Charging An EV Is Child’s Play!
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How easy is it to recharge an EV? So easy that a 9 year old can get the job done in a matter of seconds!
James Cheung, aka Lemon-Tea Leaf on YouTube, has posted a great video — charming and hilarious — showing how quick and easy it is to charge an EV. The whole process takes a 9 year old child (James’ son Ryan) just a few seconds. The video deserves to be a classic — Ryan is a natural. Check it out:
The ease and low cost of EV charging are some of the greatest benefits of EV ownership, and often underappreciated by folks still sitting on the fence. No more trips to the gas station is one of the key reasons that EV owners will never return to owning a fossil vehicle. Charging an EV takes around 20 seconds, 10 seconds to plug in and another 10 seconds to unplug. When you return a few hours later, or the next morning, the EV is — magically — refilled! For folks with typical commuting distances, with the latest generation of 200+ mile EVs, you may only need to plug in once per week. Some of the Teslas have a range of well over 300 miles.
Contrast this with the fossil vehicle refilling experience. Around once a week, you have to make a special trip to a foul-smelling and expensive refilling station, often wait in line for a couple of minutes for a slot to come available, then park up at the correct pump, uncap your tank, unholster the pump, stick it in, and spend a couple of minutes standing there squeezing the dirty trigger while breathing toxic and flammable fumes (yes, in most countries it wouldn’t even be legal for young Ryan to refill a fossil vehicle). Meanwhile, you have the pleasure of watching a $ counter telling you how much of your hard-earned money is flowing out of your pocket into the pockets of some of the most corrupt businesses on the planet.
Then you holster up, recap, and head over to the office to get into the queue to pay (unless you can pull out your credit card and pay at the pump). But wait … you may also have to add some engine oil or some coolant fluid, or some AdBlue exhaust treatment additive!
In any given case, the fossil refill process is going to take you somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes, on top of any time out you’ve taken to make the actual trip to the fuel station. And it’s going to cost you a whole heap of money — depending on your region, anywhere between 3× and 5× (or more) what the equivalent mileage in electrons would cost you. You have the pleasure of going through this process every week of the car’s life. Yes, the fossil fuel companies are rubbing their hands in glee! They don’t want you to know the huge savings that EVs give you in Total Cost of Ownership.
For most drivers, 95% or more of trips are short commutes or local journeys. On those occasional longer journeys that many of us make a few times per year, the time required for “fast” mid-trip refilling of an EV is also not a problem in many regions today (fast DC charging locations are spreading week by week). Also, a typical EV has an initial advantage on any long trip, since it can start from home with a full tank of electrons, whereas a fossil vehicle cannot start from home with a full tank of gas (unless you have a private gas station at home). On any given morning, most folks, on average, have around half a tank of gas in their car, not a full tank. If the trip is within the range of the EV (up to 370 miles if you choose the longest range EVs and are willing to drive for that duration), that means the EV often requires less “time out” for refilling overall.
There are many current EVs that can drive for more than 2 or 3 hours on a charge, and some (Teslas) can drive 4–5 hours, by which point the driver and passengers — being human — need a rest break. Apps and navigation software can help you choose the most convenient rest points. The EV can charge whilst the driver and passengers take a break of 15–20 minutes, or more if they want to have a bite to eat. On today’s best EVs (Teslas), a 15–20 minutes break enables another 2 or 3 hours of driving.
EV charging is child’s play — as Ryan has so capably demonstrated — and saves you those unpleasant and costly trips to the gas station!
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