FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Are EVs better for the environment?

EVs run more effi­cient­ly, have no tailpipe emis­sions, and pro­duce few­er emis­sions overall.

EVs run much more effi­cient­ly than gas cars. In fact a report by the Inter­na­tion­al Coun­cil on Clean Trans­porta­tion (ICCT) found that 'emis­sions over the life­time of aver­age medi­um-size BEVs reg­is­tered today are already low­er than com­pa­ra­ble gaso­line cars by … 60% — 68% in the Unit­ed States' (ICCT Report, 2021).

Addi­tion­al­ly, all ful­ly elec­tron­ic vehi­cles have zero tailpipe emis­sions, so you are not active­ly pol­lut­ing when you dri­ve com­pared to a gaso­line pow­ered car.

Every­day the grid is get­ting clean­er and more effi­cient. As tech­nol­o­gy con­tin­ues to advance and alter­na­tive forms of ener­gy increase in usage, the grid will pro­duce less and less emis­sions. Elec­tric vehi­cles will over­all pro­duce sig­nif­i­cant­ly few­er emis­sions than gas cars.

EVs also pro­duce lit­tle to no noise, reduc­ing noise pol­lu­tion on our roads.

Are EVs less expensive to drive?

Charg­ing your EV costs sig­nif­i­cant­ly less than fuel­ing gas cars. In fact it costs approx­i­mate­ly $1 / gal­lon to charge your car com­pared to $5 / gal­lon for gas cars. 

There is also a lot less upkeep and main­te­nance costs for EVs. Total cost own­er­ship of EVs has proven to be low­er than gas cars with $6,000 in over­all sav­ings. Accord­ing to this recent Con­sumer Reports arti­cle, EV own­ers are spend­ing half of what gas-pow­ered vehi­cle own­ers spend on main­te­nance. The U.S. Depart­ment of Ener­gy also con­clud­ed that EVs have much low­er main­te­nance costs than gas-pow­ered cars, com­pared by spe­cif­ic main­te­nance task and cost per mile overall.

There are also var­i­ous tax cred­its, incen­tives, and rebates avail­able to make EVs afford­able. On our web­site we out­line more infor­ma­tion on avail­able tax cred­its and util­i­ty incentives.

Want more infor­ma­tion? Watch these videos, "Evok­ing Con­fi­dence: Are EVs cheap­er than gas-pow­ered vehi­cles?" and "Evok­ing Con­fi­dence: Are EVs cheap­er to main­tain than gas-pow­ered vehi­cles?" and share!

Are EVs safe?

Yes! EVs have a low­er cen­ter of grav­i­ty than gas-pow­ered cars, mean­ing they’re less like­ly to roll over in the event of a crash. Check out these EV crash test rat­ings to see for your­self. In addi­tion, reduced or zero emis­sions also mean that EVs facil­i­tate clean­er, safer, and health­i­er air for us to breathe, and con­tribute less to trans­porta­tion-relat­ed air pol­lu­tion. The Envi­ron­men­tal Defense and the Ontario Pub­lic Health Asso­ci­a­tion found that this improve­ment in air qual­i­ty from just one elec­tric vehi­cle would yield $10,000 in social ben­e­fits. Any oth­er ques­tions? Check out our EV Myths page for more infor­ma­tion and to help you deter­mine what’s true and what’s false!

Do EVs have all wheel drive?

Many EVs come with all-wheel dri­ve. Check the vehi­cle list for more infor­ma­tion about mod­els that have AWD.

For a more com­pre­hen­sive list of EVs that have all-wheel dri­ve check here.

How long does it take to change?
  • 110 Out­let (reg­u­lar elec­tri­cal out­let in your home): 4–6 miles of range per hour of charging
  • Lev­el 2 charg­ers (dry­er out­let, or many pub­lic charg­ers): 20–40 miles of range per hour of charging
  • Fast-charg­ing sta­tions: deliv­er 150 to 500+ miles of range per hour.

Charg­ing is afford­able, too! EVs mea­sure fuel effi­cien­cy through kilo­watt-hours (kWh) per 100 miles. Kilo­watt-hours are mea­sures of elec­tri­cal ener­gy, and EV users gen­er­al­ly pay less per mile than the dri­vers of gas-pow­ered vehi­cles. The most com­mon mix of charg­ing results in pay­ing the equiv­a­lent of 80–85 cents/gallon.Click here for more infor­ma­tion about charging.

What are some cool perks about driving an EV that I might not know about?

Many pub­lic EV charg­ers are locat­ed in prime park­ing spots in the lot. You get to take advan­tage of a great park­ing space while you charge your car!

EVs have great accel­er­a­tion and are very fun to drive.

EV com­mu­ni­ties are a fan­tas­tic way to con­nect with oth­er local EV enthu­si­asts! Check out some EV clubs near you.

Why are EVs good for the United States?

EVs pro­mote U.S. ener­gy inde­pen­dence because the fuel (elec­tric­i­ty) is pro­duced local­ly so there is no depen­dence on for­eign oil. Gas and diesel fueled vehi­cles require the U.S. to invest heav­i­ly in for­eign nations that mine, refine, and process oil.

What does kWh mean?

kWh stands for kilo­watt-hour. This is a unit of ener­gy and can describe the capa­bil­i­ty of the car, sim­i­lar to miles per gal­lon for a gaso­line car. The kWh will dif­fer depend­ing on your elec­tric vehi­cle. How­ev­er, most EV sedans will get 3 to 4 / kWh.

This arti­cle by Forbes goes into greater detail about what kWh is and why it is impor­tant to under­stand­ing how pric­ing for charg­ing is determined.

Can EVs go on road trips? 

Of course! While it'll depend on each EV's range, you can still road trip in an EV. It does require more plan­ning than a road trip in a gas vehi­cle, but EV own­ers appre­ci­ate the extra breaks. Pop­u­lar route plan­ning apps include A Bet­ter Route Plan­ner and Plugshare to plan road trips and find charg­ers along the way.

Watch more in this video "Can I still take road trips in an EV?" and share!

 

 

 

How does extreme weather affect EVs?

Weath­er is one fac­tor to con­sid­er when switch­ing to an EV. If you live some­where that gets con­sis­tent­ly cold, you could expect the range of your EV to drop any­where from 20–30% (depend­ing on how extreme the cold is).

If you dri­ve less than 200 miles per day and have access to charg­ing, this shouldn't affect your dri­ving abil­i­ty. If you dri­ve over that, you may want to con­sid­er a plug-in hybrid elec­tric vehi­cle instead.

Watch this video, "Evok­ing Con­fi­dence: How does extreme weath­er affect EV range?" for more infor­ma­tion and share!

Interactive Tools and Calculators

Use these inter­ac­tive tools to help you under­stand more about EVs!

Home Charg­ing Advi­sor: Find charg­ers and incen­tives for charg­ing your elec­tric car at home (by zipcode)

eGal­lon: Com­pare the costs of dri­ving with electricity

Car­bon Counter: Eval­u­ate your car mod­el against green­house gas targets

List of Acronyms

If you are new to the elec­tric vehi­cle scene, the acronyms can be hard to han­dle!  Here is your guide.

Types of Vehicles

AEV: All-Elec­tric Vehicle

AFV: Alter­na­tive Fuel Vehicle

BEV: Bat­tery Elec­tric Vehicle

EREV: Extend­ed Range Elec­tric Vehicle

EV: Elec­tric Vehicle

FCV / FCEV: Fuel Cell Elec­tric Vehicle

HEV: Hybrid Elec­tric Vehicle

HFCV: Hydro­gen Fuel Cell Vehicle

ICE: Inter­nal Com­bus­tion Engine

PHEV: Plug-in Hybrid Elec­tric Vehicle

ZEV: Zero Emis­sion Vehicle

 

Electricity

AC/DC: Alter­nat­ing Current/Direct Current

DCFC: Direct Cur­rent Fast Charge

KW: Kilo­watt

KWh: Kilo­watt Hour

 

MPGe: Miles per gal­lon equivalent

MW: Megawatt

MWh: Megawatt Hour

TOU: Time of Use (Rate)

Other Equipment/Components

AER: All-Elec­tric Range

CAFE: Cor­po­rate Aver­age Fuel Econ­o­my Standards

EVSE: Elec­tric Vehi­cle Sup­ply Equipment

OEM: Orig­i­nal Equip­ment Manufacturer

For an even more com­pre­hen­sive list, see here.

 

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