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Very few things in life can compare to the joy of being in your car, out there on the road with the wind blowing and all your troubles behind you. While driving does come with feelings of excitement and happiness, it is not without a certain feeling of guilt. If you consider the damage your vehicle is doing to the environment, that could definitely take the fun out of driving, but fortunately, they figured out a solution for that problem. Electric cars were born, and you were given a chance to enjoy time on the road without having to worry about what your car is doing to the ozone layer or any other layer for that matter. Still, handling an electric car is quite different from your ordinary one, so how exactly can you do that at home?
Handling the battery
The great thing about electric cars is the fact that they’re much easier to handle than normal ones, and that is mostly because they come with fewer components that require high maintenance. The first thing you need to take into consideration is the battery because that’s basically how the vehicle runs. While there are public charging stations around to help you keep that battery full, a lot of experts and EV owners advise that you install a charger back at your home.
It’s much more convenient, and it will make your life a lot easier if you installed a charger for your EV at home, because that way you can take advantage of all that time it spends parked in the garage when you’re not out. It even gets better; those chargers don’t cost much –– ranging from hundreds of dollars up to a thousand –– and they’re actually pretty easy to install, so you don’t need a mechanic’s workshop to make one work.
Software updates
The fact is, electric cars are the future, and they are a much more sophisticated technology than your average vehicle. True, most cars have some form of software these days, but when it comes to an electric one, the software is a bit more advanced, and this is why you need to treat it as such. What would you do with your Android or iOS device every now and then? Check for software updates, and then apply them. You’ll have to do the same for your EV because you want to ensure it will last longer and give you better performance. So, always check for updates and make sure you’re running the latest to get the most out of your car.
Getting the necessary equipment
While taking care of an electric car at home is definitely a lot easier compared to an ordinary one, you’ll still need to get all the necessary equipment to help you do that. Things would be much easier if you got them all at once instead of making trips to the mechanic. Expert advice from Hoist now stresses the importance for people who plan on taking care of their cars at home to get a car lift, which is used to raise or lower the vehicle. Having one in your home will allow you to do all the maintenance you want and work on fixing any problems you may encounter above or below your vehicle.
Maintaining the brakes
With an electric car, it is very important that you regularly maintain the brake pads. It is naturally much easier to do with this kind of vehicle, and it will need almost half the kind of maintenance an ordinary car would – courtesy of regenerative braking. But you will still need to ensure they’re regularly checked, because despite the fact that they don’t wear out as quickly as in normal cars, they eventually will, and you don’t want that to happen while you’re out there on the road.
Replacing the windscreen wipers
Unfortunately, technology is yet to find a smarter replacement for windscreen wipers, which means that even with your electric car, you’ll still get normal ones. So, they have to be maintained in the same way, and it’s often recommended that you change them twice a year with the advent of summer and winter. That is not always the case, though, and if your windscreen wipers get worn down before those times, you should replace them as soon as possible.
Routine inspections
For electric cars, it’s often advised to perform a series of routine checks every 7,500 miles, which you’ll have to do yourself if you plan on maintaining the vehicle at home. For starters, you need to rotate all the tires at that point to extend their lifetime and minimize wear. You should also check the coolant level of the battery and all the general systems in the car, from the power inverter to suspension systems.
Tips for maintaining your electric car at home:
Electric cars are definitely much easier to maintain at home than normal ones, but it’s not going to be so easy unless you know what you’re doing. So, read up on EVs and understand what you are expected to do if you want maximum operational capacity out of the vehicle, and you won’t even need to go to a garage anymore.
