Updated February 4, 2025
By Rick Cotta
Topics below, in order:
The Federal $7500 EV Tax Credit
Powertrain Differences
“Regen,” the Fact a Motor is Also a Generator, and the Beauty of One-Pedal Driving
Batteries and Charging
Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 Charging
Kilowatts (kW) and Kilowatt-hours (kWh)
EV Pluses
EV Minuses
What the Future Might Hold
The Federal $7500 Tax Credit
Formerly known as the “EV tax credit,” what is now called the Clean Vehicle Credit has become very complicated since its introduction in August of 2022 as part of the Inflation Reduction Act — enough so that it is covered under its own section of this website. (Look for the “$” icon on the main page labeled “EV Tax Credit Info.”) In brief, the Clean Vehicle Credit not only carries much tighter restrictions on what vehicles are eligible for the tax credit, but also restricts what buyers are eligible based on income.
Powertrain Differences
The biggest difference between an EV and a gas vehicle is in the powertrain. An electric motor has one moving part: the armature, which is similar to the crankshaft in a gas engine. But a gas engine has dozens more moving parts in the form of pistons, valves, camshafts, belts, etc. Furthermore, EVs usually have just a one-speed transmission, which is far simpler than the complicated 6-10 speed transmissions found in modern gas-powered vehicles.
Another benefit is that an electric motor produces its full power as soon as it starts to turn, whereas a gas engine needs to be “revved up” to produce its full power. That and the fact you don’t have to wait for the transmission to downshift (because it only has one speed) means throttle response in an EV is virtually instant, a real joy in city driving.
A side note: An electric motor is usually about 90-95% efficient in turning electrical energy into rotary motion. By contrast, a gas engine is typically only about 30% efficient in turning the energy in gasoline into rotary motion, with the rest lost mostly to heat (out the exhaust and cooling system) and friction.
“Regen,” the Fact a Motor is Also a Generator, and the Beauty of One-Pedal Driving
This is one of the coolest aspects of an electric vehicle.
An electric motor is mechanically much the same as a generator, and can serve as both. A motor takes electrical power and turns it into rotary motion, while a generator takes rotary motion and turns it into electrical power. That means that the same motor that powers the vehicle up to speed can be switched over to become a generator that helps recharge the battery when slowing down.
Because it takes power to turn what is now a generator — and that “power” comes from the vehicle’s momentum — the process slows the vehicle without having to use the brakes. This is known as “Regen,” short for “Regenerative braking,” and results in two rather terrific things: Brakes tend to last far longer than in gas vehicles, and it makes possible the beauty of “one-pedal driving.” The latter means that under most driving conditions, you can slow the vehicle to a stop simply by lifting off the throttle; you only have to hit the brake pedal if you need to stop much more quickly than normal. This is a boon in city traffic, and several EVs now offer it.
Batteries and Charging
EVs run off of a large battery, which typically weighs about a thousand pounds or more and is mounted under the floor. This makes them somewhat heavier than a similar gas vehicle, but the added weight is down low, which lowers the center of gravity. That, in turn, tends to make for sportier handling.
But that battery is also the biggest drawback to EVs. While battery technology is advancing at a rapid rate, most EVs still can’t provide the kind of driving range you get in a gas vehicle.
Yet the bigger problem is the time it takes to recharge the battery after you deplete its charge. Even if you could go 300 miles on a charge, getting that back takes hours to days, depending on the type of charging you can do. (More on that two paragraphs down.) Better batteries and far more powerful chargers are being phased in that can lower this time significantly, but large-scale adoption is likely years down the road.
On the positive side, you can recharge your battery at home. Depending on the type of charging capability you have, you can usually get back anywhere from 40 miles to 200 miles of range overnight. If you only drive that far on a daily basis, it’s a huge convenience.
Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 Charging
As noted, there’s a big difference in charging times. This is because there is a big difference in charging capabilities. As of now, those capabilities are broken down into Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 charging, with Level 3 being by far the fastest.
Level 1 can be done at home through a regular 120-volt 3-prong outlet found in most garages. (You could use one on the outside of your house — many charging cables are weatherproof — though weather might still be a concern, as might theft.) Nearly all EVs come with the necessary charging cable, which plugs into the vehicle with a standardized J1772 (pronounced, “Jay seventeen seventy-two”) plug handle that looks somewhat like a hand-held hair dryer. (One is shown in the photo on our home page.) You can usually get back 3-4 miles for every hour of charging.
Level 2 charging requires 240-volt power. Many houses have this — usually for an electric clothes dryer or stove — but probably not a separate line running to the garage. Having an electrician run a line with outlet to your garage can cost $1000 or more — it can vary a lot due to circumstances — but some EV manufacturers will now pay some of the cost of installation. Using Level 2 charging allows you to get back 10-30 miles of range or more per hour of charge (typically toward the higher end in modern EVs). You also need a Level 2 charging cable for this, though some newer EVs come with one. They use the same J1772 plug handle that plugs into the vehicle as Level 1. Most public charging stations are Level 2, but most also cost more to use than the cost of your electricity at home. Plus you may have to wait in line to plug in.
It’s worth noting that for Level 1 and Level 2 charging, the charger is built into the vehicle. Many people think the charger is part of the cable, but it isn’t; the cable is essentially just a glorified extension cord. What some folks think is the charger is actually just a “smart box” in the middle of the cable that primarily provides safety features. From there, a long cable delivers the same 120 or 240 volts to the vehicle’s charger through the J1772 plug. As such, we always refer to it here as a “charging cable.”
The reason this is notable is that the capacity of the vehicle’s built-in charger — which transforms the 120 or 240 volts of household AC power into DC power for the battery (all batteries are DC) — varies somewhat, and can be a factor in how fast a battery can charge. Other factors are the capacity of the charging cable as well as the capacity of the wiring going to it, with the lowest value of these three being what limits the charging rate.
Most public charging stations are Level 2. They vary in output, but many can produce as much power as the vehicle’s charger can handle, and more-powerful ones may be coming — mostly because more-powerful in-vehicle chargers are being put into the newest EVs.
Level 3 chargers are sometimes referred to as “DC Fast Chargers” or “DC Quick Chargers,” because they bypass the vehicle’s built-in charger and deliver DC power directly to the battery. The vehicle has to have a special plug for Level 3 charging. Most newer EVs have one, but some older ones don’t. There are three types of plugs. CCS is the most common. There’s also one called CHAdeMO, used mostly by Nissan and Mitsubishi. Some Teslas have their own style of plug. Some car companies have recently announced an agreement with Tesla that will allow those manufacturer’s car owners to use Tesla Supercharging stations with an adapter plug, which — when it becomes more common — will greatly increase the number of charging stations available to them. Because of the various plugs used for Level 3 charging, you have to make sure a charging station you’re planning to visit can accommodate your car’s type of plug.
Level 3 chargers aren’t feasible for home use, and though they aren’t large in number yet, more public Level 3 chargers are being built all the time. The charging rate for Level 3 varies — dictated both by the power of the charger and by how fast the vehicle’s battery can absorb the power — but it’s far faster than Level 1 or Level 2. Yet because the charging rate has to be lowered to “top off” the battery, Level 3 charging times are often listed as being to 80% of the battery’s capacity, or maybe how long it takes to add 100 miles of range. Thus a typical rating might be, “80% in 40 minutes,” or “100 miles in 30 minutes.”
Note that some newer EVs have much higher maximum Level 3 charging rates than older models. While the current “norm” might be 50 kW, some new vehicles can handle more than 200 kW. (“kW” is described under the next heading.) That might not mean much now, but it will mean something when more-powerful DC chargers come about. Some of these are already in an experimental state of use, and they can bring back 100 miles of range in a matter of several minutes.
Kilowatts (kW) and Kilowatt-hours (kWh)
A kilowatt (abbreviated as “kW”) is 1000 watts. A Watt is a measure of electrical power that’s calculated by multiplying Volts x Amps. In most cases here, Volts are a constant: typically 120 volts for household wiring (sometimes called 110 volts, because voltage varies in different areas of the country), 240 volts (or 220) for high-powered household electrical lines typically used for electric dryers or stoves.
Volts is a measure of electrical pressure. Amps is a measure of electrical flow. At a water faucet in your home, there’s a set amount of water pressure. That’s like Volts. If you turn on the faucet a little, a trickle of water comes out; if you turn it further, more water flows out. That’s like Amps. So if you plug a toaster into your home’s 120-volt outlet and the toaster draws 10 amps, it’s using 1200 watts of electrical power, or 1.2 kW.
If you’re talking about how much power a charger can transfer, it’s measured in kilowatts, because it can keep transferring the same amount of power as long as it’s plugged in. But if you’re talking about how much power a battery can produce, it’s measured in kilowatt-hours, because it can’t produce the same amount of power indefinitely. So a charger might be rated at 6.6 kilowatts (someone decided that’s easier to work with than “6600 watts”), but a battery might be rated at 64 kilowatt-hours, because it can produce the equivalent of 64 kilowatts of power for 1 hour before it’s completely run down.
EV Pluses
1. Typically, per-mile “fuel” costs are much lower.
Based on average residential electric rates (which in April 2022 were estimated at 13.72 cents/kWh), smaller EVs usually cost about 4 cents per mile for electricity. By contrast, a vehicle averaging 25 mpg gulping $4 gas costs 16 cents per mile, or four times as much.
2. Consistent Costs
Anyone who’s been driving a car for any length of time has probably noticed that gas prices have varied tremendously in recent years. Electric rates are far more stable, making it easier to plan your expenses.
3. Less maintenance
There are no oil changes on an EV, and many other maintenance services required on a gas vehicle don’t apply to an electric one. Furthermore, brakes on an EV tend to last far longer than on a gas vehicle due to the aforementioned regenerative braking. So while EVs aren’t no maintenance, they are certainly low maintenance. And that not only saves money, but also the inconvenience of frequently taking the vehicle in for service.
4. The Ability to Pre-heat the Interior — and to Produce Heat Quickly if You Can’t
This is a real cold-weather blessing. Even if the vehicle is parked in your garage, you can “ask” it to pre-heat the interior before you get in. Yes, you can do the same with some gas vehicles, but you have to start the engine to make the heat, and that’s dangerous to do even if you open the garage door first (due to the exhaust fumes), and certainly wastes a lot of gas. Furthermore, even if you don’t pre-heat your EV’s interior, it only takes a minute or so for heat to start pouring out, because it’s not relying on an engine to warm up to make the heat; it uses an electric heater, somewhat like the little boxy one you might have in your home.
One type of heater called a Heat Pump is more efficient than a traditional resistance heater — which is like an electric stove or that little box heater you have. Some EVs offer Heat Pumps, which don’t reduce winter driving range as much as a regular heater.
5. Instant Throttle Response
This is mentioned above, but it’s worth repeating. It helps makes virtually any EV a joy to drive.
6. And then there’s that whole “Green” thing ….
EV Minuses
1. The batteries — while getting better all the time — are still a weak point.
While some newer EVs offer an EPA range estimate of 300 miles or more, that often has to be considered a maximum round-trip distance, and will be significantly shorter in cold weather. That’s because recharging long enough to get back any significant range will typically take quite a while, unless you gain access to a public Level 3 charger … and nobody’s ahead of you in line. Not only will cold weather that prompts use of the heat shorten that distance, but so might the fact that batteries themselves typically lose some of their power in the cold.
Furthermore, batteries tend to lose some of their capacity over time, and they generally haven’t been designed to be easily or cheaply replaced. It would have been great, for instance, if an early EV with 75 miles of range when new that’s now dropped to 50 miles could have its battery replaced by a modern one that’s far more powerful than the original. But that’s generally not the case.
2. Charging time
This is perhaps more of an issue than range. If you could recharge your battery as quickly and easily as you could fill your car with gas, any range limitation wouldn’t be as debilitating. But you can’t. That day may come, but not soon, and few EVs offered today would be able to make use of “DC Ultra Fast Charging” anyway. Note that some EVs can charge at more than 200 kW on a Level 3 charger, which may be a big deal in the future. And there’s really no reason the EV you buy today couldn’t still be on the road 30 years from now.
3. Initial cost
While prices are coming down, relatively few EVs are still eligible for the $3750 or $7500 federal tax credit (and even if they are, you might not be), and that tends to leave them somewhat pricier than a comparable gas vehicle. Note, however, that several states offer their own incentives. Furthermore, some extra money spent up front can come back to you in the form of lower operating costs, so the initial price difference might shrink quite a bit over time.
4. Not many EV choices … yet
While more EVs are being added all the time, most are at the pricier end, including luxury cars and big pickup trucks. Want an electric minivan? No can do. A small pickup? Nada. Convertible? Out of luck. But time may very well cure this problem.
5. Any EV bought today may quickly be dated
This has been a problem since Day 1. Many who bought early EVs found they depreciated quickly, because new ones soon came out that raised the bar so much as to make an old one prematurely obsolete. And that’s likely to continue for the foreseeable future, because EVs are such a new technology. But waiting … and waiting … and then waiting some more will mean you’ll miss out on many existing EV advantages in the meantime. Yet if nothing currently on the market really meets your needs, then by all means, hold off. What you want might be just around the corner.
What the Future Might Hold
We’re at an exciting time in EV development. Not only are the vehicles getting better and more numerous, but the public-charging infrastructure is as well. This includes not only more Level 2 and Level 3 chargers going in, but possibly the aforementioned new Level 3 “Ultra-Fast DC Chargers” that can bring back 100 miles of range in a matter of minutes. We also might see such innovations as hands-free charging — where you pull the vehicle over a plate in the ground, and the battery is charged automatically without you having to plug it in — and even roadways that do somewhat the same, though as you’re moving.
We also might see more focus put on charging your EV at home. This might include not only help with the cost of installing Level 2 charging capability — which may include hands-free capability — but also incentives to install solar roof shingles feeding a bank of batteries that can charge your EV virtually for free. (Some such programs already exist.) And a few current EVs have the capability to use any charge in their batteries to help power your house in the event of a power outage, relieving you from needing a separate, rarely used, “emergency” generator.
So stay tuned ….
0 Comments