Charging is one of the most important topics related to owning an all-electric vehicle. There is a lot yet to be done regarding infrastructure in this area, but data proves that the situation is not as challenging as one might think.  In fact, on average vehicles are parked for 95 percent of the day!

We already know that light-duty vehicles do not travel too much — on average roughly 20 miles in a day, and often just one hour of home charging is enough to replenish that range.

As it turns out, vehicles are idle most of the time and used only for a small fraction of a 24-hour day. According to the Federal Highway Administration’s Summary of Travel Trends: 2022 National Household Travel Survey, household vehicles in the U.S. in 2022 were driven for just 64.6 minutes on average in a typical day (the sum of all trips made that day).

That’s a small percentage. For the remaining 95 percent of the time on an average day, cars are parked. This offers a tremendous opportunity for the home or workplace charging of EVs. The base AC Level 2 charging would be just enough to cover the vast majority of the driver’s needs.

The length of time driving versus parked on a typical day, 2022 NHTS (Source: the U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office)

The one thing that would be obviously needed on top of home, workplace, and destination charging is DC fast charging to support long-distance travel and commercial vehicles. However, for ordinary EV drivers, it will be just an addition, used from time to time, as well as psychological backup to feel secure in any case when one’s daily driving distance exceeds the vehicle’s range.

Knowing that AC Level 1 and 2 charging points can relatively quickly recharge an EV after its average daily driving and that there are hours to schedule charging, there should be no issue with the utilization of attractive electricity tariffs (such as those for off-peak hours) and renewable electricity.

Source: the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Vehicle Technologies Office