A Connextras road-trip follow-up (and also States of the Bolt and Volt)
Hi!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCkyQuKjpVc
I'm about to post this to YT, but here's a link now while I work on a bad thumbnail!
Comments (24)
While I agree, gated, branded electrons would be bad. I think an even bigger issue is charge port placement standardized. Some are back left or right. Some are just behind the front wheels on left or right (or both in the case of ac charging on at least 1 vehicle). And then a select few are on the front of the car. Charging station have to be able to work with all locations on a car that makes it more complex and requires longer cables So Tesla adding CCS to the IS SC is really only helpful for vehicles who have charge ports in the same place as a Tesla. Otherwise the cable might not reach or they have to block other stalls to charge. As a soon to be Tesla owner I bought a CCS adapter from Korea so I can charge at CCS stations too.
I feel like EA should look into a way to dynamically switch the charger with the pedestals so it doesn’t matter which one you pull up to. I believe Tesla uses a bunch of the Onboard chargers in a rack for the superchargers. One would think you could come up with a way to dynamically assign those to pedestals based on demand. Tesla kinda did this with v1/v2 chargers. EA could do much better.
I just was wondering, that on the backside of the fuel door where gas engines state the MINIMUM octane for the vehicle, for EVs it states the MAXIMUM charging connection for that vehicle?
In Norway we actually have an established lingo to help with this. We refer to the regular chargers as "hurtiglader" (rapid charger) and the 350kW ones as "lynladere" (lightning chargers). The fast ones are generally also marked clearly, e.g. with lightning bolts.
I agree with just about everything you said in this video. And I've driven 4 different Volts over the year. I currently have the 2019 Volt with the faster charger, and my wife has had a 2019 Bolt EV and now drives a 2022 Bolt EUV. All of these have had virtually no problems. I did encounter one bizarre problem in my 2019 Volt. We had one of those days in Texas where the temperature is 80 degrees one day, and 20 degrees the next. So on the cold day, I took my Volt out of the garage (which was still warm) and drove it to the other side of Dallas. 50 miles later I ran out of battery, so the ICE attempted to start, but instead shuddered a bit and I got the dreaded "Engine Unavailable" message on the highway at 80 mph. I was lucky to take the next exit and found a charger right there, so I was able to charge up and get home on battery. I took it to a dealer and they couldn't replicate the problem. I think what happened is that the drastic temperature change caused condensation in the gas tank, which pooled at the bottom. had I started the gas engine as soon as I left the house, it would have probably been fine. But driving for an hour in the cold weather with a warm gas tank, was probably a situation that most cars would never encounter under normal circumstances. Needless to say, when I take the car on a longer trip where I know I will exceed the EV range, I engage hold mode the moment I leave the house. If the ICE isn't going to run for whatever reason, I'd rather find out in my driveway than 50 miles away from home. :-)
As someone old enough to have jump-started a vehicle by literally pushing the vehicle, jumping in, and switching it from neutral to first gear, I'm saddened that your highway speed wasn't an option for starting your car's gas engine. Sure, I recognize that requires a manual transmission, and those are quite rare these days. I also recognize that there's a lot of people who simply weren't able to use manual transmissions. I think I'm just sad that they haven't managed to make a vehicle which has a computer-controlled "manual" transmission that can drive like an automatic but still be something one can jump-start without wrecking the motor. (For what it's worth, I also did a highway speed jump-start of my manual transmission car at one point. My car had suddenly lost the ability to accelerate. According to my passenger, the manual said I maybe could resolve it by turning the car off and on. I was doing about 65 at the time, so really didn't want to take the time to get off the road and back on, especially since the other option was my battery needed to be replaced and my car was only still running because the alternator was generating almost enough charge to compensate. So I slowed to about 60, switched to neutral, turned the car off, waited the 10 seconds, tried starting the car, put the key back to the 'on' position, and eased back into the proper gear to restart the car, and headed for the nearest dealer [since I was lucky enough for that to be right by the next exit]. So, yeah, highway speed jump-starts *are* possible if you have a manual transmission, though it's important to do it with the appropriate gear for the speed you're going. The guy at the service center commented that some people tried that trick using first gear, since that's what they normally jump-start with, and I recall him saying doing that at highway speeds can wreck more or less any and every component of the drive train.)
As an ID4 owner, I *try* to leave my local EA 350s free when I can, but they, and the EVolveNY stations around me are rarely full. It's been nice to see more EVs on the road! :)
one correction. I've watched rail-fanning videos and the town in Georgia is pronounced "Cordeel"
Maybe it's time to explore the state in which are cars with hydrogen-electric systems. I know they are now expansive, inefficient and slow, but maybe it's something that is only a question of research and investment into that segment?
So... here's the thing about hydrogen. It's super hard in myriad ways and so is, in my estimation, really unlikely to see use in personal vehicles. I think it's likely to see use in things like large trucks, perhaps trains (though they could also just electrify rails so...) and ships but making cars run on hydrogen has far too many downsides. Here's the key thing: the electric grid is everywhere. Hydrogen infrastructure is, in comparison, nowhere. We would not only need to construct thousands of hydrogen fueling stations, but we'd need many many many times more hydrogen generation facilities to produce the fuel *for* those stations. In theory those stations could perform electrolysis on water and produce the hydrogen on-site. That would probably be the "best" way to manage build-out of infrastructure, but then the other massive problem is that there's a lot of energy waste both when using electricity to split water molecules apart AND when using a fuel cell to turn that back into electricity for driving a car. Batteries, on the other hand, have close to 90% in-and-out efficiency. It's true that batteries are more resource intensive than a fuel cell, but a fuel cell also needs rare earth components. And with all the research that's going on with battery tech, there's no reason to suggest current battery tech is where we're headed. Lithium Iron Phosphate battery cells offer a way to use fewer rare materials already, but there are some drawbacks. Oh, and aside from all the infrastructure we'd need to build for hydrogen, even just storing it is incredibly difficult. It's the smallest atom and so leaks through practically anything, and the fuel tanks which store it need to withstand 10,000 PSI. I've never put much thought into hydrogen as a practical solution, especially since it has far more of a chicken-and-egg problem than EVs. You can drive an EV exclusively with cheap, private charging infrastructure that already exists (i.e. a dryer plug and an EVSE - which I've done for years). Anyone who wants a hydrogen vehicle needs hydrogen stations to exist first, and they just don't yet. So, yeah. Most of us aren't talking about hydrogen because its main benefit - faster refueling - comes with a litany of costs. Putting eggs into the hydrogen basket just to make road trips a little less of a paint point frankly doesn't make sense.
I have a Bolt (with replacement battery done under recall) and even though they put new batteries in, we are still limited to the 50Kw charging or so. I have never had more then 35 personally. It is really the only flaw i have with this car to be fair, and thankfully i charge on a juicebox in my garage 90% of the time.
The new batteries weren't meant to be more than 50kw charging. They are just the same batteries that the newer Bolts already came with. Pretty much the only difference is a slight increase in capacity.
How safe were the charging stations compared to a gas station? Especially in evenings? You mentioned you drove back alone, did you feel safe? Is there security in place at the EV charging stations?
There is no security, they are completely unattended. Many don't even have cameras as far as I can tell. Most of the ones I've been to are in okay spots though, usually parking lots of a big chain business (often Walmart). I would say they are at least as safe as a closed gas station, maybe better because I've seen some sketchy people hanging around gas stations.
charger etiquette - the fee for the 350kW unit should be the same whether your car can draw 350kW or not. (Or maybe split the diff.) In other words, the Bolt should pay more for using the 350kW charger than for the 150kW charger at the same station, not only because they are bogarting a charger they can't fully utilize but also the charger equipment costs more for higher kW and the company needs to recoup equipment cost over the life of the equipment. (I realize the fees are for the amount of kWh you draw, not the time you are on the charger...)
Some networks will start an idle fee if youre there beyond a full charge, and due to oddities in state laws (Definition of a provider of power) some are based on time. Here in Ohio several I have used charge in time, not in Kwh units which sucks when you have a slow charging vehicle.
With liquid fuel cars they place a sticker inside the cover flap that say 'E10 compatible' or 'Diesel'. Maybe they can make stickers that state the max charge rate for a vehicle that can be installed by the mechanic when they come in for a service. Also a different color for the 150 kW and 350 kW stickers (both on the charger and on the sticker inside the cover) so that you can see it from further away without being able to read it. They have that for E10, 91 or Diesel as well.
It would probably just confuse people into thinking they can't use the bigger chargers at all lol
You mentioned that the EV6 is one of the 5 cars that can DC charge at 350kW. Can you provide a source on that? Most manufacturers put their Max DC kW right in their specs, but all I see from Kia about the EV6 is the time to 80% @ 50 kW.
It's the same drivetrain as the Ioniq5. Its max charge rate is about 230 kW, so it's not that it can charge at 350 kW, it's that it can make use of the power those stations can provide. If limited to 150 kW it takes more time (seven minutes)
I'm a Mach-E owner and while I agree slower cars should leave these free. I dont think its completely accurate to lump the Mach-E in with them. From what i understand 150kW stalls are limited to 350A and Mach-E's need 440A to achieve its peak rate. I consistently get between 168-172kw on the 350kw for the first 5 or so minutes and maintain a higher rate longer.
It is true that some 150 kW stalls are amp-limited to 350 but it's not all, and I think this mainly is a thing with the EA network. I don't have first-hand experience with the Mach-e, but I would say that you should see how much time it saves you and decide whether it's worth it to take up the 350kW charger. Honestly for me, especially since amp-limitations aren't ever a factor in the Ioniq, I might not even bother seeking them out. But I think an important angle for you to consider is that the actual period of time in which the 350 kW charger is helping is what's important. In the case of the E-GMP platform its rate is above 150 kW from 0% up to about 77% then it starts to taper. I don't know enough about the Mach-E's charge curve to make an educated comparison.
Please God let that be a haircut
Maybe he likes having long hair man, chill out