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Oct 19, 2023

Charging speed advertising war shifts to the home with AC charging rates

With the end of the Plug War back in 2018, I predicted that the Charging Speed

With the end of the Plug War back in 2018, I predicted that the Charging Speed Advertising Battle would be the new arena where the auto manufacturers would compete for the buying public's dollar.

Back then, the winner of the Plug War here (and for most of the rest of the world) was the Type 2 AC socket and the related Combined Charging System (CCS) for DC.

Thus far, we have mostly been hearing about improvements in the CCS DC charging rate. These have been creeping up towards DC's practical maximum of 350kW, with most manufacturers now offering in the middle to high 100s.

At 220 to 233 kW, Hyundai has so far been the class leader with its E-GMP platform vehicles (Ioniq 5 and 6, Kia EV6, Genesis GV60).

To get faster than that you need to either go Tesla (The Long Range versions of the Model 3 and Model Y do 250 kW), or move well up the price range to a Porsche Taycan or Audi e-tron (both at 270 kW and soon to increase further).

Languishing well back in the field is the loser in the Plug War – the CHAdeMO DC system. The few cars here still utilising CHAdeMO1 are stuck at around 40kW. This used to be OK for smaller battery EVs and PHEVs, but is way too slow for long-distance intercity type trips.

In the meantime, the ‘quiet achiever’ in the Charging Speed Advertising Battle has been the AC charging rate. Back in 2010/11 the Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi iMiEV offered 3.6 kW (15 amps) AC charging. (Which back then was ‘fast’ compared to a standard power point!).

After that, AC charging began to move up with the auto brands in Australia moving to between 6.6 and 7.4 kW. (Nissan by the way moved to 6.6 in the Leaf here, but stayed at 3.3 for all Japanese Leafs except the e+ 63 kWh version). Hence 7-ish became the norm and was in any case the maximum the early single phase Type 1 plug could supply.

However, as I said earlier – the single phase Type 1 socket lost the Plug War here and all Australian delivered EVs since 2017/2018 are fitted with the Type 2 socket2. The key point with the Type 2 plug is that it can utilise 3 phase power – theoretically taking up to 3 x 7 kW or 22 kW.

It seemed for a while that only Tesla and the luxury EV makers were taking advantage of the extra phases available for AC charging whilst the others were working on upping their DC rates.

But a quick look through this month's EV Fact Sheet summary page (at aeva.au/fact-sheets) shows a surprising thing: almost all new EVs sold in Australia now offer 11 kW when connected to a three phase charger. (Doing 7 kW single phase or 3.6 kW per phase if connected to a three phase outlet).

In fact, only five EVs out of the 38 models (not including variants like Long Range/Standard Range) available new here now offer less than 11 kW as standard. Additionally, the new Kona coming out late this year will move to offering 11 kW as standard. (See note 3 at end of story).

This will make only 4 of the current new EVs sold here still offering less than 11kW AC charging. In addition, of the 23 announced new EVs expected to arrive through the rest of this year, only the Toyota BZ4X (and the related Subaru Solterra) along with the Renault Megane E-Tech will be limited to 7 kW.

(Even the Megane is offered with 3 phase charging either standard or optional in all other markets except Australia – so it is unlikely to stay 7 kW only for long). All the others with announced charging rates will arrive with 11 kW (plus a couple with 22 kW as standard).

Overall, it seems the Charging Speed Advertising Battle has reached a new milestone when it comes to AC charging rates. Many new EV brochures and websites tout their fastest AC and DC charging times and any car that stays at 7 kW charging is going to become a target of the other automotive marketing departments in the area of advertised charging times.

By the way, if you’re wondering why AC charging rates matter when most EVs will do a full charge overnight on a 7 kW home charger – there are two reasons.

The first is illustrated by table 2 above. When you’re on the road where DC chargers are not yet available, if you can utilise a three phase charger at 11 kW you will charge 1.5 times faster than 7 kW. At 22 kW it's 3 times faster – or 1hr instead of 3 at the Poochera Pub in South Australia (pictured above).

(The Poochera Pub between Port Augusta and Ceduna is well known to EV drivers on their way from the eastern states to Perth as it offers a 32A three phase outlet for a small price plus a pleasant rest break. It is also currently the only way to get a semi-decent charging rate in that stretch due to there being no DC chargers west of Adelaide to 200 km over the border into WA).

Secondly, in some states (such as Queensland) you can't connect a 7 kW home charger on a normal circuit. Anything above 20 amps must be on a ‘controlled load’ circuit that operates at restricted times. Chargers on a normal circuit there are limited to 4.8 kW (20 amps). On the other hand, no such limit applies to three phase circuits.

As Australia electrifies, more houses will naturally move to three phase connections and charging at 11 kW will become more available. It is also likely that some people (like multi EV households) in states like Queensland will need higher than 4.8 kW charging outside of controlled load times.

An additional bonus is that it's kinder to the grid to use a balanced load across all three phases rather than a big load on one – so if you have a three phase home, in the longer term, you are best to install an 11 kW charger if your car can do 3 phase charging.

(Note: a 7kW car will charge at 3.6 kW on an 11 kW charger – good in Queensland to keeping under the 4.8 kW limit for single phase loads, but something to be aware of in other jurisdictions. If you want 7 kW single phase charging off a three phase charger, you will need to install a 22 kW one).

So it seems the Charging Speed Advertising Battle is moving towards its close. Perhaps it could move up to a full-scale war of its own, but that is unlikely given EVs are still only a fraction of the overall new car sales market so nobody is fighting for EV market share – they are all cannibalising the ICE market.

Ultimately, any fight over EV market share is not likely to eventuate before all EVs have moved to three phase charging.

So what's the next arena for auto advertising execs to fight it out on? My suggestion is the ‘Bidirectional Features Contest’. More akin to a beauty contest than World War 3 perhaps, this one will see Vehicle to Load (V2L), Vehicle to Home (V2H) and Vehicle to Grid (V2G) and their various options touted in a mind-bending plethora of choices involving power levels, features and boxes to install at home to do it.

Ultimately it will play out in a car that does all of them with full smart-grid interactivity – but it will be a confusing time for EV buyers in the meantime.

That should take us to 2030 at a guess. After that my crystal ball gets a bit murky – although I think I momentarily saw chrome tailfin sizes …

Notes:

Notes to table 2:

*All charge times listed are estimates only and are not manufacturer endorsed.

*Please refer to official specifications when purchasing an electric vehicle.

Bryce Gaton is an expert on electric vehicles and contributor for The Driven and Renew Economy. He has been working in the EV sector since 2008 and is currently working as EV electrical safety trainer/supervisor for the University of Melbourne. He also provides support for the EV Transition to business, government and the public through his EV Transition consultancy EVchoice.