Electric Cars in Kuwait — Prices and Reviews
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Know how to install a charging point at home to keep your electric bill under control
Read about average electric car range and how far one can go on full charge
Complete guide about how electric cars work and how to utilize them efficiently
Discover where you can charge your car and how much does it usually cost to charge
Get to know about all of the general electric terms and jargons of an electric vehicle
Everything you have to know about electric car batteries and how to keep them healthy
In electric cars range might be one of the most important stats you will be looking for. So let’s start with a quick definition. The range just like in a petrol-powered car means the distance you can travel before you need to refuel or recharge your car.
Worldwide there are common range tests used to estimate the range of an electric vehicle:
EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)
Used in North America
Found to be the most accurate to real-world range figures
Uses both dyno testing, and city and highway driving to estimate the range.
WLTP (Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure)
Used by European and Japanese car manufacturers
Was introduced after the Volkswagen Dieselgate scandal in 2015
Uses long driving cycles
Takes into account real-world factors such as air conditioning, electronics inside the car, …etc.
The current downside is that it is done under controlled temperature conditions.
CLTC (China Light Duty Vehicle Test Cycle)
Used only for the Chinese domestic market
Replacing NEDC (New European Driving Cycle) that was used before
Includes three test phases (slow, medium, and fast driving)
Testing cycles last for 30 minutes and the car is driven for about 14.5 KM in total.
To sum all of that up for you, the EPA standard is the most accurate and realistic with WLTP being the second most trustworthy.
With current battery technology limitations, we have to accept the face that you can’t drive an electric car on a single charge for a range that equals or more than what you get from your typical petrol powered car with a single tank of fuel.
Having said that, when you are out there looking for your next EV keep your eye on the range offered and make sure to compare the same standards. Below are some of the most popular electric vehicles worldwide ranked from best to worst based on their EPA range:
There is no direct answer to this question, it’s like asking how much time it takes to travel from Dubai to Riyadh? Well, the answer might vary between hours to days depending on what type of transportation method you are using.
Charging time depends on many factors, one of which, although minor, is the length of your charging cable. If we ignore most of the lesser variables we can say that the charging time of any electric car comes down to the power source and the car’s charger capacity.
Power Source
DC fast charger: Your fastest option is to plug your electric car into a DC fast charger. With this high output, some electric car manufacturers out there claim it can fill up from 30% to 80% in almost 30 minutes. Keep in mind though that these are very rare and hard to find especially in our region.
AC charger: Much more common and can be installed as a box at home this method can add 20 to 30 miles of driving per hour. As an example, the Tesla Model 3 Long Range takes about 10 hours to charge fully using this charger.
Home regular socket: theoretically you can charge any electric car using your kitchen socket. At this level of power output charging any electric car fully might extend from a couple of hours to days. His method adds about 3 to 6 miles of range per hour.
Charger Capacity
Most people think that the thing they plug into their electric car is the "charger", but in reality, the actual battery charger is inside the car. It’s a device that trickles power into the battery pack safely after converting AC electrical current from the socket into DC.
To put that in numbers if a car has a 100-kWh battery pack and a 10-kW charger then in theory it will need 10 hours to fully charge an empty battery.
Most on-board chargers are at least 6 kilowatts, but some manufacturers managed to offer twice that. To give you an example the Tesla Model 3 Performance gets an 11.5-kW charger while the Model 3 Standard Plus comes fitted with a 7.6 kW charger.
Currently, when we plan a trip with our petrol-powered cars we hardly think about where are the petrol stations along the route. In contrast to that once you leave your home in your new electric car, knowing that there is a long journey ahead, locating the nearest electric charging station and its Power source is a must. Luckily you can do that now from the palm of your hand using your mobile phone. Many websites and apps offer locations of these charging stations and help you plan for your trip.
It’s a fact that the more often you charge the batteries the quicker they lose capacity. However, you must know that not all batteries charge the same way and you charge and use the battery is a lot more important than how often you charge it. Our advice here is to charge the battery up to 80% as a maximum and try to not let it deplete lower than 20%. So if your commute allows you to don’t regularly empty your car’s battery to 0 and then top it up to 100%.
This will not only depend on what electric car you are using but also on how good the charging infrastructure is in your country. We can confidently say that both electric car battery technology and infrastructure are continuously evolving. In some countries even in our region even now, it is very easy to take long trips with an electric vehicle. Now what we can advise you here is to make sure to plan your long trips using your electric car very carefully to avoid any range anxiety. Check for available charging options along the way, make sure the hotels you will be staying at have electric charging available, and of course, don’t leave home without enough range on your car for the first league of your journey.
We know what your thinking! Electricity and water don’t mix. But just like with your petrol-powered car, electric cars can be driven through a certain wading depth depending on the model. So electric car manufacturers make sure to water proof the car depending on what type of vehicle it is. So wading depth will vary a lot between a sports electric car like the Audi e-tron GT and something like that new Ford F-150 Lighting.
The fact that an electric car motor can sometimes only have one moving part compared the hundreds of moving parts in your standard ICE that on it’s own means reliability increases dramatically based on that alone. But keep in mind that if your electric car breaks down you’ll need a specialist to take a look at it and fix it. So no more stoping on the hard shoulder and opening that bonnet to try to fix something with your car and then just driving away. Add to all of that electric cars highly depend on software to optimize how the battery is used and how the energy flows to all it’s different components. Now we are still at the start of this electric car era, and just like with ICE vehicles we will need time to actually know how reliable they are and which brands will be the most reliable after years of usage.
We believe there is no definite or straightforward answer to this question. We still need a lot of data to be collected to know. As you well know, EVs haven’t been there long enough and as common enough to assess.
Having said that, let’s look at some of the information we already have and this can be discussed with 3 main thoughts:
Production: let’s concentrate on battery production here. Batteries are the most essential part of any Electric vehicle and according to a report by International Council on Clean Transportation (ICTT) that dates back to 2018 countries in which batteries are begin produced and composed have a much higher impact on emissions. I’m sure with the evolution and upgrade of battery technology this might reduce but for the time being in this regards EVs are as harmful as ICE vehicles to the environment.
Vehicle Lifetime: From that same report and as we expect here is where EVs outperform ICE vehicles, as most of their carbon footprint is there in the production phase but once the cars are on the road they are for sure a lot cleaner option to use.
Energy Source: Now here is I have some really bad news for EV owners who actually bought it for environmental reasons. According to a study by the Center for Economic Studies in Munich German and I quote: "Germany’s current energy mix and the amount of energy used in battery production, the CO2 emissions of battery-electric vehicles are, in the best case, slightly higher than those of a diesel engine, and are otherwise much higher.". I have to point out though that this same study was very controversial that some called it a conspiracy theory and back then when it came out the major OEMs pushed for such a report to be public that way as they weren’t producing their own EVs.
This only shows the lack of information and resources in this regard, Our own humble opinion on this is as simple as follows: I think EVs have disrupted the automotive sector forever and as more of them are on the roads companies, governments and organizations will be forced to switch to more greenways of power and vehicle production as that’s the main point of switching to EVs.
