Automotive

Everything about EVs!

  • Last Updated:
  • Mar 28th, 2024 9:23 pm
Deal Guru
May 9, 2007
14883 posts
4842 upvotes
Nanaimo, BC
Xtrema wrote: That said, 99% of EV will be charging at L2 at home 90% of the time. Condo/Apartment people need not apply.
My "sample size" is extremely small... but of the two people who I know who have EVs, both in the GVA, neither one charges at home. They say they have plenty of opportunity to charge at Level 2 outlets free.
Global warming will be exceeded during the 21st century unless deep reductions in carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions occur (United Nations IPCC Report 2021)

Every disaster film starts with scientists being ignored
Deal Expert
User avatar
Oct 26, 2003
39339 posts
6342 upvotes
Winnipeg
tomkuang wrote: That's what I heard from Tesla employee: you don't need to install a charging station at home, a 220V receptacle is what all you need to charge at home. One more question, so you still need to hire an electrician to help figure out how to get 40A from your circuit box, right? and for the heck of the spirit of asking questions, you can't charge while using the stoves, dryers, etc. right?
you can try but you may trip the main.
Member
Mar 11, 2019
306 posts
177 upvotes
divx wrote: you can try but you may trip the main.
An electrician will size it all properly so you shouldn't have to worry about any of it.
Deal Expert
User avatar
Oct 26, 2003
39339 posts
6342 upvotes
Winnipeg
jintau wrote: An electrician will size it all properly so you shouldn't have to worry about any of it.
It is not a big of deal really, just reset the breaker and next time don't use everything at the same time. Not all electrician will care to do your load calculation.
Deal Fanatic
Aug 3, 2008
5408 posts
11430 upvotes
Ottawa
TheTall wrote: It's actually fairly simple, but Volts don't matter so much without amps, and what you're looking at when you multiply volts x amps is watts.

Think of it this way, your gas car has, for example, a 50 litre tank. An EV has a battery with a capacity, measured in kWh. A Model 3 SR+ I believe is about 60kWh. So the kWh is equivalent to the tank capacity.

Level 1 chargers are your typical household plug, these are typically 120v*10A, or 1200w (1.2kW). To charge your 60kWh battery, divide by the charging rate, and you get the number of hours. So 60/1.2=50 hours.
Level 2 chargers are usually around 30A, some are a bit faster, some are a bit slower, but they run on 240V. 240V*30A=7200w or 7.2kW. So to charge the 60kWh battery, 60/7.2=8.33 hours.
Generic Level 3 chargers (DC fast chargers) are rated in kW, the typical one we see in Canada today is 50kW, so to charge the 60kWh battery, you'd need approximately 1.2 hours. I say approximately because usually over 80% charge the rate starts to slow down, so to get the first 80% it could take an hour, then the last 20% could take another 30-40 minutes. You typically would just stop charging at 80% on these unless you need the last 20% to get to the next charger.
Tesla Superchargers are in a league of their own. The V2 superchargers are capable of 140kW and the new V3 superchargers are 250kW. To get an 80% charge on a 60kW battery at a V2 supercharger, you are looking at only about half an hour. On a V3 supercharger, maybe 20 minutes.

So to put that in perspective of a "gas pump":
Level 1 gas pump: 50L in 50hours, fill rate of 1L/hr
Level 2 gas pump: 50L in 8.3 hours, fill rate of 6L/hr
Level 3 gas pump: 40L in ~1 hour, fill rate of 40L/hr
Tesla Superpump V2: 40L in 30 minutes, fill rate of 80L/hr
Tesla Superpump V3: 40L in 15 minutes, fill rate of 160L/hr

So obviously if you had a gas car and these were your filling options on a road trip, you'd want to fill at the Tesla Superpumps. And of course you also have a Level 1 pump at your house with the option to install a Level 2 pump fairly inexpensively, so you'd leave home with a full tank daily.
It's not actualy that simple, at least not according to SAE. Your interpretation is just a commonly accepted charging terms, but SAE actualy defines AC and DC charging separtely and they both have 1/2/3 levels of charging, hence the confusion from @tomkuang from the BC Hydro quote.
Image
Most common DC chargers right now are 50 kW (Level 2), but there are also lots of 20 kW (Level 1) and Petro Canada started to install some 200 kW (level 3) DC chargers.
Superchargers are mostly Level 3 DC chargers since they all capable of 150 kW, except Urban Superchargers which are up to 72 kW. Tesla recently started to roll out v3 Superchargers that are capable up to 250 kW.
Deal Addict
May 2, 2017
1918 posts
2941 upvotes
divx wrote: It is not a big of deal really, just reset the breaker and next time don't use everything at the same time. Not all electrician will care to do your load calculation.
Any electrician should be getting an ESA permit and inspection, and if they are overloading the panel the ESA inspector will very likely flag it and not pass the installation.

If installed properly and not overloaded, the main breaker shouldn't ever trip.
Deal Addict
User avatar
May 24, 2008
3488 posts
1532 upvotes
Toronto
MotorTrend just did a nice comparison test between the BMW 3+series, the Genesis G70 and the Tesla Model 3.

I was actually surprised to see the Tesla win it. Goes to show that even the regular autopress is getting convinced about the qualities of EVs.
Glazers Out!
Deal Addict
May 2, 2017
1918 posts
2941 upvotes
seafish wrote: It's not actualy that simple, at least not according to SAE. Your interpretation is just a commonly accepted charging terms, but SAE actualy defines AC and DC charging separtely and they both have 1/2/3 levels of charging, hence the confusion from @tomkuang from the BC Hydro quote.
Image
Most common DC chargers right now are 50 kW (Level 2), but there are also lots of 20 kW (Level 1) and Petro Canada started to install some 200 kW (level 3) DC chargers.
Superchargers are mostly Level 3 DC chargers since they all capable of 150 kW, except Urban Superchargers which are up to 72 kW. Tesla recently started to roll out v3 Superchargers that are capable up to 250 kW.
This is good information for the charging levels only, but everything else is super outdated. The times they give are for a 25kWh BEV.... not too many of those around anymore. Most 200km EV's are in the mid 30kWh capacity, and 400km EV's are in the 60+ kWh range. I'd love to see a 25kWh EV capable of DC Level 3 charging in less than 10 minutes though! You could probably cook an egg on that battery after that.
Deal Expert
User avatar
Oct 26, 2003
39339 posts
6342 upvotes
Winnipeg
TheTall wrote: Any electrician should be getting an ESA permit and inspection, and if they are overloading the panel the ESA inspector will very likely flag it and not pass the installation.

If installed properly and not overloaded, the main breaker shouldn't ever trip.
ESA is not going to chase me here in Winnipeg.
Deal Guru
May 9, 2007
14883 posts
4842 upvotes
Nanaimo, BC
TheTall wrote: Any electrician should be getting an ESA permit and inspection, and if they are overloading the panel the ESA inspector will very likely flag it and not pass the installation.

If installed properly and not overloaded, the main breaker shouldn't ever trip.
divx wrote: ESA is not going to chase me here in Winnipeg.
My father-in-law did much of the electrical work in his own house. He never had a problem. :)

Well, he never had a problem with the electricity. He did have problems sleeping, fearing that the house might burn down and the fire inspector might determine that the fire was caused by wiring that was not to code and his house fire insurance wouldn't cover his loss. :(

He figured the sleepless nights were worth the monetary savings. :)
Global warming will be exceeded during the 21st century unless deep reductions in carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions occur (United Nations IPCC Report 2021)

Every disaster film starts with scientists being ignored
Deal Addict
May 2, 2017
1918 posts
2941 upvotes
divx wrote: ESA is not going to chase me here in Winnipeg.
https://www.hydro.mb.ca/accounts_and_se ... sidential/
Electrical permits and inspections

Before any electrical work is started, you must have an electrical permit. For electrical wiring or renovation of a mobile home you must contact the Manitoba Office of the Fire Commissioner Codes and Standards.

By law, all electrical wiring in Manitoba must be inspected to ensure compliance with local bylaws and the Manitoba Electrical Code. All wiring must be visible for inspection and all electrical equipment must be approved.
Not ESA in Manitoba, but you have to follow essentially the same procedure we do in Ontario. Not saying it's not possible to do it yourself, i'm sure many people do their own work without it, but by law, you're required to get a permit, same as we are.
Sr. Member
Aug 13, 2011
770 posts
371 upvotes
Scarborough southwes…
What's the opinion on getting a used smart electric as a second car? It's about $10-$13K for a 2016 with about 40k km.
Don't really see too many on the road and was wondering what their longevity is..
Main use would be 15km round trip city commutes to work.
Guessing it can be charged up overnight on L1 charger.
Primary car would be phev and would be used for all other driving.
Deal Addict
User avatar
Mar 28, 2002
3543 posts
2128 upvotes
had a co-worker who leased one for 3 years. Never heard him complain about it. He had a longer commute to work than you like 45 kms one way but we had L2 charging at work 8 stalls now 16. (Schneider-Electric)
RFD Admins All Drive Teslas. You should Too!
Deal Addict
May 2, 2017
1918 posts
2941 upvotes
MrMimizu wrote: What's the opinion on getting a used smart electric as a second car? It's about $10-$13K for a 2016 with about 40k km.
Don't really see too many on the road and was wondering what their longevity is..
Main use would be 15km round trip city commutes to work.
Guessing it can be charged up overnight on L1 charger.
Primary car would be phev and would be used for all other driving.
Sounds like pretty much the perfect use case for one of those. Most of the issues I've heard of with smart cars seem to be engine and transmission related, the electric doesn't have an engine and the transmission would be pretty simple, so it should be more reliable than its ICE equivalent.
Deal Addict
Nov 20, 2005
1488 posts
636 upvotes
Martin (deal addict) wrote: Model Y rise will be even faster.
+1 for me on Model Y. Not surprised with the Model 3 numbers, I personally referred 4 people this month.
Banned
Feb 6, 2017
2176 posts
1263 upvotes
No way there will be federal incentives for the Model Y though. Being an Ontarian, this rules out my prospects, I don't even feel comfortable splurging for a M3 at this point with a measly $5k incentive. Model Y at MSRP would definitely be out of the question :(

It's not that I am poor or cheap but I'm pretty conservative wrt to my car budget. I make about 100k annually but don't feel comfortable shelling out $60k+ all-in on a car, don't know how many people are pulling this off. I know that 100k is nothing to write home about these days but still...… do you really want your car payments to be that of half your mortgage?
Deal Addict
May 20, 2017
1275 posts
888 upvotes
ON
HN12345 wrote: No way there will be federal incentives for the Model Y though. Being an Ontarian, this rules out my prospects, I don't even feel comfortable splurging for a M3 at this point with a measly $5k incentive. Model Y at MSRP would definitely be out of the question :(

It's not that I am poor or cheap but I'm pretty conservative wrt to my car budget. I make about 100k annually but don't feel comfortable shelling out $60k+ all-in on a car, don't know how many people are pulling this off. I know that 100k is nothing to write home about these days but still...… do you really want your car payments to be that of half your mortgage?

100k is the low end of RFDers' income. You need to be in the upper end to get a T3
Deal Expert
User avatar
Apr 21, 2004
58648 posts
24637 upvotes
Our next car will likely be a BEV but not until 2023 at the earliest when the need arises (daughter graduates and lands a decent gig and when my 02 Civic may finally have to retire).

She is not even a millennial but a Gen Z and was audacious enough to suggest we fork the first $65k and she will top up the rest so that she can get a BEV she wants. $65k was the maximum I was willing to pay long enough range AWD sedan and this be university student think she may require (want) something more expensive lol.

I told her sure but it has to be a BEV and she has to land a job which good prospects for the future. She questions why I changed the terms of the agreement and I told her I can change my mind whenever I want to as she procrastinates or doesn't even get some chores done after repeated reminders lol.

I am not going to get her a car just because she graduates from a double degree program my wife and I are paying for lol.

I never asked my parents to give me a hefty grad gift!

Top

Thread Information

There are currently 10 users viewing this thread. (6 members and 4 guests)

xrvr, romsan04, lobo, fedept, kevinsbane, FightCanada