While you need to cost an electrical car at its most DC quick charging price, you solely must discover a charger that delivers that quantity, proper? Effectively, that will not be the case with the 2024 Chevrolet Equinox EV, and this video explains why that’s the case and likewise why discovering a extra highly effective charger would not actually matter.
Tom Moloughney put collectively this prolonged video for his channel State of Cost to elucidate why despite the fact that Chevrolet says you possibly can cost the Equinox EV at as much as 150 kilowatts should you plug it into most 150 kW chargers, its precise charging pace will in all probability be decrease. He recorded 4 separate charging classes utilizing totally different DC quick chargers, two flat to full classes, and two extra from 20% to 80%.
The rationale for the lower-than-expected charging energy, even from a charger that’s rated to ship it, has to do with the Equinox EV’s battery pack voltage. Tom explains that despite the fact that in most 400-volt EVs it stays effectively above 300 volts even when their state of cost is near zero, it may possibly drop as little as 260 volts within the electrical Equinox when its pack is near depleted.
This decrease pack voltage implies that the automobile has to name on extra amps from the charging station, and most 150 kW stations within the U.S. can not ship it. That’s why if you wish to see your Equinox EV charging on the marketed 150 kW, you’ll have to discover a extra highly effective charger, which ought to be capable to ship the additional amperage that it wants.
Tom discovered that when charging the Equinox EV from 0% on a 150 kW Electrify America station, the ability going into the automobile by no means exceeds 100 kW. It stays fairly constant, although, and it maintains between 80 and 100 kW till about 80% state of cost when it begins truly fizzling out.
When charging from an EVgo 350 kW charger, the automobile rapidly begins charging at 150 kW. Nevertheless, despite the fact that the 350 kW station began charging the automobile faster at first, the 150 kW charger ultimately caught up, and, no less than on this collection of assessments, it truly completed charging faster. Tom attributes to the end-of-charge cell balancing taking longer on the extra highly effective charger.
The Equinox just isn’t be among the many greatest EVs for quick charging, and Normal Motors hasn’t revealed its official 10 to 80% charging time, however it nonetheless did fairly effectively in Tom’s assessments. It lags behind key rivals just like the Tesla Mannequin Y or the Kia EV6, though we are saying it’s not sufficient to spoil what total is an excellent electrical car, no less than primarily based on our first drive expertise.