2011 has seen a renewed interest in electric vehicles thanks to a spirited drive by the US government (the US is the world’s largest car market) as well as the launch of the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt. It is easy for one to get caught up in the excitement of the moment and impulsively purchase an electric vehicle. For all its benefits, purchasing a cheap electric car without having a good grasp of a number of key factors, would be a big mistake. Here are some of the fundamentals:
- Electric cars fall into two categories – plug-in hybrids and full-electric vehicles. Strictly speaking, the term ‘electric car’ applies to the latter. Full-electric cars are solely dependent on an array of large rechargeable batteries. Once the batteries run out, the car cannot move any more, The Nissan Leaf is a full electric car. Plug-in hybrids are part powered by batteries (albeit smaller ones) and partly powered by a gasoline engine. The gasoline engine kicks in when the batteries run out or if great thrust is required e.g. if you are overtaking. The Chevy Volt is a hybrid.
- There are three levels of electric car charging – Level 1 charging occurs via an ordinary domestic power outlet. It is the slowest with each hour of charging to generating only 5 miles of driving. Level 2 charging utilizes wall mounted equipment specifically designed for charging electric cars. It is more effective than level 1 delivering 15 to 30 miles for each hour of charging. DC fast charging is the highest level and uses industrial standard electric charging. It takes about half an hour for DC charging to produce 80 miles of driving. Not all electric cars support DC fast charging.
- A cheap electric car is suitable for intraday driving. Cross country road trips are currently not feasible. – This is for several reasons. First, it takes a substantial amount of level 2 charging to chalk up significant driving mileage. Second, electric car charging stations (similar to gas stations) are virtually non-existent. While the US federal government is driving an aggressive plan to have over 1000 electric car charging stations put up over the next 2 to 3 years mainly in the West Coast, it will take a couple of decades before electric car charging stations are at par with gas stations.
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