Battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) are all-electric vehicles. Not only do you cruise in these vehicles quietly, but you also leave no carbon footprint. They’re greener vehicles if you want to partake in environmental preservation.
However, electric vehicles don’t boast an impressive range like traditional vehicles. You’ll drive your vehicle for some miles before it runs out of battery power. And when it runs out of power, you better hope to find a charging station otherwise, you’ll have an inconvenient trip.
Want to see how far you can drive an electric vehicle before the battery runs dry? Read on as we explore the range and factors affecting it, among many others.
About Electric Vehicles
One thing about electric vehicles is their battery doesn’t last forever; at some point, it runs low, and you have to plug a charger into the vehicle. How long the battery power lasts depends on the battery’s capacity to carry more charge and where you drive the vehicle.
Electric Car Range
The range refers to the distance your car can cover after fully charging its battery pack. As we’ve already mentioned, this range largely depends on the battery capacity. But other factors, such as weather and driving terrain have a say on electric car range.
How Far Can Electric Cars Go?
The battery’s size, rated in kilowatt-hour (kWh), affects the range. Kilowatt-hour is a unit that measures energy, including energy stored in your car’s battery pack. The higher the kWh rating, the more energy the battery can store. Additionally, more capacity translates to the vehicle traveling longer distances before depleting the charge.
Since many electric vehicles consume about 1 kWh of energy for every 3 – 4 miles, you multiply the battery capacity by this consumption rate to find the range. For example, if your vehicle has a 60kWh battery size, it travels 180 – 240 miles on one charge!
However, it’s important to note that hilly terrains make the vehicle work harder and consume more energy, reducing the range significantly. Also, extreme weather reduces the range. For example, a cold strike slows down the chemical reaction in your battery pack, leading to less energy for the motor(s).
At the same time, heat waves cause the car to spend extra energy to power the air conditioning. This taxes the energy reserve heavily, reducing your car’s range.
About Charging Batteries
If you’re looking to travel again after draining the car’s battery, you’ll plug a charger into the car’s port to add more energy to the battery. Usually, that calls for knowing where to charge your vehicle and anticipating how long it will take to boost battery power.
Where to Charge
You have two main places to charge an EV: at home or a public charging station. Home charging is the most convenient way to boost battery energy. Although you can plug your charger into a standard outlet and connect it to the car, you want to install a charging system.
A level one charger is what you plug into the 120v standard outlet. It takes longer to charge your electric vehicle fully. Alternatively, you can install a Level 2 charger that’s much faster. However, you’ll contract a professional to install this charging system since it needs technical expertise.
Additionally, you can charge your vehicle at a public station; this is the best option if you don’t want to incur extra costs in installation purchases and fees. It is also great for charging your vehicle at a stop during a long journey. However, public stations usually charge extra for energy since 9 out of 10 they exist to make profits.
How Long to Charge
The battery size plays a role in determining how long it takes to charge your battery. Assuming the battery size isn’t an issue, one factor that determines the charging speed is the type of charger.
Level 1 Charger
Of course, it’s the slowest charger you can connect to your EV. If this is the charger you have at home, expect to wait not less than 12 hours to get a full battery. In some cases, especially if your vehicle has a larger battery, the wait can be well over 40 hours!
Level 2 Charger
A true workhorse charger, Level 2 puts up to an incredible 22kW of electrical energy into your battery at any given time. When it’s charging your vehicles with this impressive power, you can expect to get a full charge in around 8 hours.
Leave your vehicle charging overnight and wake up tomorrow to a fully charged battery, ready to push some of that juice to drive the motor(s). It draws more volts (240v) from your circuit; that’s why it’s hardwired into the electrical panel. If you can install it yourself, that’s very impressive!
DC Fast Charger
If you want to charge your EV battery to 80% in less than an hour, this is the fastest charger for the job. Delivering charge at an impressive power of 50 – 350 kW, a DC charger gives you 100 miles in just 30 minutes!
How Can I Protect My Electric Car Battery?
Protecting your battery prolongs the range and the lifecycle. There are a few tips to increase range and get many years from your battery:
Avoid Extreme Temperatures
Both extreme cold and heat can degrade your battery and result in poor performance. Extreme cold reduces the chemical process in the battery; reduced chemical reaction reduces energy production. Excess heat, on the other hand, forces some components, like the A/C, to use more energy than necessary. You can park your EV in a garage to avoid extreme heat.
Keep Battery Charge Within A Range
Keeping your car’s battery either fully charged or completely depleted all the time degrades it. You want to keep your battery percentage between 20 and 80% to prolong its life and efficiency.
Use a DC Fast Charger Less Often
Even though a fast charger cuts the charging time significantly by putting more energy at any given time, it increases battery wear. Adopt a Level 2 charger for your charging needs. But once in a while, you can shove more energy down your car’s throat with a DC fast charger.
How Far Can an EV Go?
An EV battery pack can hold as much as its capacity allows. If it boasts a 60-kWh capacity, it can hold only that much electrical energy. The battery capacity is like the fuel tank; it can only hold a given amount of energy for the vehicle’s needs.
How Far Can Electric Cars Go in One Charge?
After charging the battery to 100%, it supplies 1 kWh of every 3 – 4 miles. To find how far you can go, multiply the car’s battery size (in kWh) by 3 – 4 miles and find the range in miles, of course!
What Affects the Driving Range for EVs?
However much you want to be happy that you’ve got more range from multiplying capacity by 3 – 4 miles, it’s good to understand the range you get is theoretical. And that’s because some factors play a role in reducing the theoretical range.
Driving Speed
Your driving speed is the main thing affecting the range you get from your battery pack. One thing that’s funny with speed is it affects the range both ways (negatively and positively). First, more speed means covering more ground! It boosts range this way.
However, more speed creates a demand for more energy, reducing your EV’s range. The motor works extra hard to catapult the vehicle. At the same time, speed increases the air resistance that the vehicle has to overcome.
Temperature
As we’ve seen, temperature affects range negatively, especially extreme temperatures. Extreme cold slows down chemical reactions inside the lithium-ion battery, leading to reduced energy output. What’s more, the A/C uses more power to heat the cabin. Extreme heat has a similar effect since it causes the A/C to use more energy to cool the cabin.
Electrical-Powered Features
You have to remember that the motor isn’t the only component sipping the battery juice. Besides, we’ve seen that the A/C is another component. In addition to these components, you have infotainment and seat warmers claiming a share of the battery power. The more tech your EV has, the more energy it uses to power them. And this reduces the range.
The Growing Range of EVs
Car makers continue to take advantage of battery tech advancements to give us EVs with a better range. And now the EV range has been climbing steadily and the car you now have performs a lot better than its predecessors.
If you looked at EVs in 2018, they traveled only 143 miles on a full charge. But now, you can get an impressive 210 miles from your fully charged battery; that’s a symbolic great leap into the future. We can expect this range to grow even further as automakers upscale battery research and improvements.
Do I Need an EV With Long Range?
Of course, you do, especially if you frequent those long-distance destinations. Maybe you love the meditation of long-distance driving and want the peace that comes with the quiet tyre rumbles. In that case, you want an EV boasting over 300 miles of range.
Also, a long-range EV is the best vehicle if your area has limited charging stations. But if you have a home charging facility and don’t hit the road often, what do you need a long-range EV for?
What Happens When an EV Runs Out of Charge?
An EV doesn’t sputter and stops immediately like a traditional vehicle. Instead, it gradually decreases its functions before ultimately stopping in the middle of nowhere (better pray you can tow it to a charging station). As the battery percentage decreases, some features, such as seat warming and A/C, stop working to conserve energy for the motor(s).
The vehicle starts to show low battery alerts and messages on the dashboard when the battery is 15% low. Some models automatically reroute the map to a nearby charging station all the while you lose access to various power modes.
Do Electric Cars Really Save You Money?
Electric cars potentially save you money in refueling. Since electricity is cheaper, you pay less for a full charge than for a full tank of gas. Additionally, you pay less maintenance costs; EVs have fewer moving parts, requiring fewer fluid changes and part replacements.
However, EVs seem to have higher upfront costs. However, governments around the world incentivize EVs by offering tax reliefs and credits to reduce the sticker price.
Conclusion
Electric vehicles can travel only some distance before the battery energy runs low. The range differs depending on the battery capacity. A bigger battery carries more power to take the vehicle further. A bigger battery doesn’t necessarily mean increased range; excess heat or cold can reduce your range, even for a bigger battery.
What’s more, speed also affects the range. It affects range both ways. But since a bigger battery could mean a better range, you want to buy an EV with a higher kWh rating. So, buy an EV with more charging capacity and reduce reliance on public charging stations.
