Recently there has been considerable news media hype about the flattening of electric vehicle sales in the U.S. as consumers turn to hybrids.
It is mostly hype. A record 1.2 million EVs were sold in the U.S. in 2023, up 9% from 2022. Fifty-five percent of those sales were Teslas. But Chevrolet, Ford, Volkswagen, Subaru and Hyundai all sold more cars in 2023 than 2022.
Infrastructure. My wife and I have driven electric cars since 2012 and charge mostly at home. A Level 2, J1772 240v AC EV connection cord uses a regular 50-amp kitchen range receptacle. Most electric cars come with a 50-amp connection cord.
But some will connect to 40-, 30- or even 20-amp circuits using adapters. The 30-amp and 50-amp outlets at RV campgrounds are compatible with J1772 240v cords.
Installing a 30- or 50- amp circuit at home is quite easy, especially if your breaker panel is in your garage and easily accessible. Always get several bids. Some electricians are taking advantage of the ignorance of new EV owners to overcharge.
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Perhaps youâve never heard of J1772 240V AC connectors? They are the most common. Plug Share, an easy-to-use app, shows 61 public J1772 connectors in Corvallis, 40 in Albany.
The problem? J1772 connections are slow: six to eight hours to fully charge your car. How many hours do you sleep at night? You sleep, the car charges. Itâs pretty simple. Or plug in at work. You work, your car charges.
Range anxiety? Check carefully before you buy; range varies a lot. And the more bells and whistles you âneed,â the shorter the range (and higher the price) for a given model.
Our mid-priced Hyundai Ioniq 6 goes an honest 325 miles on a charge. How often do you drive more than 300 miles round trip from home?
Level 3, DC current fast chargers. This is what everyone has been fussing over. These are the chargers mostly at Walmarts and locations along freeways. The number is rapidly being expanded to major thoroughfares. Weâve never failed to find a fast charger on trips out of town.
Tesla also has a widespread, very dependable, DC fast-charging network. Some of the Tesla network will soon be available to other EVs, due to an agreement between Tesla and other EV makers.Â
Reliability? We drove our first-generation Nissan Leaf 45,000 miles over 12 years. Repairs? A windshield washer motor. Thatâs it. No oil changes. No antifreeze fussing. No blown hoses or gaskets. No transmission repairs or fluid leaks. No tune-ups. Get in and drive. An EV always starts (oh, yeah, no starter either).
But, you say, cold batteries hold less electricity. They do, and our Hyundai in the most recent cold snap showed âonlyâ 315 miles when fully charged. Just a few percentage pointsâ drop. And it showed 345 miles on a warm day last week. Run the heater or AC, you lose a few miles of range. But not a lot.
Cost of operation? Charged at home, our Hyundai Ioniq 6 runs for 2 cents a mile. A gas vehicle at 30 mpg costs 10 cents a mile on $3 gallon gas.
Power? Zoom! Full torque from a standing start. These babies go! Fun!
Steve Cook of Corvallis, who holds a doctorate, taught Geography 300, âSustainability for the Common Good,â at Oregon State University for 22 years, to more than 16,000 students. He believes in this stuff.
