Questions about Electric Vehicles

[karlukkid]

I am curious if anyone who has installed an outlet for an EV would answer a couple questions:

1) Roughly what was the cost of installing electricity to charge the vehicle?

2) We are estimating 100 miles a week, any estimate regarding the increase in out electrical bill.


I appreciate any feedback, b

[Nordski]

I have/had the same question. I recently talked to a fellow that has a Chevrolet Bolt. He drives it back and forth to Seattle (one stop in either Leavenworth or Cle Elum) and around the valley when he is here. He had a Nissan Leaf prior. He has never installed a 220v charger outlet either here or in Seattle. He said the 110 outlet was plenty if you plug in whenever it's not out on the road.

Our conversation didn't include the cost of electricity.

[Carol]

Maybe $30 to $40 a month. Totally worth it. Electric cars are great and the charging infrastructure in NCW is only getting better with chargers planned in Pateros. Can’t imagine ever owning a gas rig again.

I do wish there were better charging options in Wenatchee as well as one in Grand Coulee for trips to Spokane.

[TheLing]

I wanted to run wiring to get 60amp 240v charging but my house layout made the cost prohibitive for the moment, so I just converted a 20a 110v outlet to 240v and that gets me 15mi/hr charging. Plenty for my 100mi daily round trip commute. I think my total cost was under 50 bucks.
Our bill has gone up about 40 per month at around 2k miles per month. At 100mi per week id barely expect to see a blip on your bill.

[JoeBastian]

Didn't see that anyone answered question 1. If you were going to have an electrician do it I'd expect $1000 unless you have easy access to a panel. GM has deals where they pay for the install as part of the purchase of the vehicle. I wouldn't recommend using 110V to charge unless you have another vehicle to use

[geraldebell]

Most EV’s travel 3-4 miles on a KW of electricity. Obviously, this varies a lot with conditions, the big one being temperature. If you drive 100 miles a week you should use less than 40 KW, 25-35 KW, and at 10 cents a KW you should spent less than $4/week in electricity cost. This is consistent with most EV’s being rated at the equivalent of 100 miles/gal

[boogeo]

If you desire Level 2 charging at home, you'll need a 220V outlet. I did the wiring myself to add a 220 volt circuit and outlet in my garage. Not a complicated job, usually. Then I purchased a Seimens charger for about $400 and plugged it in. Works great, charges my Bolt at about 25 miles of range per hour of charge.

[karlukkid]

Thanks to All who posted,,, this is helpful information. Bruce Herron Wolf Creek

[wanderlust]

We have been driving EVs since 2013, initially a Nissan Leaf and now a Tesla. They are great, generally, with a few quirks

1) The short range cars are fine 98% of the time...until they aren't.

If you are getting something with <200mi range be mindful of the remaining charge when you set out - based on your driving history. Our experience was that the onboard range estimates are quite optimistic. It is easy to set out, feel fine, and then look down and see that the battery is almost smoked and you have 12 miles to go and nowhere to charge

2) Trickle chargers are ok in a pinch but you really need Level 2

We used the 120v trickle charger for a long time with the Leaf. It can take 12h+ to replenish a small battery. For bigger batteries it is just not viable - for our Tesla 3 LR, it'll take days to go from low to fully charged.

We found that we were always struggling to get a full charge which exaggerated the range issues. Switching to a L2 charger was the ticket. Put it on the beefiest circuit you can muster. Ours is on a 60a line, I think.

3) Make sure the car has a fast charger onboard

Charging rate is a mix of the car and the charger. Both have to be lined up to quickly get you rolling again.