Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
A quiet but powerful revolution is happening now.
Whether it’s for your home or your business, EV charging stations can show and accommodate your commitment to sustainability. Consider the following match made in heaven: solar power + electric vehicles. Since solar electricity is currently about ½ the cost of utility power, and utility power is about ½ the cost of gas, the cost of driving an electric vehicle on solar power is about ¼ the cost of driving a gasoline-fired vehicle.
Why are electric vehicles so popular?
They now have a 200-300 mile range due to advances in battery technology.
They have high torque and start immediately when you press the accelerator, which means that driving them feels like driving an expensive sports car.
Electricity is about half the cost of gas, no matter where you get it. Who wouldn’t want to have their fuel cost cut in half and bypass the whims of big oil?
Prices are falling, and many more choices are on the market.
Electric vehicles are low maintenance, which means lower costs! The fuel and maintenance savings are so big, that there are now companies building electric semi-trucks and trucking companies are ordering them.
ETM Solar Works installs a few different kinds of electric vehicle chargers, depending on your needs.
For residential use, we install a Level-2 charger such as the Chargepoint Home or Webasto TurboDX. These will get you about 50 miles for every 2 hours of charging. Residential chargers are wired to a 2-pole breaker in your home circuit box. They can be hung on the wall in your garage or on the outside of your house near your driveway. You can get a charging cord up to 25’ long.
For commercial use, we recommend the Chargepoint. They have a nationwide network of charging stations already and have their own app. The owner of the Chargepoint station decides what they want to charge for electricity. Then, an electric vehicle owner can buy electricity at a charging stations using a Chargepoint account, Apple Pay, or Google Pay. This money is then sent back to the owner of the station. Drivers can search for Chargepoint charging stations through the app, and even tell if a charging station is in use (and for how long)! Chargepoint currently has about 99,500 stations worldwide.
We predict that in 5 years, most personal cars will be electric. People will expect to have EV charging stations at restaurants, hotels, and shopping centers. Universities and municipalities are already installing them faster than we can keep track of!
