Yeah I typically dont think about the myriad of Tesla (it will be a while before I get used to saying NACS) to J1772 adapters, even though I have one for my Volt.
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Who has or is planning to get an electric car / EV Talk
- Thread starter PracticalMac
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Our HOA is starting to address EVs as they have had a few queries about it. The HOA requires requesting permission to install them (so the guy that already has the makeshift charging station will have to get permission and install something approved). I suspect that there's the potential for overloading our local grid if too many people get them. This neighborhood was built in the early 1980s and the electrical wiring is all underground; so beefing up the local grid will involve digging up streets and running things through the building conduits for electricity, phone and cable. That may not be a bad idea to do as a lot can change in 40 years and replacing that would also enable adding fiber internet into homes. But I'd guess that most in the neighborhood wouldn't be crazy about the cost to do so.
Where I live it's a hybrid apartment complex like thing - but you usually own the 3 levels (garage, first floor, third floor) - and most people here own. I'm a renter. Most of these places were built in 2015 - so most garages have a 20amp outlet, and that's it. The washer/dryer (20 amp outlet) and circuit breaker is on the first floor, usually on the opposite side of the garage.
You have to get HOA approval, you have to get approval from the town, then you have to get approval from the owner (in my case). Due to the distance from the garage and the need to punch holes through 13 points of drywall, the estimate was $3600+ for installing a level 2 car charger in the garage. The owner said sure, if I paid for it all - after I offered to pay for half. So that didn't happen.
I remember the electrician saying our circuit breaker box had an amazing amount of space on it for something like an EV charger (200+ amp box), but it was so far from the garage that it would take a lot to install the wire.
So we've been living off of charging on a 20 amp outlet at work and 20 amp outlet at home. Works for us. lol. Probably doesn't hurt the health of the battery either (we've seen almost no range loss in 40k miles).
Next place we go to, however, if we can, we're going to want at least a 220 dryer outlet or a level 2 charger.
Good point about the town approval. It's possible that that's part of approval process but the HOA takes care of that.
BTW, my sisters have decided that they're going to electrify my mother's house. The wiring is from 1922. My guess is that it's going to cost $50-$70K. I don't think that they're putting in for EV charging but the upgrades should allow that to be added later on.
I was at a friend's house yesterday and he showed me his setup. He just charges his Tesla from a standard outlet. He was quoted about $1,200 to install something that would charge it a lot faster. He also has an electric arc welder machine in his home and he said that he could use that to power fast charging for his car. His garage is like a machine shop - everyone goes there when they need to cut, drill, weld, etc. as he has a ton of shop equipment there. He has an ICE car so he can just use that if his Tesla is charging.
just noticed this thread! i've been driving a hybrid prius c since 2012. i'm looking at getting a new vehicle as i'm starting to see more maintenance costs on my 11 year old prius. i'd been hoping my next car would be all electric, but now i'm leaning more towards the prius prime as an incremental step towards electrification.
i live in a big city so hopefully a lot of my shorter trips could be handled as electric, but i still have the familiar hybrid fallback for longer distance drives. have many people on this thread opted for that route?
i live in a big city so hopefully a lot of my shorter trips could be handled as electric, but i still have the familiar hybrid fallback for longer distance drives. have many people on this thread opted for that route?
Not many. Hybrid always struck me as the worst of both worlds.
All the maintenance of an ICE car. Plus it’s heavy as hell.
Pure electric is so much better for me. But everyone is different.
I had a few Toyota hybrids and then in early 2017 got the then new Prius Prime. Loved the car, got tax credit and a couple rebates so it was at a good price point, got ~ 30miles on EV and you get away with a standard 110V outlet.
then in Nov 2022 I replaced it with a Bolt EUV and I love it way more than the Prius, this year it qualifies for the 7500 tax credit and a few other rebates depending on your location. The only drawback is the lack of super fast charging but that is not an issue for me.
The new Prius Prime - Toyota increased the price, did not improve fuel efficiency, the EV range is slightly better but it does not qualify for a tax credit anymore ... the base EUV price is I think slightly over 28k, you might qualify for the 7.5k fed tax credit and a few other rebate so it might cost you 20k or less ...
Glad you are OK and the damage was not too bad.Sorry. Hope you are feeling ok, especially on the days to come.
I'm not sure I posted it here, but I got rear ended in my TM3 on 5/24/23. I hope yours isn't as $$ as mine was. It took just over a month for me to get the car repaired (waiting on parts, it was drivable). Car looks great, but it was a BIG bill...
Front Camera View:
Rear Camera View:
Trunk structure and bracing was damaged
Final Bill (I have vanishing deductible, I don't pay for a $100 deductible)
What I learned is, don't hit a Tesla. Everything was repaired by a Tesla approved body shop. They also are certified by my insurance company.
Something to consider when getting an EV, most of them are on expensive to repair, just like high end European cars.
We have a 3 and an X and I hope I never find out the cost of repairing them.
Same tri level home here too.
Luckily my breaker panel (200A) is on a garage wall outside so it was easy to just mount an EVSE directly opposite inside and didn't need HOA approval.
Dual 60A breakers were the last spot occupied on the bottom:
I drive a gen 2 Chevy Volt and assumptions about hybrids are not always a simple as it looks. Yes, there are two drive trains but the gasoline engine requires much less maintenance than a traditional ICEV. The gas engine, when it is used, mostly runs at a constant moderate rpm generating power for the electric engine. This is partially because it is a serial hybrid under most conditions. The engine is not really stressed when running. Because the Volt has a 52 mile EV range, most days it can run only on battery so the engine isn’t used. I run on gas mainly on cold winter days when doing extra errands or on road trips when gasoline makes more sense. It is heavier than an ICEV but not hugely so at 3700 pounds (1700kg). That’s about the weight of the pure EV Leaf that I had before.
When I got the Volt the EV choices were still pretty limited. Now the options are opening up and I expect my next ride to be all EV.
My i3 has a range of 150-170 real world miles. The journey’s I do beyond that are probably less than 6-8 per year.
A 20-30 minute stop every two hours suits me.
1365 kg with all the weight low makes for a really nice ride.
When the head gasket of my gas hog 4runner blew, i modernized & went with a subie, and when its head gasket went & engine sized on the freeway, I decided to go electric. However, since half of my annual driving is into northern ontario, a pure electric isn’t an option yet. Tried a used prius 3rd gen for $9k instead. Drove it for a year until the head gasket blew. Known issue with the 3’s. Replaced that w/ a prius 2nd gen for $5k instead, which apparently live forever. Its a clunky little box that drives like a go-kart, but I’m on year 3 with it and if it lasts for another 2, it’ll hopefully be the last car I ever have to own in my life. I’ll move to a civilized country with proper walking and bicycle infrastructure or die trying.
I've driven several cars to 200-250K miles and I don't recall having had this problem before. It sounds like he buys cars which weren't maintained so that he could get them really cheap and that the lack of maintenance eventually catches up.
Has anyone studied, test-driven, or bought a Toyota bZ4X or its twin the Subaru Solterra?
One thing's for certain: Subaru is better at naming a car. There haven't been many cars with worse names than "bZ4X."
But what about the cars themselves?
One thing's for certain: Subaru is better at naming a car. There haven't been many cars with worse names than "bZ4X."
But what about the cars themselves?
For anyone considering 120v charging - this is what I’ve been doing and it’s perfect for my needs. I have my Model Y plugged into an outdoor outlet and it pulls 12 Amps without issue. I park it outside and keep the inside cool whenever it’s sunny (every day these days).
But I do wfh and only go out a few times per week. If you commute everyday, installing a 240v outlet is recommended.
I always keep it topped off at 75%. Yesterday, I took a spontaneous drive down to the beach and back. Total drive time 2.5hrs, got back home at 45%, plugged it in. Today I’m already back to 70%.
I was skeptical about 120v charging at first, but now I’m totally comfortable. 👍
But I do wfh and only go out a few times per week. If you commute everyday, installing a 240v outlet is recommended.
I always keep it topped off at 75%. Yesterday, I took a spontaneous drive down to the beach and back. Total drive time 2.5hrs, got back home at 45%, plugged it in. Today I’m already back to 70%.
I was skeptical about 120v charging at first, but now I’m totally comfortable. 👍
I was interested last year but they were basically unavailable, got a Bolt EUV.
2 things today that strike me:
1. No tax credit
2. No fast charging, same speed of charging as my Bolt (2016 tech basically), close to 1 hr to go from 20% to 80%
For me the fast charging was not a deal breaker, but for a car that was designed for 2022 release, I think that’s not good.
Back last year there were no rebates s on new cars, period. I just saw a week or so ago that Hyundai offered 5k rebate/discount on the Ioniq 5 and 6 plus dealers were giving 2k+ discount so effectively almost the 7.5k tax credit but instant. Don’t know if Toyota does the same but imho Ioniq 5 is a better value proposition
I charged a Leaf and then a Volt on a 120v outlet in the garage for about 10 years until getting around to having a 240v line run to the garage. It was fine for a 40 mile daily commute.
For anyone considering 120v charging - this is what I’ve been doing and it’s perfect for my needs. I have my Model Y plugged into an outdoor outlet and it pulls 12 Amps without issue. I park it outside and keep the inside cool whenever it’s sunny (every day these days).
But I do wfh and only go out a few times per week. If you commute everyday, installing a 240v outlet is recommended.
I always keep it topped off at 75%. Yesterday, I took a spontaneous drive down to the beach and back. Total drive time 2.5hrs, got back home at 45%, plugged it in. Today I’m already back to 70%.
I was skeptical about 120v charging at first, but now I’m totally comfortable.
I think your output is a lot lower in the States compared to this side of the pond. We get 240V as standard and the charger I’ve just had installed was 32A giving 22kW. It takes about 4 hours to charge the current EV we’ve got. If you can upgrade your output, it’s definitely recommended I would say for the convenience.
I did the same. But for the amount of time I use it I’m thinking it was a waste of money. But better to have it there than not.
Yeah regular wall outlets here are 15 amps 110v (about 1500w). With the Tesla cable, that means we charge at a rate of 12 amps 110v or 1-1.2kwhr. Which equates to about 5 miles per hour. We got a 3rd party cable on Amazon that allows us to pull 16 amps from a 20 amp outlet at work - for 6.7 mi/hr charging and so we can leave the Tesla cable plugged into the wall at home.
Definitely recommend installing faster charging if possible. My wife drives 110-115 miles every other day and we've been living off of a 15 amp / 20 amp outlet for over a year now. Works. But doesn't leave a lot of room for other trips.
We'll be moving to a new place in a few months and EV charging is the first thing we look for now when scouting for places to move to.
I doubt we'll use it all that often either to be honest. It'll likely be used when my wife is off work for a week or two as like you, she gets free charging at her place of work too.
If I’m off work for the week, the charge I get at work normally does me until I’m back! I’m tight like that.
Well I can’t fault that approach if you can do it! I’ve got 2 weeks off and going on a cruise at the end of this month, we should get to Southampton and back on a single charge with enough to spare, we are going to try it at least
.