Obsessed with the fear of the car running out of power
After receiving the Honda e electric car to start the experience, a reporter from Carscoops – a news site specializing in automobiles decided to conduct a practical experience in Athens, Greece. Their goal was to find out how people living in areas without dedicated parking spaces, or overnight charging stations, would use electric vehicles, and if there were problems.
When the price of gasoline increases, electric cars immediately become the “focus” of many people’s attention. However, in fact, the common living conditions of many people are often not very convenient for this type of car.
The experience took place on the weekend, at the time of departure, the battery of the Honda e was only about 50%. With this battery level, the car will travel a maximum distance of 77km. The plan to use the car that day is to visit relatives on the other end of town and according to Google Maps calculations, the distance to travel is up to 76km. Seems like this is not a very safe option. Therefore, they set off hoping to find a charging station along the way.
Experience charging with standard electrical systems in households
The experience journey is divided into several stages, the first leg is 18km long and consumes 10% of the battery – exactly as originally planned.
The car has only 40% battery left after the first leg.
After the first stop, thanks to the availability of both home chargers and external charging cables in the car, they can charge with a universal power source in a friend’s garage. However, after 1 hour and 15 minutes, the Honda e only increased by only … 4% battery (equivalent to a distance of 7 km). Thus, to fully charge they will have to wait another 15 hours.
The plus point of this car is that the charging method is quite simple.
After the first charge, there is a plus for Honda e is that charging the car battery seems much easier than imagined after the user spent 10 minutes trying to find the charging button inside the cabin and realized that, to To charge the battery, just turn on the power switch and adjust the charging current.
Standard household electrical systems are only suitable for overnight charging. This can cause problems for users because it will take a long time for a full charge.
Experience searching for charging stations along the way
The second leg of this journey started when they realized that the electricity system in households would take a long time to wait, they took advantage of the internet and searched for a charging point near the next destination. – the southern suburban center and located right near the beach – where thousands of people often come here to sunbathe every weekend, also an expensive area, many supercars and luxury SUVs.
However, contrary to expectations, it is possible to find a few charging stations to charge and rest assured to move and enjoy the journey. But unfortunately, the search feature on Honda’s information system now gives an error even though the car is connected to Wi-Fi via mobile phone.
Taplo of Honda e looks quite nice and modern.
Worry gradually increased, they were forced to try searching other charging point finder apps and Google Maps. Luckily, they found 2 charging points: 1 located in 1 building (10 min walk) and at a gas station (15 min walk).
After thinking about it for a while, they chose the second one because it was convenient and seemed to be safer. But when they arrived, the gas station staff said that none of the charging sockets worked, they were broken a long time ago. At this time, the car has only 20% battery left, equivalent performance can travel a maximum distance of 34km. A reckless decision continued to be made because it was estimated that there were only 21km to the destination.
Obsessed with the fear of the car running out of electricity in the middle of the road: The road is full of anxiety!
Not having to call an ambulance on the road and spend hours waiting for the car to recharge at a charging station far from home is a priority right now. Fortunately, through an app, they found two 25.2 kWh fast charging points just a 10-minute walk from the house.
Breathe when you reach the fast charging point when the battery is only 3%, equivalent to a distance of only 5 km, but when you get there, the security staff of the building has not agreed to let them in because the charging stations are unknown. of the building is for public use or is it for corporate employees only (although the app shows it to be a 24/7 charging point).
Although the access application shows that it is a 24/7 charging point, when they arrive, the person experiences “sweating” when receiving a notification from the security staff.
They continued to have to wait for the security staff to contact their superiors so that I could charge them here. By the time it was approved, the car had only 1% battery left.
After plugging in the charger for the Honda e and seeing the energy being transferred, they really felt relieved. With a fee of 0.50 euros/kWh (12,500 VND), fully charging a 35.5 kWh battery pack will usually cost 17.75 euros (440,000 VND). However, for some reason, the payment through the application continues to fail. So they were charged for free.
The car was fully charged after 5 hours.
The charging cable has a capacity of 6.6 kW, using only part of the 25.2 kWh capacity of the charger. Therefore, it is expected that the car needs 5 hours to charge the battery from 1% to 100%.
Although the Honda e electric car supports super-fast charging with a 100 kW DC charging system, it is currently not available in Greece.
After 5 hours, they returned to get the car and the battery was 99%, equivalent to a distance of 165km.
Experiences learned after experiencing electric vehicles in places where there are no dedicated charging stations
– Find out information carefully before going, especially about public charging points 24/7 via the app.
If with a traditional internal combustion engine car, just a quick search on Google Maps will get results immediately, even driving around for a while will find a gas station, then with an electric car, the real experience Reality will show you the complete difference, even bring a feeling of extreme bewilderment.
In fact, not only apartment complexes in Europe do not have charging stations for electric vehicles, but also many other places (including Vietnam), too. And that is a big disadvantage for electric cars.
Of course you can drive on to search for a charging station anywhere on the road, but then you will have to change plans, or cancel appointments and wait for the car to charge. That was really a huge inconvenience.
– Do not rely on finding charging points along the way.
Unless you live in modern luxury apartment complexes, there are adequate charging stations. Otherwise, do not be subjective and disregard the charging of electric cars.
However, the goal of the experience journey is just to see if it is possible to use an electric car like a gasoline car, and the answer is yes, as long as you plan and calculate carefully. Remember, don’t rely on finding any charging points along the way.
However, in order for electric cars to completely replace traditional petrol and diesel cars, it is necessary to cooperate with the government and the private sector to develop charging station infrastructure. Normally, many countries, including Greece, give priority to promoting electric vehicle sales.
According to Carscoops
at Blogtuan.info – Source: Afamily.vn – Read the original article here
