Range Confidence: Charge Fast, Drive Far, with your Electric Car

By David Herron

Last Update: April 13, 2019

  1. Range Confidence: Charge Fast, Drive Far, on Electricity
    1. The false 'Range Anxiety' story would keep us from driving electric
    2. A brief history of Range Anxiety in electric cars and gasoline cars
  2. Learning Range Confidence
    1. Step 1 - Map your trips to know how far you need to drive
    2. Step 2 - Know your local EV charging terrain
    3. Step 3 - Getting around town with your electric vehicle
    4. Step 4 - Set up charging at home, at work, or nearby
    5. Step 5 - Prefer electric cars with fast charging
    6. Step 6 - Charging station network memberships and smart phone apps
  3. Solving range anxiety in daily driving - putting range confidence into practice
    1. Typical daily driving needs, on electricity
    2. Electric vehicle charging scenarios
    3. How and where to charge electric cars in public
    4. Example longer trips with electric cars - putting range confidence into practice
  4. Autonomy and electric driving freedom
  5. Charging station etiquette - effectively sharing limited electric car charging resources
    1. Electric vehicle drivers Bill of Rights
  6. Electric vehicle range and charging infrastructure
    1. Energy storage, energy consumption, weather and electric car driving range
    2. Total driving range in electric cars: plug-in hybrid versus fast charging
    3. What happens if an electric vehicle runs out of power in a city with no charging stations?
    4. Why doesn't the dashboard show accurate range?
    5. Battery pack age, and capacity loss
    6. How does EPA estimate electric car driving range?
    7. Understanding the EPA ratings label for electric cars
  7. Charging electric cars in public
    1. Electric car charging speed and effective trip speed on road trips
    2. What electric car charging rate do we need at home, at the office, on road trips, at airports, or elsewhere?
    3. Can you drive an electric car away from charging network coverage areas?
    4. What charging networks exist? ChargePoint? Plugshare?
    5. Types of electric car charging connectors, and compatibility: A Field Guide to electric vehicle service equipment
    6. Is it bad to charge an electric car with an extension cord?
    7. Best portable electric car charging stations for home or on trips
    8. How do I pay for energy consumed in charging my electric vehicle?
    9. How do electric car charging station networks make money?
    10. Electric car fast charging held back by standards battle between CHAdeMO, Combo Charging System and Tesla Supercharger
    11. Electric car fast charging required for widespread EV adoption
    12. Smart-phone apps for finding electric car charging station networks
    13. Known electric car charging networks around the world
    14. What to do if the charging cord is stuck, cannot be removed
  8. Getting and installing at home electric car charging equipment
    1. Installing cheap/inexpensive electric car charging at home
    2. How to plan for and install 240 volt circuit to charge an electric car/vehicle?
    3. Fast charging your electric car at home
    4. Apartment/Condo dwellers - what to do if you cannot charge at home
    5. How-to: 240 volts when all you have is 120 volt outlets
  9. The best electric car charging stations for home charging or on trips
  10. A brief study of EV Ownership Economics
    1. Fuel cost per mile
    2. Tipping the economic balance in favor of electricity
    3. Charging cost at home versus in public
    4. The high cost of free charging
  11. Electric car charging technology
    1. Charging levels - Level 1, Level 2, DC Fast Charging, etc
    2. EV DC Fast Charging standards – CHAdeMO, CCS, SAE Combo, Tesla Supercharger, etc
    3. EV AC Fast Charging Systems – Renault ZOE, Smart ED
    4. Fast charge adapters are possible, but how many really need CHAdeMO-CCS adapters?
    5. Why does charging a battery take so long? Hint: reversible electrochemical reactions cannot be rushed
    6. Wouldn't battery swapping be preferable over waiting to recharge?
    7. Can an electric car be charged while driving? Such as a battery pack in a trailer?
    8. When will electric cars charge as fast as a gasoline car? (5 minutes to recharge)
    9. What is the technical limitations on maximum electric car charging rate, why is the Tesla Supercharger limited to 120 kW?
    10. Safely use Extension Cords when charging an electric car or electric motorcycle
    11. Informal electric car charging at any power outlet, versus a regular charging station
    12. When are electric car extension cords required?
    13. Electric car charging within electrical code and power outlet limits
    14. Is it safe to charge an electric car in the rain?
    15. Why do all-electric cars not have a small (efficient) generator for a limp home to ease range anxiety?
    16. Why is there a 12 volt lead-acid battery, and how is it charged in an electric car?
  12. About the Author - David Herron
  13. Copyright
Charging an electric vehicle at home is the most convenient place to charge. You'll easily spend 10 or more hours at home, every day, so the car might as well be charging. Gasoline car owners don't have this advantage. Instead, they have to go out of their way to find a gasoline station. Electric car or motorcycle owners have the luxury of a fully charged vehicle every day. That makes it worth your while to get and install electric car charging at home.

The good news is it is incredibly easy to set this up at very little cost, depending on your need. Many people have a dedicated parking space with an electricity outlet nearby that they control.

Can an electric car be charged at home?

Well, yes, of course. Electric car owners have the privilege of being able to refuel their cars at home. Gasoline car owners don't have this privilege and instead must go out of their way to find refueling stations.

An electric car can be refueled anywhere there is electricity.

Gasoline cars cannot refuel anywhere, they can only be refueled at gasoline stations.

Put those two statements in your noodle and think about the freedom electric car owners have.

Can you plug your electric car into a regular power outlet?

No. For safety reasons the powers that be determined it was best to require a special charging connector to recharge electric cars. The effect of that decision is you're required to use a small adapter box that has the required safety interlocks.

An adapter box is included with every electric car. And there are other charging stations available to be purchased.

Why should we charge electric cars at home?

Let's get a question out of the way -- Gasoline car owners don't have to set up a refueling station at home. Why should electric car owners have to pay to set up a charging station? Isn't it unfair that we have to shoulder the extra cost of installing a charging station just to own an electric car or motorcycle?

It's a free world, and if you want to always charge your car at a public charging station by all means do so.

If you think about it, the gasoline price includes the amortized cost of gasoline stations. The pump price for gasoline is the wholesale cost of gasoline plus the markup imposed by the station owner, from which s/he pays all their expenses including the cost of the gasoline station. Hence, the fact that gasoline car owners pay for their refueling equipment is obscured and buried in the gasoline cost.

Electric vehicle owners with a home charging station pay for the equipment up-front, then have a cheaper fuel cost because the cost of electricity as a fuel is a fraction of the cost of electricity. And there is the luxury of home-based refueling, having a car that is always refueled is a big advantage over gasoline car ownership.

Setup

The lowest cost charging setup is using the charging cord supplied with the car. Every electric car is sold with such a cord. Using it with a good quality (not old and raggedy) power outlet is safe, and an inexpensive way to charge an electric car at home.

The cheapest setup also supports the lowest charge rate. Most of us will a higher charge rate, which will take a little bit of planning.

Charging station plugged into power outlet

The simplest method to set up home charging is to plug a charging station into a power outlet. Your home may already have a conveniently located power outlet. If not, it's easy to have one installed.

The two approaches to this are:

It's useful to consult with an electrician. They should explain to you the maximum continuous load allowed through wiring of a given thickness, and the voltage drop over a wiring run. Electricians have the training to ensure the correct wire thickness from service panel to the power outlet. See this for some details: Electric car charging within electrical code and power outlet limits

The power outlet needs sufficient power to handle the charging station. We go over the electrical code in the link just mentioned, and go over planning the outlet in How to plan for and install 240 volt circuit to charge an electric car/vehicle?

When in doubt hire an electrician. Make sure the electrician understands the charging station is a continuous load. You don't want your house to burn down because the electrician didn't install the right stuff.

Charging station attached to a Junction Box

It's often recommended for the higher powered charging stations to be hard-wired to a junction box, rather than connected to a power outlet. There may be electrical reliability reasons for doing so, since power outlets can become corroded and flaky over time.

The actual installation is also fairly simple.

  • Have an electrician install wiring, in conduit if required, ending in a junction box located where the charging station is to be installed
  • Connect the charging station wiring to the junction box wiring
  • Turn on the circuit breaker

This too is covered in How to plan for and install 240 volt circuit to charge an electric car/vehicle?

Range Confidence is Copyright © 2016-17 by David Herron

About the Author(s)

David Herron : David Herron is a writer and software engineer focusing on the wise use of technology. He is especially interested in clean energy technologies like solar power, wind power, and electric cars. David worked for nearly 30 years in Silicon Valley on software ranging from electronic mail systems, to video streaming, to the Java programming language, and has published several books on Node.js programming and electric vehicles.
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