How Much Electricity Does It Take To Completely Charge An Electric Car

How much electricity does it take to charge an electric car?

When talking about electricity usage, there are two different parameters that are important. Energy and power.Energy. This is energy put into the battery to later drive the car. It's usually expressed in kWh. A kWh is 1,000 watts, used for 1 hour. So, 10 light bulbs, each 100 watts, on for 1 hour, would use 1 kWh.The important thing about the energy needed for an electric car is that it has almost nothing to do with the size of the battery. The energy needed to charge an electric car depends on the miles driven and heating or cooling needs. Most electric cars get between 3 and 4 miles per kWh. Drive 60 miles, and your electric car will probably require between 15–20 kWh to recharge.Power. Power measures how fast the energy is delivered. If you need 20 kWh, that can be 20 kW for 1 hour, 10 kW for 2 hours, or 1 kW for 20 hours.A standard 120V/15A outlet in the U.S. will provide about 1.4 kW, so it would take about 14 hours to recharge 20 kWh. A 240V/30A circuit is 5.7 kW, so it would only take 3.5 hours.Most people only drive about 30 miles per day, so would only need about 10 kWh, making all the times about half what I calculated above. You can calculate for your situation.Either way, whether using high power for a shorter time, or lower power for a longer time, the energy is the same and determined by the miles you drove.Note: Some people might know that Watts = Volts * Amps and wonder why my power calculation for 120V and 15A was 1400 watts instead of 1800 watts. Sustained current draw on a circuit isn't supposed to be more than 80% of its rated load. Since electric cars are a sustained load, they make sure to follow that restriction. All the calculations have that taken into account.

How much does charging a Tesla car affect your electricity bill?

I drive about 6000 miles per year in my Tesla Model S, probably 90 percent stop and go in-town driving. My (unusually low) electric bill averages less than 8 cents per kilowatt hour. My long-term average electric Tesla mileage is 370 watt-hours per mile, so in a year I use 2,200,000 watt-hours, or 2200 kWh. There is an unproductive loss of electricity in converting home alternating current to direct current to the battery, and later converting the power back to AC, so I would increase the annual the theoretical 2200 kWh to 2,612 kWh electric usage of the Tesla. At 8 cents per kWh, this would come to $209.My previous car was a Lexus LS460 that was almost the same weight and size as my Tesla. My long -term gas mileage was about 12 mpg. For 6000 miles, that’s 500 gallons x about $3.28 for premium gasoline, for a total fuel bill of $1640Net energy savings per year: $1431.[Updated answer June 18, 2018 to increase kWh usage to recognize larger charging losses than previously included, and to increase super premium gasoline prices for the Lexus from $2.50 to the current market price of $3.30 in Houston. The combination increased the electric car savings.]A Tesla is somewhat more expensive than a Lexus, depending on the Tesla model. The fuel savings over 5 to 7 years would probably cover any price difference for a typical Tesla Model S 75D, especially for drivers logging more than 15,000 miles per year.Plus, of course, the Tesla is an infinitely cooler-looking car that handles far better and accelerates like a bat out of hell.

How long does it take for an electric car to charge?

Charging an electric car from empty can take anywhere between 30 minutes and 12 hours, depending on the size of the vehicle's battery, its maximum charging rate and the power rating of the chargepoint itself.Aside from the vehicles battery size, the average charging time would typically vary depending on where you charge (which, in the UK, often defines the type of charging point available and how much time a driver is parked for):Considering these factors:For an overnight home charge it would be around 2 –6 hours. (Key factors: vehicle battery size, amount of charge left on battery & power rating of charging point).For a charge while parked at a destination like a supermarket, gym or public carpark it would be around 1 hour. (Key factors: amount of time the driver is visiting the destination for. Usually drivers live or work relatively locally to these destinations and are topping up - see Top Up Charging below).For a rapid charge at a motorway service station it would be around 15–30 minutes, depending on how full your battery is. (Influenced most by battery size and how much charge the battery has left. Here drivers usually need to re-charge so they can continue their journey).More details:How Long Does it Take to Charge an Electric Car? | POD PointSome other points of interest:For most drivers charging time isn't a major issue. This is because they typically top up charge when their car is parked anyway, rather than letting their battery run empty.Almost all fully electric vehicles can also use rapid chargepoints, which charge a car's battery up to 80% in as little as 30 minutes and are ideal for long distance journeys.Charging rates can differ based on the ambient temperature, the state of the battery (e.g. empty or half full) and the maximum charging rate of the vehicle.

How much coal does it take to charge an average electric car?

Zero. This is a junk question because any “answer” claiming to offer a quantity would be demonstrably false.Let’s begin with California, where the answer is very nearly zero. The total coal fired power in the state was 1% in 2007 and dropped to just 0.2% in 2015. The whole west coast has relatively little coal power. Given the factors in the next paragraph below, nailing even a molecule of coal to a west coast electric car would be illogical and definitely unprovable.Elsewhere in the country it’s impossible to say because electricity is generated by a combination of sources; hydro power, geothermal power from underground sources, wind power, solar power, natural gas-fired power, nuclear power, and pumped-storage power. Moreover, every utility has its own lineup of sources, both from its own equipment and from sources operated by other utilities and from merchant electric generating companies and cogenerators, who are mostly gas-fired.It is also impossible to say categorically because the mix of generating sources changes with the seasons. In hot places like Texas, for example, every working electric plant is usually on line at peak hours in the summer. When the weather is cooler, however, the least efficient plants are taken off line.It’s also impossible to make a valid statement that will remain valid five years from now, because coal plants are being rapidly abandoned in favor of natural gas and renewable sources. This is certainly true in Texas, where all of our coal plants may be scrapped within ten years. Most are already being retired from use.Finally, you would need to know exactly what utility company served the place where the electric car was being charged, what time of day it was charged, each date it was charged, and the number of kilowatt hours used. Some days would have no coal; other days might have a little. Each day and each hour would be different.Anyone who tries to tell you that it takes “x” amount of coal, even a thimbleful, to fuel an electric car knows nothing about the electric utility business.