In Wheel Time Car Talk

Insights into the Realm of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations with EVTech

• In Wheel Time Car Talk / Maceo Ward • Season 2023 • Episode 272

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Ever wished you could fully understand the world of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations? Join us as we venture into this electrifying realm with our expert guest, Maceo Ward from EV Tech. We kick off the show by breaking down the nuts and bolts of EV charging stations, discussing everything from residential to commercial applications. Maceo particularly highlights a 19 kW charger that's perfect for businesses and shares anecdotes of a fascinating project in San Marcos involving a high-powered level two EV charger linked to a restaurant.

In the second part of our conversation, we navigate the everyday realities of being an EV owner. From accessing public charging stations to decoding different billing options, Maceo offers valuable insights to demystify these aspects. We also shine a spotlight on the EV Swift 10.09 models installed in San Marcos and the power of a simple QR code in the charging process. 

All this and more on this episode of In Wheel Time Car Talk.

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Tags: In Wheel Time, automotive car talk show, car talk, Live car talk show, In Wheel Time Car Talk




Speaker 1:

Welcome to another In-Wheel Time Podcast, a 30 minute mini version of the In-Wheel Time car show that airs live every Saturday morning 8 to 11am central.

Speaker 3:

Alrighty, mike Conrad, welcome back. It's the In-Wheel Time car talk show coming up Masio Ward with EV Tech, a company in Plano, texas, that has commercial and residential charging stations. Alright, later a look at the automotive headlines this week. Howdy, along with Mike Mars, we need more Jeff Zeekin, we have David Ainsley sitting in for Don, who's in Wisconsin this weekend, and I'm Conrad DeLong. Welcome back to the show. It's like we're on a theme here today about EV cars and, having just talked with Summit about optimizing your charging times on your vehicle based on what's available on the market, we thought we'd follow up with Masio Ward with EV Tech. Again, masio, how you doing? You guys are based up there in Plano and talking about commercial and residential charging stations that are available. Are they currently available on the market?

Speaker 4:

right now, no my bad, there we go.

Speaker 5:

EV charging stations for about 10 years now.

Speaker 3:

Okay.

Speaker 5:

I know they're kind of cool and sexy right now and becoming more ubiquitously known within the general society. Everybody kind of knows about them, but we've been out there for about 10 years already selling EV charging stations, multi-family residential and commercial applications, cities, that sort of thing. Yeah, they're available.

Speaker 3:

Are you a level one, level two? What levels of charging stations do you guys offer?

Speaker 5:

Yeah, we go from level two all the way up to the DC fast chargers 360 kW maximum max output. That's outputted for the default charging to help build out the electric superhighway. So we do level two home chargers all the way up to the big boys.

Speaker 4:

So one of the things that got our attention whenever we were out looking around, you did a project in San Marcos a commercial setup there that was for a business there.

Speaker 5:

Yes yes yes, those were our, that's our high powered level two chargers and those are used are ideal for commercial applications because they give you a faster charge than the lower capacity output level twos. So those are 19 kW chargers versus the standard 7.5 or 7.6 kW output chargers that you typically see in a lot of commercial applications like that, or up to 11 kW. The 19 kW is kind of replacing that range as the new workforce application, because it's one of those scenarios where it's better to have and not need and need and not have. That's tied to a restaurant down there to be in San Marcos, and so the dwell times, relative to the session times, they can be a couple of hours before sitting in a restaurant eating, relaxing, that sort of thing. But also you want to make those charges available for the next TV that pulls up. So you want to be able to get folks on pretty quickly with a fast charge and that's an ideal unit for that kind of application.

Speaker 4:

So the property the owners were talking about when you mentioned the Texas Bean and Brew House and I thought, like you said, it sounds like it's a restaurant there, but these people literally got like a five-acre setup there off of I-35 that they're starting to build on, so like they may be some more things going on there.

Speaker 5:

That's a project that's slated. That's phase two. You're talking about the micro grid integrated system that will have EV charging stations powered by a solar array and natural gas turbine engine as well with onsite large capacity battery storage etc. So that's a scenario that will allow us to be off grid for the most part and charging those charging stations in that way, those who had the larger capacity DC fast chargers that will have a grid and 60kW output for those Just something for our listeners, that here you talk about 7kW, 18kw and 16kW.

Speaker 3:

Just if I was to simplify it, that's the rate of flow that you can charge your car. If your vehicle requires 120kW as a full charge, how fast can that vehicle be charged by your chargers? So because to me, I've always taught people that if you look at electricity like water going through a hose, it's how much water can you get through the hose? The greater the kV, the kilovolt hours that's available to the charging system, starting with the 110, which tends to be more the home use charger, which I think is all considered level one. Level two, if I'm correct, is basically 220 powered.

Speaker 3:

That offer an upper level of charge flow to your vehicle, so it's a faster charger. Then the DC fast charge, which is the highest available flow rate of charging that's available, and that direct current fast charge is probably the most efficient way to charge your electrical vehicle as well, because everything else you have to convert the AC power that's coming in to DC power once it gets into the vehicle, correct?

Speaker 5:

That's right. So the level one chargers, you figure you've got a typical 240 to 270 range of vehicle. Those vehicles have about a 60 kilowatt battery pack in those vehicles. So what you want to know, or just as you explained, is how long will it take me to charge that 60 KW battery back up with the full charge? A level one charger only has 1.8 kilowatts of max output power, right, the amount of energy going through that is comparable to water flow. Just as you explained, that'll take you up to 20 to 22 hours if that vehicle was fully depleted and has to be back to a full charge.

Speaker 5:

By contrast, if you go up to a level two charger, that's about 7.6 kilowatt charger, depending on the manufacturer. Those charges then will get that same 68W vehicle charge back up in about six hours. The one thing about charge and then all the way to the big guys. If you get up to the 68W ones that you see on the free bed, you will start to see with greater frequency on the freeways those are charged that same vehicle in about 15 minutes. And so a lot of us are familiar with Tesla superchargers that we see at the big box stores like Walmart and Target, those kind of outlets, those chargers. By comparison, the max output on those are 250kW, so hours go all the way up to 360kW, by contrast.

Speaker 3:

So you're looking at 20 to 15 minutes. Now, are you guys are actually building the chargers and installing them, or do you build them and let somebody else do the installations for you?

Speaker 5:

No, we, you know, 10 years ago. I say 10 years ago. You know EpiTech has been around for about 25 years now and we've always been in renewable energy and sustainability space. But we had a much broader product, you know, from small format wind turbines to e-bikes, so electric hub motors and then the charging stations. And I say that because you know, 10 years ago, when we added the charging stations to the product line, we did 100% of our own installations in the house. We don't do the installations, you know, in house anymore because you know we now have a nationwide network of electrical contracting partners that we certify to do our installations. It allows us to, you know, increase our footprint, expand our footprint across the country in a much faster, getting more efficient way, and we could have done it internally. So you know we have local partners that do the installations in Texas and all throughout the country.

Speaker 3:

So let's say I'm looking to put a level two charger in my house, at my house, and you have your electrical contractors. Is that going to require a change to my box, my power box that's in the garage, or does that kind of plug into a 220 system that's already existing in my house, say for my dryer or for my oven?

Speaker 5:

Yeah, if you're gonna install one in the home, you definitely need the 220 outlet, which is equivalent most folks know as the dryer plug, right, so that's a dryer outlet. The 110 bolt will work, but that works only for the level one chargers. Like I said, it's only gonna give you that lowest amount of output, which is 1.8 kilowatts per hour. Now you're looking at about 22 hours in each charger vehicle most people who want to be in that scenario.

Speaker 5:

So to get into our initial range of level two chargers, you really gotta have the 220 outlet installed, which our guys will do for you, in order to install that level two charger that gives you the 7.5 or 7.6kW output.

Speaker 4:

So I guess they would run a new 220 circuit to wear the garage or wherever it is that you need it. And then I guess, back to Conrad's question, if the box, your breaker box, wasn't built for that, or they couldn't double up piggyback or something, like electricians do. Or code it onto a code for that. Yeah, they would have to do some upgrades there on the box, which is just-.

Speaker 3:

Either that or put a separate box in to run the 220 for the charger yeah, if there's not a workaround, yeah, so that's-.

Speaker 5:

And, typically speaking, it's very rare that folks will have 100% of all the breakers on the electrical panel fully occupied. Typically you got at least a circuit or two left. There's a 40 amp circuit that's required for that 220, go out outlet plug that we would install. And so our guys will go do an assessment, look at your breaker panel, see if you've got another circuit available to install that 40 amp circuit in to run. And then they're wanting to conduit the wiring everything from the breaker panel all the way to the point of installation. Meaning where your listeners would want to have the charger installed, ideally in the garage, depending on where their charge port is on the vehicle. I think it's on the charge port In front of the vehicle, so the charge port's on the back of the rear of the vehicle. So we optimize the placement of those chargers inside the garage or on the side of the home, based on the setup of your vehicle.

Speaker 3:

And do you offer the multiple charge plugs, Cause I know there's a couple of different, depending on who the manufacturer whose vehicle you're driving? Tesla has kind of a dedicated charge plug, and then there's the ACIE or what's the other?

Speaker 5:

Yeah, you're talking about the CCS-1 standard plug, which is standard for everyone except for Tesla. Tesla has the NACE standard, the North American charging standard, which is their own standard. Our charging stations will charge all vehicles, including Tesla's. You just have to have the adapter that's available from Tesla. With that adapter, you can charge a Tesla and any other vehicle that's on the market today. By contrast, you can't charge a Mach-E or a Lucid on a Tesla Supercharging Station, because there's no reverse adapter there or a lot of you to hook up to their charging station. Ours will charge any vehicle on the marketplace today.

Speaker 4:

I guess that's another advantage of having a local contractor system Down here in Houston. Obviously you're bound to have vetted some electricians and some companies that you decided to work with. That would come out and they would be aware of the local regulations regarding any sort of installation like that.

Speaker 5:

Yeah, absolutely. We're beyond betting at this point. These are guys we've worked with for many years now 10 years, 10 years, yeah, installations at apartment complexes, with these two to three-four unit apartment complexes, hotels, businesses as well as homes. So our guys are extremely knowledgeable. They come out, they walk the site, they give you an estimate right there, before any work is done, and give you a range of options that will be so that you get the ideal placement of that charging station on your property, based on, again, the setup and configuration of your vehicle as well and where it's going to be parked. That's sort of a thing.

Speaker 3:

And is your? If you looked at the bulk of your business right now, is it more? Are you 70% residential, 30% fleet? What would you say? Your breakdown is right now, as EV is becoming more and more popular.

Speaker 5:

Most of our, the lion's share of our business is still in a large multi-family residential. We're doing the, the apartment complexes, because there's such a significant need there, given the population density in one area right On one property and the volume of the growth and EV volume meal over the year. We do do home charging as well. We've always offered those, but that's not the lion's share of our business because we tend to be more on the commercial end right Municipalities, multi-family residential, hospitality, commercial properties, etc. But we do offer the home chargers as well. We do do home charging installations on a pretty routine basis.

Speaker 3:

So when you talk about apartment complexes is that people have to have a dedicated parking space in their apartment complex and you deliver the charging station to that parking space, or the charger is somewhere else and they cable it all the way out to the vehicle. How does that work?

Speaker 5:

Yeah, typically the chargers are placed in strategic places throughout the complex. Oftentimes you'll put them up front by the leasing office, but they're typically in a common area, more so than privately installed. Now, that's a different scenario. Right, with this condo owners, then you can give the installation and you'll apply the garages. But with these large apartment complexes, more and more of them are actually even being built with a bank of charging stations because there's so many vehicles on the road. So I mean this 1.3 million EVs in the United States today, 13.8 million slated from a manufacturer and just 223 alone. So you can see that growth is quite significant and people are starting to make decisions on where they will rent apartments and whether they will reside based on whether or not there's available charging for their EVs. So, typically speaking, conrad, I don't have your question. Quite simply, they're typically dispersed and spread throughout the property. In a scenario like that, they may have anywhere from 4 to 40 charging stations on a 200-400 unit property, depending on the property developer and what their goals are.

Speaker 3:

And then from that, when it's kind of a pool of chargers available to the public, how does the EV owner get charged for their electrical use within that system?

Speaker 5:

A scenario like that. It's really up to the property owner. But all of our charging stations come with just a simple QR code. There's no app. You don't have to download anything. Once you set up your charging parameters on the phone, it's there every time. A lot of the charging companies. You have to be member to the network and pay an annual membership fee. Only those folks have access to those charges. That's not the case with the unit type charges. They're open source or wherever you see them out in the general public, you can access them in that area. Sometimes for a partner property owners, they'll provide a code to the tenants. The tenants can use that code and it's included in their monthly rent. There's a number of different billing scenarios that are available. That's driven and predicated largely by the property owner.

Speaker 4:

There was one of the things I was reading about the project in San Marcos that you did put in the EV Swift 10.09 models. It talks about the QR code, because that's one of the things we hear about a lot. It's going up to a station to charge it. The station's either broke or you got to get on the phone to call them to give them a credit card. It's a pain to do it and this sounds like a much simpler way to scan the QR card.

Speaker 5:

Go. It's so easy, it's so simple. I've been in the downtown area sometimes and there's parking meters there. Now you've got the it's so hard to figure out how to get your credit card. A lot of people have linked up to that parking meter. I spent more time doing that than I felt like I spent at the actual event I was parking to go to.

Speaker 4:

Exactly, technology is not always our friend. Listen, masio, I want to thank you for joining us today. We appreciate you taking your time on Saturday. We've been wanting to talk to you a couple of weeks now about this, ever since we ran across that story. It was great to catch up with you today.

Speaker 5:

Thank you guys. I appreciate you guys having me on. If any of the listeners want to learn more, just go to ebtechus.

Speaker 3:

I think, I've already posted the link on our social media. They can go. Look at the various products you guys have to offer, as well as the technology and what you guys are doing. Thanks, masio, we appreciate you coming on today.

Speaker 5:

You're welcome. Thank you very much, you bet.

Speaker 4:

All right, you're on the Inwheel Time Car Talk Show. Thanks for riding along with us today. We'd love to hear from you. Just shoot us an email. The address is info at inwheeltimecom. We're going to take a quick break now We'll be right back. Nope, nope, nope. You got features, we got features, I got it. Jump ahead.

Speaker 2:

The features Don loves doing. This is from Hemmings Marketplace. These are cars that have recently sold and what we have on the first one. I don't know who wants to take credit for this one, but it's a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro. Looks pretty good. It's got some wheels, some keystones on it, all that little hood scoop on it and things. What 30 grand? Okay, what about you?

Speaker 3:

He says 39 Camaro, 69 Camaro Fair. Pretty decent shape, yeah 25.

Speaker 4:

Michael, I'm not a big Camaro fan, sorry.

Speaker 3:

I'm going to guess 32025 because that's what it sold for. You know you're a man, there you go, you cheated.

Speaker 2:

Michael, this one's for you. You're a Mustang guy. Yeah, this is a 2008 Ford Mustang bullet.

Speaker 1:

And it looks pretty good.

Speaker 2:

It's in good shape, looks, you know, fairly decent.

Speaker 4:

What do you think it's sold for?

Speaker 1:

No.

Speaker 4:

I'm going to put it up around 35. Almost bought one of them once.

Speaker 3:

Mr Long, I'd say 2028. 25. Oh, 55.

Speaker 2:

It's 273. So, you're the closest. Wow, you didn't say what number it was.

Speaker 4:

There's only one on the page. Oh, okay, I know, I thought they were worth it.

Speaker 2:

We've got a 1981 Datsun 280zx. Pay me to take it. Yep, it's got 36,000 miles on it.

Speaker 3:

I'd take that 36,000 rust holes in it. Well what?

Speaker 2:

do you think it's sold for 2012. Michael 15. 14-1.

Speaker 4:

Ah it's closed. There you go there you go.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to do one more here and then we're going to get into the headlines. We've got another Mustang for you, mike. It's a 1971 Ford Mustang. It's got the blue stripe, it's got the hockey, hockey, the cowl on it and everything A little scoop underneath it. It looks like it's got light interior. It's colored blue with silver. What do you think?

Speaker 3:

That looks to be a tannogram. Oh no, I'm going to say closer to 30. Michael 28.

Speaker 2:

44.

Speaker 3:

That could be the 351 Cleveland. It doesn't say. It doesn't say.

Speaker 2:

But one more left. Good looking car. It's a 1962 Chevrolet Impala, or in your neck of the wisdom payload. It's red in color. It looks like a very good shape. According to the picture, it looks pretty nice. You've got hydraulics on it. I have no idea. It's got a motor and four tires. So what do you think?

Speaker 3:

I was going to go off them because I'm way off.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to go 25.

Speaker 3:

Very popular car that that generation of Impala.

Speaker 4:

Okay, Michael 62 Chevrolet Impala, I think. If it's the bubble top, I would say 32.

Speaker 2:

It is not a bubble 62 is not a bubble.

Speaker 4:

This one went for 35 too.

Speaker 2:

So it's obviously in pretty darn good shape. So I've got some headlines that Don always loves doing and we love hearing from people doing them. So this one, it comes to us Automotive news. This is out of Detroit. We've got a theme of EVs. We've got a theme of Detroit going on today. Police in Detroit area arrested seven people this month. They say we're involved.

Speaker 3:

For the whole month they only arrested seven people. Wonderful job, detroit Last hour.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, don't forget, we're going to get the car clinic.

Speaker 2:

Yep, yep, not this hour, thank you. They were involved in stealing 16 new Bronco Raptors from the Ford Motor Company factory LODs. The suspects are all ages between 19 and 21 years old. According to the CBS, detroit Police recovered the 10 stolen Raptors. They were located as far away as Alaska, arizona and in Texas. The SUVs were valued at $1.8 million. Thieves have made off with $6 million worth of new vehicles, mostly F-150s and high performance traffic trucks from the plants holding the LODs. The LODs holders in southeastern Michigan just this year was reported.

Speaker 2:

Yep, got another one here. This is for Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi Motor Company had sufficient grounds to terminate the New York City dealership after a plea guilty to committing at least 7,939 consumer protection violations in the sale of vehicles by the federal court ruling. They're going to get them. Us magistrate Judge James Wicks refused to nullify the termination of Brooklyn Mitsubishi's franchise, finding ample evidence that the dealership violated its sales and service agreement. It's undisputed that the dealership engaged in deceptive practices, says Wicks. Those included false advertising, falsely stating that vehicles needed repairs, failing to provide customers with legal required documents, misrepresenting warranties, conrad terms and concealing financial terms. That's what they showed in the documents. They're in deep kimchi on that, deep kimchi, deep kimchi. Are we going to go to Break? Well, okay, one second, let me get this going as soon as you're ready to break.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to take a break.

Speaker 4:

We'll be right back. Are you ready? Yep.

Speaker 2:

Go for it. There we go.

Speaker 1:

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Speaker 1:

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Speaker 1:

The award-winning In Wheel Time car talk show is available on the most popular podcast channels out there in 30-minute episodes. We realize our three-hour live show can be difficult to catch in its entirety, so now you can listen every day to a convenient, fresh 30-minute episode. Check us out on Apple Podcasts, spotify, google Podcasts, amazon Music and Audible, along with a dozen more. In Wheel Time has the most informative automotive guest interviews and new car reviews, along with popular features, including Conrad's car clinic, and this week in Auto History along with automotive news headlines. Our live broadcast airs every Saturday, 8 to 11, central on InWheelTimecom, the iHeart app and on YouTube.

Speaker 1:

Be sure to say hello when we're broadcasting from the tailpipe, simtacos cruise in Auto Ram and the Houston Auto Show, among others. Now it's easier than ever to hear about all things automotive all week long. You're invited to join fellow car enthusiasts in becoming part of the ever-growing InWheelTime car talk family. Don't forget those 30-minute podcast episodes on your favorite podcast channel. That's it for this podcast episode of the InWheelTime car show. I'm Don Armstrong, inviting you to join us for our live show every Saturday morning, 8 to 11 am central on Facebook, youtube, twitch and our InWheelTimecom website. This is available on Apple Podcast, spotify, stitcher, iheart Podcast, podcast Addict TuneIn, pandora and the InWheelTime app.

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Don Armstrong

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