What's The Best Way To Keep Your EV Charged? We Cover Your Options!

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#EV #charging #eGolf

[barryw]

It is misleading to publish 0% to 100% charge times when very few people will drain the pack to 0%. I have been driving an e-Golf since 2015 and not once have I performed such a charge, and since I charge while I sleep, I don’t wait for a charge. Thank you for informative video.

[georgepelton]

Roman, Great Video, very informative. A couple of minor corrections: US household voltage is 120 V (exactly half of 240 V feed), not 110 V. The charging station is plugged into a 14-50 outlet. These 50 A outlets are almost never used for clothes dryers, they use 30 A outlets. The 14-50 is used for electric ovens/cooktops/stoves, and for “50 Amp” RVs.

[ronkemperful]

As a fellow Coloradan I am pleased at the quality of your content. And, finally you bit the bullet and got a wall charger. Financially I haven’t been able to afford the electric vehicles you’ve tested, even the E-Golf, but vicariously I’ve enjoyed your reviews. Good job!

[KristoferOlsson]

Best charging EV video so far from TFL. Good work guys.

[sekopiski]

A bit easier here in Finland as basically every house has 3-phase 400 volts coming in.
I have a 11 kW charger in my garage, but it could easily be ramped up to 22 kW if needed.

[Sijray]

I'm definitely curious about range and how quickly the battery drains in the cold temps.

[g-modfridays]

I think it's worth pointing out that with a Tesla, you don't need to spend $500 on a charging station to get higher speed 240 volt charging at home; all you need is the 240 volt outlet. The Tesla mobile adapter can work with almost any 120 or 240 volt outlet available. At most, you might need to spend $35 for a plug adapter to fit whatever outlet you have.

[fastgolfr]

TFLCAR you are still not using Recuperation mode "B". That will give you the braking you refer to on the Tesla when you let off the throttle. Tap the gear selector back when you are in drive to engage "B" mode.

[Bryan]

Thank goodness you guys finally installed a 240v circuit in your garage and even went so far as to install a charge station! It was painful watching you complain about how long the EVs you were testing took to charge!

[Buell]

Keep the e-Golf videos coming. I am very interested as I may get one soon.

[RandomlyRich]

1) you dont' need to charge the car everytime you drive. I have a 2019 eGolf. I have a 40 mile round trip. I charge it overnight every other night or every 3 nights.
2) I am not purely a city dweller, but some people are. They don't need a car that will go more than 100 miles bc they probably don't drive that in a month. Why spend money, or haul a battery around when it won't be needed. Have a special trip to grammas that is 500 miles and you still want to drive - rent a car. Put the miles on someone else's rig.
3) and if you aren't driving those tons of miles, then you don't really need the DC fast charge - I agree, in 2020, it shouldn't be an option - it should be standard. but speaking of standards - they haven't even figured that out yet. There are more charging stations in the US with Chademo, but when you find a CCS station there are normally more CCS plugs than Chademo.
4) you talked about the 'hardship' of having to plug the car in - but you didn't talk about the maintenance savings. No more oil changes and no more trips to the pump. Yes, a gas car fills up in minutes - but if you add it up, one fill up a week, over the year, you have lost nearly a day of your life. Why? Let the car charge when you are home, sleeping, or enjoying time - not huffing fumes at the station....

I WISH that my eGolf came with a heat pump heater - definitely the way to go for the future of EV cars. They don't tell you when you buy your first one that you do get to use about 2% of the wasted energy in your gas car to heat the cabin VERY comfortably. But in an EV - there is very little waste - so you use your fuel to heat your car. In a way - you are in the gas car too - but you don't notice it as much.

Overall, good info - but review the cars for their intended purpose. No one bought an egolf with the intention of driving across country - but it is a fairly affordable way to have a very, very, very nice car that you will also never, never, never need to really do anything with except change tires, add window washer fluid and plug in....

[chriswood]

In electric cars you could just call the "Gas pedal", the "Accelerator", which is, of course, what it actually is in all cars.

[g-modfridays]

As for the way the regen or "recuperation" works in the e-golf, that's a VW thing, not a German thing. Go drive a BMW i3 for comparison. The i3 works more like a Tesla where the car adjusts the amount of regen automatically.

[RuneVenes]

I have a eGolf. Best is to use D and just coast, if you need to break, just hit the brakes, it will the start to regen up to about 100kW. Normally i just get up to speed, set the adaptive control to the speed limit and leave it like this until i have reached the destination. I find it very easy to drive faster than you should with a EV, no sound, no gears, therefor i use the adaptive cruise control a lot. With adaptive cruise control the car also takes care of the braking and regen auto magically. You should also use your brakes from time to time, brake hard (check that you're alone on the road) so rust don't build up on your brake pads

[dusdnd]

I have always loved the Golf and came from the VW family have both a 2002 Jetta TDI and a 2014 Passat TDI. I am now in electric vehicles. Looking at everything they did, you can tell this was a major afterthought. I don't think there is much market for this thing these days. The Tesla Model 3 Standard Range has at least double the range for a similar price. I would need it to be about $24k before incentives to consider it.

[erikstephens]

Great video. Just as a note unlike Tesla most other EV's also apply regeneration (recuperation) through the brake pedal. In a Tesla the brake pedal is just the friction brakes. But that isn't the case in most other EV's.

[paulgracey]

All of that control of 'recuperation' that VW gives you is in the Tesla too. It just is not in the manipulation of its hand controls, instead it is in throttle position of your right foot. It becomes instinctive very quickly, and I think you must already experience it with your Model X. That is if your driving style is like mine, relaxed. I do know a lot of performance minded drivers wait till almost too late to get on the brakes in traffic, follow very close to "not lose my place to that other guy" so bang-bang throttle and brake control is their style.
I am a bicyclist as well as a driver and it is my instinct to coast, and I leave plenty of room ahead for that to happen. So my foot is in the middle of throttle position when I drive the Tesla. Sort of how I learned that the old Mobilgas Economy Run drivers would do. Drive as if a lightbulb was between your foot and the pedal, either braking or accelerating. I find that the indicators for what the Autopilot or adaptive cruise control are doing show that it uses coasting a lot too. It is 'Chill Mode' without formally invoking it, leaving the ability to gun the car as desired.

[guizarbg]

Can you please do a full complete review of the e-golf. It would be great to know all the good and bad about this electric car.

[NeverFollows]

5:39 Only 210 V, so you get a 208 V system, not 240 V, and 50 A max (40A nominal) this give you about 8 kWh charging.
Note: Since the battery is air cooled, can you test the effect on the DC fast charging slow down (or RapidGate) when making a trip and stopping at a Supercharger.

[rossbowman]

I am excited for these Golf videos. I look forward to a more affordable and service in place option. The only drawback is the batteries. I feel aftermarket will eventually have battery packs with better range. Just swap and double your range. Look forward to the next one.