EV In Your Future: Getting Charged Submitted by Ted Crane Ask yourself, "What is my average daily travel?" Work, shopping, and back home. If the battery in an EV (electric vehicle) has the moxie (a.k.a. kilowatt-hours or kWh) to take you that far, you don't need a gasoline engine. An EV car with a smallish battery--like the Prius Prime--may have enough kWh to complete simple daily travel: Danby to downtown and around, and back. Do you need to go farther than that? Two choices: a bigger battery or a hybrid EV with gasoline backup. When the Tompkins County Health Department began converting to EV vehicles, it knew the average daily travel per car was less than 50 miles. To stay on the safe side, it purchased Chevy Volts because the Volt's battery will go 50 miles and...it has a gasoline engine as backup. The Volt was a safe choice but, fact is, the Department hasn't bought gas for those cars. What about long trips? Last weekend, I drove about 650 miles. The overnight charge in my Prius ran out after 25 miles...but the gasoline engine--augmented by energy captured and recycled by the battery--averaged almost 70MPG for the rest of the trip. There are currently few EV options that will take you 650 miles, or even close to that, on one charge. You have to plan your trip around recharges: know where the chargers are and build charging time into your travel (and time to wait for an available charger). Some drivers enjoy this twist to long-distance travel but it's not everybody's cup of tea. This will change in a few years, as the infrastructure providing the "gas station model" of charging improves. How about charging for short trips? EVs with smaller batteries can easily charge up overnight from a household outlet (a "Level 1" charger). Bigger batteries could require "Level 2" chargers with wiring and outlets similar to an electric oven, electric dryer, or electric water heater. Home charging is not without cost but, compared to gasoline, home electricity is cheap. The $3 you pay per gallon at the pump would buy you about 20kWh. That gallon gets you maybe 40 miles, while the 20kWh could get you 80 miles. If you have Solar PV panels and you're selling excess power to NYSEG, the $3 gets you maybe 120kWh...or 480 miles. Your fuel cost savings can help finance those Solar PV panels! It is easy to make an argument that destination businesses--and government offices--should provide free charging for customers and clients as a "de minimis" cost of doing business. Take, for example, Walmart. The operating cost for two dozen chargers, continuously used in its parking lot, would be comparable to the living wage for one greeter--customer host--at its front door. The same holds true for supermarkets, movie theaters, restaurants, or parking lots. Hmmm...did you know that several of the parking garages in Downtown Ithaca already offer free charging (while you pay for parking, of course). Widespread adoption of a free-charging policy would be a terrific boon to the adoption of EV technology. New York State is doing its part of the effort by offering substantial funding for charger installation to businesses and governments. How long will it be before businesses take advantage of this and begin using free charging as a sales incentive?