How to Charge an Electric Car (EV)

Welcome to EV Charging 101: A Public EV Charging How To 

Electric vehicle ownership is continuing to grow. 1 Million plug-in cars were on the world's roads as of 2015. Plug In America estimates that there are currently nearly half a million plug-in cars on US roadways. The upcoming Tesla Model 3 and Chevy Bolt will continue this trend and we are likely to see 1 million PEVs on US roads during 2018. With all of these EV sales, there will be many new owners that have never used public charging infrastructure.

When you are charging at home it is as easy as: open the charging port, plug in, and smile. Dealing with public infrastructure can be a little more difficult. This article is intended to educate plug-in vehicle owners, newbies and veterans alike, about plugging in when you are out and about.

If you want to charge at a charging stations in the wild, there are a few things that you'll need to know: the type of charging station, where to find it, what (if any) membership card you'll need to access it.

Know Your Car's Charging Port(s)

This all starts by knowing what kind of connector(s) your car has. The types of ports will determine what types of charging stations you can use. Unfortunately, there is not one unified connector for all EVs. There are connectors for AC, connectors for DC fast charging, and some that can do both.

For AC charging, modern EVs use the J1772 (jay-seventeen-seventy-two) plug. This port is standard on most EVs. The big exception is Tesla, they have a proprietary inlet port, but they have a J1772 adapter. Many of the public charging stations are J1772.

SAE J1772 Plug and socket/inlet

Depending on the power source and your vehicle, these give you from 5 miles to 30 miles of range per hour that you are plugged into them. These types of charging stations are good for overnight charging and workplace charging where the vehicle will be parked for several hours, but they are not generally useful for a cross country trek.

For long distance drives, you need DC Fast Charging (DCFC). Depending on the station and your car, these can get you from 80 miles of range per hour up to 170 miles of range per hour. There are three primary types of DCFC: CHAdeMO, SAE Combined Charging Standard (CCS), and Tesla Superchargers.

CHAdeMO (left) and CCS (right)

CHAdeMO is generally supported by Japanese manufacturers such as Nissan, Kia, and Mitsubishi.
CCS is generally supported by German and US manufacturers such as BMW, VW, GM, and Ford.
Tesla Model S/X vehicles, of course, use the Tesla Superchargers. You can also buy an adapter to allow a Tesla to charge at CHAdeMO stations and Tesla has promised a CCS adapter soon.

You need to know which type (if any) of DC fast charging your vehicle supports. For some make/models, the base package does not include DC fast charging and plug-in hybrids usually don't have a DCFC option.

There are some charging stations that support both CHAdeMO and CCS. It is important that you know which DCFC your vehicle supports. If you coast up to the wrong one with a flat battery, it will not be able to charge your car.

Know Your Networks

There are multiple EV charging networks. You need to know which one(s) are in your travel realms and which one(s) work with your car.

Here are a some of the more common networks: Aerovironment, Blink, ChargePoint, nrg, and Tesla.

Charging Station Membership Cards

Tesla charging is a special case; we'll come back to them. Let's look at the others first. These networks require membership to access them. Find out which ones are in your area (more on this in the next section) and join those networks.

Tesla has two charging networks. The first is the Supercharger network, these are fast charge stations that can supply up to 170 miles of range in 30 minutes. No membership is required, other than owning a Tesla. These stations only work with post-Roadster Tesla vehicles (i.e., Model S, Model X, and soon Model 3). The second Tesla network is the Destination Charging network. These are generally at hotels, restaurants and shopping centers. They often include both Tesla wall chargers and Level 2 J1772 from other vendors. These may or may not be free. Hotel sites, for example, may only allow guests to use these stations.

Where Are The Charging Stations?

Here we are in step three. In step one, you figured out what types of charging stations your car supports. In step two, you joined your local (or planned travel route) charging networks. Now, to find the stations.

Some EVs have charging station locations in their nav system. This is handy but it may not include real-time availability information. Unless you have an internet connected car (like a Tesla), then you'll need to use a smartphone app like PlugShare for real-time info.

When you are planning a trip and you know you'll need to make a charging stop, it is very helpful to look these stations up on PlugShare see if they have been used recently and what, if any, notes others have left. These checks and notes are very useful. They will let you know if a station has been used recently and if it is operational. If it is down, you can make other plans.

Tip: when possible, go to a "charging cluster" such as Electric Avenue. Clusters have multiple charging stations. If one of the stations is non-operational or occupied, you can just pull into another stall.

Guerrilla Charging 

Occasionally, you may be traveling to regions that apparently have never heard of electric vehicles. Even in these areas, you may be able to charge with little or no problems. With the right adapter, nearly any electric outlet will do.

Guerrilla EV charging kit

Nearly any US campground with RV hook-up spots will have NEMA 14-50 outlets. These are 240V outlets and will get you 25 to 30 miles of range for each hour that you're plugged in there. In is not the 150 MPH of a DCFC, but if you only need another 50 miles to get to your destination, it can be a nice stop to explore a part of the world you would have previously just driven through.

Depending on how long you are planning on plugging in, many of these locations will allow you to charge for a small fee, whereas others may require you to pay the full overnight space fee. Be charming (not entitled) and you might be surprised that people can be very friendly. An EV is still a novelty and conversation starter in many places.

If you plan on stopping at a BNB on your EV trek, call ahead and ask about plugging in. A simple 120V outlet can provide you with 50 miles of range when plugged in for a 10 hour overnight stay. If you are lucky, they may even have a 240V dryer outlet that you could use to charge even faster.

Wrap Up

There you have the basics and a couple advanced tips. Find the follow up with EV charging tips and tricks here. I'll even explain what that green card below is all about. If you have any related questions, leave a comment below and I'll try to help.

Tesla Model 3 Will Have Half The Battery Cells Of Model S [Updated]

18650 compared to a 20700, both 3D printed. 1:18th Scale Diecast Model S for scale - photo via Aaron Cocker 

Back in May, I wrote a story that said the Tesla Model 3 would have half the number of battery cells of the Tesla Model S. This was based on many assumptions. Some of these assumptions have now been clarified.

During the 2016 Annual Shareholder Meeting, at the 1 hour, 48 minute mark, Elon Musk and JB Straubel talk about the motivations to build the Gigafactory and the innovations that they are putting into both the batteries and the factory itself.

Elon Musk confirmed that the battery cells made at the Gigafactory will be bigger than the standard 18650. He also gave a precise size. Tesla's battery will be 20mm in diameter and 70mm in height. The 18650 is so named because it is 18 mm in diameter by 65 mm height. Using the same naming convention, the new Tesla battery cell would be a 20700 battery cell.

18650 compared to 20700 via Seeking Alpha

This new cell will have 33% more volume than the old cell.

Elon clarified that Tesla does not use commodity laptop 18650 cells. They have been using cells specifically designed for their needs for some time now. It just so happens that they have continued to package these in the same 18650 form factor.

This change in size to 20700 was based on a first principles analysis. This new size allows for increased energy per cell while still allowing for thermal management and fire control within the pack.

On a related note, Quartz reports that Tesla has hired Jeff Dahn, a leading battery researcher who teaches at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. Dahn is tasked with doing “whatever it takes” to improve the company’s battery performance.

        

Tesla Model 3 will use a larger 20700 cell with a better chemistry than the current Model S.

JB has previously stated that the Model 3 battery will be "next generation." Battery cells have been improving about 5 to 7 percent each year. Compounded over several years, this adds up.

How Many Cells?

The original article assumed the new cell would be 20% bigger in each dimension. With such a size increase, it was easy to have half the number of cells. That is, however, not correct. The increase is ~10% in each dimension. Given this update, let's guess at how many of the new 20700 cells will be in the Model 3.

According to teslamotors.wiki, there are 7,104 cells (16 modules of 444 cells) in Model S. For Model 3, we'll be able to reduce that number with several factors. First, as discussed above, the Model 3 will use a larger cell. Second, the Model 3 will be smaller, lighter, and more aerodynamic. Third is the range, the base Model 3 will not go as far as the base Model S. The final factor is the battery chemistry will be one or two generations ahead of the 2015 chemistry that is in the Model S and X today. Let's look at each of these in detail.

The first one is easy, the cells are 33% larger. This means a 25% reduction in the number of cells needed for a given energy level. (75%)

The second item is the smaller, lighter, and more aerodynamic Model 3. The final specs for the Model 3 are not released yet, but we'll make an assumption and update this as data is available. Model S has an energy efficiency of 89 MPGe. Looking at other EVs we can guess at Model 3's efficiency. Looking at two examples, the 2016 Leaf has a 114 MPGe rating and the BMW i3 has a 124 MPGe rating. Neither of these carry as large of a battery pack as Model 3 will, but Model 3 will be more aerodynamic than either of these. So, assuming Model 3 will be in this range, that would be a 70 to 80% reduction in needed capacity. (75%)

The third factor is range. The only range known today about Model 3 is that the base model will be at least 215 miles. Assuming Tesla follows the Model S offerings, there would be one battery pack upgrade option, a dual motor upgrade, and performance options. Since we only have an idea about the base model, let's compare the base option 215 miles (worst case) to the base Model S 70. Model 3's 215 mile range is 92% of the 234 mile range of the Model S 70. (92%)

The final factor is the battery technology improvements. The Model S 90 kWh pack was first offered in July of 2015. The Model 3 is expected to start shipping in the 4th quarter of 2017. Battery advancements happen in fits and starts, there is no telling what, if any, improvements there will be above and beyond the July 2015 offering, but let's just take the trend on face value and assume a 5% improvement. (95%)

Putting these factors together and we have an estimate of ~50% of the cells of Model S. That is approximately 3550 of the new 20700 cells in Model 3. This is more than the previous estimate, but still less than half of the 7104 cells in the current Model S / X.

        

Tesla Model 3 will have approximately 3550 battery cells.

Is There Enough Lithium?

During the Tesla 2016 Annual Shareholder Meeting someone asked if Tesla had enough Lithium to do all the things they envision for vehicles and energy storage.

This is a common question when people first consider EVs. They are concerned that the world would be moving from peak-oil to peak-Lithium.

Elon Musk clarified that Lithium supply is in no way a limiting factor to any of Tesla's goals.

Lithium is not rare. It is the 3rd most common element in the universe. The first is hydrogen, but it is bound-up in water (or hydrocarbons) and difficult to separate. Helium is the second, but here on Earth, unless contained, it floats away. Lithium does not float away. It is often bound to salt and this is easy to separate. Lithium supplies are abundant and prices are low and stable.

Even if Lithium were rare and expensive it would not greatly impact Li-ion battery prices. Lithium is only about 2% of the volume of a Li-ion battery cell. Elon called Lithium "the salt on the salad."

Elon and JB noted that it would be more accurate to refer to their batteries as Nickel-Graphite (with Silicon-Oxide).
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Where Are The Range Extending Trailers?

Pure EVs are great. Even with less than 100 miles of range, a lot of trips can be made in an EV. However, there are times when having a range extender would be nice. Maybe the planned trip is through a region that has a dearth of charging infrastructure or maybe my schedule does not allow for charging stops. During these few times, it would be nice to have a range extending trailer.

Of course you could buy a plug-in hybrid vehicle with a range extender like a Chevy Volt or a BMW i3 REx. However, if ~70 miles of electric range is enough most of the time, and I would only need the range extender a couple times per year, it seems wrong to carry the weight of an internal combustion engine and fuel tank around on the hundreds of other trips each year.

The 200+ mile EVs are coming. This will reduce the need for a range extender, but it is not clear is the 100 mile EVs will simply disappear or move to a lower price point when their longer range siblings come to market.

So why haven't any of the short range EV manufacturers come out with a range extending trailer?

The idea is not a new one. The AC Propulsion T-Zero electric roadster (the inspiration for the Tesla Roadster) had a range extending trailer.

AC Propulsion T-Zero with range extender

The first gen electric Toyota RAV4 had a range extender trailer.

Toyota RAV4 EV with range extender

A startup company called Nomadic Power is working on a range extender for the Nissan Leaf and the BMW i3, but they are still seeking funding and using their trailer may require modifications to the vehicle that many people would not be willing to make while the car is under warranty or leased.

Nomadic Power range extender for the Nissan Leaf and BMW i3

EP Tender is another company that is working on a range extender. Theirs is for the Renault Zoe and Nissan Leaf.

EP Tender range extender

Even the home tinkers have gotten into the game. In late 2011, Phil Sadow, known as Ingineer on MyNissanLeaf, created a propane-powered gas-turbine range extender for his 2012 Nissan Leaf.

Phil Sadow and his DIY propane-powered gas-turbine range extender for the Nissan Leaf

So what has stopped the auto-manufacturers from making their own range extenders? These could be upsell opportunities or something the dealerships could rent out.

It would be best if the vehicles were designed with these devices in mind. The car would need a power connector and a control and communications channels to turn the generator on and off and to monitor the fuel level.

Even when there are 200+ mile EVs, you may occasionally need a range extender trailer. And even when there are 200+ mile EVs for sale, there will still be a market for cheaper ~100 mile EVs. A range extender would be very helpful for these shorter range EVs.

If you were shopping for a ~100 mile range EV, the one that had a range extender trailer option would be the more appealing of an offer to many people. So Nissan, GM, VW, BWM... if you want to stand out from the others, you can offer something that your competitors are not.
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5 Years of Nissan Leaf Driving

In 2011, I received one of only 9,655 Nissan Leafs delivered to the U.S.  My car left Japan less than a day before the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami devastated the island nation.

When the car arrived, I was in love. It was peppy, smooth, and quiet. It had enough range for nearly all of my driving.

May 18th 2011 - The day I picked up my Nissan Leaf

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The five years we've had have been such good times.

I was lucky that Oregon was aggressively installing EV charging infrastructure. This let me take my car on adventures all around the state. A charging station in my garage filled it up every night and I could charge at work too. This made EV ownership a breeze. Most days, I only charged in my own garage, but knowing that all those stations were there if I needed them, made it comfortable to drive around and take detours as I like.

I was an active reader of the EV forums and news. There were people reporting various types of problems. Range degradation, 12V battery problems, paint issues... I was lucky that none of these problems were impacting me.

4100 Plug Ins

Here are the stats for these five years of Leaf driving: 44,000 miles, 4100 charging events, 44 quick charges. There are Leafs out there with over 100,000 miles on them. Mine is not one of them, it was/is primarily a commuter car.

5 Years of Battery/Range Degradation

After a couple years of ownership, people in Arizona and southern California started complaining of excessive battery degradation. The weather here in Oregon is much more battery-friendly (reason #6), but I was interested to see how the batteries performed as they aged.

        

How have the batteries of the Nissan Leaf held up after 5 years?

There are two simple ways and to gauge the battery health and one more difficult (but more accurate) method.

The first method is the Capacity Bars. There are 12 small marks just to the right of the "fuel gauge". These are the battery health indicators. The top bar (or 12th bar) turns off when the battery has lost 15% capacity. Bars 11 - 4 each represents 6.25% of capacity. This is an easy way to see the battery health, but it is a course measure. Currently, my car is at 80% capacity and it still has 11 bars.

The second method of determining range is to charge the car fully and to look at the range meter (referred to as the guess-o-meter (GOM) by many Leaf drivers). This is not a very accurate method since the value depends on how you have been driving the car recently. This means the results are not consistent or reproducible. Here are three snapshots of the range meter starting with the car when it was new, to one that I snapped just after the 5 year mark.

2011 Nissan Leaf Fuel Gauge, Fully Charged: New (left), 3 years old (center), and 5 years old (right) 

I should point out that even though you see 118 miles reported when the car was new, I was never have been able to achieve such a range. Even the 69 miles that the GOM reports today is optimistic; as you'll see with the final method below, the range is less than 60 miles.

The 3rd and most accurate method is to use Leaf Spy. I found this tool just after having the car for 2 years. Since then I have been logging readings and made the chart below of the battery pack's performance. 

Let's unpack this graph. The blue line is measured range. You can see how there are seasonal changes with the weather. The red line is just a normalized version of the blue line. Removing the seasonal noise gives you a clear view that the capacity degradation is slowing. In the first year, the range dropped by about 4 miles. In the last year (4 to 5), however, there was less than 2 miles of range lost.

The yellow line is the average of all the vehicles that have been self-reporting on MyNissanLeaf. My car is doing much better than this average. This is most likely due to the lowish miles and the mild climate.

It's nice to see the degradation slowing, but it is accumulating. This has meant that we are now using the fast chargers more than we were previously. I am concerned that this could accelerate the degradation. We'll see.

I should note that this is just one example. Additionally, Nissan improved the Leaf battery chemistry in 2015 (known as the Lizard Battery). This new battery could have a different degradation curve.

Looking To Year 6

The Nissan Leaf has a telematics system called NissanConnectEV (formerly known as CarWings). The app lets you check the state-of-charge and turn on the HVAC. The status updates for this telematics app are over-the-air. The list of charging stations in the car's nav system is also updated over-the-air. The car uses the AT&T 2G network for these data transfers. The 2G network is scheduled to be shutdown. The 2G shutdown date has been delayed multiple times. It is currently scheduled for the end of 2016 and AT&T seems serious about keeping to the date this time. When the shutdown occurs, my car (and all the 2011 through 2015 Leafs) will need to be updated to a 3G or 4G modem.

I'm not sure how much this 3G/4G upgrade will cost. I rarely use CarWings, so I am not willing to pay much for the upgrade. Nissan has said that cost information will be available in "late summer of 2016." This is something that I'll have to deal with in year six.

Leaf Repurposed

When I purchased my Nissan Leaf in 2011, it was intended to be my commuter vehicle. I have a 21 mile round trip commute. This is perfect for a short range EV. The 73 mile EPA rated range of the 2011 Leaf gave me plenty of room to spare for errands, HVAC use and the battery degradation that I knew would come as the car aged.

That was the plan and for four and a half years, things went according to the plan. We took the Leaf on a few road trips to check out the West Coast Electric Highway, but for the most part, the Leaf was the commuter and errand mobile. I wanted to take care of the batteries in the Leaf. I was not leasing the car, I bought it and I wanted to make it last 10 years if I could.

To this end, I used the Long Battery Life setting in the car. This only charged it up to 80%. Also, I set the charge timer so that is started charging at 3AM. This had the car fully charged by 7AM and the batteries would not stay charged up for too long before my morning commute discharged them. Lithium Ion batteries are the least stressed in the middle third of their charging range and this method had them there about 16 hours each day.

For long trips we took the usually took the Prius. The Prius, however, was ended when an Uber driver in a Highlander ran a stop sign as he raced to pick up a fair. The Prius was totaled.

So now, the Leaf has taken on the job of the Prius and it's a very different usage pattern. The old pattern was:
   3AM Charge up to 80%
   8AM Drive to work (10 miles)
   5PM Drive home (10 miles)
   (maybe an errand - 7 miles)
   Repeat

The new pattern is:
   3AM Charge to 100%
   8AM Drive to school and back (23 miles)
   9AM Charge to 100%
   Noon Mid-day errands (10 miles)
   1PM Charge to 100%
   3PM Drive to school and back (23 miles)
   4PM Charge to 100%
   6PM Evening errands (piano, soccer, dinner ...) (6 miles)
   7PM charge until 8PM or 100%
   Repeat

As you can see the new pattern is much more demanding. There are many more charging events and the drive to school and back has a 700 ft hill climb. That is 4 times per day over that hill (hence the 100% charges). Summer is almost here and the school trips will end. Next year we're transferring schools, so the trip will be much easier both for the driver (less traffic) and for the batteries (no big hill). When the Leaf was new, this drive would not be a problem with an 80% charge, but now with the batteries ageing, 100% is needed to make sure the needed range is there.

The Leaf has also had to fill in on longer drives where we would have taken the Prius. Trips to Woodburn and Gresham have meant that we are stopping at DC fast chargers. This too has a wear and tear impact on the batteries.

I have been measuring the battery capacity of the vehicle since I found Leaf Spy in 2013. Here is the table of my car's actual degradation:

2011 Nissan Leaf Range Degradation
Year	Range Loss	Range
0	0	73
1	4.0	69
2	3.4	65.6
3	3.0	62.6
4	2.7	59.9
5	2.2	57.7

I didn't have Leaf Spy for the first 2 years, so that data is assumed based on the battery model that the known starting point and the measured values give us.

You can see from the table that there is a notable range loss each year. As the car ages, the loss is reducing, but the effects are still adding up.

For my fixed commute, there is still plenty of range. And my workplace has EV charging as well, this would allow me to use it even when it was down to ~20 miles of range. For a more spontaneous needs, however, at less than 60 miles, the range is not enough.

This is one reason that the 200 mile range cars are needed. With a longer range comes a larger battery pack and more cells. This means that each cell is individually worked less. When the motor needs 80 kWs of power, there are many more cells to distribute the demand across.

Due to circumstances that we had no control over, we have recently asked the Leaf to do more than we intended it to do when we bought it. It has handled this challenge extremely well, especially given the age of the batteries.

Why People Love Tesla - The Power Of The Pure Play

"I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights." Desmond Tutu

Tesla is now taking preorders for the Model 3 and ~400,000 people have put down $1000 to raise their hand and get one. In their latest ad campaign, Nissan is hoping to take advantage of this outpouring EV-love and persuade a few people to buy a Nissan Leaf today, even if they are planning on getting a Model 3 in 2018.

This is not a bad plan. I plan on driving my Leaf until it is traded in on a Model 3. I hope more people start driving EVs soon and that our community grows, but Nissan's ad was still a jab at Tesla.

GM too has taken jabs at Tesla saying that they don't need $1000 pre-order funds to build a car.

It's true that the Leaf is for sale now and that the Chevy Bolt will be out before Model 3 and you don't need to put down $1000 (and wait 18+ months) to get a Chevy Bolt. So why aren't there ~400,000 people lining up at 6AM to get Leafs and Bolts?

Is it the rockstar CEO quality of Elon Musk? Maybe. He has been compared to Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, and even Iron Man's Tony Stark.

Is it the car's cool tech like the 17" touchscreen and cars that can drive themselves? Maybe.

Is it the vast free-for-life, solar-powered EV charging network available only to Tesla drivers? Maybe.

All of the above carry some weight and have been discussed many times over. I'd like to propose another idea. In the opening, there is a quote from Desmond Tutu. (sidebar: I am not trying to equate the first world problem of 'which car should I buy?' to the South African human rights struggle.) This quote speaks to a part of the human nature that wants to be treated fairly; it speaks to knowing that we matter. Let me be clear, Desmond Tutu was talking about something far more important. No one wants to be treated like a second class citizen.

        

If you are buying an EV from a traditional car company (Nissan, GM, Ford...), you are likely to be treated like a second class citizen at some point.


If you read EV forums, you'll find story after story of people that go to a dealership to buy an EV and the sales guy directs them towards a gas car. The salesman talks about all the "problems" with EVs. If you manage to fight through this and you do get an EV, then 3 months later you get a free oil change coupon in the mail.

Even with EVs on salesroom floors and better EV projects in the works, the traditional car companies and dealerships make the vast majority of their money from gas cars and gas cars will continue to be their primary focus for many many years.

The perfect example of this was in January '16 when GM CEO Mary Barra said, "We are not actively working on providing [recharging] infrastructure." For EVs to be successful, you need a coast to coast highspeed recharging infrastructure. But the traditional car companies are not all-in on EVs, so it does not matter to them if EVs are successful, or just a small volume market niche. Tesla, on the other-hand, has built a vast worldwide recharging network and they are continuing to grow it.

Why Tesla?

If being a pure play is all that it takes, then this devotion would flow to any EV start-up and maybe some aspects of it do, but Tesla earns its vast following and devoted fans because it has a complete package. Their products are not a compromise. They are not doing it because a government regulation requires it. Their cars are not something that is a modified version of a gas car with the minimum number of changes required to make it work. Tesla has purpose. It is a movement, not a product. And they have all the things listed above: the cool tech, the future vision, the vast, free-for-life, solar powered recharging infrastructure, and yes, the rocket man CEO.

Tesla Model 3 Will Have Half The Battery Cells Of Model S

Every vehicle that Tesla has made, to date, has used the 18650 Lithium ion battery cells. This was true for the Roadster, Model S, and Model X. Each car uses about seven thousand 18650s. Model 3 will be different.

For the Model 3, Tesla will be making the batteries themselves in the Gigafactory and they have already said that the battery will be different. The only details about the difference that has been mentioned is that cells will be bigger in each dimension and it will have better energy density than the battery cells that are being made today.

The 18650 is so named because it is 18 mm in diameter by 65 mm height and there is no Z-dimension because it is a cylinder, not a rectangular prism.

So how much difference would 20% size increase make? The answer is more than you might think. Volumetrically it resulted in far more than a 20% increase.

Let's compare the old battery cell and the potencial new one.

Volume of the 18650

Letting our friends at Wolfram Alpha do the math, the volume of 18650 is about 16.5 millimeters.

Volume of the New Tesla Battery Cell

A 20% increase in diameter is 21.6mm and a 20% increase in height is 78mm. Going back to Wolfram:

The new volume is about 28.6 milliliters. That is ~170% of the old battery cell volume. That is 70% more room for anodes, cathodes, and all the things that make a battery work.

How Many Battery Cells Will Be In The Model 3?

As Tesla's smallest vehicle, the Model 3 will be the most aerodynamic vehicle they make when it comes out. To have 215+ miles of range the car will need at least 50kWh of battery capacity. For a given range, Model 3 will only need about 2/3rds the capacity of its Model S big brother. This along with battery cells that hold 70% more capacity means that Model 3 will need far fewer battery cells per vehicle.

Starting with the 7,000 cells in Model S, then reducing it by 2/3rds for the smaller car and then reducing it by 40% for the higher capacity yields ~2750 battery cells for Model 3.

These are, of course, rough guesses based on a single comment from Elon Musk during a quarterly results conference call, but I think it is safe to say that Model 3 will have less than half the number of battery cells compared to the current 7,000 of Model S/X.

Changing Car Culture

There is no doubt that EVs are changing the way that we view and interact with cars. It makes them fun again. EVs are also technology leaders that are bringing connected cars and autonomous driving to market faster than their gas cousins ever would have.

I was recently contacted by Diane Martin, an ethnographer. After looking up the word, I can tell you that ethnography is the scientific study of people, customs, and culture. Diane is studying the cultural impact of EVs. Here is the email she sent me:

Hi Patrick, 

I'm interested in learning about consumers' perspectives and experiences of choosing to buy and own an EV. As a market researcher and ethnographer, I study the relationships between consumers and culture, how each effect the other and what that means for changes in consumption practices. With respect to EVs, I'm theorizing how the automotive culture is changing and the ways these changes impact consumers.   

I often talk to people in their homes and garages or in coffee shops and cafés; meeting at a Starbucks is usually a comfortable place for most people to meet. I'm planning on being in Portland the week of May 9-14, 2016. I'm happy to meet with Tesla and Leaf club members any day that week. Right now I have an open schedule to accommodate member needs. 

If you are interested in meeting with Diane, leave a comment below and I'll PM you her contact information. 

5 Suggestions for a Better EV Incentive

In 2015, more than 17 million vehicles were sold in the U.S.  Of these, 114 thousand of them were cars with cords. That means plug-in cars were less than 1% of new vehicle sales. Specifically, they made up just 0.655%.

As much as we hear about electric cars discussed in the media, they still have a long way to go before they are the main mode of personal transportation. Certainly, I'd like to see EVs go mainstream and the wave of affordable long-range EVs that are coming out in 2017 will help greatly in this endeavor, but even if these are a smash hit, it will take years to make a dent in the massive number of cars that are already on the road.

Crawl, Walk, Run. I get it. The growth trend is there, but it will take a while. If I were investing, I'd rather be on the side with a small and growing market than the one with a large but shrinking market.

So how do you accelerate the growth? Incentives. There would undoubtedly be significantly fewer EVs on U.S. roadways today without the $7,500 Federal tax incentive. Depending on how big of a battery pack a plug-in vehicle has, it can qualify for from $2,500 to the full $7,500 incentive.

The point of this incentive is to encourage sales of these vehicles and it has done a great job so far. However, now that the incentive has been in use for several years, we are able to better understand how it could be better and the impending failure that it has coming.

Incentives? Who Needs Incentives? 

One could argue that plug-in cars, or any product, should stand on its own and that incentives are a waste of government (taxpayer) funds. Since I am writing this on April 18th and recently wrote a big check to Uncle Sam, I can agree with the sentiment. However, I will make a brief case for the plug-in car incentive.

Our government has a responsibility to maintain clean air and they have a responsibility to make sure that we have the energy we need to maintain, if not grow, our economy. EVs help meet both of these goals. And they do it without the need to deploy troops to desert wastelands or send destroyers to guard the Strait of Hormuz.

How do EVs help with these goals? The Union of Concerned Scientist report clearly shows that, cradle to grave, even with the partially coal-powered grid that we have today, EVs produce fewer emissions than gas cars. As coal plants across the country continue to shut down and wind turbines continue to go up, plug-in cars will continue to get greener.

The energy needed to power these cars can be generated right here in the U.S.. Energy storage solutions are experiencing a technological boom whether it's advanced battery tech or simple pumped hydroelectric storage, there are ways to store the intermittent energy that renewable generation often creates. This gives us a home-grown energy supply.

Additionally, gas cars are heavily subsidized every time they fill up at the gas pump. The price per gallon is far from the true cost that is paid for that fuel. There are environmental, health, and security costs associated with every gallon supplied and burned. It has been estimated that gas cars receive more than $12,000 in fueling cost incentives over a typical vehicle lifespan.

So, the case for EV incentives is that they help meet environmental, health, and security goals while reducing the future costs for the same and all of this with an incentive that is smaller than the lifetime fuel subsidies that a gas car receives.

What's Wrong With The Current Incentive?

The current EV incentive has a few problems. I first touched on this topic in February, near the end of this article.

As mentioned in the opening of this article, plug-in cars are currently only a fraction of one percent of new vehicle sales. Despite this fact, Tesla Motors already has to start dealing with end-of-incentive logistics for their customers and GM is not too far behind. This is exactly the opposite of what's needed. The automakers that are successfully putting plug-in cars on the road are ones that will have their funds cut off first. That is because the current system starts to phase out incentives by automaker 3 to 6 months after their 200,000th plug-in vehicle has shipped.

The current system is a tax credit. This means that you won't see the money until you file your taxes. Most people finance their car purchases. This means that it would be much better for them if the incentive could be used to increase the down payment and reduce the monthly car payment.

The tax credit system is also a problem for retirees. Many of them do not have an income, but that does not preclude them from having saving and occasionally buying a new car. Today, many of them work around this by first leasing the car (allowing the lessor bank to take the tax credit) and then buying out the lease. This does not reduce the number of incentives that are paid out and it unnecessarily inserts a middleman.

A Better EV Incentive 

If the law were to be revamped, how could it be better? A couple of ideas that I've heard are:

1) Make it a point-of-sale incentive instead of a tax rebate
This would solve the "wait until you've done your taxes" problem. It would also help retired folks that are often not even filing taxes.

2) Make it $10k, instead of $7,500
This one is straight forward. A bigger incentive will accelerate things even faster. We certainly saw this in Georgia when they had a $5,000 incentive on top of the federal $7,500 incentive. This launched the unexpected state onto the list of top 5 states with plug-in sales.

Additionally, I think other changes are needed:

1) The limit should not be per manufacturer.
The current system penalizes the companies that are early to embrace and promote the technology. If the goal is to have more EVs on the road, then it should not matter which manufacturer makes them. Let the market/buyers decide which vehicles they want on a level playing field. Auto manufacturers that are currently sitting on their hands know that (with the current system) their 200,000 cars are waiting for them and that they can use it later to make cars that will be even more profitable after the innovators have broken down the barriers. This removes the needed sense of urgency. In fact, it may even encourage omphaloskepsis.

2) The limit should not be some arbitrary number of vehicles sold, rather it should be in place until 2% of all new vehicles are PEV.
Why 2%? Hybrids have been in the 2%-4% of the market for years now. This is enough of a sales volume to have an ongoing market. Let me be clear, I think PEVs will continue to grow far beyond this level, but there's no way that *any* incentives should be stopped before this level of sales volume is achieved.

3) The incentive should go down 15% per year after hitting the 2% mark.
The current system has a 50% reduction. That is a big drop. Under the current system, if you miss an end of quarter delivery date by a day, it could cost you $3,750. Smaller steps at an annual rate is a smooth transition (soft landing) to the incentive-free market.

Summary 

Here are five purposed improvements to the federal plug-in vehicle incentive. This incentive is important. It helps us, as a country, achieve many of our important goals. The current system has been in place since 2009 and it is in need of an update. The needed changes are relatively minor and can have a great impact. These changes would help people making car payments as well as retired car buyers.