EVs have the potential to mitigate transport-related negative externalities and to increase efficiency by replacing fossil fuel with renewable energy. This is especially important in urban settlements where the population density, traffic congestions and resulting air pollution are highest. The use of EVs can also reduce noise levels and thus improve the quality of life for the city’s inhabitants.

Most ev electrical can charge their vehicles at home. 68 percent of them use Level 1 charging by simply plugging their car charger into an ordinary 120-volt wall outlet. Level 2 charging stations, which are also called charge points or EVSEs, are usually found in public areas and offer faster charging speeds. For most EVs, it takes about 50 hours to charge their batteries fully.

Toyota Layton: A Look at Their Electric Vehicle Offerings

With the growing popularity of EVs, utility companies are concerned about how the increased demand for electricity will affect their systems. This is particularly true for EVs in the United States, which consume about 97.3 quadrillion British thermal units (quads) of energy annually. Currently, the transportation sector uses about 26.9 quads of energy, 90 percent of which is derived from petroleum.

Supporting EVs will likely require larger and heavier distribution transformers, which could cause them to wear out sooner than expected. Considering that millions of them sit on the nation’s 180 million power poles, this is a major concern for many utilities. To help address this issue, Atom Power has developed a solid-state digital circuit breaker that can monitor and control EV charging. When the breaker detects that an EV is receiving too much current, it will trip and interrupt the flow of energy in less than 3 milliseconds.