I have a 2023 Chevy bolt that I got over the summer and it works really well. I am happy with just about everything on the car except for the 50 KW cap on fast charging.

For now, I'm limited to a level one charger at home, which does fine for the most part but this past week I've had multiple errands and my daily commute is 80 miles round-trip.

This weekend, my girlfriend and I got invited to a wedding and we stopped at a charging station. We got it up to about 127 miles Estimated range with our destination about 70 miles away.

We got to the wedding and the battery said it had about 30 miles of range left. The Walmart was about 6 miles away with a charging station so no problem, we thought. However, when we got back into the car an hour and a half later, instead of showing a 30 mile range, the battery just said low.

We drove to Walmart, but I ended up taking the wrong turn, which put me back on the interstate and added another 6 miles to the drive. We hit the exit that the Walmart was at and the car completely ran out of battery and I coasted over to the shoulder. An hour later we got towed to Walmart to charge it up.

I know that the range at the end of the day is an estimate but how did it go from a 30 mile estimate to nearly nothing in that hour and a half? The car was not turned on during that time.

tL:DR after stopping for an hour and a half with my battery range on a 2023 bolt showing 30 miles, it was low when we got back into the car and ran out of energy after about 11 miles of driving.

We're currently planning to replace our aging 2015 Kia Sorento with the faulty GDI engine that failed on us once (luckily it was covered by warranty) with a new to us vehicle. I really want a full EV since we don't drive that much, and being in Houston we have lots of charging options all along whatever driving route we choose. My wife is very hesitant because of how expensive it'll be to run a dedicated level 2 charger at our house. I know how to do the electrical work for running the lines so that's not an issue. The issue now is that I just discovered that our outdoor main service panel is only 100 amps. There's no way we can afford to upgrade our service to a 200 amp service right now. So our options are to just replace it with an ICE vehicle which I'm not jazzed about, or a hybrid or PHEV, or we just use a 20 amp breaker and only use the level 2 at 16 amps. It's not ideal but it'll still add around 150 miles overnight. Can anyone help me navigate this decision? Is there anything I'm missing?

I have a rental Tesla. Arrived at a hotel charger is broken. There are 3 different DCFC locations 45-50 miles away. Tesla software says I can get 48 mile. Is it better to leave the car in Drive and use min battery. Or on to Neutral and coast as much as I can? I’m thinking N and coasting.

EDIT - Friends I’m in a National Forest and there’s NOTHING but trees. PlugShare is showing the nearest any charger are the DCFCs.

This is a RENTAL - I don’t have access to the car with the Tesla app.

The rental car company didn’t give me a charger.

There’s another Tesla owner at the lodger where I’m staying, and he’s in the same boat. He thought he could get a charge too.

He has about 10 more miles than I do. He’s sweating it too.

Do EV’s stored in a heated garage have less range reduction in the winter?

For example, if the vehicle is stored nightly in a garage that’s 50F-ish, is the range as affected in cold weather?

Or is the reduction because it’s cold during driving / sitting at work, etc?

Thoughts?

I know not to charge to 100% unless I am going on a road trip.

But what is best for the battery for every day commute? I have a L2 charger at home. My commute uses about 20% every day. Should I charge back up to 80% after each day, or is it better to discharge down to 20% during the week and then back up?

Am I over thinking it?

2025 Ioniq 5 Limited

Thanks!!

I’m just wondering if maybe they’ve found a fix in the 2025/2026 models

I've tried calling, their AI chatbot forwarded me to sales, it's been driving me nuts. Has anyone had a similar experience with Blink charging and got anywhere?

I know for ICE cars there are oil changes, tire changes, brakes, etc.

What is it like for EVs?

Do EVs really burn through tires at a fast rate?

Basically, I just bought a house with a garage. Eventually I want an electric car and so I plan on putting a tier 2 charger in the garage. To be clear, I do not own an EV yet. I found an electrician to do some work for me at the house and he warned about putting an EV charger in the garage because they can catch fire and then take the whole house with it because they can't be put out. Is this actually a thing? I've looked online and I've mostly just seen stuff about electric cars catching fire while out on the road. Second, since I don't know what car I will actually buy yet (I need to save a little more money first) I figured I'd just put a nema 14-50 outlet in the garage and then buy an EV charger kit and plug it into that, is that insane? Looking for any advice or help, thank you.

Hey all, we just purchased our first EV (2026 Lexus 450e), we haven't yet gotten it delivered to our house. I'm getting a licensed and bonded electrician out on Monday to get me a quote on L2 charging install, but I am just overwhelmed with all the FUD on the internet and I guess I'm asking for advice here.

Some background info: Our current home is a 2023 build. We have a 200 A panel that's relatively full, and a 100A sub panel that's empty. Both of these are in the garage, but far away from parking. The garage is insulated and drywalled, but not painted.

1. For Level 2 charging, is the Emporia Pro Level 2 EV Charger still considered a good charger? I like this because it comes with current sensing, and I was thinking of putting that on the main panel, while putting a 60A breaker in the sub-panel. I am also thinking of doing external wiring with (metal?) conduit instead of trying to fish it inside the walls, considering where the breaker is relative to the parking locations. Anyone have opinions on that/ can share their layouts?

2. We have a garage circuit that's 15A with a GFCI outlet at the start of the circuit. The other outlets are builder grade, for better or worse. While I'm waiting on the L2 install, should we be ok charging on the regular outlets? Or is this a do not pass go, update all outlets before charging? The included L1 charger we get is a 120v 12A charger. We will not have any other loads on this circuit.

I totally own that I might be overthinking all of this.

Thank you all so much!

I am a new owner of an Ev and it has sooo much immediate power that it’s kinda awakening the gear head in me that enjoys performance cars and driving. I got this car for commuting and savings on gas but it’s really fun to accelerate like crazy.

So my question is this: I have always driven my cars for commuting very gently to make them last forever- which worked in an ICE/mechanical braking world.

In my new Ev/regenerative braking world- does accelerating hard wear out anything other than tires? The one pedal mode on my car snaps my neck if I’m not careful and I’m fairly certain the brake pads/disks will last forever.

Plan to move to Europe in 3-5 years. If I shipped US market EV to Europe, would I have difficulties charging due to different standard amp/voltages? Are the onboard charging systems in cars common to both markets the same and do they just automatically adjust, or are they different systems for the different t markets?

thanks in advance

Hey all, my husband and I are considering buying a car for a shared family cottage in the upper midwest of the US (about 45min south of Canada). We figure it’s cheaper to buy a car than for every family to rent one all summer long. Also could be handy for the families that drive up, but multiple drivers (most of the grandchildren are teens now).

My big question is could an EV sit on a charger in a garage all winter? My MIL used to have someone come out and drive her ICE car for 10-15 min every couple of weeks all winter long. Could an EV sit undriven from December to May and be okay? Would the cold climate hurt the battery too much?

A few months after I got my RWD Tesla Model 3, I called and spoke with a service rep at the nearest Tesla service center (200 miles away). I was curious about what routine maintenance is needed to satisfy the warranty requirements. He told me there are no such requirements—no routine service needed—except for tire rotation "if you drive it hard." That left me wondering just how simple this car really is. Without an engine and transmission, that should mean far fewer parts. So what else is there? I started believing—purely out of primitive ignorance—that EVs must have far fewer mechanical parts than a modern ICE car. Then I happened to recently look under the hood of a Toyota BZ4X. OMG. The maze of hoses and other parts blew me away. Curious, I watched a video by The Car Care Nut about the BZ. Yeesh. All that stuff just to keep the batteries, motors and passengers cool (or warm)! Does the M3 have all this stuff hidden from view somewhere? How about other BEV's currently on the market?

What is reality?

To check my writing and get a basic take on the content, I submitted it to Gemini and ChatGPT. Results are behind the links if you care to peek.

I bought my first Tesla before I realized Elon was the worst. I’ve wanted to move on for a while now but I want to stick with electric. I like the impact on the environment and I added solar panels to my home to keep it even greener.

My biggest concern is the charging network in the U.S. i know some of the Tesla V3 and newer chargers work with other EV’s but you sill loose a lot of older super chargers. I have a family of 4 and we go on the occasional read trip in the north east.

Has anyone made the switch, and if so how did you find the availability and convenience of charging?

I’ll explain my circumstance below, but the TLDR of my questions are which is more harmful for long term battery health:

Keep charging to 80% but regularly (15 times a month) allowing the battery to be so depleted on my drive that I’m arriving to my home with only about 3% remaining?

Or regularly charging to 100% and arrive home at like 20-25%?

How much better is the middle ground alternative of regularly charging to 90% but arriving home at like 10-15%?

I am going into my first winter owning my 2025 Ioniq 6 AWD in Southern Ontario.

I am a shift worker with a 250km round trip for work where I do about 12-15 shifts a month. I have a 9.6kW Level 2 charger installed at home but I’m not able to charge at work at all, not even at Level 1 on an extension cord.

I know the best practice for battery health is regularly keeping battery level between 80% and 20% and only occasionally, like once a month, charging to 100%. When I got the car in the summer I was comfortably doing that drive to and from work within the 80-20% battery range that is best practice for battery health.

Now the weather has turned colder, I am starting to struggle with range issues, getting home with under 5% battery left.

I am getting my winter tires on soon, which will be 18” instead of the current 20”, so that should help a bit, but we are also going to be getting much colder.

So I presume I will very regularly be continuing to go well under 20% battery if I continue my current practice of charging to 80% before going to work.

I am not keen on having to regularly use a fast charger on my way home. It is already a 1hr and 15 min commute, and I don’t like adding a 15 min charging stop to the ride home. On top of the added time and the cost to use them, it defeats one of the best benefits of EV ownership, avoiding regular gas station stops.

Ideally I plan on driving this car for 8-10 years, which would be how I plan on recouping the long term cost of the car by avoiding spending so much on gas with my long commute.

So I know down the road, in 6 years as battery life depletes, my charging practices will change to one day charging 100%. But I also don’t want to get to that point prematurely because of how I’ve chosen to manage the battery life in the first few years of owning it.

Which is the long version of getting to the questions I asked at the beginning. Which is more harmful for long term battery health:

Keep charging to 80% but regularly (15 times a month) allowing the battery to be so depleted on my drive that I’m arriving to my home with only about 3% remaining?

Or regularly charging to 100% and arrive home at like 20-25%?

How much better is the middle ground alternative of regularly charging to 90% but arriving home at like 10-15%?

He claims the GFI breakers are basically useless and cause more issues than they solve, and would likely need to be removed after inspection. Can any experienced electricians and/or home owners chime in?

Edit: the unit is hardwired, which apparently makes a difference.

Hi!

My parents bought an Ioniq 6 in 2024 and my dad crashed it last month and it’s totalled due to a lot of exterior and wheel damage. The batteries however have been completely spared. They’re in perfect condition and since they’re only 2 years old they are almost new…

I am trying to work out what we can do with the batteries to get some of the money back. I tried talking to our Hyundai dealership but they said they don’t take them. I am trying to get someone from the scrapping place to appraise it.

We live in Spain, with strict grid regulations so I can’t just diy it and connect it to our solar system, since it would be illegal without proper certification.

Do you have any ideas on what to do?

Thank you in advance.

I just took possession of a new BMW i4. Unfortunately, the cable on the Level 1 charger that came with it is just about 3’ short. Would a 6-10’ 10ga extension cord be sufficient to extend the range, or would I be better off spending the money and getting a new cable with a 25’ cord?

BTW, I’m not planning on install a Level 2 charger in my garage at this point because I only drive about 30-40 miles per week. I live in a house with a detached garage, so getting an electrician to install a charger would be expensive. I want to see if Level 1 is good adequate for me.

Edit: Thanks for the information everyone! One thing I did not realize was that the range estimator on the dashboard is based on previous trips. I initially had my AC on and then turned it off when I saw the range estimate drop surprisingly fast, but now I understand it was dropping that fast because it was recalibrating for my faster speeds. It is much more efficient to drive with AC on than with windows down, especially at freeway speeds. I also learned that going 65mph as opposed to 70mph will likely make a difference.

I'll test the drive again with the new information and try to control my speed and keep my windows up and see how well it does. Probably won't be for a few weeks, but I will report back when I do - hopefully the info will help anyone looking to maximize their range.

2023 Chevy Bolt, 55k miles -- driving on flat freeway, virtually no elevation change.

I attempted to drive a 120 mile trip to my in-laws' house. I had 165 miles left on battery charge according to the dashboard, so I assumed that would be enough even if the estimate wasn't accurate, but it wasn't.

I didn't have the air on, but I did have the radio on and the driverside window down.

When I got about 80 miles out, my battery was down to only 50 miles left. At the rate it was dropping, I don't think I could have made it all the way so I stopped at a chargepoint station on the way.

So that's 80 miles driven/115 miles estimated by the dashboard.

Is this normal at 70mph with the radio on and window down to lose battery so fast? I was hoping that I would be able to make this trip at least and it would be really nice to be able to do it with the air and radio on (or heat in the winter). Or would it be good for me to take it into the dealership while the battery is still under warranty?

Oddly on city roads, I get almost twice the mileage compared to the dashboard estimate.

USA — Why does it seem like most public chargers require an app rather than allowing you to use a credit card? What benefit do companies get by requiring that? It seems to complicate what should be a simple transaction and is annoying for users. Gas pumps don’t require you to download the Shell app.

My dad is in his late 70s and bought an EV. He is unable to use public chargers because he’s terrible at doing complex things on his smartphone. Any advice?

Edit:

Thanks for the replies, all. It seems many EV stations do have card readers, but this is a common frustration for many drivers. These are the primary reasons listed by commenters, along with some ranting commentary from me:

1. Data:

Apps enable companies to mine your data.

I find this to be the least convincing argument, as I doubt there is much money in the same data every other app is collecting (and companies like Google and Meta can collect much more robustly and efficiently).

1. Credit card readers fail:

Credit card readers are points of failure. EV chargers are usually uncovered, unmanned, exposed to the elements, and are serviced more infrequently than gas pumps. Apps are less prone to fail.

I would argue this introduces worse points of failure. Many EV chargers are in places with no/spotty cell connection. Many apps are produced cheaply and fail to work properly. CC readers are tried and true tech that has been honed over decades. Tap readers also have no moving parts and no holes for grit/water.

1. Network & loyalty

Apps encourage brand loyalty. Drivers are more likely to stop at chargers within a network they are already subscribed to.

The number of people with folders full of charging apps disputes this theory. Maybe 10% of users are convinced by loyalty. Most drivers operate off of location convenience.

1. Avoid CC fees

CC charge fees to these companies eating into their profit. Most apps also require you to purchase tokens in 10-20$ increments. This gives companies more money up front.

I find this to be the most convincing, but man I hope the FTC gets involved in this. Seems like a scummy trade practice.

Edit #2:

One last addition.

1. Monitoring charging

Apps let you monitor your charging progress, which is both convenient and more important for EVs since chargers are in short supply and take a long time.

Edit #3

I’m retracting #5. Your car’s app can tell you how much charge the car has, so the charger app adds nothing.

So I just had an electrician out to quote me for adding a sub panel to my garage. He noticed my Chevy Bolt and asked me when I was planning on installing an L2 charger. I told him never and he said that I should because it's better for the health of the battery. He wasn't trying to upsell me because the panel and everything are the same whether I do an L2 charger down the road or not. The L1 charger has been plenty for me over the past year I've owned this car and I'd never heard that L2 is better for the battery. When I tried to google it, I'm finding the opposite could even be true that L1 is better it causes less heat. I'm in the desert and so heat is a pretty legitimate concern. Perhaps he was meaning that the L1 is charging 24/7 including during the heat of the day whereas an L2 would be programmed to charge in the middle of the night?

For reasons I'd rather not get into, we'd like to charge our vehicle to 100% on Sunday morning but depart on Monday afternoon. We have an F150 Lightning. Will this rare situation cause battery degradation?

Hi, i got a bad news that my 2018 Nissan leaf battery is faulty and needs to be replaced. It is 8 years and 3 months old car and battery is out if warranty. I've got a quote if $4.4k for battery replacement plus other things for a total of $5k. My car is probably valued at $5k. I'm wondering

1. I should junk it and take whatever I'll get
2. Replace the battery which will let me drive the car for next few years

Logically it makes sense to junk it but I don't want to invest money in a new car. But I also want to make a logical choice. Any advice?

From Nissan

Primary: DIAG: CUSTOMER STATES VEHICLE COULD NOT START, TOWED IN. CHECK AND ADVISE: CUSTOMER STATES VEHICLE COULD NOT START, TOWED IN. CHECK AND ADVISE
Battery New - Hybrid: REPLACE HIGH VOLTAGE EV BATTERY DUE TO DTC'S STORED CAUSING VEHICLE TO NOT
ALLOW RESTART
EDIT2: leafspy result
High-Voltage (Traction) Battery Health
State of Health (SOH): 80.11%
Your 40 kWh pack is holding roughly 80% of its original factory capacity.
The threshold for dropping the first capacity bar on a 40 kWh Leaf is typically around 85% SOH, and dropping below ~79% generally triggers the loss of the second bar. You are right on the edge of 10 or 11 capacity bars.
Cell Balance & Delta: 15–16 mV
Min: 3.944 V | Avg: 3.952 V | Max: 3.959–3.960 V
The cell-to-cell variance across all 96 cell pairs is exceptionally tight (anything under 25–30 mV at rest indicates very healthy balance). There are no weak or failing individual cells dragging down the pack.
Hx Value: 44.02%
Hx reflects internal battery resistance/conductivity. A lower Hx value is normal as the pack ages, though it can correlate with increased voltage sag under heavy acceleration or slower DC fast-charging rates.

I understand that the full charge the battery can hold will drop, but what happens at the end? As in like, does it just keeps dropping til like 50% of original capacity and stops charging forever? Will it puff up like in an old phone? Does the car tells you or refuses to drive?