Things I learned about electric vehicles

When we buy a car — gas-powered or EV — we consider a variety of factors, from our budget to our driving habits.

• How far do we typically travel?
• How many people need to fit in the vehicle?
• Do we tow heavy things, and if so, how far?
• How much do we want to spend on fuel?

Answers to questions like these will determine whether we buy a Mini Cooper or a minivan, a Prius Prime or a Ram 3500. 

Level 2 chargers, which use 240 volt electricity (like the outlet that powers your electric clothes dryer), are great for charging at your home or workplace, or if you’re planning to spend most of the day at the mall. Remember, 80% of EV charging is done at home, usually at night.

If, however, you’re driving from the northern part of the state to the southern part of the state, and you want to make the trip in one day, it is critical to look for DC fast chargers (DCFCs) on your route. A Level 2 charger will charge my Chevy Bolt overnight. A DCFC will do the same thing in a little over an hour. 

When I started driving a BEV in winter 2023, the need to stop and charge halfway was problematic, because there were only three DCFCs on my usual route, and they were early models that were frequently out of order. Over the past two years, that has changed dramatically. There are now at least 18 DCFCs on that same route, and the newer ones have been, in my experience, much more reliable. While I still think about chargers — especially on cold, windy days — travel has gotten much easier, particularly on major highways. 

I use the Plugshare map to identify potential chargers, filtering out Tesla-only stations, since I don’t have a Tesla. Note that there are different networks of chargers, and each has a slightly different way of starting the charging process (typically using your phone or a credit card), so occasionally I need to read the instructions on the charger, but in general it takes me less than a minute to get my car connected and start charging. Then I wander off to find coffee somewhere, or I take a walk, or I hang out in my car and play games on my phone.

My Bolt was the slowest charging BEV model on the market when I bought it. It charges at a maximum rate of 50kW. In other words, at that rate, it will add about 50kWh to the battery in an hour. For reference, the fully charged battery on my car holds 65kWh. Typically, with a DC fast charger, you will only charge to 80% of your battery capacity, at which point charging speeds slow down dramatically to protect the long-term health of your battery.

Most BEVs charge faster than 50kW. For example, the 2024 Chevy Equinox charges at a maximum rate of 150kW, with battery capacity of 102kWh and an expected range of 319 miles. Another example is the 2024 Tesla Model 3, which has a maximum charging rate of 250kW, a battery capacity of 75kWh, and an expected range of 353 miles. Note that charging of any EV battery may be slower on really cold days, especially if you haven’t “preconditioned” it, or warmed it up. Cars.com has a useful explanation of preconditioning. 

Don’t get me wrong: I like nature. I like the outdoors. It’s why I live in the woods. However, when I am traveling alone on a February night, the last place I want to be sitting for an hour is in a random park with seasonal bathrooms and poor lighting.

Fortunately, while some of the earlier chargers were located in places like that, there seems to be an increasing trend toward locating them in places with amenities like bathrooms, coffee, snacks, lighting, and enough humans around to allay safety concerns. Yay!

Another aspect of our recent increases in charging infrastructure that I have come to appreciate is redundancy. “Redundancy” sometimes gets a bad rap, as if it were automatically a waste of resources. In the case of charging infrastructure, however, having several chargers near each other means that if one is being used, or if one is out of order, it is more likely there will be another available when you need it. That’s something I’ve seen more of over the past couple of years, and it’s an essential part of this transition.

Driving electric has been cheaper for me than driving on gas, even though I use a lot of public charging.

At home, a full charge costs me about $8. Some electric utilities offer a special off-peak charging rate, which makes home charging even cheaper. When I am traveling, I am super careful about range, so I typically stop to charge at about 25% battery capacity and “fill” up to 80%. So I charge about 55% of my battery capacity, and that usually costs me around $12. Maintenance costs have been minimal: a few tire rotations, some washer fluid, and maybe a cabin air filter are about all I’ve needed to do so far. No internal combustion engine means no oil changes!

First, it’s gotten a lot easier to drive electric in rural Minnesota.

Second, it’s important to look at your driving habits and goals, because that will tell you what kind of vehicle to get, with the most important distinction being between all-electric BEVs and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs).

Third, if you go with a BEV, on long trips you will want to check your route for DC fast chargers and build in some extra time for charging.

Finally, my EV is still fun to drive!