Electric Car Things A Guide
Summary
Things You think you know
Just jump in and drive! While that’s true, just be gentle on that accelerator! Even the lower-end electric car models have some good get-up-and-go.
Jokes aside, the car should always operate as a car, things are different yes, but the main things are just the sound and the expectations of performance.
Charging you think will be easy, and for the most part, it should be. If you own a home, you will be on the fast track to a suitable charging experience. For those in an apartment, however, you might have a rough go at first, but thinking ahead as an apartment document might be needed.
Things you learn
The Haves and the Have Nots
Charging infrastructure as a whole is all dependent on where you are and if your area wants to adopt them. There have been many stories about damaged chargers have a tendency to come up as people go out hunting to collect money from the coper in the cables.
So, what do you do if you invest in an electric car and don’t have the infrastructure? Well, you might be out of luck. Many folks who don’t have access to a public infrastructure to charge are forced to invest in charging at home, which can be its own messy time. If your home does not have adequate space in its electric panel to support adding a dedicated charger, things remain difficult. See the section below about charging at home for more.
It also depends on which car you buy, as some manufacturers don’t have the same chargers. Take the Nissan leaf with its charger, it uses CHAdeMO Charger, which is not always available at each charging station.
Those who have a Tesla will have better luck with the tesla super charger network as that particular vendor has a head start in getting stations adopted in multiple areas. The caveat there is that up until recently only Tesla vehicles could charge at those stations.
Charging types and differences
Public Charging Infrastructure
General Accessibility
ADA Accessibility
Handicap spaces with electric chargers are rare if that.
Learn your Charging Location
Sample of this location
| Make | Model | Charging Inlet Location |
|---|---|---|
| Tesla | S, 3, X, Y | Driver side rear |
| Chevrolet | Bolt EV | Driver side front |
| Ford | Mustang Mach-E | Driver side front |
| Ford | E-transit | Front |
| Nissan | Leaf | Front |
| Audi | E-Tron | Driver side front |
| Volkswagen | ID .4 | Passenger side rear |
| Porsche | Taycan | Passenger side front, driver side front |
| Hyundai | Kona | Front |
| Hyundai | Ionic | Driver side front |
| Toyota | Prius plug-in | Passenger side rear |
| Honda | Clarity plug-in | Driver side front |
| Ford | Fusion energi | Driver side front |
| Toyota | RAV4 prime | Passenger side rear |
| Chrysler | Pacifica hybrid | Driver side front |
EVGo
EVgo Autocharge+
Autocharge+ is available only for EVs with CCS connectors that support the two-way vehicle data sharing functionality. Most EVs with CCS connectors support this feature (including older EV models).
The good and the bad:
The concept is great and more places should adopt it, in practice, it is a pain to setup. In my local area where we have decent LTE/5G connection on mobile devices, attempting to setup the AutoCharge+, all i got was errors left and right, took about 15-20 minutes and 2 different charging location.
ChargePoint
Easy to charge, costs are crazy different.