The electric vehicle scene is developing rapidly in the United States as more car companies scale up their production of electric vehicles (evs) and tax credits increase. The technology underlying evs improves and changes over time, but the technology is changing is a way that requires the consumer to be aware: different vehicles require different chargers and different car companies are innovating in different ways at different rates. It’s intimidating and challenging to purchase an electric car.
The goal of this guide is to give you a baseline of knowledge to approach thinking about electric vehicles. Even if all the questions aren’t answered, this guide hopes to build a sufficient mental model of what’s happening that you can navigate the landscape.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| EV | Electric vehicle; a vehicle with a battery for driving (includes hybrids, plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles) |
| BEV | Battery electric vehicle (e.g., tesla) |
| PHEV | Plugin hybrid electric vehicle (e.g., prius prime) |
| ICEV | Internal combustion engine vehicle, can use gasoline or diesel |
| PEV | Personal electric vehicle (e.g., electric longboard, scooter) |
| NACS | North American Charging Standard (developed by tesla, many car companies intending to support) |
| SAE J1772 | The “J plug”, “J charger”, or Type 1 connector is a common charger in the North America |
| Type 2 connector | aka Mennekes for the German company that designed it |
| CHAdeMO | A fast charging station that competes with CCS and NACS |
| EVgo | A company that builds and maintains ev infrastructure. They manage a network DC fast charging stations throughout the U.S. |
| GWP | Global warming potential |
| Range | The number of miles that a vehicle can go on a full battery or tank |
Link: https://www.carboncounter.com/#!/explore
Carbon shows the lifecycle greenhouse gas emmissions of different vehicles, shown in a high-level chart and then available for detailed review.
My main takeaway from the tool how much of GHG emissions come from the manufacturing of the vehicle. In an gas vehicle that’s driven an average amount, 30% of the emissions come from the manufacturing. In an electric vehicle, the car’s GHG are dominated by the manufacturing, since electricity, which is ideally produced by clean sources, powers the car.
However, this means that the GHG emission difference between an EV and a gas vehicle is quite small if the vehicle is not driven very much.
Based on some quick tinkering with the tool: driving around 3,000 to 4,000 miles a year results in a pretty negligible GHG emission difference between an efficient 2023 ev and a 2023 gas vehicle.
The app is built by and the data is source from the Trancik Lab at MIT
This is a crowd-source google sheet with information about electric vehicles that have some out and are coming out over the coming years. It’s a great resource for comparing different cars and planning purchases.
Link: https://oregoinelectric.com/
A site put together by the Portland General Electric, the Oregon Department of Transportation and others, Oregonin’ Electric is a great resource for learning about electrifying Oregon, and especially electric vehicles.
Here’s a direct link to the electric vehicles section. On this page, they review the rebates available to Oregonians and the processes for accessing them.