Previously, in Part 1…
- A decade ago Israel made an early start into the EV Revolution, but placing all bets on the Better Place (BP) fiasco turned it into a false start. So EVs became dead to most Israelis for years.
- Wishing to do more for the climate and partly inspired by our own early switch to EVs, our relatives in southern Israel became part of the advance guard of the country’s second EV wave, which finally got going in 2020.
- After being super-expensive for several years, EVs in Israel are now reaching affordability, thanks also to the surprise arrival Chinese imports. Our relatives eventually chose the Korean Hyundai Ioniq BEV (average range ~275km), at a price that is reasonable for Israel.
On with the story: they faced hurdles, some expected and some less expected, when looking for home charging options.
BP’s shadow continues to haunt this story… in August 2012 when we leased our first ever EV (thus far they’ve all been Leafs), we did zero homework on charging, because we knew that our Leaf came — like every EV in nearly every country — with a basic “trickle” portable charger we can hook into an ordinary household outlet. This, hooked up to a 12-gauge extension cord, has been how we’ve powered most of our electric miles since then. Since we are light drivers it has been enough. Zero additional $$ save for the extension cord and the juice.
In Israel it’s illegal. Gunning for a monopoly business model, BP initially wrote Israel’s EV regulations to allow only charging stations with remote central control by a charging provider. After an outcry that spilled outside of Israel, the “central control” part was dropped. But some of the BP rule has endured: to this day, only Level 2 charging stations installed by an electrician are allowed. Automakers are not even allowed to provide portable home-outlet cables (they do provide a weird cable with a special plug that only connects to… I haven’t quite figured that one out yet but it definitely requires an electrician). I have yet to hear of another country that has this rule. Impervious to the fact that trickle works everywhere else, regulators have tenaciously defended the trickle ban; somehow, Israeli electricity is too fragile to allow it.
[UPDATE/EDIT: turns out electricity regulations are somewhat of a “gray zone” in Israel. On paper they are so Draconian that officially, one must call an electrician even for the teeniest of tasks. Essentially everyone is out of compliance with some electric regulation at any given time. So some EV importers choose to ignore the rule and provide a trickle cable with the car. This includes the importer of Chinese-made SAIC MG ZS EV, an affordable 250km SUV that is currently Israel’s best-selling EV.
However, Hyundai’s importers are complying at present, so our relatives didn’t get a cable (which in Israel is called a “granny cable”...) Buying one on the market would cost NIS 1500 which they deemed not worth it. ]
Anyway, due to other onerous charging regulations they almost had to upgrade the entire house’s electricity service rating. A workaround was found via an component that monitors the home’s current demand, and rations the charging rate accordingly.
Then the day came and the Ioniq arrived with much fanfare (see headline photo starring Grace). They plugged in the charger and… it didn’t work. The charging company’s CTO himself arrived from the center of the country in his shiny MG to fix the problem. Which was: that very same smart component had been mis-installed.
All’s well that ends well! Besides getting the problem fixed they made a new friend and got introduced to Israel's pioneer EV driver community. Regarding this community, my relative adds (translation mine):
There are several very active EV WhatsApp groups, with people who are fanatical about the topic. There is also an emergency EV group for whoever is getting stranded without juice, with people offering lots of help.
...Every charging company has at least one senior rep who participates in the WhatsApp groups including the emergency one. Whenever a problem is reported, they respond very quickly and helpfully. They are very committed.
There’s one guy with a Nissan Leaf who goes around the country every Saturday, and reports about the current status of charging stations etc.
Early EV Adventures
Our relatives wasted no time testing out their Ioniq. The same day they got it and before it even got to 100%, they went to visit parents in the center-south, some 150km round trip. It took 56% of the battery with regular highway driving.
A bit later — in fact, the day after the US general election — they had a bigger adventure: a meeting in Haifa, the largest city in the north. A round trip is approximately as long as the Ioniq’s range. This gave them their first quick-charging (QC) experience, which they did on the way up.
They actually charged during the meeting using a nearby Level 2 charger, and together with the 21% from the QC, they got home with...
That very same weekend, they went even further — to spend the weekend with family all the way in the Galilee Panhandle (we actually call it “The Galilee Finger”). that’s well over 200km each way. Of course they’d need QC, but it would also be nice to charge while the Ioniq sits at the destination anyway.
This is where the stupid “no charging from home plugs” regulation really SHINES. I mean, one could argue that with their extensive driving needs, our relatives would have to install a Level 2 anyway. But a huge upside of trickle charging is that it makes you truly mobile. Besides trickling at home, in nearly every overnight outing we had around the Pacific Northwest we used our trickle, whether it’s a vacation home, a hotel, or a campground. It makes us less dependent on “heavy-duty” charging availability.
Back to the far-north trip: they thought they had a Level 2 pre-arranged with their host’s neighbor. But it fell through so it was all QC. Costs: NIS 6 on the way up, 16 on the way back — but NIS 42 at a QC near their destination. Now you can see why we call it The Finger… classic predatory pricing. Still, overall the cost per km was about one-quarter what it would have been with their old ICE Citroen. They summarized the experience:
[On the way back] We filled up in Kfar Saba for NIS 16, and bought coffee and ice cream for 50. I don’t understand where the savings are.
Been there, done that as well:) So we replied:
The savings are that the kids love it. It gives them a road-trip adventure feel. [and ice cream]
Since these fun early adventures, they have gotten even bolder, as well as learned to hypermile. One day they forgot to charge before commuting to work (~70km each way; they also have a shuttle but often need to drive). The guess-o-meter gave 170km remaining range upon leaving home. It so happened that precisely that day, they had to drive some government inspectors on the way back! They drove at a “crawl” (relative to their habit) of 90 KPH, and the inspectors almost got a heart attack. They got home with 7% (which is still a good 20km remaining, likely more b/c almost every EV has some “secret reserve”). Not to be outdone, their 20-year-old son, who’s the one who talked them into going electric, then took the Ioniq with 150km on the GOM, to a 135km round trip — and got back with >20km still showing.
They also finally went up some serious hills, to Jerusalem, and witnessed how range and % remaining fly off the battery on the way up — then magically increase when going downhill.
In short, we feel like proud “EV parents”. We’ve already helped people around here get EVs, but in Israel we didn’t really try actively because until like, this year, the options were limited and super-expensive. Now EVs there are finally alive and kicking! I hope someone also finally knocks out that stupid trickle-charge ban, it will help further accelerate EV adoption.
Meanwhile, our relatives haven’t just rested on their brand-new EV laurel leaves… a month later they also got solar panels for their home! Well, they signed the contract for panels. Passing through all the regulatory steps — which are far worse for rooftop solar than for EVs — will take several more months.