BC Hydro charger kills EVs

Thanks for the info. I stop here every time I return from the Island to get me home. It's curious that it is limited to this one charging station. Sure wish that BC Ferries had a system where you could charge while waiting for a ferry or even on the ferry. Lots of non productive idle time.

 

From the article the cars damaged were both Nissan Leafs. Is it a CHAdeMO issue? I didn't think the J1772 protocol is prone to that kind of risk.

 

We tried to charge there last year after getting off the ferry. We tried several times it did not work so we went to another charger. I guess we were lucky it did not work.

 

Today I took my Ariya to this (Horsehoe Bay) recently upgraded charging station (50kW to 100kW) to try out DCFC for the first time on the car.

Both me and the other person charging at the same time had problems with the plug being locked in the charging port and not being able to start the charging session. The other person was on the phone with BC Hydro who said to unlock the car 3 times which should unlock the plug, take the plug out and then lock the car and then unlock it and then plug in again and to use the app to start the charging sessions. It worked for their car, but not mine. I tried all kinds of variables of locking and unlocking the car but in the end I found that locking the car and then walking far enough away that the car couldn't sense the fob and then unlocking the car with the fob would unlock the plug. The app didn't work but the BC Hydro card did start the charging session. Had the same problem when ending the charge. The plug was locked and had to go through the same routine that unlocked it to start the session.

On the charging itself, the maximum rate was 63kW. The Ariya is supposed to have a max of 130kW. I don't know if it's a problem with the charging station which has a max of 100kW or my car. Charged for about 36 minutes which cost, with taxes, $11.00 for 33.18kW which is about $0.33 per kWh --kind of expensive for a relatively slow charge.

So, the charging station no longer kills EV's, it just tries to keep them hostage. I suppose that's progress...?

 

Well you can't get more power from a charger then it can provide. So you can't expect 130 kW out of a 100 kW charger.

Secondly, how fast an electric car charges depends on several things: the temperature of the battery, the level of charge in the battery, the voltage of the electrical system and whether or not you are sharing the charging location. If your car can precondition the battery before charging, that would help.

Note if you look at some of the comments on Plugshare, most folks don't get the maximum charge rate their car can handle at the charging station. Unfortunately, a lot of the max charging rates seen in the marketing materials, happens only under ideal conditions.

Thirdly, $0.33 CND per kWh is cheap when compared to what we pay in the States for public DC charging. We're envious.

 

Depends on how the charger is setup and how your vehicle is designed for charging. I often get 180KWs out of 150 KW Electrify Canada chargers. In this case, the vehicle is designed to transform the voltage up to 800 Vs and the 150 KWs are indeed capable of 180 KWs ... but not 200 KWs.

 

I believe there is a correction factor of -277.3V+800V (522.7V) for RWD and -103V+800V (697V) for AWD.

 

Your explanation isn't good enough to make me believe what you are saying. Power equals E x I x power factor. If you bump the voltage up the current has to go down, however the power says the same. The only gain that I can see is a lower current reduces the I^2xR losses. So 30 kW of gain due to less I^2xR loss seems like a lot to me.

I look forward to reading a more detailed explanation.

I just looked at three EA charging location comments on plugshare and I didn't see anyone saying they where getting more then what plugshare says the charger is rated at.

 

My point was not that I was expecting more power than the charging station can provide, but the car is capable of receiving the 100kW the station purports to be able to supply

Temperature of the battery: 25 degrees C (the car had been driven for 45 minutes and the battery heater was on)
Level of charge: 53% So, plenty of room before the power starts getting throttled.
Voltage: No Idea. BC Hydro is our power utility in BC. Don't see how this factors in to them stating it supplies up to 100kW
Sharing: Again, both stations are 100kW so no sharing going on.

Yes, I'm well aware of not getting maximum charge rate having had a Leaf for 8 years. I never got the maximum 50kW but 63kW is a long way from 100kW specified for the station, especially when you are paying a premium for the service.

Perhaps one of the few things cheaper in Canada than parts of the US. Our residential rate is $0.0959 per kWh for 1st 1,350kWh in a 2 month period and $0.1422 after that.