How Long Does It Take to Charge An Electric Vehicle?
How long will it take to charge an electric vehicle? That relies on the vehicle, the charger, how many additional cars are connected to the charger, how charged the battery is to start with, and don’t forget about the weather.
But keep in mind that it doesn’t have to be that difficult.
Automakers have precisely determined how much power each model could absorb and how quickly it could receive it – assuming the best-case scenario. The resulting graph is known as the charge curve. With a look, it can answer most of the questions related to a tired, range-addled road warrior who has to decide where and how to stop and for how long.
“It tells you the perfect spot of when to plug in,” said Tom Moloughney, who plots charging curves for his “State of Charge” YouTube channel. The x-axis shows whether the battery is full on a scale of 0% to 100%, while the y-axis shows how much power the machine is absorbing at any one time. As the battery becomes more full, it receives less power and charges slower, which is why the charging spectrum line often goes down like a glider hanging from a mountain.
This implies that if you’re on a lengthy trip, it is typically best to stop and plug in farther down the road. A 20-minute charge whenever the battery is nearly empty often provides more than a mile when just half of the range is used – however, this can vary depending on the car. According to Moloughney, Tesla‘s refueling chart starts quite high but immediately reduces after only five or ten minutes. Most others step down gradually. Meanwhile, Porsche and Audi have the finest charging patterns: “flat line up to 80%.”
The difficulty is that finding these charts requires digging up Moloughney’s videos or scouring the web for the very few third-party industry monitors who go to the bother of obtaining and testing these cars at the plug.
The charging curves are still not revealed, at least not by automakers. “I think they’re worried about making their EVs appear too complicated,” Moloughney said.
Instead, car executives are trying to convert this spectrum of highly subtle data into a few quick data points, concentrating on minutes and miles, rather than the number of electrons the machine is Hoovering over a certain period of time. For example, Porsche AG claims that its Taycan batteries charges from 5% to 80% in 22.5 minutes. Ford Motor Company, on the other hand, cites charging rates ranging from 15% to 80%. Meanwhile, Kia claims that charging its EV6 from 10% to 80% takes 18 minutes.
Automakers may do the tough arithmetic, but comparison shopping is tricky without a standard benchmark. “It’s all over the place”, stated Steve Kosowski, Kia’s manager of long-term planning and strategy. “It’s turned into a new competitive battleground.”
With the ranges of electric cars expanding all the time, the market’s future will be largely defined by how fast and reliably these machines juice up. “The concern is no longer so much about range as it is about time,” stated Charles Poon, Ford’s director of electrified systems engineering. On the other hand, consumers don’t really get a clear picture on this front as they try to decide which machine is suitable for them.
But, let’s be clear, those curious about electric vehicles seem to be eager to dig into the details of internal details. “State of Charge” has 37,500 followers on YouTube for his videos, which are usually approximately 40mins long and offer nothing more exciting than Moloughney giving a play-by-play while recharging in a mall parking lot. It is a feature, not a bug, that the data is unwanted.
Even so, there is still a solid reason why automakers are cryptic. For one reason, a car’s charging curve is inextricably related to its battery’s longevity. As automakers aim to boost electric vehicle adoption from about 3% in the U.S., the last thing they want is a potential buyer thinking about when their big, $10,000-plus battery would need to be replaced.
Secondly, charging curves may lead to unreasonable expectations among buyers. In an automobile company, they are carried out in a lab under ideal conditions, using batteries pre-conditioned to a perfect temperature. In the suburban wilds, new electric vehicles will face malfunctioning charging stations or cords that distribute their power between many cars. The charging curve can be affected even in cold climates.
There are actually various factors that influence the numbers. As a result, the more numbers we provide, the more likely someone will find a case that we haven’t met.
stated Anders Hockenstrom, Polestar’s product attribute lead for charging.
Mercedes Benz hopes the problem will be moot, both by electric vehicles that can drive long distances on a single charge and a navigation system that can automatically determine the best refueling stops based on the machine’s charging curve. As per Christoph Starzynski, Vice President and Member of the Executive Board Mercedes-Benz Drive Systems, on a 600-mile trip, the vehicle may suggest a 20-minute stop, while at a longer distance, it may suggest two shorter charging sessions. “Clearly, For our clients, this is a completely new land,” Starzynski added.
General Motors Company is following a similar approach, presuming that the driver’s app and the car’s controls will play with the curve for any specific travel.
Tim Grewe, director of the electrification strategy, said, “It is often very complicated for clients. No one wants to use a calculator to figure out where his car should be charged.”
