The charging curve is one of the weakest on the market.
Volkswagen Group’s triplets – Volkswagen e-up! (2nd model evolution), Škoda CITIGOe iV and SEAT Mii Electric – are one of the most popular small EVs in Europe, but how fast do they charge?
Well, the official numbers for DC fast charging is 0-80% in 60 minutes, using a 40 kW DC Combo 2 charger, which is far from being fast. At least the on-board charger is 7.2 kW.
Fastned, as a fast-charging provider, had an opportunity to test the triplets and collect data, which we will analyse below.
Charging power vs state-of-charge (SOC)
According to the results, the peak charging rate of the triplets (all three are the same) is 38 kW. It’s one of the lowest levels among DC rechargeable EVs on the market. The first thought would be that there is no liquid cooling for the battery pack (to cut costs). On the other hand, it’s not a big issue in a city car.
The charging curve is quite flat – starts at about 35 kW and peaks at around 30% SOC. Then we see a relatively steady decline up to around 75% SOC (21 kW) before the decline accelerates.
The average charging power vs state-of-charge (SOC)
The average power when charging from 20% to 80% SOC is just 30 kW. Not really fast.
The average charging power vs state-of-charge (SOC)
Considering that the battery pack is 36.8 kWh, the peak C-rate of DC fast charging is about 1C.
*C-rate tells us how the charging power relates to the battery pack capacity. For example: 1C is 1-hour charging power (current), when the power value in kW is equal to the battery pack capacity in kWh. 2C would be enough to recharge in half an hour.
Charging range replenishing speed vs state-of-charge (SOC)
The charging power is relatively low, but let’s take a look at the effective speed of range replenishing.
The triplets can get up to 260 km (162 miles) of WLTP range, using 32.3 kWh of usable battery capacity, which is 124 Wh/km (200 Wh/mile).
The effective speed of range replenishing in km/minute (miles/minute) would be then as follows:
It’s 5 km/min (3.1 miles/min) at best, but should be enough in most cases in the cities (10 minutes to add 50 km/31 miles).
General info:
* Some values on the charts are estimated from the data source.
** Temperature of the battery cells might highly negatively affect charging capabilities. We don’t have data about temperatures of the battery at the beginning and during the charging process. In cold or hot weather, as well as after driving very dynamically, charging power might be significantly lower than shown on the charts (in extreme cases charging might be impossible until the battery temperature will not return to an acceptable level).
Source:Fastned
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