The idea of electric cars was born more than 100 years ago, but not until recently has it been accepted as a viable approach to transportation. On any given day, it’s commonplace to see electric vehicles silently cruising Clark County roads. And that trend will only grow as more and more auto manufacturers enter the EV space. Even Jaguar, once an EV holdout, is issuing its first all-electric car, the $65,000 I-Pace. SUVs are even getting in on the game. Currently only a few are offered, but automakers have more planned.
This growing selection of brands and models gives consumers more EV choices at different price points. At the low end, they can choose a 2019 Smart Electric Drive at $24,000, or at the high-end, the Model S 100D Tesla at $94,000. In the mid-range, the Nissan Leaf ($30,000) and the Chevy Bolt ($37,000) compare well against pricey models and offer similar benefits.
“Range anxiety and charging station infrastructure have been the biggest consumer worries for EVs,” said Matt Babbitts, project manager for Clark Public Utilities.
Today’s EVs can travel from 200 up to 325 miles, which is roughly the driving distance you get from a tank of gas. As battery technology improves over the next decade, EV range could exceed gas-powered vehicles.
Currently, the EV-charger coverage map looks like a cellphone coverage map from 25 years ago. There are big gaps in the middle. Metropolitan and high population areas offer many charging stations, but America’s Great Plains from the Dakotas to Texas isn’t as well covered. As with cellphones, those holes will shrink in time.
On the Pacific coast, EV drivers are in good shape for long trips. The West Coast Green Highway has solved the charger problem along the I-5 corridor. Electric vehicles can easily travel from Baja California, Mexico, to Vancouver, B.C., with chargers regularly spaced along the freeway.
In our state, EV drivers benefit from an extensive network of DC fast chargers. Spaced every 40 to 60 miles, the chargers make it easy to drive I-5 from the Columbia River to the Canadian border. In the past couple of years, chargers even extended east along I-90 toward Wenatchee and U.S. 2 toward Ritzville. Clark County has more than 20 chargers, mostly centered near I-5.
EV chargers are split into two groups — one for home, one for the road. The level I, 120 volts, and level II, 240 volts, are designed for overnight charging at home. The 120V charger fills a fully depleted battery in a day or more. At 240 volts, the level II charges a battery in three to seven hours, and given most drivers drive only about 50 miles daily, the daily charge times should be faster because the battery will be fuller.
The 480-volt highway charger is fast. It fully charges EVs in about a half-hour. Tesla lays claim to the fastest charger on the market, saying its supercharger restores an “empty” Tesla auto battery to 50 percent in 20 minutes. However, Tesla’s recharging is no longer free. The company recently rescinded its free charging forever for owners.
Because an average gas-powered vehicle emits around 11,400 pounds of carbon each year, EV critics claim that the environmental cost of EVs should include how its electric fuel is produced. That desire bodes well for the Pacific Northwest and specifically Clark County.
“Driving an electric vehicle in Clark County cuts your emission to 1,260 pounds of carbon annually because of the utility’s low-carbon fuel mix,” said Babbitts. More than 60 percent of electricity produced by the utility comes from hydropower and non-fossil fuels.
“Thanks to abundant hydro-electricity, Washington state is one of the few regions on earth where you can trade fossil fuels for water power to run your car,” he said. “If the environment is important to you, switching to an EV will have a direct impact on reducing our state’s carbon emissions.”
