EVs 101

Some quick facts on EVs.

Cheap Maintenance: With no oil, exhaust, belts or spark plugs, maintenance is a snap.
Cheap Charging Costs: Charging an EV for 13,000km would cost about $350 (75% LESS than fuelling up with gas!).
Charging Convenience: Charging while you sleep allows you to wake up to a full tank and skip the gas station line-ups.
Environmentally Friendly: Preheat your car on cold days without expensive and polluting idling or risk of a ticket.
Competitive Ranges: Most Canadians drive less than 50km a day. EVs handle that easily with a range of 300-550km.
Government Incentives: Individuals can get an EV rebate up to $5000 and businesses can write off some EV expenses.

EV Charging Times

One of the first questions people ask about electric cars is about charging time and the best, most honest answer is that it depends. It depends on the battery size of your car and what type of charging station you use. Generally, there are three different ways you can charge an electric car:

Level 1 Charging: This is the slowest charge. It typically uses the vehicle’s “trickle charge” cable and a standard 110v wall outlet. This method can be used to recover daily driving (~8km of range per hour).
Level 2 Charging: This level of charger is most often found and used at home—the place where you leave your car for an extended period (~30-40km of range per hour).
Level 3 Charging: This is the fastest option and it also referred to as Direct Current Fast Charger (DCFC), or a Supercharger in the case of Tesla. Although charging times depend on several factors, on average it takes about an hour to charge from empty to 100%.

EV Categories

EVs fall into three categories:

1. Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV): BEVs have electric motors, batteries, and recharge by plugging into a wall outlet (very slow) or, ideally, a charging station.
2. Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV): PHEVs have electric motors, batteries that can be recharged by plugging in and gas engines that may be used to recharge the vehicle’s battery or take over for the electric motor.
3. Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV): FCEVs have electric motors and batteries that are charged by converting hydrogen to electricity on-board.

**Note: Non plug-in hybrids are not considered to be electric vehicles as the batteries can only be recharged by the gas engine or regenerative braking systems.