The claims for recharging electric vehicles on the road sound great.
“Quick charge for less than 4.5 minutes to get 100 kilometres of driving range,” says the marketing for the Kia EV6. “Or go from 10 to 80 per cent charge in less than 18 minutes.” The BMW iX: “00.06h [six minutes] at the high-power charging station for 100 kilometres [of] range.” The Volkswagen ID.4: “Up to 100 kilometres in approximately 10 minutes.”
The plan was simple: Set out with a full charge, make one quick stop along the way at a Level 3 charger, then plug in overnight in Ottawa. Repeat for the drive home. My top-of-the-line EV6 tester had a claimed potential range of 441 kilometres, though at minus 6 degrees, that became 300.
I also wanted to try out the new Ivy charging network, which is a joint venture between Ontario Power Generation and Hydro One. It’s installing fast chargers at the ONRoute service centres along Highway 401. The February press release said the 150-kilowatt chargers were now available at the centre near Kingston, “delivering up to a 100-kilometre charge in 10 minutes.” We’d pull in, plug in, visit the washroom and buy a coffee, then leave right away with enough power to easily make it all the way to Ottawa.
There were two chargers, side by side at the gas station. I plugged into the first. I tapped my credit card and typed in my phone number for updates. It roared to life and showed it would charge at 62 kilowatts – not the 250 kilowatts the EV6 is apparently capable of – but then promptly stopped. “Charging failed,” it said. “Charging has been interrupted. Reconnect to start a new charging session.” I reconnected, twice, and got the same result.
I got home and moaned about these inconsistencies to my neighbour, whose wife drives an Audi e-tron that they charge in their garage every night. “This is why I’m buying a Tesla,” he said. “I’ve had eight Audis in a row, but I need to make a long drive once a week. Now that I’m going electric, I just want to plug in at a Tesla supercharger and not worry about it. I’m fed up with public fast chargers.” Tesla does not make its chargers available to non-Tesla drivers.
I returned the Kia EV6 and collected a BMW iX. The Bimmer is capable of charging at up to 190 kilowatts and, long story short, it never achieved more than 52 kilowatts
And the Volkswagen ID.4? It’s rated for 120 kilowatts. I never did see the speed of a fast charge.
So do you believe car makers charging promises are the new BIG LIE? Discuss
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