Plan to switch from gas powered car to electric powered car? Here’s something to watch out for.

How do you plan to charge it?

This will be the most important question you need to answer.

Charge it in your garage

If you have a garage with an output or access to electricity, then this will be the best case scenario.

You can use your normal 110v outlet to trickle charge your EV, it may take a long time, but it should be enough if you don’t need to drive more then about 20 miles a day.

If you want to charge faster, you can install a NEMA 220 V outlet. With that you can install and plugin your own charger. If you have a Tesla you can use the Tesla wall charger . With that you can fully charge your car within few hours.

I live in an apartment without a charging station

A lot of people don’t recommend getting an EV if you can’t charge at home but I disagree. There is a lot of ways to charge your car if you don’t have charging at home.

Supercharger / DC Fast Charging

If you have supercharger or DC Fast charging station nearby, it maybe a valid way to charge your car. Noted that Tesla’s supercharger network is far more reliable than other DC Fast Charging network.

EV brand of choice indicates which charging network you can use, to put it simply:
Tesla => Tesla Supercharging Network
Other EVs => Electrify America Charging network

AC charging (L2 Charging)

If you have charger at work, great! You will most likely get a full charge after 8 hour of work so you don’t need to worry much about charging.

If you have AC charger around the place you visit frequently (Like a mall or supermarket) it may work, but it may take a long time to fully fill your car’s battery so be prepared to find something to do while you are doing the charing.

No Charger nearby

If you can’t really find any charger near you or near the place you will visit often, I would say hold off from buying an EV. It would be painful to wait around for a charge.

Type of battery and EV Range

Right now there are mainly two types of battery, NCA(lithium nickel cobalt aluminium oxides) battery and LFP(Lithium iron phosphate/LiFePO4) battery.

LFP can be found in the entry level Tesla Model 3, NCA are used in Long Range and Performance Model Tesla Model3. You can charge the LFP battery to 100% without much degradation to the battery chemistry, with NCA you need to limit your charge to around 90% for daily use. It’s best to let battery stay above 20% during normal use. So for normal usage:

NCA battery => 20% to 90%
LFP battery => 20% to 100%

For Tesla Model 3 normal usage range:
Base model: 272mi * 80% = 217.6mi
Long Range: 358mi * 70% = 250.6mi
Performance: 315mi * 70% = 220.5mi

Also take into consider that traffic situation will affect how much range you can get out of your car, unlike gas powered car highway driving will significantly reduce your usable range, the faster you drive the less range you will get out of your car battery.

Battery Degradation

Battery degradation will be affected by various of factors, but general rule of thumb, battery should lose no more then 20% of its capacity after 100,000 mile of usage. Most vehicle should perform better, Tesla claims its model S/X battery will retain 90% percent of its capacity after 200,000 miles.

Generally the battery should last through out your vehicle’s life cycle so don’t be intimidated by it.

Temperature will affect vehicle range

Battery has a narrow optimal operating temperature range, so it takes power to heat up or cool down the battery to its optimal operating temperature. Expect less range if you live in a place where it can get cold.

Vampire Drain

Battery will lose its charge overtime, so it’s best to keep it charging if possible. Usually EV will lost about 1% to 2% of its capacity in a day, so if you’re planning not drive your car for extended period of time, best to plug it in before you leave. Flat battery is bad for battery health and it’s a hassle to get it recharged again.

Road Trip

If you have a Tesla you should be fine, it take about 15 minutes to get 200 miles of range so just count the charging time when you are planning your trip. There’s plenty of Tesla charging station available so it shouldn’t be a problem.

If you don’t have Tesla, your best choice will be the Electrify America Charging network, the charging stations it will hit or miss, station may not work or it may only contain a single charger for the whole station and it’s currently been used, do your homework before hand and plan accordingly. It’s not that bad but it just won’t be as good as Tesla’s worry free experiences.