Fast charging curves
Fastned made some useful tests to show how different electric cars handle fast charging. This is particularly important for those who plan to use fast chargers regularly.
Let’s see the results.
Nissan Leaf
Charge curve by Fastned: Nissan Leaf
- 24 kWh edition: fast charging until 25%, charging will gradually go slower after this
- 30 kWh edition: fast charging until 80%, charging will go slower after this
- 40 kWh edition: fast charging until 60%, charging will go slower after this
BMW i3
Charge curve by Fastned: BMW i3
- 22 kWh edition: fast charging until 65%, charging will go slower above this
- 33 kWh edition: fast charging until 85%, charging will go slower above this
Hyundai IONIQ Electric
Charge curve by Fastned: Hyundai IONIQ Electric
On average the Ioniq charges 100 km in 15 – 25 minutes. Above 75% the charge speed requested by the car will drop, and above 85% the charge speed is reduced to 22 kW.
Volkswagen e-Golf
Charge curve by Fastned: Volkswagen e-Golf
- 26 kWh edition: fast charging until 75%, charging will go slower after this
- 36 kWh edition: fast charging until 80%, charging will go slower after this
Opel Ampera-e/Chevrolet Bolt EV
Charge curve by Fastned: Opel Ampera-e
The Ampera-e charges fastest until about 55%. At this point the car will gradually reduce charge speed and as of 70% the car will start charging slowly.
Anyway, remember that those tests were made at optimal conditions. When batteries reach higher temperatures, BMS (Battery Management System) decrease charging rates to protect them, especially when there isn’t a TMS (Thermal Management System) to cool them down.
The Hyundai Ioniq really is a great car. With it’s battery cooling possiblity and great efficiency it’s a good car for longer travels! Interesting to see how the Jaguar I-Pace and Audi E-tron will hold up against Tesla
Great post. Of note the Bolt EV / Ampera-e curve looks like it was for a 125A DCFC. It will be able to charge faster up to 55% on a higher amperage DCFC.
Hi Neromanceres, can you point me to some further information about higher amperage DCFC that the Bolt / Ampera-e can use? Are any of these existing yet? I’d appreciate anything you have on this. I’ve heard this before, but can’t find any solid information about it…
Excellent article, but where is Tesla? Did I miss something?
Yes, you missed that Teslas can’t charge at Fastned stations.
Oops, I was wrong. Apologies! They can charge, but is limited to what the adapter cable give, which is 50 kW.
I think Tesla owners don’t used Fastened because the SC network is implemented in most strategic places in Netherlands. Also it’s free charging for model s/x owners. But next year with arrivals of model 3 and especially Standard range, the difference in charging time between chademo and SC will be very low (few minutes up to 10 minutes), both will be paying. So wait for next year for more data regarding Tesla.
Of course Tesla can charge at Fastened with Chademo adapter, it’s available at the station.
https://support.fastned.nl/hc/en-gb/articles/205418987-Charging-with-a-Tesla-model-S-X
Tesla owners are the largest customer group of Fastned. The 60+ FastNed stations are strategically placed in the Netherlands.
I’m a bit surprised by the Ioniq charging curves. If it can charge with more than 60kW when connected to a 150kW charger, why does it limit charging to little more than 40kW at equivalent SoC levels when connected to a 50kW charger? Don’t they work both with the same 400V? Is it a charger limitation or a software “defect” of the ioniq? At least I’d say it’s not for protecting the battery and i regard it as non logical.
A 50 kW charger is often current limited, and can only give 50 kW when the voltage is high enough (500V). No car that I know of reaches that high battery voltage.
Does not seem very accurate information, ioniq did not limit the charging speed in any way from 50kW tap. It was pulling everything the charger was able to give until 75% or so.
It’s amp limited to 125a by a 50kW station.
At 175a it will pull 70kW (175a*400v). So it’s not the Ioniq that’s limiting the charge to 50kW, it’s the available power at the charger.
And the small note about systems without a TMS: this applies to the VW eGolf as well as the Leaf. The eGolf even lacks a battery heater, but its slower charging rate keeps the battery from eating itself
The lower charging power in eGolf is caused by its different battery cell configuration. eGolf battery using 88s cell configuration instead of most common 96s configuration and so it has significantly lower voltage which is projected into the lower charging power. Standard 120A charger can give peak power of 120A*403,6V = 50kW to the 96s battery, but only 120A*369,6V = 44kW to the 88s eGolf Battery.
Great post. It’ll be interesting to see the new curves as FastNed installs 150kW and 350kW CCS, and new models like the i-Pace arrive.
Would be useful to see temps of battery on these plots as Ive seen better speeds on the Leaf 40 eg 44kW to 80% but only when battery temp is low, the charge speed is definitely related to battery temp in the Leaf and suspect is the same for other manufacturers
Hi I appreciate to read your post !! really thank U
I want to know what’s mean Charge speed