We bought a used electric vehicle (EV) about 18 months ago to replace our 12-year-old hybrid, which we gave to a relative. It’s our first EV. Some observations:

Driving

It’s super quiet. It does make a whirring sound outside the car to alert pedestrians

It’s super quick—that takes some getting used to.

I’m not a car person, but I really like one-pedal driving. Most EVs have regenerative braking, which means that when you take your foot off the accelerator, it kicks in. That immediately slows the car and transfers the braking energy into the car’s main battery. I hardly ever need to touch the brakes. (Note: the brake lights go on when regen is active.)

Charging.

We charge at home in the driveway 95% of the time. It takes all of 30 seconds to plug into a standard outdoor power outlet. Charging does take a long time with a household outlet—maybe 35 hours to go from near zero to 100%. We’ve never done it because we simply top the battery overnight as needed.

Cars are parked 20 to 22 hours a day on average, which is plenty of time to recharge using a standard AC outlet. EV owners develop a mindset: every time you park is a charging opportunity.

We don’t drive every day; we prefer walking, biking, or public transit.

Range

The max is about 350 kilometers (km) in moderate temperatures. (The battery is on the smaller side.) Use the AC, and the range can fall to 300 km. Since all the car’s energy is in the battery, anything that uses energy (electricity)—the fan, lights, wipers, defrost, heater, etc—draws down the battery, limiting range.

The same thing happens in a gasoline-powered vehicle; we just never pay attention. Nor do gas vehicles have a detailed dashboard indicator to tell you how much your AC is cutting into your mileage.

Cold Weather Range

In cold weather, the EV heats up faster than a gasoline vehicle. It’s likely because the battery keeps itself warmish. That said, batteries don’t like very cold temps. It does get very cold here: -20 C to -25 C (-5 F to -13 F). That’s a range killer; we see a 20% to 30% drop. So, we get less than 250 km range on a full charge with the heater running.

Cost:

Going from 20% to 80% charge, which is what we usually do, costs around $6 at home (we have very low-cost power). It’s between $15 and $20 to do the same at a commercial charger. It takes about 40 to 50 minutes for a full charge. Lots of time for lunch on the road!

Very fast chargers like a Tesla Supercharger are a bit more expensive but take less than 20 minutes.

FYI: You don’t need to monitor the charging. Just plug in and walk away. The charger will stop when your battery hits 80% charge (or whatever you set it to.) Your phone monitors the charging and will let you know when it’s done.

The average driver in the US spends around US $1,900 a year on gasoline (13,700 miles). We’d spend about C $450 (US $320) to cover the same distance by charging at home.

For more on EVs in general, and a link to the 21 misleading myths, see: An EV Uprising: Electric vehicles to rule the roads.

Until next time. Be well.

Stephen

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