- When charging the Chevy Equinox EV from a 150 kW charger, it by no means receives greater than 100 kW, proprietor and charging professional Tom Moloughney reviews.
- When charging it from a 350 kW charger, it does take 150 kW, however the whole charging time is not considerably decrease.
Once you need to cost an electrical automobile at its most DC quick charging price, you solely need to discover a charger that delivers that quantity, proper? Properly, that is probably not the case with the 2024 Chevrolet Equinox EV, and this video explains why that’s the case and in addition why discovering a extra highly effective charger does not actually matter.
Tom Moloughney put collectively this prolonged video for his channel State of Cost to clarify why although Chevrolet says you possibly can cost the Equinox EV at as much as 150 kilowatts in the event you plug it into most 150 kW chargers, its precise charging velocity will most likely be decrease. He recorded 4 separate charging periods utilizing completely different DC quick chargers, two flat to full periods, 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 although in most 400-volt EVs it stays nicely above 300 volts even when their state of cost is near zero, it might probably drop as little as 260 volts within the electrical Equinox when its pack is near depleted.
This decrease pack voltage signifies that the automotive 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 have the ability 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 automotive 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 petering out.
When charging from an EVgo 350 kW charger, the automotive rapidly begins charging at 150 kW. Nevertheless, although the 350 kW station began charging the automotive faster at first, the 150 kW charger finally caught up, and, at the very least on this collection of exams, it truly completed charging faster. Tom attributes to the end-of-charge cell balancing taking longer on the extra highly effective charger.
The Equinox is just not be among the many finest EVs for quick charging, and Normal Motors hasn’t revealed its official 10 to 80% charging time, but it surely nonetheless did fairly nicely in Tom’s exams. It lags behind key rivals just like the Tesla Mannequin Y or the Kia EV6, though we are saying it’s not sufficient to break what general is an excellent electrical automobile, at the very least primarily based on our first drive expertise.