponentially easier you find out that oh i can just plug in at home i don't need to charge anywhere else if i'm just driving around town or oh i need to go visit family in this one location i know that i need to stop at this supercharger or this fast charger on the way there to make it to my destination i'm someone that does a lot of trips that are very similar pretty much consistently i'm not doing a lot of random weird trips a lot of different places most of the places i drive i've driven before and i know where i need to stop to charge or know that i can make it there on one charge and again you certainly don't need to be an expert on all of these different plug types or power levels or any of that stuff once you understand what works with your car how fast that charging is it gets really easy and if you do want to make charging even easier and be able to take advantage of time of use rates in your area you can check out today's video sponsor optawatt in some locations electricity costs can be more expensive at certain times a day so you could be overpaying for electricity when your tesla is charging optiwatt is an online app that connects to your tesla account and can schedule charging for you to take advantage of cheaper electricity rates overnight for example if you get home from work and plug in your car you could be paying peak rates for a few hours before everyone goes to bed and those rates drop back down if you use optiwatt it will automatically start and stop charging when rates are low so you're paying the lowest amount possible to charge your car all you have to do is set up your desired state of charge when you want to depart and optiwatt handles the rest to sign up you can go to get optiwatt.com or visit the link in the description if you enjoyed this video and want to see an even deeper dive into ev charging with a little bit more technical information i would love to do that just let me know if you want to see that down in the comments and if you have any questions on this topic of charging let me know i'm happy to answer them that's all for this one and i will see you in the next video

Channel: Alex Sibila

Views: 49,449

Keywords: EV, electric vehicle, electric car, charging, station, business, at home, explained, infrastructure, problems, installation, levels, kilowatts, USA, 2021, basics, 101, guide, beginner, for dummies, port, point, system explained, level, level 1, level 2, level 3, DCFC, CCS, J1772, CHAdeMO, near me, destination, DC Fast Charger, DC Fast Charging

Id: Ph05hlu0S3E

Length: 10min 26sec (626 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 23 2021