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Public EV Charger Etiquette
221 Plays2 years ago
Welcome to the Plug In For More podcast! Mike, Tom, and Bryant are here to help you on your journey to an Electric vehicle future. Each episode we discuss current events, trends, and a specific topic of education related to EV's. We bring together a diverse experience set, and pair it with guests who are experts in the field. For even more information on EV's, check out www.EVUniverse.com.
In this episode, the guys talk about common etiquette around charging an electric vehicle in a public charger. Also, Bryant updates us on his EV6 20,000 mile check up, and they take a peak at the new Fisker line up!
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Transcript
Welcome Back, Brian!
00:00:00
Speaker
You doing okay, Brian? You sound a little under the weather, dude. No, I'm fine. Just busy. Just came back from vacation. You know what I mean? No, I don't know what you mean. I feel like every time we see Brian, we're like just blessed with his presence. I mean, he's Brian's back again, like, Oh, guys, I'm just so tired. Vacation was just, uh, I was taking so much vacation. I'm just so tired of vacation.
Introducing 'Plug In For More'
00:00:31
Speaker
Welcome to Plug In For More, brought to you by evuniverse.com. EV Universe is your one-stop shop for all things related to the electric vehicle. Here on this podcast, our goal is to educate, inspire, and hopefully make your transition into the electric vehicle marketplace a lot less intimidating. And now, here are your hosts, Mike, Tom, and Bryant.
EV6 Updates and Maintenance Struggles
00:00:57
Speaker
Guys, I'm excited to be back here recording with you again. We have a few things to talk about today for the podcast. And first I want to hear about Bryant and his recent updates that he did for the EV6 with his 20,000 mile maintenance that he did. And also, did calling your wife out by name motivate her enough to listen to the podcast finally? I mean, it's a great question. I've asked her multiple times and she still has not listened. So Renee Collie, if you are out there listening,
00:01:25
Speaker
Please let me know, but I don't think she's not, but she's not. So she's not. So, but you shouldn't even care that we've got, you know, tons of thousands of listeners and hot cases doing fabulous. And she doesn't care. And she just like, no, like it's successful husband. I'm not going to listen to it. Exactly. I mean, maybe there's a different medium that we should share shame her in.
00:01:52
Speaker
I don't know. I like that. I like that. So did your car break? You get the updates done, what happened?
Software Updates: EV6 & IONIQ
00:02:02
Speaker
Yeah, so I've owned my EV6 now for over a year. I have 22,000 miles on it. And I want to give a couple of quick updates. So one, there's some major software updates for the EV6 and the Hyundai IONIQ. There's an ICCU update. There is a map navigation update. There's a charging update.
00:02:23
Speaker
there's a parking brake update, there's a lot of updates. So I took my vehicle in, I was kind of nervous because I actually put this off for about a month and I'll get to that in a quick second. But for the listeners out there that are new to EVs,
00:02:36
Speaker
One of the biggest mind shifts I've had is the only really maintenance you need on your EV for the first 50,000, 100,000 miles besides replacing tires is rotating your tires and taking in for software updates. It's not like my Dodge Ram or my other cars, we have to take them in and get oil changes and all these other things. So I'll talk about how much it's cost me to own an EV in one year in a quick second.
00:02:59
Speaker
This one I was a little bit nervous because the Facebook forums and everything I'm reading online, there's a lot of problems after these updates, supposed problems after these updates where your vehicle won't charge more than seven kilowatt hours, which is very slow. It will continue to interrupt itself all night long and won't charge all night. It will have blank screens. So I was kind of nervous taking my vehicle in.
00:03:21
Speaker
I was starting to, I was starting to feel like, you know what, I should probably do it now because I was on vacation guys. If you can believe it, I was on vacation and I didn't know the car. Wow. Congrats again. Thank you. You're welcome. And, uh, and then also I don't have a road trip for another month, so it was a good time to take it in. And, um, you know, spoiler alert, nothing happened. I took videos of the charging before the charging rate, 11.4 kilowatt hours.
00:03:48
Speaker
All the stuff and, uh, sure enough, I got it updated in about six hours or so. When I picked up the vehicle charged the next night, no problem. So the updates worked exactly the way they were supposed to. No breaking the vehicle, no charging interruptions, none of that stuff. So fingers crossed that maybe, uh, Kia has got it figured out. I'm not sure. That's a good thing. Can we talk about how you had to go to
EV Update Process: Tesla vs. Others
00:04:12
Speaker
the.
00:04:12
Speaker
dealer to get your car updated versus other manufacturers that don't. I think we should. We should. I mean, to your point, minor updates Kia will do over, um, uh, over whatever it's called. What's that thing called? Over the air. Yeah. Over the air. That's like a fancy thing. Right. But, uh, no, these, these Kia's and, uh, Hyundai's, you have to take to the dealer for major updates and that took them six hours to update it. So.
00:04:41
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, for Tesla owners and Rivian, they're just completely over the air. Going into the dealership doesn't really matter what happens. You just get those magic updates just sent to your car. And I think it really has to do with the
00:04:58
Speaker
way that these, like the Rivian and Tesla are made, everything is done in-house. And so all the components are, they're talking to each other, they're on the same plan for updates and that sort of thing. And when you're looking at some of these OEMs, like the traditional legacy OEMs, they've got multiple different people making a computer chips versus the other components in the car.
00:05:25
Speaker
And so when you do an update, a lot of times you have to have like patchwork and stuff like that. And so you physically have to get a hold of the car. So, I mean, that is one of the differences when you're going out with a legacy vehicle versus, uh, one of the new EV manufacturers is some of those updates you're going to have to, you know, it's a small concession, but you don't have to go in and pick your car in. When that being said, the Mach-E is all over the air updates too.
00:05:50
Speaker
Yeah. So it's not, it's not across, it's not across the board. I agree. Well, and part of it, one other quick thing is Kia has their subscribe app where. If you pay money, they'll do over the updates. And I don't think it's worth $300 a year. So I think that's another money maker, but we can talk about apps and car stuff on that at a different episode.
Tire Wear and Recommendations
00:06:12
Speaker
One thing you talked about with the maintenance in your tires, you're at 22,000 miles now. How are your tires looking?
00:06:18
Speaker
So the tires are all green except the rear right, which is the main drive wheel, is yellow.
00:06:24
Speaker
So I'll probably get another 10,000 miles out of them, but I would love any suggestions for listeners because if you've listened to the podcast, you know we live in Northern Michigan, we get a lot of snow. These Kumo tires this winter were awful and there's no way I'm gonna leave them on for this winter because they don't have enough tread. So I'd love to hear any input or any thoughts around what tires I should get. I don't want to get a dedicated snow tire like I normally would. I would like an all season tire.
00:06:51
Speaker
Um, and I love any input. And, uh, Tom, you said like the tires your Mach-E came with were pretty sick. Well, what were those? I don't know. Someone's up prepared for the podcast today. Come on. They're pretty good. I'm pretty sure they're Michelin's, but I don't know the model of them. I'm not that in tune to it.
00:07:21
Speaker
That's why I've got a tire guy. I was hearing recommendations of the Michelin cross climate too. Um, but I had, I had those on the, uh, a couple of different cars over the last year, a couple of years. Um, they were awesome, but being in North Carolina, you don't really need to worry too much about, you know, snow, but I did take them to the mountains and actually up to Michigan in the winter twice. And, uh, yeah, it worked out really well. Okay.
00:07:48
Speaker
Michelin primacy. Yes. OK. Maybe. Sounds like I might be looking at Michelin's.
00:07:59
Speaker
But yeah, yeah, guys, I think like, so, you know, 22,000 miles one year, the maintenance on the vehicle has been $50, two tire rotations, $25 each. Obviously it's under warranty, you don't expect as a new car to pay for anything. Um, but I was just doing some quick math. I have, I have how much I've driven the car this year so far. So from January 1st to recording on August 8th, um, I've driven the car 8,000 miles so far this year.
EV vs. Traditional Maintenance Costs
00:08:23
Speaker
Obviously 22,000 miles in a year and I've added up in my charge point app It keeps track of how much you know, you're charging it how much you're driving Obviously, there's free charging in the highways for for key and other vehicles for electrify America So this does not qualify, you know doesn't count any electrify America, but it's free But I've driven like I said about 8,000 miles and I've spent about $200 in charging So you guys can do the math and what that looks like, you know, you're talking like 36 38 miles
00:08:53
Speaker
you know, for every dollar spent, roughly. And so it's very affordable from a charging perspective. And then from a maintenance perspective, like I said, 50 bucks in a year.
00:09:05
Speaker
Opticating tires probably, I could probably, like I said, squeeze out another 10,000 miles or so on them. I could probably get to about 30,000, 35,000, which is a lot for tires. I haven't looked at my kumos, how much they're rated for, but I will say just taking my Dodge Ram in after driving it 6,000 miles out to Yellowstone, the oil change, granted I did synthetic oils, $98 for one oil change versus $50 for tire rotations.
00:09:33
Speaker
Um, I had to tire rotate my Ram too. So all in for an oil change and tire rotation. My Ram was like 130 bucks just for, you know, taking a road trip out West. So Mike, you've owned a lot of EVs. Like how do you think the, my cost for first year stacks up to what you've had? Yeah. I mean, pretty, pretty much the same. Um, you know, and a lot of, a lot of the tire shops around me, they do free, uh, tire rotations.
00:10:01
Speaker
So, you know, that isn't even a cost. Um, a lot, I mean, it's just really charging costs. And when you're charging at home, that's really, really cheap. And then the supercharging or, you know, DC fast charging is going to be a lot more expensive than that, but still less than gas typically. Um, yeah, I mean, so I really haven't seen anyone whose cars and warranty have much of anything. Um, you know, if you're.
00:10:26
Speaker
driving a Model X or something heavy, you're going to go through tires even faster. But other than that, I mean, it's really not much at all. When you get out of warranty, that's another...
00:10:41
Speaker
conversation, especially when you look at some of the older Teslas and Nissan Leafs and stuff like that, you can have more suspension components or like the main control unit and MCUs that are going to factor in for costs and changes and stuff like that. But yeah, I mean, for me, it's been a huge, huge money saver the last few years, not even including the fueling costs.
00:11:06
Speaker
Yeah, I would say the mechanic at the Kia dealership, it'd be actually interesting maybe to get him on a podcast or a video or something, but he was just making a comment, a reference of how good the vehicle looked for one year, you don't expect it to be falling apart. But he said everything underneath looks like it's brand new still and there is an EV6 in our city that has 50,000 miles on it, it's first year.
00:11:30
Speaker
He said, you know, there's breaks still look amazing, like everything on the vehicle, not that 50,000 miles as much, not at all, don't get me wrong, but he said everything is amazingly in great shape.
00:11:41
Speaker
just because there's not that much to your point, Mike, there's not that much wear and maintenance on the vehicle because there's not a lot of moving parts, unlike no transmission and all those other things in a gas powered vehicle. So I would say my year of owning it has been, I was actually expecting tires to wear out quicker. I didn't expect
Fisker's New Vehicles: A First Look
00:12:01
Speaker
to get 22,000 miles because
00:12:03
Speaker
We've always heard EVs, you know, run through tires fast and you know, if I can get 30,000 miles off these tires, that's not bad. So Fisker just launched a few new cars on top of the ocean. Get the Alaska, the Ronin, the pair, the pair. That's a, sounds like naming your kid Apple. Oh, they want me to pay $250 to reserve my Fisker Alaska. It looks better than a Rivian though. The Alaska is the pickup truck. Yeah.
00:12:33
Speaker
Yep. The Ronin is their sports car. They're high end, like supercar. Then the 300,000 dollar. Yeah. Yeah. And so the pair is, looks like a slightly bigger version of the ocean. No, the pair should be like a urban. Oh, that's right. That's right. Commuter type car. But looking at the Alaska, there's not a ton on their site, but it looks like maybe roughly the size of the Rivian.
00:13:03
Speaker
I think so. I think it's supposed to be, um, similar, but I think the mid gate can fold down. Yeah. But in the truck, which is a pretty big deal. Um, like it's like a mini truck, but yeah, that's not a mini truck, but you know, three quarters of a full size. I mean, maybe it could fit some plywood in. That's the question. It's debatable. Oh, gentlemen, gentlemen, it does. It does. I haven't seen a picture yet. I'm just saying.
00:13:30
Speaker
Well, I don't just go and pick out like, you know, cheats of plywood. That's not my, it's not my thing every, every week, but I can, if I need to, it's too busy picking up other stuff at Home Depot this morning. Sorry. Um, did you actually put something in, use your truck like a truck? I did. Halloween decorations. I know it's crazy. It's August and we're picking up Halloween decorations. Um, not, yeah, not my purchase. Um,
00:14:00
Speaker
But while you must really like Halloween, I mean, my wife does. And she, she listens to this podcast, by the way, unlike your wife. So I'll have to pay for this, this conversation right now. You've said nothing wrong yet. That's right. He's right. So to save Mike from the embarrassment and the trouble, let's move on to our next topic.
00:14:26
Speaker
You're listening to the plugin for more podcast.
Charging Etiquette: Do's and Don'ts
00:14:30
Speaker
If you're looking for information on electric vehicles, electric vehicles, components, or information on how to reduce your carbon footprint, look no further than evuniverse.com. evuniverse.com is your one-stop shop for all things related to electric vehicle. We want to talk about charging etiquette at a public charger, just like a gas pump where you don't
00:14:53
Speaker
leave your car blocking a pump while you go in to pay for stuff. There's an etiquette to it. And I think as more people are becoming EV owners, we need to make sure that we're all on the same page for how we handle certain chargers and the etiquette surrounding them. And I think that's a good spot to start this conversation. Yeah. So first off, if you are not going to actively charge, do not park there. Find someplace else to go. Even if you have to walk a little bit further, a lot of people might be traveling.
00:15:22
Speaker
You never know who needs to use that charger. So if you don't, if you're not gonna be charging, don't park there. Plain and simple. It doesn't matter if you have an ICE car or an EV, even if you have an EV, if you're not charging, don't be there. To me, that's the number one thing. Number two, I would say, no. What do you want, Tom? I was being aware of the how fast your car can charge.
00:15:49
Speaker
Exactly. So if you're in a Nissan Leaf, don't go and try to plug into the 350 kilowatt hour charger. If there's a slower available charger there. Yep. Cause you can still max out how fast you can charge, but all that extra capability, you're not going to be utilizing and be slowing other people down.
00:16:06
Speaker
For example, my maki will charge up to a top speed of 150 kilowatts per hour. If I roll in and take the only 350 kilowatt hour charger, and then Brian comes in behind me, which his car is capable of charging that speed, as is Mike and the Rivian, now I'm blocking that 350 charger
00:16:25
Speaker
when if another 150 is next door to it, those guys are going to max out at the 150 because that's all that charger is capable of. But mine is still only going to take 150 going into it, regardless of how fast the charger displays. Yes, that's, that's a pet peeve of mine. Thank you for bringing it up, Tom. I think it's, and then there's one more other one I wanted to bring up on this topic as well. And this got me in Chicago. I was actually, it didn't bite me, but I was pissed when I came out because
00:16:53
Speaker
A lot of charge point chargers share, it's like 6.6 kilowatts or 6.8 shared, it says right on it shared. And I was at a parking deck downtown, I plugged in, I was getting the full 6.8, I was gonna charge overnight, and I came out at six in the morning, and it just happened to be, I swear this is just a coincidence, Tom. There is a Mach-E parked right next to me charging. When there's 50 other chargers open, and so it wasn't charging at 6.8, it was charging at 2.8,
00:17:20
Speaker
And rather than leaving Chicago at the hundred percent, which it still worked fine. I was at 80. They're not a big deal, but I was so livid. Like, come on, there's 50 other charges. Like don't use a shared one. So, so that exact thing, let's talk about Tesla for a second. So on Tesla, when they had their, um, essentially they've got two different versions. They've got, you know, the version two and version three, um, chargers out there, uh, one, two, and three technically, but.
00:17:50
Speaker
Really, you're going to see the 150 or 250 kilowatt chargers. Um, and what happens on the earlier generation chargers, the ones that are 150 is they share that 150 between like that's up. If you go to the stall, one a and one B, those are going to share the same 150. And so you're going to, if you park right next to somebody and there's a whole bunch of open ones, you're going to cut them in half. Same exact deal. It doesn't really, it doesn't say shared there, but you need to.
00:18:18
Speaker
you know, be aware of it. And so that's the things with Tesla. If it's 150 kilowatt charger, don't park right next to somebody. Park, you know, at the 2A or 2B if someone's in a one stall. If you're at 250, it doesn't matter because they're dedicated.
00:18:34
Speaker
And that's really good info, especially with all of the other manufacturers are going to be adopting the NACS standard. And a lot of us that are in the legacy automakers switching over to using Tesla superchargers, hopefully in the near future. Like I wouldn't have known that. Yeah. Yeah. And the other thing with that, when that happens, I think we really, people really got to, um, make sure that they, there's going to be these adapters that are, you know, have a longer cord to make
00:19:03
Speaker
sure that you're not taking over two stalls just because of the location of that charge port. I mean, right now, Tesla is the left rear quarter, you know, with your, your Machi or what front, right, front, left, left, sorry, front, left. Yeah. So to get into that charge, you're going to, you're going to block the stall next to you and take up the one that would normally work for a normal Tesla. So you're going to block two for one, just not great. So there's probably going to be some.
00:19:31
Speaker
Interesting conversations held at some superchargers when this first gets rolled out, if people don't have, um, you know, the right adapters or a longer cord. And I've seen that before at electrify America, chargers were just the position of vehicles, even parked appropriately for their spot. Like I've seen people jumping curbs and parking in the grass and doing whatever they have to do to position their car to be in the exact right spot to charge in their vehicle. Yeah. Agreed.
00:20:00
Speaker
Um, can I guess at number three, I think, I think I know number three don't take up a fast charger to charge to a hundred percent, unless you like a thousand percent need every single mile. Cause this is, this has come for me. It just happened to be ID for owners. I don't know. I'm not, I'm not throwing any shade ID for owners, but like every ID for owner I've ever encountered at electrify America station charges all the way to a hundred percent. And rather than taking, you know,
00:20:27
Speaker
half an hour, 25 minutes, whatever it takes, it takes 45 minutes, 50 minutes, because the closer you get towards 100%, the slower the current is because it doesn't want to fry your battery, right? So the Electrify America station slowed down significantly, anything above 90%. And I haven't had to wait yet, but I've been seeing in some of the
00:20:48
Speaker
in some of the Electrify America, you know, emails and stuff. They're trying to like show everyone that you don't have to charge you 100%. But I get it. If you're like on the road trip and you need every single mile to get to your next charger, like, okay. But most of us don't need every single mile. Charging to 85, 80, 90% is probably okay. Yeah. I mean, in that, I'm talking about Tesla owners.
00:21:09
Speaker
A lot of superchargers, they, um, when they get busy, they max out at an 80% charge and you can override it in some scenarios too, but it does block you so that you're not, you know, taking up extra space. Um, lots of people get in and out because I mean, there's times where there's lineups. I haven't seen too many of them, but it's just going to get more and more, especially when all the other OEMs join up. Yeah.
Closing Remarks & Subscriptions Reminder
00:21:33
Speaker
And I just saw that Electrify America is changing some of their billing schedule or their pay schedule for chargers that is going to ultimately start charging idle fees to people that are blocking them for too long. So that'll probably help alleviate some of those issues. And lastly, don't unplug other people's cars. Yeah. Right. Unless they've been charging for seven hours and they're fully charged. If you can tell.
00:22:01
Speaker
Okay. All right, guys. Thanks for joining in for this one, and we will see you in a couple weeks. Sounds great. Thanks, everybody. Thank you for listening to Plug In For More. Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. In the meantime, check out the one-stop EV Marketplace, evuniverse.com. Until next time.