Charging Your Electrified Vehicle

[Upbeat music plays.]
[The Toyota logo appears.]
[A caption reads: “The basics of electricity”]
[Title, It’s Electrifying”]
[A vehicle at a charging station is highlighted.]
Narrator: As electrified vehicles become more common around us, it’s becoming more
important to understand how it all works.
[A vehicle drives along the road.]
So let’s review some basic electrical terms and learn how they apply to this newest
chapter in automotive technology.
[A caption reads: “Volts”]
First, volts.
[Water flows from a faucet.]
Imagine water flowing through a garden hose.
[Water flows through a hose.]
This behavior is actually very similar to electricity flowing along a wire.
[A thumb blocks the end of the hose.]
Now, say you block the end of this hose with your thumb.
[A caption reads: “Voltage”]
In electrical terms, the force of the water pressure now pushing against your thumb is
voltage, which is measured in volts.
The higher the voltage, the more “push” the electricity has.
[A caption reads: “Amps”]
Next up, amps.
[A thumb stops blocking the end of the hose. Water flows through.]
Let’s now stop blocking the hose – and think about the amount of water flowing.
[A caption reads: Current”]
[A caption reads: “Measured in amps”]
In electrical terms, that rate is called current, and it’s measured in amperes – or amps
for short.
[A gauge indicates low water flow. The flow slows to a trickle.]
Say you turn the water down to just a small trickle.
[Water pours into a bucket.]
This low flow rate would take a while to fill a bucket, –
[A gauge indicates high water flow. Water pours faster into the bucket.]
– but if we crank it back up, the bucket will fill quickly.
[A charging battery is highlighted.]
[A caption reads: “More voltage plus more current equals faster charging”]
The same is true when charging a vehicle battery: the more voltage and current we
have, the faster we can fill a vehicle’s battery.
[An electrical cord and plug are highlighted. The cord turns orange.]
Unlike water, however, if too much electricity is flowing, the wire can overheat.
[A vehicle is plugged into a charging station.]
That’s why charging equipment incorporates safety devices that monitor the system to
help ensure safe operation.
[A caption reads: “Watts”]
[Three puzzle pieces represent Volts, Watts and Amps.]
Now, the third piece of the electricity puzzle is wattage, or watts.
[The puzzle pieces fit together.]
You’ve probably heard the term before, and in its simplest terms, it’s just a measure of
work.
[An arrow points from a power source to a light bulb .]
[A caption reads: “Volts times amps”]
Basically, the amount of energy transferred in an amount of time – volts times amps.
[A light fixture is highlighted.]
[A caption reads: “Wattage rating equals electrical power needed to operate”]
Think of a traditional light bulb.
Its wattage rating is how much electrical power it needs to consume to operate – and
the higher the watts, the brighter the light.
[A microwave oven is highlighted.]
[A vehicle is highlighted.]
This same principle applies to all electric products, whether light bulbs, microwaves, or
electric vehicles.
[Two batteries are highlighted.]
[A caption reads: “Kilowatt-Hours”]
Watts are also used to describe battery capacity, –
– specifically, the battery’s ability to deliver power during a span of time.
In the case of an electrified vehicle, battery capacity is measured in kilowatt-hours.
[A caption reads: “One kilowatt-hour equals 1,000 watts for one hour”]
This basically means that if a battery is rated at 1 kilowatt-hour, it has the energy
capacity to deliver 1,000 watts of power for one hour.
[A vehicle drives along the road.]
[A caption reads: “Approximately 20 kWh
1 hour of cruising”]
For context, a typical vehicle only needs about 15 to 30 kilowatts to cruise at highway
speed.
[A caption reads: “60 KWh
Battery capacity available”]
[A caption reads: 3 hours
Estimated cruising time”]
So, if we had a 60-kilowatt-hour battery, we’d theoretically have up to three hours of
highway cruising available –
– not factoring in variables like speed and outside temperature.
[A caption reads: “Kilowatt-hour rating equals gas tank capacity”]
Essentially, an EV’s battery’s kilowatt-hour rating can be thought of as the electric
equivalent of a gas tank capacity – the energy stored on board that determines driving
range.
[A caption reads: “AC/DC”
So now that we understand the general terms, let’s talk about how electricity actually
gets delivered.
[A caption reads: “AC vs DC”]
For this, we need to look a bit closer at current flow to really understand.
[A caption reads: “AC
Alternating current”]
Most standard power outlets provide alternating current – AC – which is also how it
comes in from the electric company’s power grid.
[A graph illustrates alternating current”]
[A caption reads: “Alternating current”’
As the name implies, AC rapidly flips the flow direction between positive and negative,
and it’s the best way to send electricity over larger distances.
[A graph illustrates direct current”]
[A caption reads: “DC
Direct current”]
Batteries, on the other hand, work off direct current – DC.
They charge with DC, and they output DC.
[An AAA battery is highlighted.]
And this is true whether for the AAA batteries in a TV remote, –
[A 12-volt battery is highlighted.]
– the 12-volt battery under the hood of a car, –
[A vehicle is highlighted.]
– or the large onboard batteries used to drive the wheels of an electric vehicle.
[Animation illustrates AC to DC conversion.]
This also means that when charging a battery from an AC source, it must be converted
to DC first.
[A power block is highlighted.]
This conversion happens in that small power block at the end of your cell phone’s
charging cable, –
[A vehicle stops at a charging station.]
– and it happens in the onboard system of virtually every plug-in vehicle that utilizes an
AC power source.
[A charging battery is highlighted.]
That’s actually one reason why Level 3 “DC fast charging” can fill up a EV battery so
quickly – by providing DC power to begin with, there’s no onboard conversion needed.
[A vehicle drives along the road.]
So that’s a quick dive into some electricity basics.
[A caption reads: “toyota.ca/electrified”]
To learn more, visit toyota.ca/electrified.
[The Toyota logo appears.]
[Upbeat music fades to silence.]