Rapid Charging Speeds

[Mark Holmes]

Is there an issue with the MG ZS EV rapid charging speeds, what are you getting and are you getting anywhere near 50+ KWh per hour.
I charged at a BP Pulse (+100 KWh charging unit) charged of 35 minutes and gained 23.63 KWh of power.
23.63 / 35 minutes = 0.67514286 KWh per minute x 60 = 40.5 KWh per hour; this seems slow as the external temperature was about 14 degrees and the car had been driven for about two hours and therefore should I have expected more....
What are your thoughts on this and what speeds are you getting from you rapid charging?

 

[nielsvdv2]

Normally I don't use rapid chargers- but two weeks ago I needed to, being down to 20 miles on the GOM and 50 miles from home....
Pleasantly surpised at 50 kW from a superfast 150 kW Allego giving me 12.82 kWh in 15 minutes, most of the time hitting 51 kW! I wished I could have continued up to the 80% mark, but had to cut it short as I had to be home before curfew. As it happened, it was a narrow escape ....

 

[rbpasapera]

At a 100 kW charger I'm getting 52-ish kW up to around 60% SOC, power decreases to 40-ish kW and stays like that up to nearly 88% SOC and then it drops to 18-ish kW, so the charging speed depends on % SOC. When DC charging mine is averaging 45-ish kW of power.

 

[Jake]

I've never had higher than 36kWh rate so far but only tried during lower winter temperatures. Even after a 50+mile run and down to 20-25% SoC I was expecting higher although the ambient temperature was ~2 degree C. I am hoping to do some trials when temperatures stay in the teens or above and then consult my dealer if no improvement.

 

[Mark Holmes]

I've never had higher than 36kWh rate so far but only tried during lower winter temperatures. Even after a 50+mile run and down to 20-25% SoC I was expecting higher although the ambient temperature was ~2 degree C. I am hoping to do some trials when temperatures stay in the teens or above and then consult my dealer if no improvement.

I agree, I started this post to see what others were getting as I saw a post on YouTube that showed our car could initially if really low charge up to about 70 KWh....maybe it is the temperature!!
Albeit when I charged on my road trip I must admit to charge from 23% to 83% at 35 mins did only just give me time to get my lunch at the service station and eat it before setting off again so it wasn’t an issue at the time..

 

[Jake]

I agree, I started this post to see what others were getting as I saw a post on YouTube that showed our car could initially if really low charge up to about 70 KWh....maybe it is the temperature!!
Albeit when I charged on my road trip I must admit to charge from 23% to 83% at 35 mins did only just give me time to get my lunch at the service station and eat it before setting off again so it wasn’t an issue at the time..

Yes I have a graph obtained from FASTNED that shows charging rate for MG ZS at 75kWh from 17% SoC dropping to 50kWh at ~47% down to ~37kWh at 50% SoC then remains at that to 80% where it plummets to 15kWh. I found that 21/10/20 so not sure if that is still the case. I will try and find it again and post a link.

Like you say though if charge rate is sufficient during your food/loo break time then how much time would be saved if the maximum rate was achieved. Only important on a "splash'n'dash" stop I suppose?

 

[Mark Holmes]

Yes I have a graph obtained from FASTNED that shows charging rate for MG ZS at 75kWh from 17% SoC dropping to 50kWh at ~47% down to ~37kWh at 50% SoC then remains at that to 80% where it plummets to 15kWh. I found that 21/10/20 so not sure if that is still the case. I will try and find it again and post a link.

Like you say though if charge rate is sufficient during your food/loo break time then how much time would be saved if the maximum rate was achieved. Only important on a "splash'n'dash" stop I suppose?

Yes perhaps next time I’ll run down to the lower levels of percentage and see what level of KWh are pulled from about 10% instead....

 

[Lovemyev]

Tesla Bjorn appears to achieve the higher charging speeds when a rapid when using a certain criteria.
He likes to have the pack at a really low SOC ( far lower than I would be comfortable with ) and he likes to have the HV pack warm if possible.
The ambient temperature also plays a part in the resulting speed from the charger also.
Having a faster charging speed can be very convenient when you are in rush okay, but plying that high level of power into HV battery can not be good for the long term longevity of the pack surely ?????.
If you are able to afford the type of car that has the bigger size packs of 80 to 100.
Then is very likely you are a person who travels a lot and therefore time is very important factor in your life.
Then a faster charging speed is equally important then in this situation.
If you are only conducting long trips occasionally and are still able to receive enough energy to continue with your trip in the time it takes to grab some lunch and a toilet break, then I don’t see this a major problem really ???.
If the speed is that slow you are sitting in the car waiting to pick up enough range, then yes that is a problem.
Achieving around 50 Kw’s on a rapid from a low state of SOC is going to get you about 100 miles of range in the time it takes you to take a well earned break I would have thought ?.
When the pack reaches 80% the charging speed is going to massively throttle back anyway, so it’s time to move on at this point anyway.
If the rapid was to hit 75kw’s instead of around 50 ish, how much time would you likely gain, ten minutes I guess ????.
If you find yourself regularly sitting around on a rapid waiting to continue your journey on a daily basis, then another type of EV maybe the order of the day.

 

[JodyS21]

I have no experience of rapid chargers, but my thoughts...

Just because a charger is advertised as "XX"kWh, does that really mean it is always capable of outputting that full amount?

If the local supply is under a fair amount of other load, does it adjust to not use it's full potential?
If there are multiple chargers/car charging, I presume there is probably a maximum combined output that location can output?

 

[slarod]

I have no experience of rapid chargers, but my thoughts...

Just because a charger is advertised as "XX"kWh, does that really mean it is always capable of outputting that full amount?

If the local supply is under a fair amount of other load, does it adjust to not use it's full potential?
If there are multiple chargers/car charging, I presume there is probably a maximum combined output that location can output?

Hi JodyS21, most rapid chargers today on the same grid or network use some kind of load sharing
or balancing of the available power @ the charging location, as you have seen with Bjørn Nylund
when he is going to charge, he never like to share the same stall, then you split the power output
with the next one charging, see link below for some more information on sharing/balancing.

Load balancing

 

[rbpasapera]

FYI

kW = power, charging rate
kWh = energy