Level 1 chargers are ones that connect to a standard 240V wall socket, meaning you can charge up your vehicle practically anywhere with a wall plug. These are the slowest level of chargers, giving you roughly 10km of range per hour. Level 2 chargers are the next fastest. Included in Level 2 are dedicated home charging stations (hardwired chargers) and public AC charging stations.
Level 3 chargers include DC fast chargers and are the fastest way to juice up your EV.
Dedicated home charging stations are something that many EV owners opt for. They generally have higher amperage and can juice up your car at a quicker rate than plug-in chargers. But if you’re not down for the electrician’s fees and higher price of the unit itself, the good news is: you don’t actually have to install a hard-wired charging station. Plug-in, portable chargers offer an alternative to hard-wired charging stations.
While there have been considerable reports of people heading to the mechanic in an EV, only to be turned away, there are some mechanics who are qualified to work on EVs. An easy thing to do is simply call your local mechanic and ask them whether they can service your ride. They’ll ask you what needs doing, and they’ll take it from there. Regardless of whether or not your local mechanic can service your electric vehicle, you don’t need to visit a mechanic very often, anyway.
It’s true: electric cars need to be serviced less than petrol cars. This primarily comes down to the fact that electric cars have batteries, and not engines. Engines are quite complicated little buggers, with loads of different parts; pistons, head gaskets, radiator, coolant tanks and many more. When you service your internal combustion engine car, the bulk of the work gets done on the engine – things like oil changes, spark plug changes, engine filters, transmission coolant flushes, drive belt care and more.
The conventional wisdom is that rapid charging your EV battery can speed up its capacity decline – if you overdo it. This is because fast-charging any battery produces more waste heat – and heat is one of those things that can contribute to lithium-ion battery degradation.
The truth is that all batteries, no matter their quality, degrade over time.
Australia-wide, you can now buy/drive an electric vehicle without paying import tariffs or fringe benefits tax (FBT).
New South Wales are offering a $3000 rebate for the first 25,000 new battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles with a dutiable value of less than $68,750.
Victoria is also offering a $3000 rebate for zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) with a dutiable value of less than $68,750.
