ELECTRIC TRANSPORTATION
Your Guide to Electric Transportation
You can’t really talk about an all-electric home without covering electric transportation.
That’s because over 80% of electric vehicle charging takes place at home EV charging stations.
So how we get around in the next 10-15 years is going to have a huge impact on the decisions we make as we electrify our homes.
In this section of the site, we will examine the remarkable surge in electric transportation and its growing influence on our everyday lives and on our homes. From electric cars to electric bikes, electric scooters, even electric boats.
We’re on the cusp of a transportation revolution, where everything is on the table.
Electric Cars
Americans are increasingly embracing the idea of electric vehicles, with two-thirds indicating they would consider either owning or leasing one. So switching to an electric car is the quickest and easiest way for the average person to make a really big dent in their carbon footprint.
Suburban homes are an essential component of the transition to electric vehicles. Homeowners in the suburbs have the space necessary for off-road charging, and they are a prime target market for EV makers.
They’re more likely to have the financial means to absorb the higher costs of electric vehicles and are more likely to benefit from not having to fill their cars with gasoline several times a week.
And then there are the cars themselves. There’s no shortage of automotive companies nowadays advertising new electric vehicle models all the time, but how do you sift through all the hype.
We’ll provide all the guidance you need from Electric Cars 101 to more advanced advice, such as whether it is better to buy or lease an electric car. As the market of available models keeps growing we’ll help you to keep up. And several automotive firms are teaming up with solar companies to gain a foothold in what could grow into a trillion dollar home electrification bonanza.
EV Charging at Home
What’s more, the ability to charge the car with renewable energy is currently largely limited to homeowners, as apartment renters and other non-homeowners typically do not have the authority to enter into the kinds of long-term solar agreements that are commonplace nowadays.
It is clear, then, that the first challenge for automotive marketing managers and their ad agencies is to convince millions of suburban homeowners to buy at least one electric vehicle and install an EV charging station in their home.
We’ll help you understand the basics of EV charging and explore the best options for electric car chargers. We’ll explain the differences between Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 charging, and we’ll help you to work out the costs of charging an electric car at home, and walk you through all the incentives that might be available.
And we’ll also introduce you to the game-changing technology of bidirectional charging.
What is Bidirectional EV Charging?
A bidirectional EV charger is far more sophisticated than a conventional charger. It goes beyond just charging the car; it also permits electricity to travel in a reverse direction from the vehicle into either a home (V2H), the grid (V2G), or any other electrical device (V2L).
The potential advantages that come with bidirectional charging are so great that the term V2X (vehicle to everything) to gain attention among industry experts.
We’ll explain what bidirectional EV charging is and what its implications are for households, vehicles and the electrical grid. We’ll also highlight which EVs currently provide bidirectional charging, as well as those that will be offering it soon.
We’ll also explore how widespread utilization of two-way electric vehicle (EV) charging could transform the way we use our cars not just as a means of getting from point A to point B but as a crucial part of our all-electric homes.
Electric Bikes
While the whole world is finally getting excited about electric cars, electric bikes offer us an entirely new way to reduce emissions simply by reducing the number of miles those electric cars drive.
In fact, the best-selling EV in the United States in 2021 was actually the e-bike. Europe has seen a similar explosion in e-bike sales. In terms of its effect on fighting climate change, micromobility is thought to be 10 times more important even than the adoption of electric vehicles.
The popularity of e-bikes is rapidly increasing as people opt for them as a cost-effective solution to reduce transportation emissions and address global warming. These modes of transportation are also known for being fast, convenient and easily accessible.
My own situation provides a perfect example. I live in a typical American suburb, just over a mile from the nearest grocery store. While I often feel guilty about hopping into a 2-ton car just to go grab a carton of milk, the idea of cycling two-and-a-half miles doesn’t seem like a reasonable alternative.
The time it takes, the sweat it induces and the balancing act required to bring the groceries home on a two-wheeled machine represent just a tad too much hassle, making the car journey seem more necessary than it really should.
Enter the electric bike, which, in less time and with less effort, could replace that car journey and render the car unnecessary for a substantial portion of our shortest trips.
We’ll compare the advantages of electric bikes over traditional bicycles and other transportation options. We’ll also offer expert tips on picking the right e-bike for you – one that matches your lifestyle and the way you’re most likely to use your e-bike.
Electric Boats
For all the recent hype about electric transportation, very few media outlets are covering the subject of marine electrification.
And yet, coming from New England as I do, where boats parked on driveways are a very common sight, I am convinced that in order to reduce our carbon footprint, we must switch to electric versions of watercraft.
Marine electrification is all the more urgent because many types of watercraft have an outsized carbon footprint. Pontoon boats, for example, consume more fuel than ATVs, snowmobiles, and dirt bikes combined and have a worse miles-per-passenger ratio than a 747 jet, which achieves 99 passenger miles per gallon of fuel compared to pontoon boats’ meager ten.
So what is an e-boat? It’s a vessel that uses an electric motor as its main form of propulsion. It can be outfitted either with a built-in electric motor or have an electric outboard attached to it.
A boat that is propelled by a fossil fuel engine, on the other hand, that only has solar panels or a wind turbine on its roof to provide electricity for its onboard systems and appliances is not considered an electric boat.
We’ll examine the electric boat market to see if recreational boating is likely to experience a transformation similar to the one currently taking place in the automotive sector.
Conclusion
There’s a lot to cover on the subject of electric transportation. So buckle up as we guide you through the process of reinventing your transportation life. It might just be possible to find a better way by Switching to Electric.