I’ve never owned an EV and am seriously considering an EV when I upgrade from my current SUV. Obviously charging and range are top considerations. While there is a lot of news and debate around these two, I have seen fewer discussions around charging speed.
Specifically, my question is this. If an EV maker says it takes 20 mts to charge from 10%-80%, how long would it take to go from 50% to 80 or 90%. I’ve read numerous reports that as the battery is less drained, it takes significantly longer to charge.
The reason I ask this because for me, that is a key criteria for me. It’s very hard to plan my trip around looking for charging stations where I would be in the 10-30% charge or always ensuring I charge to 100% before the beginning of the trip.
I want to replicate my current behavior (with ICE) of not bothering to look at the fuel gauge but just filling up whenever I need to take a break. More often than not, I end up topping up, filling half tank of gas.
It seems that with EVs, I have to flip my behavior. I.e, plan my breaks around when the charge would be closer to 10-20%…else I would need to wait 35-45mts for car to get charged
Am I totally wrong here?
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How often do you take trips that would use more than 80% of the battery?
For me its about once a month or so which means I only have to use ABRP.com about once a month. Planning a trip takes about 4 minutes.
Every other day of the month I just leave the house w/ 70 or 80% battery and return with 30-40 then charge overnight in my garage. So most days I put zero thought into into charging stops. On road trips I’ve never charged more than about 10 minutes because it’s typically more time efficient to take more quick charging stops than fewer longer charging stops due to the charging curve. You’ll get the first 20-30% very quickly in many cars. The other thing you have to remember is you don’t usually charge up all the way like a tank of gas. You only charge enough to get to your next charger or destination, then charge all the way up overnight. If you can’t charge at your destination overnight then you’d want to charge awhile at your last charging stop. Doing this when you eat dinner or something would be ideal Because that last stop may take 30-60 min.
It doesn’t take longer to fill from 50-80 than from 20-80 (that wouldn’t make sense!) But, cars change much faster near the “bottom” of the battery than the top. My VW ID4 can charge from 10-80% in just over 30 minutes, but it takes nearly 20 minutes to charge from 50-80.
I think you’re inventing a problem you won’t actually have- you might stop every half tank in a gas car for a pee or a snack, because a gas car goes 400 miles on a tank. That half tank is 200 miles, or a stop every 3 hours. Most EVs have ~250 mile range. That 20-80% charge stop is about 180 miles or a stop every 2-1/2 hours. In both cases, you’re probably stopping when you need to.
If you’re expecting to charge from 50-90% in most modern (250-300 mile range) EVs, you’ll be stopping about every 90 minutes/100 miles or so. Even if those stops only take 20 minutes, that’s a weird slow cadence for traveling!
I’ve done many 1000+ mile road trips in my EVs (including two 3000+ trips this summer). I typically stop to charge when I’m somewhere between 10%-30% (depending on where the next station is or if I need to pee!) to 80-90% (depending on if I’m done doing whatever I’m doing at that stop- grabbing a snack, shopping, walking the dog, etc.) That allows stopping every 2 to 2-1/2 hours for 30 minutes or so. Since I’m 57 years old, with the bladder of a 57 year-old man, I’m stopping every 2 to 2-1/2 hours whether I’m driving an EV, a gas car, or a Conestoga Wagon! 😁
If you want to drive until empty then pull over and then just pull off and charge, I suggest you move to Norway.
For everywhere else there’s ABRP.