Electric Vehicle chargers and running cost of electric vehicles

Electrical vehicles seems to becoming reality as there is increased focus on reducing pollution and reducing dependency on petroleum products. But there are many challenges while going with electric vehicles such as time required for charging the vehicles and space required for parking the vehicles and also higher cost of electric vehicles in comparison to other vehicles. There is also challenge for long driving as while driving long charging of vehicles will be required after few intervals, which required considerable time for charging again. There is lot of infrastructure and electricity is required to cater all these problems.

Cost of driving electric vehicle is very low in comparison to petroleum products.

There are few terms you must know before going through in details:-

On Board Charging:-

There are chargers which are factory fitted and are known as on board chargers and there are 2 types of charging devices for the same:-

(i)                 Level-1 Charger:-

The slowest form of charging. Uses a plug to connect to the on-board charger and a standard household (120v) outlet. This setup provides between 2 and 5 miles per hour. While this does not sound at all impressive, it can work for those who travel less than 40 miles a day and have all night to charge.

(ii)               Level-2 Charger:-

These chargers converts alternating current (AC) power from the wall to Direct current (DC) power as batteries are required DC for charging. The speed of charging the vehicle varies most commonly there are following on board chargers:-

(i)                 6.6 kW on-board charger for battery electric vehicles

(ii)               3.3 kW on-board charger for hybrid electric vehicles

For faster charging off-board chargers are used.

These types of chargers use an EVSE to provide power at 220v or 240v at the output for upto 30 amps current. These chargers will charge the vehicle for upto 10-25 miles in an hour of charging at home or at a public station.

There is one another charging which is known as Level 3 charging and it is also known as DC fast charging. Usually these charges are similar to Gas filling dispenser sized machine.

There isn’t any single standard for fast charging of vehicles and Tesla well know name in the field of electric vehicles is using supercharger Network. Nissan Leaf is using CHAdeMO technique for faster charging. These fast chargers can charge 80% of vehicle within 30 minutes.

Costing for charging vehicles:-

Customers who are using the electric vehicles always prefer to charge vehicles at home and most often level 2 chargers are recommended.  These chargers are usually cost around $500-$600 depending upon the manufacturer. Depending upon the electricity cost charges will be applicable accordingly. In US there are incentives for both commercial and home chargers. Almost 30% of charging station cost is covered up by tax credits and other rebates given by government.

Nissan Leaf costs around $1 for every 25 miles which is very much lower cost than Petrol, Diesel and in-fact CNG or other Gasoline products.

Tesla Model S which can go upto 250 miles during complete charging and it will take around $10 for complete charging, which will cost around 25 miles per $1.

If you are using level 2 chargers at home which will charge vehicle on 8-9 hours than cost will be even much lower.

Time required for charging an electric car:-

Time required for charging electric cars is usually higher than filling up gasoline at fuel station, at fuel station it usually take 10-15 minutes in filling up fuel in vehicles. There are following details of vehicle which can run after one hour of charging with level 2 chargers:-

(i)                 Nissan Leaf: 11-22 miles

(ii)               Ford Focus Electric: 22 miles

(iii)             Volkswagen e-Golf: 24 miles

(iv)              BMW i3: 28 miles

(v)                Tesla Model S: 29-60 miles

(vi)              Chevy Volt: 11 miles

With DC fast charging of vehicle will be even faster details of the same as below:-

(i)       Nissan Leaf: 60-95 miles in 30 minutes

(ii)     Ford Focus Electric: (no fast-charging)

(iii)    Volkswagen e-Golf: 60-83 miles in 30 minutes

(iv)   BMW i3: 60-82 miles in 30 minutes

(v)     Tesla Model S: 170 miles in 30 minutes

With level 1 charger you can obtain four miles an hour, thus required lot of time for charging for electric vehicle.

There are following incentives and points to kept in mind while buying electric vehicles:-

(i)                 Know the incentives available:-

You should know what are the subsidies available in the market with e-vehicles. You must know the final price before buying vehicle, you must also know about maintenance cost and running cost of vehicle. You must compare running cost of vehicle with various fuels available in the market and know about buyback period of purchasing e-vehicle. There are lower charges offered by various power supply companies on power consumption for charging electrical vehicles which makes them even more economical.

(ii)               Get your electrical system ready for charging e-vehicle:-

Before installing the charging station you must know about ampere of charging station. You should install the charging station which can handle upto 30A for fast charging.

(iii)             Know about charging station near you:-

You must know about level 2 charging station near your job, park or regular stop. This will help you to charge your vehicle quickly when you are at work or relaxing somewhere.