Video: Cars.com's Guide for the EV Curious

You've probably noticed there's another big push for electric vehicles, partly because there are suddenly more plug-in vehicles from more brands than ever before. Today, my colleagues and I are going to talk about a few of the most significant models. But we're also going to give you additional insights, things that are difficult to understand without first owning an electric car, as we have. Hello, I'm Joe Wiesenfelder, executive editor. I've been with cars.com for 24 years, which sounds surprising even to me as I say it. I installed my first home charging system more than a decade ago when we bought cars.com's first plugins, a Nissan LEAF, and a Chevrolet Volt. Cars.com's reviewers have evaluated scores of other electrified models since then. And we're awaiting delivery of our own Tesla Model Y, which we will report on for years to come. Unlike many reviewers, we know there's more to this than just driving the car. We insist on living with EVs and testing their range and charging capabilities, and we've invested in home charging for each of our reviewers. It's our position that home charging is necessary for successful EV ownership, at least at present, and we'll have some advice for you there as well. So if you have questions now or at any time during the guide, submit them for a Q&amp;A session we'll be doing at the end. Joe and I will be joined by cars.com reviewers Aaron Bragman, Joe Bruzek, and Kelsey Mays, who will share their quick takes on a few of the hottest electric vehicles currently on the market. We also have a couple of polls and encourage you to participate in them below. When you registered, we wanted to know how familiar you are with EVs. Here's what you told us. 22% said they're clueless, and 68% know a little bit. Good news, you're in the right place. 10% say they own an EV, and unsurprisingly, none of you said you built your own EV from found parts. Whether you're EV curious or an EV enthusiast, cars.com's team of reviewers is here to help. We believe in electric vehicles though we recognize they aren't for everybody. And as always, our responsibility is to the consumer. Here are a few reasons why we think they're worth considering for the right shopper. (upbeat music) Regardless of the source of electricity, the carbon footprint of current EVs is already lower than comparable internal combustion vehicles and it's expected to improve over the next decade. At best, when fueled by renewable sources, their operation is closer to zero emissions in total. But just because EVs are the right thing to do, doesn't guarantee that an EV is right for you. We hope cars.com's insights will help you decide exactly that. There are a few things that prove difficult to grasp without first owning an electric car, which is, of course, the conundrum. So we'll share what we've learned over the 10 years since we purchased our first plugins. First, another one of the positives, pure electric cars don't require oil changes. And they have far less friction and heat than internal combustion engines. Because they rely primarily on regenerative braking, whereby the drive motor slows the car while recapturing energy by serving as a generator and storing electricity in the battery pack, the brake pads are subject to less wear. In the long run, EV should have considerably lower regular maintenance costs. How much you'll save on fueling costs really depends on the vehicle and your region because both electric and gas prices vary across the country. But it's not uncommon to pay half as much per mile to fuel an electric car versus a comparable gas one. We're approaching this the way we think shoppers should with a reality check, including things EV newcomers usually aren't aware of that might make them think twice about buying an electric car. But don't worry, we're also talking about the most intriguing new electric vehicles and what we like about driving them. With that, I'm going to hand off to the cars.com editor responsible for our track testing, managing editor, Joe Bruzek, for our first look at a popular EV in a popular class, the Tesla Model Y. (upbeat music) Hi, I'm Joe Bruzek, managing editor and reviewer at cars.com. The Tesla Model Y is currently the most popular EV being sold, and it was clear why after I spent a couple of weeks driving it for our expert review. So what does it do that's so special? Well, Model Y is unique in that it not only delivers long range of 326 EPA rated miles, but also performance. Now zero to 60 mile per hour time is rated by Tesla at 4.8 seconds, and right now, in this price range, you simply won't find anything else outside of Tesla with that kind of range and performance. Typically you get one or the other. So that's really notable for what the Model Y does. But it's not all daisies and sunshine. Now, one of the goofiest things about the Model Y is that there's no instrument panel in the traditional place in front of your eyeballs. The speedometer is actually relegated to the top left corner of the large 15-inch touchscreen, where just about every other control and display lives. The touch screen itself is large, intuitive, and done really well, but there's no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, and that's an expected feature nowadays. But I actually question whether or not that would be an advantage in the Model Y because you lose a lot of functionality with how the navigation system is tied to information based on range efficiency and charge locations. Also, for as much buzz as there is around Tesla's autopilot and its self-driving capability, right now, it's still a hands-on system. Now that requires hands to be on the wheel while in use. And there are even different levels of autopilot. The standard system, like the version I tested, doesn't give many unique functions compared with other advanced driver assistance systems, and there are hands-free ones out there, including soon to the Ford Mustang Mach-E. Now the Model Ys ride quality is also of note because it rides very firmly. Now it's not uncontrolled nor sloppy, and I actually found it to be really rewarding to drive spiritedly, unlike the Mach-E that's bobbly, bulky and just drives like it's really heavy, and it is. But the firmness might be too much if you're not looking for a sports car like ride. The Model Y also does a lot to help range anxiety, and that's beyond its 326 miles of rated range. The Model Y reports its range and efficiency in understandable and usable ways to help ease range anxiety. For example, when a destination is entered, a chart shows how much range you'll have throughout the trip, and in real time, tracks along the route to show if you're tracking high or low compared with the initial projected range. So that's actionable information because you can modify your driving style in the middle of your route to give you more range when you reach your destination. And what also makes a Tesla easier to own than other EVs at the moment is Tesla's fast-charging network, supercharging, as well as rare home charging features. In our testing, supercharging delivers more consistent charge speeds versus other charging networks, as we've measured in real life. And at home, the Model Y actually comes with a 240-volt charger standard. Now there is a more powerful wall-mounted charger that you can buy to install in your home, but the inclusion of the 240-volt mobile charger standard is a big plus. Plus, the Model Ys just more flexible with home charging circuits because you can throttle down charging amperage by single digits to make the Model Y work with the variety of home charging circuits. All things considered, for what it does, I didn't blink an eye at my Model Ys, as tested, $54,000 price. We think the Model Y, is in many ways, the standard for small EVs, SUVs at the moment. So it is unfortunate that it's not sold and serviced in all states, though there are workarounds there. We liked it so much and think it's so much the standard that we actually ordered one and hope to test it for the next couple of years as this class of cars is expected to explode. If you have any questions about the Model Ys, submit them in the comments, and we'll answer them at the end of the show. (upbeat music) Thank you, Joe. Tesla deserves a lot of credit for kickstarting the modern EV movement, and we're all looking forward to spending time with our Model Y. Okay, it's time for a reality check. There are two important things to understand about electric vehicles that will make much of our other advice clearer, especially for beginners. Number one, EV charging is slow, and number two, public charging isn't what you probably think. Even though a fully charged EV typically has less range than a gas-powered car, around 300 miles, though that is increasing to 400 and 500 in a few models, it takes hours to charge, and that's not just at home. Even public DC fast-charging stations, like Tesla Supercharging or Electrify America stations, aren't really fast. The claims are usually from empty to 80% in 30 minutes, or something like that. But if you're going from totally empty to a full battery, in practice, we're still talking an hour or more. For today's EVs, public DC fast charging isn't a solution for people who can't charge at home. There's a lot of talk about public infrastructure. We absolutely need it, and it might make uninitiated shoppers more comfortable about buying EVs. But the fact is that once you own an EV, you end up charging it at home overnight, probably every night, and may never visit a public station except to top off if you find yourself in trouble. Here's another eye-opener. Virtually every EV manufacturer acknowledges that frequent DC fast charging at public stations will compromise the long-term capacity of your battery and recommends against it. Also, apart from cases where it's free for now, public charging, and especially DC fast charging, is more expensive than home charging. Enough so in some cases to erase the cost advantage of driving electric. Some automakers, including Volkswagen, Hyundai, and Lucid, include a few years worth of complimentary DC charging with the purchase of select current and future models. It's a nice perk, but not if it leads to the excessive use I just warned about. If all we said about DC fast charging weren't bad enough, we found it seldom as fast as it's supposed to be. In our experience, the rates we see listed for the vehicles we test, like 125 or 150 kilowatts, are seldom achieved when we actually charge them. Even when the charger has enough power, the car doesn't come close to its maximum charging rate. Even if the battery's state of charge is low, the temperature seems optimal. There are many of these variables that affect charging rate, and the manufacturers never have a satisfying explanation. It's best to treat these marketing claims as just that. Note that this aspect of EVs charging speed is not going to change anytime soon. And if it does, it will be incremental. It's the nature of the vehicles, and especially the batteries, not the charging technology. So don't buy an EV now expecting that a faster charger is going to appear in your neighborhood soon and change the experience. It's primarily about the cars and the batteries, not the chargers. This is all our way of saying that if you live in an apartment or some other scenario where you can't charge at home, an EV might not be right for you quite yet. That leaves us with home charging. But before we get to that, let's take a look at another new EV that's available today, the Volkswagen ID.4. For that, I put you in the hands of our long-time reviewer, analyst, and now news editor, Kelsey Mays. (upbeat music) Hi everybody, I'm Kelsey Mays, assistant managing editor, and reviewer for cars.com, and I'm gonna take you through our thoughts right now on Volkswagen's all-new ID.4. Now the ID.4 is Volkswagen's first all-electric SUV. It's a kind of smallish model with a funky name. It starts a little over $40,000 before any tax credits. It comes in rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive, the latter starting just under $45,000 to actually make the ID.4 the cheapest all-wheel-drive electric vehicle currently on the market. Now value isn't its only strike. We've been impressed with the ID.4s drivability, space efficiency, and relatively fast at-home charging. If there's one blemish though, it's kind of a big one. It's Volkswagen's fussy controls. More on that later. So we've evaluated the rear-drive single motor ID.4, whose base drivetrain is somewhat modest in terms of power and overall all-electric range. Now many rivals have optional drivetrains with 300 miles or more or powertrains that scored 60 miles an hour in the four or even the three-second range. None of that going on here, at least yet. But the ID.4s capabilities strike us as fine for the heart of the market, which is to say, shoppers looking for an affordable all-electric SUV. You hit the accelerator, and there's immediate thrust. It falls off pretty quickly afterwards, but overall passing power still feels a step ahead of what you get from any number of small mass-market gasoline SUVs, although certainly slower than electric rivals like the Ford Mustang Mach E and Tesla Model Y with their respective base motors. And the braking action here in the ID.4, it's pretty good as regenerative brakes go. It feels certainly less numb than what you get in a lot of rival EVs. What stands out even more is ride quality. It's not astonishingly good for a compact SUV, but it avoids the harsh impacts you get in so many other affordable electric vehicles, which for reasons we can't quite fathom, never seem to get ride quality right. Volkswagen might just come the closest. Another strength is space. Now we've been impressed with the roomy seats and the open storage areas up front, as well as the flat floor in the backseat. Although the ID.4 has no front trunk, something a few other EVs offer thanks to no engine, our independent accounting of cargo space has actually found about 19 cubic feet behind the rear seats. Believe it or not, that's actually more than what we measured in the Mach-E, including its front trunk. Finally, the ID.4 accommodates a maximum AC charging rate of 11 kilowatts. That's pretty generous by today's standards. That means you should be able to fill a depleted battery pack in as little as seven and a half hours on 240-volt home charging. Not too shabby there. So what gets our goat? Well, it's those controls. And we've long criticized touch-sensitive dashboard controls in place of real buttons and knobs. And the ID.4 has no shortage of the touch stuff. They're in the overhead console, the doors, the steering wheel spokes, and around the touch screen, which by the way, isn't all that fast to respond itself. These controls are inferior to traditional ones, plain and simple. Their sensitivity varies by person and any moisture in your fingers. And they often require taking your eyes off the road to make sure you hit the right area. The controls are bad enough, in fact, that they kind of color our overall take on the ID.4. It's a comfortable, versatile new EV with modest performance and range but good overall value. But it's held back, unfortunately, in daily use by those frustrating buttons. Rival EVs aren't exactly known for straightforward user interfaces, but even in this group, Volkswagen might've set a new low. If you have any other questions about the ID.4, please submit them in the comment section, and we'll answer them at the end of the show. Thanks, Kelsey. Those touch-sensitive buttons are definitely a deal-breaker for some, but apparently not for my husband because he recently ordered an ID.4 Now we're going to attempt to simplify the topic of home charging and chargers with the first installment of a video hosted by a familiar face. Another guy who thinks he knows better, my favorite cohost, Joe Wiesenfelder. To say cars.com's editors think that home charging is important for EV ownership would be an understatement, we believe it's essential. Now I promised the producers I would not get into nerdy details about how electric car chargers like this one are not technically chargers in the traditional sense. But we did figure you'd probably wanna know what distinguishes the different charges from each other should you find yourself in a position to acquire one for your EV. And you might also wonder why you even need this thing. You're buying the car. Why do you have to spend more money on this thing? You've never had to deal with that before when you bought a conventional car. Why isn't there just a cord that you can plug into an outlet? Look, here's an outlet. Why is this thing in the middle? And why am I paying for it? We'll get into that. But first, I wanna clarify one thing. When we talk about home charging for a battery electric car with hundreds of miles of range, we are talking about level two home charging. Level two means 240-volts or 220-volts. These are interchangeable terms. Don't get confused by that. The reason you need that is because 120-volts, or 110 if you call it that, which we're all familiar with, is not enough for an electric car. Every EV comes with what we usually call a trickle charger like this, a little box, the same connector, and the familiar plug. This is good for only five miles of range for every hour of charging, and that is on an efficient, small EV. An SUV might be three miles of range. That is clearly not enough if you've got a battery pack that can give you hundreds of miles of range. So you need 240 volts of charging, what's called level two. Now there's another reason that we recommend level two that you might not see reported that frequently. And that is because when it comes to driving an electric car, there's another way that it's different from driving a conventional car. And really, there aren't that many. You drive an electric car like you drive a normal car. But when you leave home or wherever you're charging, it's best to have the cabin preconditioned. That is pre-cooled or pre-heated because electric cars use electric air conditioning and electric heat. And the only source of electricity is the battery, and that's where your range comes from. So if you get in your car in the winter and it's frigid, and you immediately turn the heat on, you're instantly robbing your range. So it's best to pre-heat the car when it's still connected to grid power. And this is something that EVs let you do either by scheduling it for your departure time in the car or by using an app or sometimes using the key fob, just like you might remote start a conventional gas-powered car. Or they may have an app that lets you do it like our Ford Mustang Mach-E here does. I'm holding the start button, and it will start. So the lights flash, the fans are on, the air conditioning's running because it's warm where we're shooting this. And this is an important step if you wanna maintain your range anytime you depart from home. And you need 240 volts to do this. In our experience, 120 volts is not enough to run the air conditioning or the heat in the most extreme temperatures without dipping into the battery power. So there's two reasons you want level two if you buy a battery-electric car. We hope that introduction to home charging was helpful. We'll have more in a second installment. But now that we've gotten you thinking about the Tesla and the Volkswagen, we figured we should address a few of the most common concerns about EVs, and some you may not have thought of. (upbeat music) You don't need as much range as you think. This is one of the toughest things to accept if you've never lived with EV. But you should be thinking about how many miles you drive per day. In fact, we've got a poll asking you just that. The reason to consider miles driven per day is that you'll be charging at home overnight and starting with a full battery every day. And if you wanna pay for 300 miles of range so you can go on the occasional road trip, we're not going to stop you. But understand that you pay more for more range either with an optional larger battery pack or simply through the choice of vehicle, such as the latest model with the most range versus a used EV with less. If you're getting the electric car for around-town driving, all you need is as much range as you can use in one day. We're not suggesting you cut it too close, but you can broaden your options if you think realistically about your needs based on how and where you drive. However, when determining how much range you need, there are two universal truths about EVs you have to account for. First, cold temperature obliterates EV range. It's no coincidence that EVs have been most popular in warmer climates. Their range diminishes in colder temperatures, and that's all electric cars. It's both because their battery packs lose capacity when they're colder and because cabin heat is necessarily electric, which robs range. In 2011, our Nissan LEAF, with an EPA estimated 73 miles of range, dropped to around 50 miles during the winter in Chicago. A AAA study has since quantified the range loss at 20 degrees Fahrenheit to be roughly 40% lower than at 70 degrees for the average EV. So this is an important consideration if you're determining how much range you need, and you live in a colder climate. As Joe mentioned earlier, you can maximize your range by preheating the cabin while the car's still plugged in using grid power, or the opposite, cooling it when it's hot out. Second, EV batteries rarely need to be replaced. But degradation is normal, meaning range decreases with age. Shoppers correctly surmised that the battery packs in electric cars are very expensive parts, but that's a, there's a misconception that they're likely to fail someday and be expensive to replace. Well, they would be expensive to replace, but failure is extremely rare. We learned the same thing over the course of 20 years after hearing the same concerns about gas-electric hybrids. Further, electric cars have powertrain warranties amounting to at least 100,000 miles and, or eight years. So in the event of failure, the battery should be covered. Now, rather than worry about failure, you should definitely consider a loss of range because it is not only possible but expected for an EV battery to lose capacity as it ages. Roughly 20% on average by the time its warranty expires. Along with the effects of cold temperatures, you should factor this when determining how much range you need, especially if you're likely to keep the car for a long time. EVs aren't great for everybody, but they make great second cars. We don't think EVs are a good choice for anyone who can't charge at home. And unfortunately, that includes an awful lot of apartment dwellers and street parkers. They're better for people who can charge at home. And they make great second cars, meaning one of two or more vehicles in a household. And two per household is average. Having a conventional car for longer trips means you don't have to fixate on the range of the EV and possibly pay more than you need to for range or faster-charging capability. And speaking of charging, here's our second installment on home chargers. Back to Joe. Now I promised I'd explain why you need this thing. And the reason for the charging systems is safety and compatibility. It's there to protect both you and the vehicle. Now, if you think about it, 120, 240 volts is a lot to be holding in your hand, and that is the main reason that the charging system like this exists. There is no high voltage in this cable until it's connected to the car. And that's important because some of these installations will be outside. Not everyone has their charger in the garage. You may have it on the side of your house. And the system is pretty much what you will find in public as well. Level two charging in public is essentially the same hardware. If you're in the rain or standing in a puddle or something like that, you don't want electricity. What happens is you go to plug it in. When you plugin, the car and the charger communicate with each other. The charger tells the car how much power it can provide. Then the charger is ready to send power and it throws a switch internally. A big relay called a contactor, which you can usually hear. And then it energizes the cable but only when it's connected. We'll see if we can hear it. Little click there. Now power is flowing and charging has started. So it is a safety feature. It protects you. And it also protects the car from arching and stuff like that. Same thing is true when you release it. As soon as you press this button. You hear that click? That means high voltage has been shut off. It's not in the cable anymore. So there's the safety aspect. The other, as I mentioned, is compatibility. Compatibility matters because this connector will work with any vehicle, aside from a Tesla, that has the same connector. It doesn't matter if it's a different brand. It doesn't matter if the charger has more or less power. You can't put too much power into the car. The car and the charger talk to each other, they work it out. You actually might wanna think about having more power than you need and future-proof your installation. You might end up with a bigger, more power-hungry SUV in the future. These are durable items that should last many years. Why not invest a little bit more now, and then you'll be ready for the future. As it regards compatibility, I did mention Tesla. Tesla is the other type of connector. Tesla has its own. Every other current EV uses this type, which unfortunately is named J1772. If the connector fits your car, it will work. You don't have to worry about that at all. While I'm talking about compatibility, also know because it's a standard, that brand doesn't matter. You don't need a Ford charger for a Ford EV like this. Now having said that, here's the surprise. There are a couple of manufacturers, Ford included, following the lead of Tesla that provide, for free with the purchase of the car, what is actually a combination level one, level two charger with interchangeable plugs. This is a 240-volt plug. And what that means is you don't necessarily have to invest more in hardware, just the installation or just the outlet. And I think that's a great move because they know you have to pay at least some to get the circuit installed. And this is a pretty robust 32 amps of current. Now I wish I could get into the details on that too. Different levels of current will provide different speeds of charging at level two. Level two sounds like one thing. It's actually not one thing. It's many things. It could be you're adding less than 10 miles of range per hour to more than 30 miles of range per hour, depending on the amp rating. We do have more detail if you look at the provided links. If your EV doesn't come with level two charging, or you wanna charge faster than the provided unit can accomplish, you're gonna have to choose a charter. So this happens to be cars.com first, level two charger, and it's about 10 years old. Things haven't changed that much, functionally. We have since upgraded with mostly more powerful units. Most of our reviewers now have home charging. We have a ClipperCreek, JuiceBox, Wallbox, ChargePoint, and the one behind me, which is an Electrify America electrify home unit, which is a new product. We have very detailed information on this in our charger buying guide at cars.com/news. I recommend you look at it. But first, since we teased you by having the Mach-E here the whole time, here's some more information about the Ford Mustang Mach-E. (upbeat music) I'm Aaron Bragman, Detroit bureau chief, and reviewer for cars.com. When Ford decided to call its first all-electric crossover SUV a Mustang, like most of the rest of the world, we were confused. How could a heavy four-door wagon EV be a Mustang? I mean, sure, it has racy Mustang-inspired styling, but what about performance jobs? Well, after driving the new Mustang Mach-E, we came away impressed enough to award it our 2021 Best Eco-Friendly Car of the Year Award. Ford's approach to its first big foray into the world of EVs made a huge splash when it arrived. And the idea that it represents where the performance brands like Mustang are headed in the 21st century is starting to catch on. The Mach-E is available in either rear or all-wheel drive with a standard or extended range battery and four different trim levels, allowing the buyer to focus on longer range, higher performance, or a mix of the two. The battery can send the Mach-E from 211 miles up to 305 miles depending on trim level and drive train. And it can fast charge it up to 150 kilowatts on a DC fast charger, meaning that it can potentially go from 10% to 80% charged in just 45 minutes. Now, that's provided you find the right charger and that all of the other battery variables are correct. But the Mustang Mach-E, its mission is not just about efficient electric motoring. Just like the pony car namesake, performance is a way that Ford is trying to make the Mach-E stand out. Even the base model can go from zero to 60 in 6.1 seconds. And Ford is predicting that the high-zoot GT performance trim will do it in three and a half seconds flat. We can attest that the Mach-E is a blast to drive, and almost all EVs are quick these days, but Ford has added excellent handling capabilities, making the Mach-E genuinely entertaining. We only have one complaint about the way the Mach-E drives. Its ride quality is abominable. It's stiff to the point of jarring, and broken pavement sets up this odd foreign half-bouncing movement that is downright unpleasant. If you live somewhere with glass-smooth roads, like, I don't know, maybe Dubai, you won't notice it all that much, but in the frost heave north where I live, take an extended drive in a Mustang Mach-E before you sign on any dotted line to make sure that you can live with that ride quality. The models we've driven have impressed us with their stylish, comfortable interiors, however. The Mach-E has room for five, but the back seat is a little cramped on legroom. The big story of that interior, though, is the 15 and a half-inch vertical touchscreen running Ford's SYNC 4A system that encompasses most of the car's ancillary controls. And while we're not big fans of the touchscreen everything approach to interiors, the Ford approach works better thanks to its big, easy-to-use controls and integrated knob and a focus on personalizing the screen to each individual driver. The Mach-E also works pretty well as an SUV, thanks to a decent-sized cargo area and a front trunk that can also be used for storage. But just like you'd never take your Mustang Coupe off road, the Mustang Mach-E is also going to be happiest on the pavement, partly due to limited ground clearance. So welcome to the next iteration of Mustang, an electric SUV instead of a two-door muscle car. You can't blame Ford for changing up the idea of what the Mustang is. The 21st century is a very different world than the one in which the Mustang was born. And Hey, you know, calling it Mustang, that name got you to notice the thing, didn't it? If you have any questions about the Mustang Mach-E, please submit them in the comments section, and we'll answer them at the end of the show. Thank you, Aaron. So our audience knows in addition to being a prolific reviewer, Aaron has owned two plug-in vehicles himself. Now that we've given you some background on home chargers, we're going to share an introduction to the associated installation and its potential hurdles. <v Narrator>Once you have your level two charging system where you park your car, you need to feed it some power. And that usually comes from the electric service panel, also known as the fuse box or breaker box. And if you're lucky, that won't be far away. The best place we've seen it is right in the garage of some homes, like townhomes. This means an electrician can connect a circuit to your level two charger using some wiring and conduit, that's the pipe the wire passes through, and you could be looking at an installation cost of only a few hundred bucks, excluding the charger itself. But it's usually not this easy. Even if you have an attached garage, the service panel is farther away, possibly in a basement, which means a longer run and more money. But what if the house is this far away, or this far? Yep, longer, probably thicker wire, more conduit, and of course more money. The same electrician might be able to trench the ground and bury the conduit satisfactorily, but you might need a different contractor. Additional contractors, more money. To that end, what if, instead of dirt or a lawn, there's a concrete pad between the service panel and the charging location. It might need to be cut or broken out and repaired after the circuit is laid. That might be a different contractor. Wait a minute, who are these bozos? Oh, that's the condo association. And you know what a picnic they can be. Unfortunately, some homeowners do have to contend with associations like these before installing. And what we've learned is it's best if another resident has already blazed the EV charging trail for you. One of the frustrating aspects of installations is that houses seldom cooperate. For example, the service panel might be in a convenient location, but if it's on the opposite end of the house, the circuit might need to be routed through a wall or two, which could require some cleanup work as well. One more thing to be aware of is that your home receives a certain amount of current from the electric utility, typically 60, 100, or 200 amps. And level two charging systems draw between 12 and 80 amps, though today 32, 40 or 48 amps is the most likely. And just so you don't get confused, the circuit breaker rating is always higher than the charger rating. A 32 amp charger needs a 40 amp breaker, for example. The demand can easily exceed what your house can supply, and you might need an upgrade. Unfortunately, you might not have a choice because of this guy, the housing inspector. We recommend that you do everything above board and get your installs permitted, as you must, in order to receive incentives in many cases. And if the inspector says you need an upgrade, you definitely must. The utility doesn't typically charge you to go, from say, 100 to 200 amps because they're happy to bill you for your future usage. But the parts and labor involved in replacing a 100 amp service panel with a 200 amp version can easily add a thousand dollars to an installation that has nothing to do with the circuit that then goes from the panel to the charger. And once you make changes to old infrastructure, you have to meet current code, and you never know what that might bring. I know some of that sounds daunting, and if you're accustomed to buying a gas-powered car and just driving it, any of those scenarios is more than you've ever had to deal with. But if you can pay off once you're, it can pay off once you're over the hump. In the near future, we'll be detailing our experience with home installations on cars.com/news. But for now, I'll tell you it varied widely, and it ranged in price from $900 to more than $6,000, and that's excluding the chargers themselves, which were about 650 to 750 apiece for pretty robust chargers. If you have any questions about charging or anything else, your timing is excellent because we're ready to start the Q&amp;A session. (upbeat music) Welcome back to Aaron Bragman and Joe Bruzek. Wow. Thank you for all of your questions. We're going to answer as many as we can, so let's jump in. The first is from Alex and, you know, guys jump, let me know who wants to take stuff. But, do you foresee a better technology on batteries in the near future, especially if you plan to drive the car for at least five years? I can start with that because it addresses some of the things we said. I think for five years, you're probably okay with what's out there. I mean, what's going to happen now is you're gonna start to see some vehicles with batteries that are 800 volts, and most EVs are 400 volts. And that's going to improve the DC fast charging speed somewhat. But I would not consider it a game-changer. We're talking about cars like the Porsche Taycan and Audi, I think, e-tron GT. More accessible versions will be the Hyundai IONIQ 5 and Kia EV6 that are coming soon. Also, the Lucid Air, I think, are all 800 volts. Some GM Altium vehicles like the Hummer EV, these will charge faster, but we're not talking about fast enough to make them vehicles that you could just own and live in an apartment. So I think we're probably 10 years out for affordable solid-state batteries, which are the ones that are going to be the game-changer. Yeah. The other thing I think you also have to consider is, you know, do you really wanna keep an EV for five years? I've always basically advocated that people should lease an EV instead of actually purchase one because the technology is changing. Not necessarily the battery chemistry, but things like charging rate, capacity range, all of that changes every two to three years. It gets a little bit better. So if you're leasing something, you can actually turn it in after a couple of years, get the latest and greatest technology, and it doesn't affect the resale value as much either. When you purchase one, resale value for most EVs is really pretty poor except for Teslas. And so that could be a factor to consider as well. Yeah, solid-state is the goal, though. You know, that's gonna promise a lighter weight, more range, better efficiency. Automakers are pouring resources into getting there to further that technology. Toyota has a running prototype, but they actually found short service life on the battery to be an issue. So there's still a lot for work. Great. Thank you. Frankie asks, "For those that can't afford or want a Tesla, what are some of the most affordable EVs coming to market, electric, small SUVs specifically?" Yeah. So we call it out, and, you know, Kelsey talked about it with the ID.4. There's a lot of value in the ID.4. It's probably one of the best of the new crop of small SUVs at $41,000 for 260 miles of range. That's before any incentives or tax credits too. And that's for the rear-wheel-drive version. Like Kelsey said, $45,000 is where the all-wheel-drive version starts, and that's for 249 miles of range and the most affordable all-wheel-drive SUV at the moment. You know, the Tesla that we reviewed was $54,000. Right now, the starting price, starting prices for the Model Y have been increasing. Current starting price for a Model Y is $57,000. So, you know, the affordable models like the VW, you know, have a place. And also, the most affordable, like, mass-market EV right now is the Nissan LEAF with 149 miles of range. That starts at $28,000. This, I think everybody can jump in here. How do, how do, I'm sorry, this is a different question. How do EVs drive differently from gas-powered vehicles? I Can take that. Joe mentioned that they don't really drive terribly different, and they don't, but there are some key differences. For one, electric motors make a lot of torque at low RPM, so you feel an instant acceleration. There's also no traditional transmission, first gear, second gear, third gear. So you don't have to wait for a downshift, there's no delay, you hit the accelerator, and it goes. And it makes even modestly or low powered EVs entertaining to drive. Also, what you hear is different. You don't hear the buzzing of the engine. You don't hear any exhaust noises. So you notice more wind and road noise, even though it might not actually be elevated compared with a gas car, you do notice more of that. And another noise that you hear, especially at low speeds, are pedestrian warning systems. So without the engine making noise to keep pedestrians safe and alert that there's an EV nearby, you'll hear, like, spaceship-type sounds at low speeds when you're going forward and reverse. So just a couple of ways that driving an EV does stand out. But overall, you can get in these and drive them just like a normal gas car. And now they're not just little runabouts anymore. You know, a lot of EVs are big, and, you know, the size of your regular like compact SUV, like a RAV4 or, you know, CR-V, which is where we're gonna see a lot of more products in the future in this class. Okay. Here's a question for everybody? What is your personal favorite EV to drive and why? And let's just say, you know, price is no consideration. What do you... I've driven two of them recently that really kind of stand out in my mind. One was the Mustang Mach-E GT, which is the high-performance version of the Mach-E. And the thing is absolutely a riot. It is ridiculously quick. It handles beautifully. We even got to take it out on an autocross course. And the thing does what Mustangs do. It still rides terribly. So, I mean, that's still an issue, I think, I have with the Mach-E. But the other interesting one was the new Mercedes-Benz EQS. Mercedes is going to be electrifying pretty much their entire product line. And the EQS is really the first rival that we've seen for the Tesla Model S. It is luxurious. It's absolutely silent. It does have some interesting quirks in that it has an enormous optional 56-inch touchscreen that spans one end of the dash to the other. And that can be a bit of information overload if you're really not getting used to it. But the two of those, I think, really are pretty much the coolest ones I've driven recently. I will throw in there. I'm gonna zero in on the question being to drive and say I really enjoy driving the Volkswagen ID.4 because it rides so nicely. There's something about affordable electric cars that seems to be difficult for the engineers to make them ride comfortably. Either difficult, or they just choose to make them ride firmly. And you might've heard that through our videos that we ran today. And the ID.4 rides very comfortably, especially for a vehicle with a short wheelbase, which can make it a little choppier. No, not the case at all. I don't like the control system, which we've already discussed. But for driving, I think it's quite good. And for what it's worth, now that there's all-wheel drive and an additional motor for the front, it's a lot quicker. The rear-wheel-drive one was pretty modest. The new all-wheel-drive shaves two seconds off the zero to 60 time to now like five and a half seconds. It's real quick. And that's one of the areas that Joe was talking about. Electric cars can be quick and fun. It's not what a lot of people think for EVs. Yeah, I'm all in on the Model Y. You know, it rides firmly, but there's a reward for that in just how nimble it is. And, you know, it has similar zero to 60 specs as the Mach-E, but I thought just, you know, 50, 60, and above, the Model Y really rips. And that would be, that's one of my favorites. So I'm really looking forward to receiving ours. And as we discussed earlier in this, my husband and I have, we've ordered the ID.4, the all-wheel-drive version. We went out and test drove, you know, a bunch of different EVs. And this was the one that we thought best fit, not only, you know, kind of life in the city, but also where we're gonna be in five years with our kids getting older and whatnot. So touch-sensitive buttons aside, that's what we're going for right now. Okay. James is wondering how possible is it that charging networks will end up with a single standard instead of these different technologies? I'll touch on that. The thing is, with the exception of supercharging, which Elon Musk said he will open up to non Teslas, though we haven't seen how, there is a standard where the, where it's not standard is the payment method and whether you have to have a different card or a different membership or a different app for each of these different networks. I understand now why some of the different manufacturers like Ford, GM, et cetera, are setting up their own networks. They wanna back it cause they recognize it's paid off for Tesla to have the supercharger network. People need to see public charging before they feel comfortable to buy the cars in the first place. And the manufacturers want credit for that, so they're gonna put their names on it. But it also gives people the idea that there are different networks. We do need exactly what the questioner is asking. We need everyone to recognize that it's a standard, like gas stations. You go to any one of them, and you top off. And I'd like to see them work together on that. So what are the chances? I think it's gonna take a while before they recognize this. Anyone else? I'll say that I have multiple charging apps for Electrify America, ChargePoint, Volta. I mean it, my husband and I have a million of them for our plug-in hybrids, so it's a problem. Not a major problem, but, you know, it's a little bit of flipping through and trying to make sure you're locked in. Let's see. Okay. Emily asks, "What are your thoughts on the Volvo C40/XC40?" So I'm assuming recharge, of course. We haven't driven the C40 just yet. They just had a launch drive of that in Europe of all places. So we will be having more to say about that as it comes to the U.S. The XC40 recharge, it's actually very similar to the Polestar 2. Uses the same platform. Uses a lot of the same guts. It's fun to drive. The XC40 in general, we really do quite like as an SUV on its own. The electric version of it, you know, is just as good to drive. The only issue that I would have with the XC40 is that the range seems a little low for the latest crop of modern vehicles. Other than that, you know, it's got the great interface inside. It's very comfortable. It's very stylish. And I think Volvo's even got some very interesting programs for how you can actually get one in terms of all-in-one encompassing price in order to lease one, so. But it's certainly an interesting option. I'll agree with Aaron. We drove a very early one, and they hadn't finished the control system yet, which was one of the early Google-based or Android-based control systems. I thought it drove great, but it's actually very inefficient. And yes, even electric vehicles can be inefficient. And what happens when an electric vehicles inefficient is the range isn't as long as it could be, and it takes longer to charge. And that was the case for, both of those were the case for the XC40. Pretty disappointing in that regard. So we need more time with a more fully fleshed unit to get a better read. Well, I have news on that. It's coming in Monday, so. We will soon. Okay. Great. Great. Well, can't wait to get back into that. B, B is asking, "Can the Ford F-150 Lightning really provide power to a house if a storm knocks out the power, and for how long?" We have a little bit of interesting experience too. The F-150 Lightning is designed, so people know there's this bi-directional idea where electric vehicles are now proposed as a backup for electric use, especially for your house in the case of the F-150 Lightning, where it'll be automatic. You get a special kind of charger, and there's a lot to it. It comes with the higher level of the F-150 Lightning. Ford will give it to you if you are willing to pay for an 80 amp circuit, which is a crazy amount. If you watch the animation we had, I mean, 80 amps, a lot of houses have 200 amps total, or 100 or 60. So it can charge, charge, charge, and then if the power goes out, it reverses. How long could it run your house? A long time. I mean, a pickup truck, I don't know how big the battery pack is on that, but probably a hundred plus kilowatt-hours. And that means a hundred kilowatts for an hour, or, you know, 10 kilowatts for 10 hours. And I mean, a good size house probably doesn't use more than five, eight kilowatts at a time. So, I mean, the battery packs in an electric car, that's a lot of power. So an electric car can definitely run a house for a matter of hours, easily. And a truck, probably a day or two, depending on how much you're using. Okay, thanks, Joe. Cindy asks, "Can EV batteries be replaced when purchasing a pre-owned vehicle?" They can be, but it's an expensive and difficult process to do it. I know there are some Nissan LEAFs, like early generation Nissan LEAFs, leaves, leafs, that have now gotten to the point where they are not terribly useful because their range has gone down quite a bit. But replacing those battery packs, there's not a lot of automakers that are making these replacement battery packs. And service packs are expensive as well. So, I mean, there are cases where you can find them. That you'll have like an independent shop, and some places will actually be able to refurbish a pack and then replace a pack. But again, it is rather expensive. And given the fact that there's new technology arriving every day, and that the range is always going up, and things are always getting better, it's kind of a difficult proposition. Sometimes these older Nissan LEAFs are just really best relegated to like neighborhood electric vehicles where you're really only gonna go 35 miles at a time. Yeah. I don't think that that's something that would even be offered. And bear in mind that the industry is gonna start to look at used vehicles differently when they're electric. It used to be the odometer was everything, and now, you know, technically, an electric vehicle that doesn't have a lot of miles on it, that isn't necessarily a great thing if it was allowed to just sit and wasn't charged and use regularly. I mean, there are companies that are now tracking this kind of thing, and it's gonna be a whole new world in that regard. So stay tuned, I guess. All right. Ari is asking, "If chargers are all the same, why did you buy so many different types? Where to go to get the best information?" I'll take that question. You should go to cars.com/news. Humble plug, you know, humble brag, but Joe, you know, Joe, and do we want to go into (mic cutting in and out) Well, It's true for the actual charging part. They do the same thing. But we chose different brands specifically cause they do differ in their size, the way they're designed, the way you, you know, store the connector. Even the enclosure resistance to weather that we wanted to test. And this is all stuff that's detailed in that article called "Home Chargers and How to Choose One", if you wanna look at cars.com/news. And beyond that, just how they work with the networking aspect, cause a lot of those are network-attached. So you have your app, you can monitor your charging, start and stop it. Some of them have partnerships with like Alexa and Apple, et cetera. We wanna see how that kind of stuff works and report back to you. That's why we got (mic cutting in and out) We've also been observing just some early differences in functionality and what kind of data the apps give you from app to app. So there's a lot more for us to dig into, and we will be. And sharing it with our readers. So go to cars.com/news. Joe is asking, "Can EV owners survive with only the charging network or just a regular 120-volt plug? I'm asking for people who do not have garages or the ability to get the 240 installed." That's a difficult life you're asking for there. If you don't drive that often or that far, I mean, it's not impossible. But remember, you're adding at most five miles of range for every hour of charging at 120 volts, (mic cutting in and out) three miles. If you commute, though, and you have like somewhere at work that you could charge, that might be a possibility. You don't necessarily need the charging at home if you can charge at work. But then there's gonna be other people that probably wanna charge at work too. And if you're always taking all day to fight for a plug or have to go out and move the car after it's charged, that could be an issue. I'm glad you had mentioned, you mentioned that Aaron, because we, in the early days, that's what it was like for a lot of us at cars.com because not everyone had a home charging but we had charging at work in our chart, our parking garage. Some of our editors would charge the LEAF and Volt there, drive home. It was fine. Short commute. But then, after a while, we started competing for the same two chargers. And then we ended up not being able to use them. And that's why we don't think it's wise to make such a big investment if it's not entirely under your control as it is when you can charge at home. If you're gonna make that investment, you don't want it to be based on some public charging station that may or may not cost you money in the future cause a lot of them are free now. But that changed for us. It started out free, and then it costs money, and then they broke, and next thing you know, they were gone. This all happened in the course of a few years. That's why we say home charging for now. Okay. We've got another question around home chargers. Katie is wondering, "How much do these chargers affect your electric bills? Do you constantly keep your car on the charger when in the garage? My husband wants a Tesla, but I'm nervous about the electric bill going through the roof." The electric bill will go up, but it will probably not go up as much as your gas bill goes down, or your gasoline, you know, costs will go down depending on where you live. It is, we commonly see operating costs or, you know, cost per mile of roughly half what it would cost to drive a comparable vehicle on gasoline. And it depends. Oftentimes, if you're comparing the electric car to a luxury car or not because luxury cars almost all run on premium or prefer it, and premium costs a lot more. You got to do the right math there. But yes, your electric bill absolutely will go up. But remember, it's in place of something else. There's also ways to mitigate that. Having, my partner and I have had electric cars for a couple of, many years now, frankly, and we've noticed our bill went up right around 35, $40 a month, depending, for a general commute. Now, the thing is, you can also talk to your utilities and get on some specific programs that make you agree to charge only at off-peak hours. So if you plug your car in and say, "I'm only going to charge my car between 11:00 PM and 7:00 AM." they will charge you a lesser amount per kilowatt for that electricity. And that does kind of offset things a little bit. And you can do the math on this. If you know how big the battery is and kilowatt-hours, and you know how much your electricity costs per kilowatt-hour, you can figure out how much money it's gonna cost to fill the battery. And often, you won't be doing a full recharge every night anyway. So, you know, you can dig in and figure this out before you buy a car. That's great advice. Okay, we are on our last question. We're right up against time. Jack is asking for older drivers, "Is it best to test the water with a gas-electric hybrid, like a RAV4 Prime or", Or even he mentions a hybrid Highlander, but that is, you know, not a plugin. "before going total EV?" It can't, I mean, it can't hurt. We actually like the well-executed plug-in hybrids that have a good amount of range, like the RAV4 Prime. They're hard to get. They prioritize the zero-emissions vehicle states like California and the ones that follow it. And you can, in a lot of cases, get by with 120 volts just cause their batteries are smaller. They charge overnight. But as I pointed out in the video, when it's time to precondition, that's not enough power to, for the hottest days or the coldest days to precondition. But I, it's not a bad, we kind of call them electric cars with training wheels, plug-in hybrids, and for good reason. But if you can get one. I also wouldn't let you know, an electric car put off an older driver. Electric cars are actually extremely simple to own and run once you have everything set up. If you've got your home charging going, and really all you need to do is plug it in when you get home, unplug it when you wanna use it. There's driving it, is really not all that different. Some of the controls might be a little different, but other than that, don't let it, don't let the new technology put you off. Yeah. If you can find one in the area, go test drive it so you can experience it for yourself. I think Aaron's right. I think the leap isn't nearly as big as some people would assume. So that was our last question, and we have run out of time. Apologies if we didn't get to your question. My thanks to my cohost, Joe Wiesenfelder, and our esteemed reviewers, Joe Bruzek, Aaron Bragman, and Kelsey Mays. And thanks to you for attending today. For more information on EVs, EV charging, and more, go to cars.com/news. (upbeat music)