Do you have home-charging? A very common question when people are considering electric vehicles, if you do park in a garage say, or a carport that you happen to own, and installing a home charger is convenient, you absolutely should consider an EV. But in many ways, its the wrong question to start with, a better one is what kind of driving do you do, where can you find charging, then pick something that works well with how you live your life.
Generally we have three types of driving: Long distance freeway driving, stop and go city, and some mixture of the two. Electric cars do OK at freeway speeds, but really shine in stop and go city traffic. Conversely, a gas car, particularly one without the hybrid stuff, shines on the freeway but kinda sucks efficiency wise in the city. Hybrids, particularly mild hybrids, are somewhere in between, but even the most efficient hybrid, cant touch EV’s on energy efficiency. Here in Toronto, with some of the worst traffic in all of North America (source), if you live or work in the city, this one is easy for me, go EV.
Then there is charging or fuelling. Is there a conveniently located gas station where you live? You might be surprised to find that there are more charging stations than gas-stations in downtown Toronto (source). Where I live, I have seen three out of four gas stations in my neighbourhood close (source), how would your fuelling situation be if your neighbourhood met with a similar fate?
Do you have home charging, or can you easily install it? Home charging is the most convenient, and possibly the cheapest way to charge your EV. But other opportunities abound, some grocery stores, breweries, gyms offer EV charging as perk to their customers. My local gym offers L2 charging at $2.50/hr, which might be wonderful if I could not charge at home. In fact, if I go, 2-3 times a week, why that is perhaps 3-6 hours of L2 charging I could use without any inconvenience on my behalf. In fact these EV charging spots are often the only ones available in the parking garage, so advantage EV. Assuming 40 km/hr charging speed, that translates into 120-240 km charged every week, just from my gym trips, no home charging required.
Work might be another convenient spot, my wife’s employer (and mine too for that matter), offer L2 charging stations in the parking garage. These are first-come-first-serve, so it can feel a bit like the hunger-games to get these, but hey, that might be all the charging you need to live your life that week, spend 8 hrs at the office, and using the aforementioned 40 km/hr charging speed, why that’s 320 km of charging just that one day at the office. Oh and for my wife’s employer, its free charging.
Most of us lease or at least finance our cars. That’s a financial commitment for perhaps 48-60-72 months, that is 4-5 or 6 years respectively. Whatever you choose, you need to think long term about it, what will my life look like in 5 years? For me, my teenagers will likely be off to college, so do I really need that third row…
Electric car adventures 