Posted by: Sethimus
Posted by: Ride.DMC
My wife and I bought an EV back in August. Been driving it daily ever since and it's been great. Had some range anxiety at first, but we've learned that it's not really an issue if we just use it for commuting and running errands.
Our current schedule is to drive it all week, plug it in Friday after work and let it charge over the weekend. We unplug to go to the beer store or get groceries, which actually uses almost no range because of the regenerative braking.
Then we unplug Monday morning and start the process over.
We only have level 1 charging at home so it takes the whole weekend to get to 95% - 100% charge, but that is more than enough to get us through the week, without having to top-off.
It's been about 3 months and I haven't noticed any difference on my hydro bill. I have noticed a huge savings in gas costs though... Our second vehicle is a Ram 1500, and not using it for errands has really helped extend how long a tank of gas lasts me.
why not plug it in every night?
Good question. If I only drove my Chevy Bolt to work and short errands (~50 km/day) I could easily get away with using a 110V level 1 charger and plugging in over night. I did install a level 2 charger for longer trips though. Whistler in the summer is no problem. We'll see how it goes in the winter. Heating and AC can suck up to 30% of your range if you're not careful.
