Charging Stations for Electric or Hybrid Cars

Are you considering buying an electric or hybrid car?

If you are, you need to consider an electric vehicle charging station in your own garage or parking space at home and additionally you may need to consider the availability of a charging station at your regular place of business.

Colony Electric Inc ESA/ECRA certified Electricians is a one stop shop for your electric vehicle charging station. From design to installation, we can help you to decide which would be the most appropriate solution for a charging station for your electric or hybrid vehicle. From just using a standard outlet in your garage to having a portable charging station that you can carry to anywhere you go.

Here are five critical questions you need to consider about your electric vehicle charging station:

How far you drive on a daily basis?

Electric cars have relatively little autonomy by themselves, but with today's technology they are rapidly increasing their ranges: Here some examples:

1. The BMWi3 offer options from 160 Km to 200 Km in a single charge.
2. The small Nissan Leaf and under normal driving conditions where you have either heating or A/C on should be able to give you a range around 120 Km on a single charge.(more if you are in the highway and not using heating or A/C).
3. The Telsa claims to give somewhere between 380 Km and 480 Km on a single charge.

Do I need a special electrical installation at home?

While you should be able to use a standard outlet in the garage, they are not an optimal solution because it will take you forever to charge your car from this source. Well we are exaggerating a little bit, but so you can have an idea to fully charge an electric car may take around 18 hours using a standard 120 VAC electrical outlet *. A 240 VAC outlet should reduce this time by around half, but still 9 hours can be a concern, so manufacturers like Bosh, GE, Leviton and other less known brands provide different options that reduce the charging time even more.

How long will it take to charge the batteries?

Depending on how far you drive every day, how heavy your car is (depends on how big the car is, the average numbers of passengers and the average cargo you carry) and the traffic conditions you may need to charge your electric or hybrid vehicle fully or partially more than once per day. So your car manufacturer should provide you with some figures on the numbers of Km you should be able to drive per hour of charge (i.e. Telsa website tells us you can drive approx. 5 Km per hour of charge in a standard 110 V / 12A outlet, however this number can increase up to 27 Km per hour using a 240 V / 24 A outlet or even go to 46 Km per hour of charge using a 240 V / 40A outlet)

Do I need a charging station at home and another one at my cottage?

In some cases you may need to have one charging station at each location, however manufacturers have also come with portable charging stations which allow you to take them with you to any place (home, work, cottage, etc.). The only thing you will need is a 240 VAC / 20 Amp outlet. Colony Electric can inspection your existing outlets or can install a new dedicated outlet for this purpose.

I am an employer, Should I offer my employees charging stations at my parking lot?

Every day electric and hybrid cars are more and more popular. If you are an employer, you should consider providing your workers with the ability to charge their rides at the parking lot. Colony Electric Inc. can help you with the design and plan to migrate your parking lot from conventional to an electric car friendly parking lot.
Currently you don't need to offer electric stations for every parking station, but you need to start somewhere. If you don't own the parking lot, then you should consider for your next lease to have a parking lot within walking distance which offers battery charging service.

* The time to fully charge and electric or hybrid vehicle depends on the model of the car you select i.e. the Toyota Prius may take a little over 3 hours to charge, while a Fiat 500 E may take up to 23 hours.

If you are in the Oakville, Burlington, Hamilton, Mississauga area, contact Colony Electrical regarding your electric vehicle charging station needs.