Electric cars charge faster
Wide locks
Porsche Taycan GTS Sport Turismo
© press-inform – the press office
Charging times are an important factor in electromobility. Especially if the infrastructure is not yet fully developed. That’s why the car manufacturers are optimizing the current tank speed of the batteries with updates. But there are still big differences between manufacturers.
They say that if you love your car, you push it. In the current age of electric mobility, this saying could be changed with a wink to: “If you like your car, you’ll find it in the charging park”. In addition to the infrastructure of the charging stations, the charging speed is two important factors on the successful path to electromobility. Ionity, Tesla EnBW and others want to create a network of fast charging points that is as dense as possible. In order for the juice to flow into the batteries as quickly as possible, the energy storage and the associated charging system must also play their part. To ensure this, the manufacturers either install wireless updates or update the software during a visit to the workshop.
The car manufacturers also know this and are working on optimizing the batteries and, above all, the technology so that the current can flow as quickly as possible. With VW’s MEB, an optimization of the charging speed was overdue, because depending on the size of the batteries, the VW batteries initially only drew 100 or 125 kW of electricity. While the 45 kWh and 58 kWh batteries already received an update in the middle of last year, it was the turn of the large energy storage devices in December. high time! Because with the mentioned 125 kW (at the top!) VW was middle class when charging with electricity. Now it should be up to 150 kW, if things are going well, even 175 kW for a short time. More important is the optimization of the charging curve, which is flatter and thus allows longer periods of higher charging speeds. After all, what use is 175 kW at peak if it is only available for a few seconds.
The Porsche Taycan and its technical twin, the Audi E-Tron GT, have always been among the fastest chargers. The Zuffenhauser Sportstromer also continues to optimize the charging process. “We have improved the robustness of fast charging,” says Klaus Rechberger. In order to do this, the battery must be brought into its comfort zone as quickly as possible, which is more than 35 degrees during fast charging. In order to condition the battery accordingly, it is preheated by the vehicle and has the optimum temperature as soon as you dock at the charging station and starts charging immediately with the maximum speed. In order to create the Celsius feel-good oasis, the existing heat loss that the drives and the various components produce is used. “The battery has to be treated like the apple of an eye,” Klaus Rechberger makes clear. The Audi E-Tron GT and Porsche Taycan can charge with a maximum of 270 kW.
Not only the loading speed increases, but also the range in which it is kept. If you look at a typical charging curve for an electric car, the plateau with the highest charging speed is now longer. However, this does not mean that charging from five to 80 percent SoC (state of charge/battery charge) at 800 volts takes faster than the 22.5 minutes previously mentioned, but that this value can also be achieved under less than ideal conditions. “This time is no longer reached at the so-called best point, but can actually be experienced in a robust manner for the customer.
Like the Taycan, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and the Kia EV6 have a system voltage of 800 volts and therefore better conditions for fast charging than is the case with the MEB modular system from the VW Group, which is also evident from the peak charging performance of nominally 225 kW. That’s why the Koreans are also pushing an update that improves the preconditioning of the battery and thus the speed at which the electricity is refueled, similar to the Taycan.
Mercedes thinks of the AC chargers and doubles the charging capacity of the EQS from the previous maximum of 11 kW to a maximum of 22 kW, the DC fraction must continue to be “satisfied” with 200 KW. The Mercedes EQC has already received an upgrade for direct current charging, which is now possible with a maximum of 11 kW (previously 7.4 kW) and fills the battery from ten to 100 percent in a maximum of seven and a half hours. With the Opel Corsa-e (50 kWh), the maximum AC charging power is 11 kW, with DC it is 100 kW. In the case of the Citroën ë-C4 Electric with an identical battery size, the values are very similar to those of the Rüsselsheim technology brother: on fast chargers with a maximum of 100 kW, it takes half an hour for the battery to be 80 percent full. On a wall box with 11 kW it is five 5 hours, one more with 7.4 kW. No intoxicating values, but that should change. “With the next model generations, which are of course based on the new Stellantis platforms, we will be leaders in charging times and ranges. That will become clear from 2024,” says Opel CEO Uwe Hochschurtz
The Renault Zoe is not necessarily a charging monster: the version with the 50 kWh battery is 80 percent charged after 2:40 hours at 22 kW (400 volt three-phase current, AC, 3-phase). If you use a standard charge on a wall box (230 volt AC voltage, 32 amps) with 7.4 kW charging capacity: it is 9:25 hours, on a Schuko socket with 230 volt AC voltage and 10 amps and 2.3 kW charging capacity it takes 32 hours until the memory is full. The Fiat 500 Elektro also holds back when it comes to sucking up electricity: with 11 kW, the batteries are 80 percent full in less than three hours. According to The Mobility House, the Tesla Model 3 with an 80 kWh battery takes 7.5 hours to complete a full charge cycle at 11 kW. But the measure of all things are the Tesla superchargers: On a third-generation SC, the Model 3 Performance fills the batteries with 250 kW direct current.