DCFC. How important to current EV owners?

[SnBGC]

I have observed a lot of discussion and concern regarding DC fast charging and it got me wondering how many current EV owners are worried about the DC charging capabilities and infrastructure. I admit I was worried about charging capabilities before I bought my EV but now that I have owned one for 18 months....DCFC isnt really a concern for me any longer. I am glad my car has the capability but I rarely use it. It is nice to have and I wouldn't buy an EV without the capability but otherwise it is a non issue to me. Am I in the minority here? For those of you that currently drive an EV.....how often do you fast charge and how important is charging speed and curve rates etc?

I put 40,000 miles on my EV in 18 months and I maybe used DCFC about 4 or 5 times. How about you guys? How often do you really fast charge your EV?

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[AndyS_OSU]

I’ve used DCFC twice in 6 years of EV driving. But then again I lease and mine have really just been commuter cars.

Currently I drive maybe 700 miles per month. I maybe charge at home once a week at most.

 

[EVer]

It’s an afterthought for me. Only matters if I want to take a road trip which is rare, less than once a year on average.

The farthest I have gone is San Diego CA to Park City UT. It was no sweat. Mainly I’m a commuter.

 

[SnBGC]

Wow. I didnt think anyone used there EV in that way. Sounds like the current infrastructure works fine for you. Tesla? Or something else?

 

[ajmartineau]

Same, I rarely use a DCFC, but I would not own a car without one. I would even require it on a plug-in hybrid. my$.02... it would be hard to sell it used w/o it. Every Nubbie thinks they will use iDCFC all the time.

 

[GoGoGadgetMachE]

Same, I rarely use a DCFC, but I would not own a car without one. I would even require it on a plug-in hybrid. my$.02... it would be hard to sell it used w/o it. Every Nubbie thinks they will use iDCFC all the time.

so, this is going to be somewhat opinion-ish as a general topic (and that's okay) - for me, as an early-ish PHEV owner, with about 15-22 mi of real life range (weather etc. dependent), DCFC feels a bit silly for that specific use case. It's not worth going out of my way (even like a block) to charge to get that little bit of electric range when I get 400+ miles on gas without breaking a sweat, and it would annoy me to know I paid for the capability. I can go zero to full on Level 2 in under three hours, which for home charging is plenty fine, and for longer-range travel... well, again, gas means I never even think twice about it.

Pretty much the only time I've thought about charging on the road at all is when I've driven to Columbus a few times to stay (so I charged at the hotel overnight on 120V) or Akron for work (charging on Level 2 at the customer site)... oh, and I guess at the airport parking lot that I used to use when that was a thing, because they had free 120V outlets at dedicated spaces (which, hell, 3 days to charge, who the hell cares, you're halfway across the country )...

That said I've used the free Level 2 charging at the local Meijer on occasion just because I can.

 

[SnBGC]

So the current CCS is a major concern for you then.....
Not sure I would make the switch away from Tesla if i used my EV in that way. I admire your commitment to BEV with your transportation needs. Very impressive.

 

[JamieGeek]

Same, I rarely use a DCFC, but I would not own a car without one. I would even require it on a plug-in hybrid. my$.02... it would be hard to sell it used w/o it. Every Nubbie thinks they will use iDCFC all the time.

Some PHEV's don't have DCFC because the battery isn't big enough to make it worth the while. A small battery won't be able to charge very quickly (granted it doesn't take much charge to fill up a small battery either). Thus you won't get 150kW or even 50kW charging capability in a PHEV.

I've used DCFC twice on the Bolt, but like everyone else I wouldn't own an EV without it, however. If you purchased the EV you likely wouldn't be able to sell it if it didn't have DCFC (or wouldn't be able to get the $$ out of it you would want).

Before we got the Bolt we rented one on vacation in San Francisco (yeah couldn't get more EV friendly right?). Since we couldn't charge where we stayed we used DCFC in that case quite frequently.

I also use it mostly for commuting but also want to take it for a long drive. I think I'm unique in here, however, in that we frequently take the Bolt on long trips but tow it so DCFC isn't necessary in that case.

 

[jlauro]

IMO, a DCFC will not make much difference resale value for a plug-in hybrid. Their all electric range is so low it would be crazy to stop every 15 minutes. That said, even a low range (150 miles) all EV it would be a requirement...

 

[generaltso]

My Outlander PHEV has Chademo. I tried it once just to see if it worked. But I never found a reason to use it again.

 

[dbsb3233]

IMO, a DCFC will not make much difference resale value for a plug-in hybrid. Their all electric range is so low it would be crazy to stop every 15 minutes. That said, even a low range (150 miles) all EV it would be a requirement...

Exactly. The whole point of a PHEV is to put the first 20-30 miles of the day on electric, and anything beyond that on gas like normal. Which for the typical driver should put upwards of 70-80% of their annual miles on electricity since most driving (for the vast majority) is daily use near home.

PHEVs were never intended to completely eliminate the use of gas. That's what BEVs are for. BEVs absolutely need DCFC charging capability on the road, but it doesn't make sense for PHEVs as they can far more easily/quickly be refueled on the road with gas (that's why it's there).

 

[timbop]

If drove as you do, I don't think I would leave Tesla unless there was a significantly compelling reason. If you lean on the supercharging network that much, you are going to have issues leaving it. Maybe 3 or 4 years from now would be a better time to go with a CCS car?

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