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https://insideevs.com/features/730299/hyundai-kona-dc-fast-charging-test/>
"It’s Sunday, and I’m at my local Kroger grocery store in downtown Columbus
seeking to get a few odds and ends before I start my work week. I’m a young
single person who can’t figure out how to grocery shop efficiently, so I visit
this Kroger several times a week. It’s a newer store with amenities designed to
attract the new money young professionals that live downtown; we’ve got artisan
cheeses and wine tasting, but also a four-stall EVGo DC fast charging station.
Yet on this particular Sunday, Every stall was full there. There was a Chevy
Bolt with temporary tags splitting the 350 kW unit with an F-150 Lightning with
out-of-state plates, while a Mustang Mach-E with a temp tag and a Carvana plate
frame and a Honda Prologue driver puzzled over how the two remaining 100 kW
units worked. All parties looked confused if not impatient; awkwardly pacing
while their cars charged. Another EV waited off to the side, waiting for one of
the stalls to free up.
Clearly, these were all new EV owners still figuring things out. I have no
plans on shaming anyone for their charging habits, including the new Bolt owner
connected to a charging lead that its 55 kW max speed could never hope to
utilize. But, what I saw was just another sign that we had absolutely no clue
how to effectively optimize our charging infrastructure.
Because there’s no chance that all four of those cars needed to DC fast charge
at a grocery store that isn’t all that close to a freeway. Yet that’s exactly
the kind of charger that’s getting the vast majority of funding to grow our
electric infrastructure. It’s going toward a world where DC fast chargers,
despite all their high costs and compatibility problems, are being set up to be
replacement gas stations—which is counter to how EVs should work.
After piling 1,070 miles on a 2024 Hyundai Kona solely on AC power, I would
wager that they didn’t need DC fast charging at all. Heck, I’m not sure anyone
really needs DC fast charging outside of a road trip—or at least, not nearly on
the level that our public policies are driving toward."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
