Juice for an EV: Why more electric vehicle owners use home charging stations

Fremont resident Shinya Fujimoto bought his Nissan Leaf during heady times for electric-vehicle fans.

It was spring 2011, when there was so much anticipation over a shipment of these all-electric vehicles from Japan to the West Coast that someone climbed aboard a chopper, shot photos of the cars on shipboard on their way to Southern California and posted them on a blog popular among plug-in vehicle owners.

“These people were crazy,” says Fujimoto, who admits to being such an EV enthusiast that he keeps Excel spreadsheets to illustrate the savings his Leaf has brought over the gasoline-powered vehicle he drove before. (It’s been about $100 to $150 per month, he says.)

When Fujimoto’s shiny baby-blue Nissan finally arrived in July of 2011 — after delays caused by Japan’s tsunami — he already had a key piece of equipment waiting for it: a home charging station.

“I wanted to make sure I got it before I got the car,” says Fujimoto. His 240-volt Blink-manufactured station was installed a month before the car arrived. (Technically speaking, the charger itself is in the vehicle, and the plug-in station designed to deliver the charge most efficiently is known as the Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment, or EVSE.)

Generally, electric vehicles can be charged by plugging in the car’s charging cable to a regular household outlet, which in most cases delivers about 120 volts. But EV owners refer to the juice flowing through such “level 1” stations as a “trickle charge.” A level 1 power source takes up to 21 hours for a Nissan Leaf, for example, to go from zero to a full charge. A preferred level 2 AC charger, which delivers from 208 to 240 volts, takes eight hours or less. That is why an EVSE that is more efficient than a level 1 outlet is found in more and more homes of EV owners.

S.F. area EV’s plentiful

“There are probably more EVs here (in the San Francisco Bay Area) than anywhere else in the country,” says Jason Smith, San Francisco regional sales manager for ECOtality, the company overseeing the EV Project, which installs chargers for free to qualifying Leaf owners in the Bay Area. (In other parts of the country, owners of the Chevrolet Volt can also qualify for help from the EV Project.) “The early adopters are here — which isn’t surprising,” Smith says, referring to the high-tech nature of the region.

In general, preparing a home for a charging station is as simple as wiring the residence to power a clothes dryer, Smith says. Level 2 EV chargers, he explains, require a 40-amp circuit breaker, which most of today’s homes already have. “The primary consideration is that there is a spare breaker on your main panel,” Smith says. If so, “the installation is quite routine.” He adds that the work should be done by a licensed electrician, and the installation requires a permit from the community where the EV driver lives. Older homes may require an electrical system upgrade, adding to the cost. Also, permit costs vary from community to community.

These days, you can purchase charging stations at stores such as Lowe’s and Home Depot, as well as at Amazon.com. But before selecting a station, EV drivers need to check their owners manuals and contact their auto dealers and utility companies to make sure their units are fully compatible with their cars, take full advantage of their charging capabilities and are likely to remain usable in the future, as EVs continue to improve.

Boning up on electricity basics may make shopping for a station easier. Those who do so find that voltage refers essentially to how much electricity is available, and amperage to how fast that electricity is delivered.

The 2013 Leaf, for example, will have a 24-amp charging capability, upgraded from the 2012 model. So if a driver of the 2013 model were to purchase a 240-volt, 16-amp station, the vehicle would charge slower than it could with a 24-amp station. Conversely, an EV with a 16-amp charging capability will charge no faster if attached to a 24-amp station.

Stations can also be purchased directly from manufacturers such as Blink, whose level 2 home model retails for $1,495. Blink’s level 2 stations are also being installed at workplaces and in public spaces such as parking garages as part of the EV Project. And recently, ECOtality started installing a few of Blink’s “Cadillac” charging stations in the Bay Area. These fast 480-volt DC chargers can deliver a full charge in just 25 minutes. The latest “Cadillac” station installation was at the Concord Hilton this week, and companies such as Facebook have one, Smith says.

Short range

Long charging times and relatively short mileage ranges from a single charge are the biggest factors that drive potential customers away from EV ownership at present. The Tesla has the longest range, but it comes with a higher price tag than the competitors.

Since 2011, ECOtality has installed 1,700 chargers in Bay Area homes for free or at a minimal cost to the homeowner. That figure represents a significant percentage of the 6,500 chargers installed in homes throughout the United States under this program.

The EV Project is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and in this region, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. Bay Area homeowners who qualify receive free chargers and up to $1,200 to cover installation costs. Residents of selected communities in nine other states and the District of Columbia are also eligible. However, the amount covered for installation cost is as low as $400 in some regions.

To receive a charging station for free through the EV Project, the home-owner must agree to share data from it with the federal government. Data collected so far from the stations of Leaf and Chevrolet Volt (a hybrid plug-in model that also uses gasoline) drivers since 2009 covers 63 million miles of travel and offers a wealth of information on EV trends, including an increase in use of chargers away from home, according to Smith. The EV Project is winding down but is still accepting applications.

Of his own installation, Fujimoto says, “It was very seamless for us.” Still, it was not without challenges. The application process took three months, and when the station was installed in June, the first one did not work when tested. But the installer replaced it immediately with another from his truck, and that one tested OK.

Jack Brown, who drives an electric BMW ActiveE, had a ChargePoint CT500 station installed at his Aptos home for free by taking a different route. He received it through a program funded by the California Energy Commission, but he was expecting to pay $400 for a permit and inspection earlier this year. In the end, however, Brown decided to add solar panels to his home, too, and he negotiated a deal with no out-of-pocket expenses for the upgrade of his electrical panel and installation of the solar PV (photovoltaic) panels, which generate power for his own use and potentially an excess for the electric grid. SolarCity leases the PV panels that have been installed to Brown for $160 a month.

Start process early

ChargePoint, like Blink, has a network of level 2 chargers in commercial use. Both manufacturers issue cards that drivers use to activate the chargers. Both also offer smartphone apps and websites that can alert drivers to whether a charger is currently being used by another vehicle or not. These Web tools also notify the companies if a charger malfunctions.

Brown, an IT manager, says, “This has worked out very well for us, but I would advise people to start the process early. It took us nearly five months to get everything turned on, between the city and PG&E.”

Today, EV owners remain a tiny minority among drivers in the United States, and the early adopters make up a tight-knit community that shares information on blogs and online forums. Some even share their electricity. Brown has listed his home charging station with Recargo and PlugShare to let other EV drivers know it is available to them, if needed.

Fujimoto has opted to keep his garage charging station private. “I’m not that much of an electric (vehicle) advocate that I would allow strangers to come by,” he says.

Even so, Fujimoto says he loves the EV life. “People have to really experience it to understand — to really understand what I mean.”

Deborah Petersen blogs about the EV life at http://myhusbandselectriccar.wordpress.com.