A Complete Beginner’s Guide to Electric Vehicles

THERE HAS BEEN SOME NEWS. CCS is probably dead. I made a video which you can watch.
https://youtu.be/ZJOfyMCEzjQ
Most of the other info here is still relevant, but I may remake or re-edit this video at a later date.

YIPPEEE!! i love when I find nearly hour long videos by this guy. I could listen to you talk about anything

I think battery packs should be made universal and easily swapped out. So people can instantly swap a discharged battery for a fully charged one and they're good to go. That takes away any delay that would otherwise be spent in charging when travelling long distances.

"The best time to invest in renewable energy was yesterday. The second best time is today."

I live in Philadelphia and depend on street parking. Luckily my neighborhood isn't super competitive for parking and I can usually park in front of my house, but the city makes it near impossible to get a permit to install an EV charger on the curb. My plan for when I get an EV in the future is to get a permit to install an outlet for lighting a tree (much easier) that just happens to be a dedicated 20a circuit. Will limit me to level 1 charger, but there are some slightly faster chargers on the market that us a NEMA 5-20 plug for 16a charging. Not ideal for most, but my commute is on public transit and I drive less than 7.5k miles a year

Small turbines are incredibly inefficient. There is no point to this thing. Unless it can run on any combustible gas or liquid.

We have three EVs for three drivers. We have one level 2 and two 110 outlets in or near the garage. The 2 110's are on different circuits so we can charge all three cars at the same time. And we have never needed two level 2 chargers. Never.

For battery preconditioning to use DC Fast Charging, when the car detects navigation near a station, it should prompt you to begin preconditioning. The prompt should time out and default to no action. Add a manual control, and you should be good to go. Oh, and have a setting to turn prompts off for people driving near many fast charging stations.

"it depends"?! what are you, a lawyer?

The only thing you need to know about evs is that, as usual, you are being sold a pipe dream.

Great video. This was helpful to me in the background as I recently (23rd December) bought my first EV, a 2015 BMW i3. It has very limited range (about 55 miles) BUT my mileage is 99% local 15 minute trips (commute and dad taxi). I've taken it on just one intercity drive, which required charging both coming and going, but this was a hit I accepted buying an old, low range EV. Three weeks in, I am really enjoying the switch.

I know you already called this out but I think you might be underestimating one or two of the “but sometimes” mostly I agree that they’re just niche situations that are the exception and not the norm. But calling winter a simple “but sometimes” issue is a bit of a stretch since for 2/3 of the world who experience cold in the winter, winter is a legitimate concern and takes up most of the year in my case, being a Michigander

Fellow Chicagoan here. I share the "would be so much easier if I didn't have to run armored cable" woes. But I'm not sure why you are concerned about that being up to code. That's the code, which is the whole reason we had to do it 😛

Having to stop that often on a road trip is pitiful. Spend 25 percent of your time getting recharged. I hate having to stop and fill up every 400 miles on road trips every hour and a half would be hell

25:03 "… a few hundred dollars to install" a new outlet. Alec Watson is being conservative by citing a price that high, but a new outlet – even a 240V grounded one – doesn't cost that much from a reasonable contractor. If you're in Kansas City (thereabouts), I'll put one in for much less. There's nothing complicated about it.

All the Anti-EV disinformation is easily debunked with a quick search. I've owned EVS over 6 years, it's been great, on gas vehicles for decades, I'm done with them

I am working on web app. As you are into EV's, you can validate my idea does this even work for upcoming years. Problem : Lack of Battery-Centric Solutions. Solution : A Battery-Centric EV platform. Please give me the suggestions if possible 🙏

kcal/fathom 💀

A solution.
Just install below the road alternating magnets.
Then you put some coils of copper at the base of the cars.
Then you can top up the car while it moves, like in wipeout.
It might not be enough to charge it, but you might recover some power and extend the range.
Unless the magnets create a lot of drag.

Electric cars are worse for the environment. Everyone must know this first.

Wait a sec. Energy doesn't make the World go 'round. Angular momentum does.

I was honestly surprised how much weather hurts milage, people think because it's cold that's why, but it's because you have to run the heater, sometimes heated seats or defrosters, ect

While I like your videos, calling gas engines bad at utilizing heat energy, many consider it heat generation (recovering potentially lost energy or reducing known waste). Just like future brakes would recover lost energy in fairness.

Big joke 70,000 u can keep it

Video fails to mention the damage to the earth mining the materials, battery replacement at end of life and how long this would be, and while it does address lower ranges in the cold, it fails to mention the permanent damage extreme cold temps do to the battery chemistry. It also doesn't mention the fire risk, impossibility of extinguishing an active fire, and doesn't address the disapproval of fire marshals nation wide. I love your channel, but this one was pandering.

I appreciate the acknowledgement that car dependency is still an issue when we have EVs. EVs are so often presented as the single solution to all of our transportation issues but they're really a baby step in the right direction. A bike uses way less energy and takes up way less space than any car.

you're the best! Thanks for your comm on sense.

Is the MPGe rant a bit? Is he joking, or does he genuinely not understand that one might want to know, easily, a relative MPG gas conversation?

It seems a bit… Silly… To whine about such a thing.

WHY DO WE CONVERT ENERGY EVER!? WHY DON'T WE JUST SAY THAT OUR GAS VEHICLES' ECONOMY IN WATTS TO BEGIN WITH?

BECAUSE DIFFERENT UNITS ARE MORE USEFUL REFERENCES FOR DIFFERENT APPLICATIONS!

WHAT THE BOOT IS HE EVEN RANTING ABOUT!?

THE WHOLE THING JUST BLOWS MY MIND!

It sounds like… Just something to whine about… Like when a pendant is a pendant despite knowing the circumstance makes doing so ENTIRELY QUACKING USELESS!

Consider checking out " Prescription for the Planet " by Tom Blees

Very interesting transportation solution recommended by the author

Ice vehicles lose range in the winter also. Dense air contains more oxygen, thus for the ECU to keep the fuel mixture in the proper range it has to add more fuel

They flip it in metric also, litres per 100km…. I think it should be km per litre

Luminiferous

8:50

The real hack is to get your friends to let you install the 50amp charger at their house

The pro to using the 50amp with 6/3 Romex is better heat management by the electrical and the option to weld if one is so inclined. (More options)

The real draw back is adding to the obscure issue that everyone already has — your panel should only be outputting 80% of it's Max capacity which in the best of most cases is 200amp max so 160amps should be the max draw for any normal house.

For a family of 5, they are likely already maxing out all 160 maybe even heading over.

TO BE CLEAR 30AMP 240 will get HOT while charging a car. The hardware used in the wiring of a dryer is more dainty than the NEMA 4-50 AKA "range outlet".

The 6/3 gauge copper wire used in wiring the range outlet acts as a heat sink to draw heat far and away from the plug itself.

BEWARE DO NOT SKIMP ON CHARGING EQUIPMENT

27:27 I don't know if this guy used to be an electrician of some sort, but I wouldn't recommend doing it yourself. Although it is pretty easy to turn off the power so that you don't get shocked, it is also pretty easy to install something wrong and cause a plug that doesn't always work, or even worse, a fire.

Wait, even the 240 plugs are solid metal? I know it's only 120 on each wire, but STILL

Be Dutch, use a bike. Refueling is simple, just consume food, and reliability is much higher! Purchase price is also lower.

Nema 6-15 and 6-20 are fairly common in garages that are used as workshops.
Air compressors, welders, maybe even some large air conditioners already using these kind of connections.

toaster boy 🤣

2 things, the kw/h is stored in the balls. And calling yourself toaster boy is a new level of comedy 😂

This video has proven immensely useful to me, Alec.
I'm about to be getting a used 2021 Chevy Bolt (with a relatively fresh battery from the fixed recall) and have decided to settle on getting a 30 amp circuit setup for it, as I plan to plug in to charge roughly when the battery hits 50%- ish.
My initial thoughts were like you mentioned; i thought i needed a big ol circuit at first, but have now determined otherwise. Genuinely wonderful information.

The problem I see personally is that my 30yr old gasoline engine will continue to get roughly the same mpg and range per tank compared to an EV where the battery health is significantly reduced year over year until it needs an expensive replacement. Which is why the resale value of EVs is horrible

I expected a "through the magic of buying two" segment.