NEW! Is this the BEST way to charge an EV?? | What Car?

Will this new theory change the way you charge your electric car?? We test whether lots of shorts charges are actually QUICKER than a few long ones.

Watch to find out our results.




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[davidfarrell]

One thing it does highlight is that Gridserve are not monitoring the chargers. It should have flagged with the guy who answered the phone before you rang (and chances are that the chargers failed for previous customers) and they reboot it or run diagnostics and mark the device as not available to stop wasting customers time and updating apps to say that its offline.

[JonathanPalfrey]

I guess this proves how little it matters in the UK as our country isnt big enough to make a noticeable difference! It's interesting you both started on a low charge, in the real world most would leave home on 100% so would only need one stop on a 500 mile journey.

[tsint]

How can chargers not restart themselves automatically when they are not working? It can't be that hard to implement some healthcheck/monitoring to avoid a faulty charger.

[victorseal]

I’m an ex Brit living in Québec, where the main charging networks .. Circuit Électrique and FLO ..are superb. In 5 years I’ve never stopped at a charger that didn’t work. The temperatures here vary from -30c to 30c plus in a year so apart from the speed of the charge because of these factors, we are extremely fortunate. Why can the equipment work almost flawlessly in these conditions, yet other countries have problems ?? 😮 I enjoyed the video and found it very informative. Good work. 😅

[coldfire]

It would have made more sense to let both cars start with same charging state of 80% or 100% and test the different charging strategy only for the charging stops along the route.

[martinwray]

Somebody must be deleting the EV hate comments? This is the least stressful ev comments section that I think I've ever seen.

[Gochsener]

Depends on the Car. New Taycan, E Tron & / 800V cars keep high power very long. Other cars like Teslas slow down massively. But you can definitely say, drive faster and charge more is faster!

[mra]

Neil’s strategy would undoubtedly be a lot quicker and hassle-free in a Tesla, which are more efficient as well and don’t have to rely on other companies’ chargers.

[riccotube]

I don't understand why everyone makes such a big deal about charging.

I just go 20 to 80% which takes around 27 minutes on a super fast charger. This gives me about 3.5 to 4 hours of driving which is more than my bladder and attention span can take in one sitting.
Stop for a pee, coffee and a quick walk for the dog and away you go.

[ImDavidJames]

But you need to allow for the extra time to get off the motorway. Find the charger. Set it up and then get back on the motorway.
So 8 minutes up on charging speed is nothing when each charge could cost you 15 minutes in time just to get to and from.

[paco]

A hugely important factor that was neglected in this 'experiment' was the percentage at which you stop to charge. The highest charging power occurs at lower percentages, and you miss out on that when you stop charging at 20%.

[xjdisuehd]

Here in the US, I have a Model Y Long Range, we regularly go on longer weekends to my in-laws about 600 miles away (me, wife, two pre-teens, cat and a small dog). As expected, the car is fully loaded, and we charge to 100% from home, so the first leg is about 200 miles. We charge upto 80% and have set the car to never dip below 15%.
Our trip is more or less, like this
1. 100% charged at home.
2. 200 miles. ~3 hours
3. Upto 80% charging, 15-20 minutes.
4. 180 miles. ~2.5 hours
5. 30-35minutes, reach anywhere between 80-90% charge.
6. 220 miles, with 10-12% battery remaining. ~3.25 hours
7. Plug into a level 2, 30 amp plug, car charges to 80% overnight.

Give or take, 9.5-10 hours. Before this, we had a 2018 Toyota Highlander Hybrid, and we stopped after about 4 hours into the trip, about 300 miles, exactly halfway. Fuel up, eat, walk dog, piss and on our way, about 35-40 mins. Surprisingly, the Model Y time for the trip, is only about 30-45 mins more than the gas powered highlander hybrid trip. Not that big of a difference, since we start at 5:30am from our home and are at the in-laws around 3:30pm-3:45pm anyways.
On a second thought, changing the arrival percentages to zero might reduce our Model Y times further, but I have no desire to hear the dog and the kids whine.

[ronaldmelia]

Judging from the charging time of the 50% car, it took way too long. My EV6 800v would have done that in around 32 to 50 miniutes

[charlesm]

As a Tesla driver the “short stop” strategy is a default approach Tesla cars navigation tend to go for. I often drive from St Albans, across Portsmouth to Caen of a ferry to Bordeaux region in France, and the Tesla navigation would tend to route plan a number of short 20 min stops and also short 10 mins ones.

Works well because Tesla super chargers are fast, always works, and plenty of chargers at each stop.

Best thing is they are always sideways mounted, so if you have a bike rack hanging on the towbar you can reverse and still plug in with its relatively short cables.

[bluebikerathar]

Bjorn nyland does this already years in his 1000 km chllange. I would do the same, more stops ( euh just as i do now) on 800km i need 3 stops, even with with ice.

[stephenballantyne]

I've only been watching for 2.5mins, but not just setting off at the same time with 100% SOC seems like a deeply weird decision to have made. Your start point is immediately irrelevant to anyone attempting a journey that long.

[MatthewStanford]

I have to say that in my experience of chargers not on motorway services, it's very rare for a charger not to work

[andrewlarner]

The most important thing is understanding charging curves. Our first EV required running down to less than 10% to get a decent curve. Our new ev we can rock up with anything less than 80% and so we think about when and where to stop with our bladders or belly’s not our battery state of charge.

[SirHackaLt.]

I don’t get eco mode. It really makes no sense. Just use Normal like everyone else.

[AnotherBoringyearold]

Who starts their road trip at a rapid??

No one!!!!

Both should’ve started at 100% and pre conditioned

And the route was very suspicious giving all super rapids… pop further north or wales please for a more fair test

Honestly what a half arsed test