Charging times challenging electric car makers
Technology improving, but consumers won’t see big changes for several years
An oft-cited reason people don’t buy electric cars is “range anxiety” — if batteries struggle to take you as far as gas and charging stations are limited in number, the thinking goes, who would want one?
But there is another obstacle: charging-time trauma. Compared with a five-minute pit stop at your local gas station, charging an electric vehicle is a glacially slow experience. Modern electric cars still often need an entire night to recharge at home and even at a commercial fast charging station, a fill-up can take an hour or more.
“Driving long distances and stopping for one to two hours is not something I would want to do,” said Mark McNabb, the chief executive of Electrify America, a Volkswagen subsidiary that is installing charging stations across the United States as part of the German automaker’s settlement for cheating on diesel emissions tests.
The good news? Charging times will eventually shrink to little more than 10 minutes. The bad news: That won’t be for several years. Still, there is help is on the way. Manufacturers are installing more charging points across the country and technological improvements are already allowing for charging times to improve.
Two levels of charging are typically available in residential settings. Level 1 is a standard AC outlet that provides between one and 1.5 kilowatts of electricity. It takes a Level 1 charger about 30 hours to fully charge the electric version of the Ford Focus, which has a range of 185 kilometres. Level 2 uses a professionally installed charger connected to a 240- volt AC outlet — the kind used by some large appliances — and delivers between seven and nine kilowatts, lowering the charge time to about 5.5 hours.
Some commercial charging locations offer more advanced technology, employing so-called fast chargers. These offer about 50 kilowatts of DC power, enabling the same Ford Focus to reach 145 kilometres of range in 30 minutes ( battery chemistry causes charging to go more slowly after a battery is 80-per-cent full).
The electric carmaker Tesla has a proprietary “supercharger” for its vehicles that provides 120 kilowatts of power, adding 483 kilometres of range in 75 minutes.
A new generation of charging points, the first of which are being installed in Europe this year, offer 350 kilowatts of power. Such a jump would slash charging times to 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the vehicle’s range, according to Charlie Yankitis, director of business development for the German manufacturer Bosch’s electric vehicle unit. Elon Musk, Tesla’s founder, has hinted that charging at even faster rates was being studied. There are, however, hurdles that need to be overcome.
For one, standards differ across manufacturers and regions. Today’s commercial chargers use three different kinds of plugs that are not entirely compatible. In practice, a Chevrolet, Nissan or Volkswagen cannot be charged at a Tesla charger. A Tesla, however, can use an adapter plug to charge at standard commercial stations, and Electrify America says its charging stations will be compatible with a variety of plugs.
Another issue: No vehicle on the road today is able to use the 350kilowatt fast-charging stations. It is not a simple upgrade: High-speed charging requires thicker cables that won’t get too hot.
According to ChargePoint, 90 per cent of vehicle charging is currently done at home, and industry executives argue that it’s wrong to think about charging electric cars in the way they envision filling up a gasoline or diesel vehicle.
“Electric vehicles are more like horses than gasoline cars,” said Romano of ChargePoint. They are like a horse that eats whenever you’re not riding it: “you refuel them when you’re doing something else.”