EV 101: Buying and Charging
Why Drive Electric?
Image by NASA
Good for the Environment!
EVs are better for the environment, even when accounting for their manufacturing carbon emissions and when using electricity from coal plants. 40% of greenhouse gas pollution comes from transportation.
EVs don’t contribute to air pollution - a key contributor to premature deaths, illness, and lost workdays.
EV components, esp. batteries are highly recyclable.
Driving electric reduces our dependency on oil imports.
EVs get even cleaner over time, as we generate our electricity with more renewable energy.
Image by Damir Spanic
Good for the Pocketbook!
EVs are super efficient - up to 90% of energy stored is used! for the same amount of energy in a gallon of gasoline, an EV can travel up to 180 miles
Average MPGe is around 120.
Opportunity to ‘run on sunshine’!
Reduced maintenance costs.
Efficiency Matters - EVs maximize energy usage
If you look at the graphic, on the left is the EV: If a power plant burned 1 gallon of gas it would produce 34 kWh - that’s called one gallon-equivalent, and that would power 100 to 180 EV miles, because only 10-20% of the energy is wasted.
On the right, the conventional car burns the gallon directly, but it’s very inefficient and 70-88% is wasted..
“Did you know that 6 kWhs of electricity are used to refine one gallon of gasoline? I drive 30 miles in my Leaf with 6 kWh.”
