EV Charging Stations and You
When it comes to buying an Electric Vehicle there are plenty of variables to consider on most aspects of your purchase. One question that often gets asked is where and how do you go about charging an Electric Vehicle?
Charging Stations - The Basics
The first thing you should be aware of when your EV leaves the lot is the different tiers of charging stations that you will see out in the wild:
- Level One - Essentially a 120-volt wall socket designed for easy all-around accessibility. This is what you will be using at home unless you’ve purchased a higher-level charger.
- Level Two - This is what you will most commonly find at a commercial charging station and can get you a good charge within a few hours, ranging anywhere from 5-11 hours depending on your vehicle. Bear in mind that at the time of this writing, a level two charger is the highest level of charger that you can install in your home.1
- Level Three - Not commonly available for home purchase. This high-power alternative enables you to get up to 80% overall charge level in 30 minutes to an hour-depending on your vehicle1,2.
Level one and two electric charging stations are universal in that they will be able to service your vehicle regardless of its manufacturer. The level three stations known as DCFC – or more commonly as fast charge stations – only work with certain vehicles due to differences in plug types and the relative capacity of a vehicle’s battery. For example, the Hyundai Kona EV can be plugged into a level three station while (at the time of writing) the Chevy Volt cannot be used at the same level three station. As a final note, Tesla supercharger stations will only work with Tesla vehicles.
Where do I go?
In and around Whitby there are 13 stations for you to charge your EV, built by an ever-growing number of providers such as General Electric, Greenlots, Circuit Électrique, and Tesla to name just a few. Finding these stations is quite simple due to the substantial number of apps floating around such as3:
Want to learn more about electric vehicles? Check out these related articles:
GOING GREEN: A LOOK AT THE KONA AND KONA EV
TIPS FOR KEEPING YOUR ELECTRIC CAR RUNNING THIS WINTER
Resources:
- https://chargehub.com/en/electric-car-charging-guide.html#publiccharging
- http://www.evtown.org/about-ev-town/ev-charging/charging-levels.html
- https://emc-mec.ca/ev-101/charging-maps/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charging_station
- https://chargemap.com/cities/whitby-CA
