General Motors launched its STEM Summer School series of videos for children earlier this year to help keep kids both educated and entertained while stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the latest videos in this ongoing educational series answers a question both children and adults may be curious about: how exactly does the battery in an electric car or crossover recharge?
Even young kids probably know that to recharge an electric car, you have to plug it into an outlet or charging stall. Once it’s plugged in, electricity flows from the outlet or charging stall, through the chord and into the battery. A lithium-ion battery takes in energy when the lithium ions from the positive electrode pass through the battery to the negative electrode, where they are stored. When the battery is discharging (ie. when the vehicle is being driven) the ions pass back through the battery to the positive electrode cell, creating the energy that powers the battery and drives an EV’s wheels.
Most car batteries are measured using a kilowatt-hour measurement, or kWh. A Chevrolet Bolt EV can drive about four miles on each kilowatt-hour stored in the battery and has a 60 kWh battery. That would mean it has a theoretical range of around 240 miles – which was the previous range for the EV, however GM made some efficiency improvements for the 2020 model year and boosted it to an estimated 259 miles. Electric cars also benefit from battery regeneration, as well, which is when the vehicle harvests the kinetic energy of the car as it rolls down the road and stores the power in the battery.
Learn more about electric car charging, batteries and charging stations in the video embedded below.
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Comments
Been without power for 3 days now with no timetable for restoration cause of storm Aisias. Been driving my gas power truck to get fuel for my gas generator to run house. No way do I want an electric car. Some areas won’t have power for several more days. From what I see in my neighborhood majority of people don’t park in their garage. I am one of the few.
According to Mother Mary the only vehicles that the General will be producing within the next 5 years will be BEV’s with the exception of their larger trucks (two tonne and over). These will be the only IC powered vehicles available to the general public, so you might want to either go big or get used to the plug in process of recharging your car or small truck. The problem for all vehicle manufacturers is the same, their up against Governments determination to reduce CO2 emissions at any cost or disliking by the driving public.
While the cost of charging a BEV is relatively cheap today, just wait until the all levels of government realize the the amount of tax revenue they are loosing on petroleum fuels and then we will all have to get used to the massive increase in electrical energy charges in order to recharge our BEV vehicles. Governments in general have a spending problem and have gotten used to the golden goose called fuel tax and will have to replace it with some other source of revenue the “BEV recharge tax”
I hope that they tax cars by the mile instead of some other way,
Wisconsin charges an extra $100 on the license fee, I’m sure that will rise.
Gov’t will start adding taxes on to these public charging stations or add fees on registration costs. Then the rebates will end, too.
Must be a dated post… For a year now the BOLT ev has had a 66 kwh battery (when new).