Just leased a VW ID4

[dan]

I'm sure Texas's grid will have no problems with this

[robg]

My sense is that EV adoption has slowed in the US over the past year, so I suspect there will end up being more runway to sort out grid and home charging issues over the next 10 years or so.

I haven't gotten around to contacting an electrician to install 240v service in our garage yet...even the puny 120v is meeting our driving needs. I realize this isn't as efficient (due to higher losses) and could eventually be annoying, so I do plan to upgrade.

So far, I'm really liking the EV experience...but maybe too much. I'm finding that its so much nicer to drive this car than most ICE cars on a daily basis. As of now, I certainly can't imagine choosing even a higher end 4 cylinder sedan or crossover over any of the mainstream EV offerings for example. Will be interesting to see where I end up after 2 years in terms of what I want to replace this: Do I go EV but higher end (Macan EV)?, Do I go with another mainstream EV, or do I get sick of EVs and get something different.

[Jeff_DML]

Originally Posted by dan

I'm sure Texas's grid will have no problems with this

Or California

[lemming]

Originally Posted by Jeff_DML

Or California

You’re being funny, you guys. About TX and CA.

[Nick M3]

Originally Posted by lemming

Honestly, I think most of us need to consider having n=2 Level 2/3 chargers in the next 5 years. I think hybrids will largely dominate, but my question is starting with each of our domiciles and then radiating out to the grid. And if the grid can support X number of houses at the 240V level.

I just have never thought deeply about this before. I’m wondering in the NorthEast and the cranky and ancient infrastructure if this can be supported.

Yeah, EV headroom was our excuse to get 400A service. It’s massive overkill, but we’re covered for pretty much anything reasonable for home.

[robg]

Originally Posted by Nick M3

Yeah, EV headroom was our excuse to get 400A service. It’s massive overkill, but we’re covered for pretty much anything reasonable for home.

Wow yeah you could have an EV fleet with that!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ZBB]

Originally Posted by lemming

Honestly, I think most of us need to consider having n=2 Level 2/3 chargers in the next 5 years. I think hybrids will largely dominate, but my question is starting with each of our domiciles and then radiating out to the grid. And if the grid can support X number of houses at the 240V level.

I just have never thought deeply about this before. I’m wondering in the NorthEast and the cranky and ancient infrastructure if this can be supported.

We've been a 2 EV household for nearly 4 years. For all but the last 7 months, we only had TVs (we now have the Miata + 2 Teslas)

We have a single charger. We basically swap charging -- each car charges about 1-2x per week, and we do 90% of our charging overnight. So swapping out who charges has been pretty simple.

Every couple months we have a day where both cars are low (we typically plug them in when they have ~50-80 miles remaining). While we could plug one in to the charger and another in to 120V (which adds 3-4 miles of range per hour), we've actually never done that. Instead, we'll charge one of them for an hour or two in the evening (an hour at 240V 60A charging added ~44 miles of range), then we swap them on the chargers and let the other charge overnight so its at 80% in the morning. This has gotten a bit rarer over the last few months since Tesla added the "charge on solar" feature -- so we tend to leave one of the cars plugged in and the system will send any excess solar to the car, and the charger varies the draw to only pull the excess solar).

I could see eventually getting an extra charger, but we've really been OK with just one...