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EV-Charging

Ora Jolt

This page is being edited as I've moved the charging section from the Aptera-EV page to here.


Since I've owned the Ora the only range anxiety I've had was when I was given a petrol powered loaner. I've never had less that 200ish Klm in reserve.
Unless I do a serious road trip this is unlikely to change. How I charge my car is very different to how I filled up my fuelled cars.
I used to put off filling up as long as possible and fill it up full so I didn't have to repeat the process for as long as possible.
Filling up was a nuisance and parting with a few grand a year this way didn't make it any better.
On the other hand I don't mind plugging after most trips. I enjoy some of the challenges and enjoy charging for free or nearly so.
Spending hours at a public charger would be a drag but most EV charging happens at home and the convenience makes up for the occasional inconvenience of public chargers.


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Older section.

People with no EV experience often assume you need to install an expensive charger to charge your EVs at home. This is rarely the case in places with 220V-240V power.
Charging off 110V is more of a challenge. The lower voltage only allows level-1 charging. I have no experience with this but for the same wall socket current it will be about twice as slow. Aptera needs much less power/energy, so level-1 may be practical when charging a less efficient EV is not.
Being in Australia I use level-2 home charging. My car came with a 8 amp "charger". Most EVs come with a charger.
I used quotes because it isn't really a charger. For level 1 and 2 the actual charger is inside the car. The external box in more of a wall socket interface.
It is also called and EVSE but that doesn't really roll off the tongue.
For level-3 (DC) the external charger really is a charger.
I also bought 3 level-2 chargers off ebay for about $230aus ($150USD) each. These are often power adjustable .
A standard power socket is oz is rated at 10 amps. Watts equals volts by amps - so 2.4kW of power - or 2.4 kWh per hour.
Charging is not %100 efficient so maybe 2.2 kW is stored in the battery. My PHEV got about 5 Klm per kWh. 5*2.2 is 11 so about 11Klm or about 6Ml of range per hour of charge. The Ora is getting about 7 Klm per kWh.
Aptera on the other hand expects 17 Klm per kWh or 37Klm/22Ml per hour of charge at 240V/10A.
Aptera LE (launch edition) specs are 13Ml/22Klm and 57Ml/95Klm of range per hour of charging at 110V and 240V. You won't get the latter from a standard ozzie power point.
It isn't quite that simple because charging slows down as you approach full charge.
With an overnight charge of 12 hours at 240V/10A you'd expect 126Klm/75Ml for a typical medium sized EV and 444Lkm/266Ml for an Aptera.
These are very rough numbers based my 1750KG (empty) PHEV - some EVs will do better and some will be much worse.
Regular NMC/ternary (see below) lithium batteries are usually only charged to %80 or so to extend life and running them flat is also to be avoided. Other chemistries are not so fussy.
Obviously you fully charge and discharge when you need to.
My setup is not optimal but it still takes less than 15 seconds to plug or unplug my charging cable - so plugging in frequently is less work than a weekly trip for fuel. There is no sense in running the battery flat when it is so easy to top up.

A/C charging.

Note that the car's onboard AC charger may be quite limited. My PHEV could only do 3.6 kW max, the Ora 7.2 kW. Aptera is expected to be 6.6kW. This is fine for most home charging but not fine if you want to charge quickly at a public A/C charger which is capable of more. Also not fine if you want to fit a high power AC charging station at home.
Also note type-1 J-plug and NACS are single phase only. Type 2 and CCS can handle 3 phase and charge faster.

Built in Solar Charging.

A car that can charge itself will be great for a lot of people. About %80 of Aptera orders are for the full solar package. I'm one of the other %20.
Aptera offers up to 40miles/66Klm of sun powered charging per day with full solar. For that you need to be in a sunny area and actually park in the sun. Clouds and shade from trees and building will reduce the solar charging speed.
I park undercover whenever possible. Sun is bad for cars. Heat is bad for battery life. I prefer to use home solar to charge.
Many people don't have undercover parking and don't have cheap power - Aptera full solar may solve their charging needs.
It sounds ideal for people with 9 to 5 jobs who park in the sun near work.

DC Charging

My PHEV had a CHAdeMO socket for DC charging - it was never used. CCS and NACS can also be used for DC. Public chargers up to 360KW already exist for cars. Electric trucks will use even high power. Most cars can't charge at those power levels. Aperta is expected to charge at around 50KW. It could be higher or lower in the production model. Seeing it is 3 times more efficient than most cars it will give you the same range as a 150kW charger on a regular EV.
It isn't quite that simple as charge rate is likely to drop as charging progresses. We might see 300Klm in 20Min - time will tell. Battery temperature will also play a factor. Frequent fast charging may reduce battery life.

Public Charging

I have only used a public charger twice for fun. Both were free.The first was a charge-fox AC charger at a shopping centre whether I sometime have time to kill. I bought a $180au cable to get one a $1-$2 worth or so of free power - not the best ROI. I also waited 3 hrs for a Tesla to move from the spot (one charger for a large shopping centre), I could only charge at 3.6KW so even my failing tiny battery took 2.5Hrs to charge - 6KWH of juice. Not something I will repeat with that car.
The second was a less slow DC charge at a Jolt charger.

Apart from one charge (above) I have no experience with public chargers (until now). Where I drive most (Nimbin NSW and Brisbane Qld) chargers are far between. I would not want to be relying on them at this time. I expect things will improve massively by the end of the decade. If I had a pure EV with 600K range it would be very rare not to charge privately. Globally there are reports of unreliable networks. Some are just broken but many are deliberately vandalized. Tesla seem to have the best network. Tesla is opening up to allowing non-teslas to use their chargers but there are some wrinkles. A new consortium of seven other EV makers is planning a new network.

Roadside Charging

I think it was the NRMA (National Roads and Motorists' Association) Australia that reported call outs for flat EV batteries were fewer than call outs for dead 12 Volt batteries in EVs. Strange but many EVs still need a 12V battery to operate.
If you do get stuck - towing is not the only option. Roadside assistance services will often have chargers to give you a bit of range to reach a charger. If the assistance vehicle is a large EV it may be able to charge V2V (vehicle to vehicle).
Smaller private EVs may also be able to give a slow V2V charge. Many EVs will have limited AC out which may be enough for a level1 or level2 charger. A small fueled generator should also work. People have also "tow charged". This means the flat EV is towed by something else and the regen braking is used to put some charge into its battery (I'm not recommending this).
Of course with a Aptera you just need some sun. The Aptera AC output is expected to be only 600W so no V2V is possible without a separate V2G/V2V gadget.

NACS

The NACS (North American Charging Standard) or the Tesla plug is unsurprisingly becoming the standard EVs and Charging networks are using (or switching too) in the USA.
Surprising to me was that Tesla uses CCS in other countries (CCS2 in Oz). NACS is a neat small connector which does both AC and DC charging. Its only drawback is it lacks the ability to use 3 phase AC. I don't know if it will become a global standard.
Apatera will use NACS. Assuming they use NACS on international models too and Australian charging networks don't support them - we will need to use adapters. Adapters seem to be readily available. Prices aren't outrageous. Ebay has J1772 to NACS for $40, CCS2 to NACS is $250ish. Update : Cheap adapters are likely to be banned from public chargers.

Charging Cost

In my case charging using a domestic traffic (au25cents/KWH) would cost around 1/3 of using fuel. If you can get a good off-peak tariff it will cost a fraction of that. I know some places pay a lot more for power and less for fuel - YMMV. At home I'm off-grid and pay nothing - but some days I can't charge. There is also (slow) free public chargers if you can find them. The Jolt network DC chargers currently offer 7kWh for free.
Fast charging here (Oz) can be aus30-75cents/kWh. At the high end you aren't saving much over fuel. Public AC (slower) charging is not much more than the domestic tariff and sometimes less. In Oz the "Jolt" network offers 7kWh per day for free - that's 40-50Klm on most EVs but about 110Klm for Aptera. Jolt power is also carbon free.
Idle charges are also being introduced. Basically a charge if you don't move off when your EV is charged. There is a grace period (5min) and charges may depend on how many unused chargers are at the site.
In Australia energy retailers such as Amber Electric let you buy power based on the spot prices. In some states power prices often go negative (not sure if you get paid to use power) and most states will have cheap power at some times. If you charge when power in cheap you could do very well but there may be times when prices go crazy high as well. If your EV battery has a high cycle life and your EV has V2G (vehicle to grid) capability you could make serious money charging on cheap power and selling it back to the grid when prices are high. Of course this is true of other home storage (such as power walls) as well.
Even if you are on a flat rate power rate, charging your car when the spot price is low could be a "green" thing to do. That is charge when there is a lot of renewable power online and avoid charging with the grid is powered by using a lot of fossil fuel.
In Australia the aemo.com.au/ site lets you monitor the spot prices and current energy mix.


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Created by eddie. Last Modification: Thursday 10 of October, 2024 17:47:57 AEDT by eddie.

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