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Nov 18, 2023

Australian Kia EV6 Air RWD 2022 (Long Range): AC charging rate tested at 7kW accommodation charger

In their marketing Kia Australia promises that the EV6 Air RWD 2022 electric car

In their marketing Kia Australia promises that the EV6 Air RWD 2022 electric car has an On Board Charger (OBC) maximum capacity of 10.5kW.

Unfortunately I was not able to test that maximum speed at my usual local shopping centre AC charging station because during most of the loan period for this car I was away on holiday.

I was however still able to test AC Charging at my holiday accommodation NRMA Ocean Beach Holiday Resort because they had two 7kW electric vehicle charge parking spots available for anyone who was a paying customer (I was staying at one of their cabins).

Curiously even though both NRMA AC EV chargers had a Chargefox sticker and station number, neither appeared on the Chargefox app bu they were listed on Plugshare which is the only reason I knew they existed. I have asked my NRMA media contact if these chargers will be listed soon on the Chargefox app or perhaps an upcoming NRMA Charging network app.

Anyone with an EV staying at at an NRMA Ocean Beach powered camp site can also charge their car any time at 1.5-2.4kW rate (depending on their BYO charging cable).

I used my 7m Type 2 to Type 2 EV Charging Cable (22kW, 32 amp) cable and a Kia EV6 Air RWD 2022 (which I had on loan for 11 days to review).

I plugged one end of the cable into the car charger port. I plugged the other end of the cable into the NRMA branded Jetcharge deployed charger. The cable ends are identical so it doesn't matter which end is plugged into the car & charging station.

After a few seconds charging started without need for payment or tapping an RFID card and I saw that the KIA EV6 Air RWD 2022 (Long Range) was charging at a rate of 6.9kW.

Since I hadn't seen any other EV's parked on the accommodation grounds and the other charging spot was empty, I took the opportunity to reduce the charging rate in the EV6 settings to 4.2kW so that the car would just finish charging before I needed it again the next morning.

Generally speaking charging slower (as long as you’re not in a rush) is better for an EV battery and doing that to 100% plus some extra time around once a month can help the battery cells rebalance.

By next morning the car battery was full and had added 34kWh for free 🙂

That afternoon after returning from a day trip to Newcastle I plugged in again and as no one else had shown interest in using the EV chargers between then and bedtime I kept the car plugged in overnight at a reduced rate of 4.2kW.

By next morning the car was back to 100% and had added 31.8kWh for free 🙂

Having my own Type 2 to Type 2 cable and access to a free EV charging site at my holiday accommodation compared to visiting a fast DC charger saved:

In the future if I’m driving an EV during holidays I’ll be much more likely to choose accommodation that has several AC charging sites for customers to use.

Whether free to use or not, it's a very convenient and time saving service for EV driving guests. I actually prefer if there is a fair fee/kW or a flat fee like $10 to access accommodation charging as the extra revenue encourages maintenance and upkeep.

I recommend buying your Type 2 to Type 2 cable from an Australian retailer like EVSE or Jetcharge so you have a good warranty and are supporting the local EV accessory industry.

You could get a shorter, cheaper 5m cable but I find the 7m length is handy as you never know how far the charging station will be from your car charging port.

There are slower slightly cheaper cables available for purchase such as the Type 2 to Type 2 EV Charging Cable (7kW, 32amp) for cars like the BYD Atto 3, MG ZS EV 2021 and Hyundai Kona EV 2021 that don't support 11kW AC charging.

Some electric vehicle (EV) owners buy a 7kW charge rate Type 2 to Type 2 cable to save a little bit of money.

However if they later buy a newer electric car that is capable of 11kW AC charge rate like the Hyundai Kona EV 2023 model or rent an EV capable of 11kW AC charge rate (eg common rental models Tesla Model 3 and Polestar 2) then this wastes an opportunity to charge that EV much faster at an AC charging station.