Sorry, probably wasn’t clear, but yes, I was trying to operate in the charging range that is fast and linear. My rough understanding is that you can go from ~15-20% to ~80-85% quickly, ie 15 minutes, but then spend a lot of time per % charged outside that range.
It’s actually fastest for us around 0% (although I haven’t tried it below 2%). Our VW will stay at around 185 kW up until 25% and then start slowing down. Around 60% it will dip below 100 kW and by 80% be at 70 kW.
The Lucid Air does have a nice charging curve, here is Car & Driver’s comparison of the Air vs the Tesla Model S.
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Interesting, as is the chart.
Do charging stations charge by the watt-hour, or by the minute?
For Tesla, by the kW.
Nearly all charge by the kWh. Some will charge you an ‘idle fee’ if you leave your car parked there after charging. I have encountered one charger in Oklahoma that charges by the minute regardless of how many kW it’s delivering - it’s owned by a smaller shop called Francis Energy.
I’m confused by the left side of that graph. Why the steep slope upward?
If it’s 11% charged it charges slower than if it’s 12% charged?
If it’s 10% charged the charging power is 0? How do you ever get it above 10%?
What if it’s only 9% charged? Negative charging power?!?!
I think some combination of the battery warming up and maybe the charger taking some time to get to full speed. Batteries like to be warm when charging.
If you’re on a road trip in a Tesla, it knows when you are heading to a charger and it will warm the battery, maybe they didn’t do that in the test.
The term that seems to be used is preconditioning. Not sure of all the science, but it can also be bms limiting the charge rate to reduce chances of damage.
Also, i wouldn’t try to extrapolate from the graph. I would bet the source was a study that started at 10% soc.
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Gotta protect the Canadian car manufacturers.
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As well as close a back door for Chinese imports to circumvent US tariffs and funnel Chinese-made cars to the US.
Like the US, Canada is massively subsidizing local EV production. The tariffs try to protect that taxpayer subsidy. Two bad policies do not make a good one though.
I was hoping to see some BYDs next time I’m in Canada but unlikely now. There are quite a few in Aus and NZ.
Hopefully the Chinese manufacturers will decide to build in Canada and the US if they have a better product and can do so here price effectively. However more likely to set up in Mexico to benefit from the North American trade agreement.
There are plans to build in Mexico. I believe Trump was talking about nixing that as a way of getting around the tariff. That may have been before Musk convinced him that EVs are OK.
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FWIW, the only EVs imported into Canada from China currently are Teslas. They dominate the market here.
I mean, ICE vehicles have an excuse for going up in blazes, but then they have been built to minimize that as much as possible (Pinto, anyone?). EV’s? Eh. Never gonna happen so why bother.
Also, it’s an electrical fire. Water doesn’t fix that. What kind of firefighters are these? Also means other types of suffocation products will need to be available on firetrucks all the time.
It’s a Cyberdumpster fire!
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Not exactly. The rapid discharge of the electric stored energy causes the battery material (normally electrolytes first) to catch fire. It can cause a cascade of more cell failures and more burning. A gas tank fire ends up being more of an explosion; the battery is more of a slow motion explosion. Removing the heat that prevents all the battery cells from going into runaway discharge/overheating/open flames can be done with water. Just a lot of it.
I contrast that with an electrical fire from a grid connected device. You remove the source of the electricity as a first step in combatting those fires. Otherwise there is a power source that keeps pumping energy into the location until it burns up its cord/delivery device.
My hypothetical device to reduce impact is a barrier that is stored deflated. Put around the vehicle, then filled with water to give it some strength. Then fill the interior area (where the vehicle is) with water, effectively submerging the battery in a kiddie pool. No idea if it is practical, but it is an idea.
Oh, and some battery chemistries are more resistant to thermal runaway than others. LFP, the cheaper, less energy dense chemistry is somewhat safer than the NMC and other varieties. Solid state will be more so, I think.