Sales of electric vehicles (EVs) in the United States have grown every year since hybrids and EVs picked up in the contemporary market at the turn of the century, but EV ownership hasn’t made it to the mainstream yet for many Americans. To demystify the ins and outs of EV ownership, we’ve tackled the topic in a multipart series on the Resources Radio podcast.
Since buying my first electric vehicle (EV) in January, my interest in the ins and outs of EV ownership, operation, and market dynamics has only grown. Luckily for me, I’m a host on the Resources Radio podcast and thus have a great opportunity to get answers to my EV questions. Over the past several weeks, I’ve interviewed a few experts about EVs, and we released the fourth and final episode in the miniseries this week. Here in this blog post, I’ll gather together all my notes and highlight some of the most memorable insights that these experts shared on the podcast, alongside lessons learned from my first EV road trip in April to see the solar eclipse.
One more thing: Let us know if we’ve missed any questions about EVs that you’re curious about. We may address those in a future podcast episode or blog post!
Demystifying Electric Vehicle Ownership, with Sebastian Blanco
For the first episode, I talked with Sebastian Blanco, editor-in-chief at SAE media group and a journalist on the automotive and vehicle-technology beat. Sebastian walked me through the foundations of EV ownership, covering different EV makes and models and pro tips for locating charging stations through smartphone apps and other resources. In particular, Sebastian answered questions about charging and maintenance, like, What are the best practices for charging, and how much does charging an EV cost? How does maintenance differ for an EV compared to a gas-powered vehicle? And how do driver behavior and the weather affect the range of an EV on a single charge?
A few key insights from my conversation with Sebastian:
- “Gas prices are transparent … because of the infrastructure that exists for gas engines today, which did not exist 100 years ago at the start of the gas-engine car. If you think of EV infrastructure being at the beginning of its journey, and gas infrastructure being closer to the end than to the beginning, you’re getting price information from signs as you drive down the street because the infrastructure is set up that way. We could easily do that with EVs if we wanted to. We wouldn’t have to put them on signs; we could put them on apps.”
- “On a nationwide average, if we take the most popular EV last year and average US electricity costs, that car will go 100 miles on under $4.50.”
- “A good app and the Alternative Fuels Data Center should get you where you need to go.”
Sebastian and I spoke in February, when I had just returned from a short trip to Richmond and was brimming with questions. His knowledge and tips provided a great foundation for the rest of the series.
Credit: Basilico Studio Stock / Shutterstock
Innovations in Electric Vehicle Batteries, with Micah Ziegler
For the second episode, I talked with Micah Ziegler, an assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Micah shared the history of the development of EV batteries (which is longer than you might think!), the materials that are used in batteries, and technological advancements that have improved battery efficiency over the past century. As a bonus, Micah also shared some of his research findings about policy tools that may be especially effective at further reducing the costs of clean energy technologies such as EV batteries moving forward.
A few takeaways from my conversation with Micah:
- “Researchers have long focused on using lithium in batteries. It is the third-lightest element, and it supports high voltages, which can enable substantial amounts of energy to be stored in lightweight batteries.”
- “We’re looking for new battery chemistries, new battery designs—ways to cut down on the weight and volume associated with all the components that go into supporting the batteries. Researchers at a variety of levels are trying to make sure we can essentially have electric vehicles that can travel as far as possible on a single charge.”
- “My colleagues and I found that, for more than two decades after the commercial introduction of lithium-ion batteries, public and private research and development played a very large role in cost reduction, while other factors, like economies of scale, contributed less … These results suggest that if policymakers maintain funding for research and development for sustainable technologies, even well after these technologies are introduced to the market, they could accelerate the improvement and deployment of these sustainable options.”
A longer-lasting battery could help EVs become part of the road-trip-as-freedom mythos that’s so prominent in the United States. I’m rooting for Micah and his research colleagues to help further that goal!
Credit: Fahroni / Shutterstock
Expanding Access to Electric Vehicle Chargers, with Kimathi Boothe
For the third episode, I talked with Kimathi Boothe, vice president of energy operations at Detroit-based Dunamis Clean Energy Partners, about EV charging infrastructure in the United States. Kimathi delved into the different types of EV chargers, how the density of EV charging stations in the US is likely to evolve, and efforts to facilitate equitable access to EV chargers.
A few top insights from our conversation:
- “For Tesla, they develop their cars to charge directly with Tesla charging stations, and there’s a particular socket that fits that … The other charging networks outside of Tesla use a completely separate, different type of charging socket … There are efforts now to commonize those.”
- “If you go to California, you will see chargers probably everywhere, relatively speaking. When you go to the Dakotas, you probably won’t see chargers everywhere. That becomes a function of the demand and the density in all of those areas. I would say every single state in the nation has seen an increase in EV registration, as well as EV charger deployment, so there’s no state that has either stayed the same or declined in that area, but certainly there are areas that have leaned in more to adoption.”
- “To codify equity as part of that language [in recent legislation] has made all the difference in the world. When you say that 40 percent [of the beneficial outcomes must flow to] disadvantaged or disinvested communities, now the conversation begins to change in terms of how we deploy, and where we deploy, and when we deploy. Otherwise, as I mentioned from the start, only the rich and famous would have EV chargers and EVs.”
An important addendum to my conversation with Kimathi is the more recent news that Tesla laid off almost the entire team that was responsible for building and maintaining the company’s network of EV chargers. People in the industry and journalists have expressed some concerns that these layoffs might slow the build-out of US charging infrastructure. Kimathi noted that Tesla’s chargers generally are the most reliable chargers available to EV drivers, and other firms are moving toward adopting Tesla’s charger as the standard. We’ll keep an eye on any ripple effects from Tesla’s decision.
Credit: Clare Louise Jackson / Shutterstock
Electric Road Trip: The Pros and Cons of Electric Vehicle Ownership, with Kristin Hayes
For the fourth episode, I yielded the driver’s seat to my esteemed podcast co-host Daniel Raimi, who interviewed me for the show. I had just gotten back from my anticipated road trip to Ohio, where I parked in the path of totality and viewed the total solar eclipse for more than four glorious minutes.
Over the course of that journey, I experienced many of the realities I talked about with Sebastian, Micah, and Kimathi. To wit: my battery performance did change substantially during the cold drive through the mountains of western Maryland, and I did indeed use the PlugShare app (Sebastian’s recommendation) to find chargers in close proximity. I didn’t have too many choices of chargers in that stretch of the drive—but once I got closer to major cities, the charging network available to me was much more robust. I will admit I gazed longingly at some of those Tesla Superchargers along the way, anxious for the day my non-Tesla might be able to use them.
A few top insights from our conversation:
- A road trip “does take more patience, for sure. You have to stop more frequently. You have to stop for longer periods of time. It turns out, though, that was actually a very pleasant way to road-trip … It was actually really nice to have these little breaks, probably in parts of America that we wouldn’t have seen—in random car dealerships and just lots of interesting parts of America that I don’t think we would’ve seen otherwise.”
- “I averaged about 8.5 cents per mile over those 940 miles … But for the average passenger vehicle that gets 26 or 28 miles per gallon, that cost per mile is close to 13 cents—12.66 cents, something like that. It’s definitely cheaper than the average US internal combustion engine vehicle.”
- “I certainly feel like [owning an EV that rates] a solid 7 [out of 10] for a road trip, and a 9.5 for day-to-day experience, is well worth the repeat purchase. I’ve really enjoyed it.”
So much has happened since I recorded this final episode with Daniel last month. As noted, Tesla’s current financial woes are reflected in some serious employee downsizing, and a number of other EV-only auto brands are also struggling. The news seems to change daily about whether EV sales are slowing or merely leveling off before a rebound.
And even as the Biden administration seeks to spur the adoption of EVs and rapidly reduce transportation emissions, it simultaneously has slapped 100 percent tariffs on imports of Chinese EVs—many of which have lower purchase prices than those currently for sale in the United States—with the goal of maintaining a US EV manufacturing base.
It’s clearly a rapidly evolving market, and we’ve got so much more to learn. I had a chance to look further into some of the lingering questions I shared with Daniel, particularly around future charging speeds. (Of course people are working on that—duh!) I talked with my colleague Dallas Burtraw about his new EV, which in his case comes with two years of free fast charging courtesy of Hyundai and Electrify America—meaning that he has no intention of installing a home charger in the short term. And I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a workshop at the University of Illinois Chicago on envisioning equitable transitions to sustainable transportation systems, where adoption of EVs was a major focus of the agenda. I feel like I could record an endless series of episodes on this topic, as I find answers to existing questions and come up with new queries along the way!
As a reminder, we can tackle any additional questions that occur to you in a future episode or blog post. And if you have an EV, we’d love to hear about your experience or see photos.
As Sebastian noted, we’re just at the beginning of the EV trajectory. The road ahead does inevitably seem bumpy, especially compared to the well-trodden road of internal combustion engines that we’ve been traversing for years. But I feel a certain joy in being at the relative vanguard of this new world and having a vested interest in seeing how it all unfolds.
