Buying an EV isn’t like buying a normal combustion engine vehicle, you are giving up the convenience that fuel would give you with a world of charging headaches. Unless you have your own home charger, this headache would definitely be a small issue if you were to look out for a few things while you are choosing your EV.
Charging Port Connectors
Everyone assumes that all cars have the same charging connectors and chargers. These have some sort of standard but there is nothing universal. In Singapore and Malaysia, CCS and Type 2 connectors are frequently seen at EV chargers even though there is that occasional Commando plug or ChadeMO charger. For vehicles, most vehicles are also fitted with CCS and Type2 connectors. For your information, there are 4 types of charging connectors for vehicles. Mainly CCS, Type2, Type 1, and ChadeMO.
Charging Speed Compatibility
This is the main point for EVs that I would like to highlight as many forsake this information from their brochures. Obviously range or capacity of the battery is important but there is a component in the car that is essential, this part would be the onboard charger. If the onboard charger is 6kW, you may plug into a 43kW charger and it would only charge at 6kW. This mismatch will not cause an issue but it will basically charge your vehicle slower.
Having a fast charging speed is important to get your vehicle fully charged at the mall where you may spend 2-4 hours. If you are like me, however, you may not need to charge the car to full because you consistently charge the vehicle at every destination.
You may also like to have a slow onboard charger because you like to stay at a mall to charge for 6 hours for example. Some find this idea strange but you wouldn’t want to walk back to the charger to move the car because your car is fully charged. It’s even better if we shift this idea to a Tesla car. I’ve seen a Tesla car having the ability to adjust this charging speed to be able to fit any desired situation. I would love to test this out if I have an opportunity to test drive a Tesla.
Range/Battery type/Real world driving range
Self-explanatory and what most people look for in an EV, you may also require to check the vehicle’s driving efficiency and whether it can actually drive to its said range. So far my experience is that range of the vehicle in the real world is usually 50km lesser than specified on the brochure.
Ending Thoughts
If you are looking to purchase an EV, you will be glad to hear that there are more options now and you should be able to gather more information about the car you desire to purchase. Do more research and understand more!
