Three charging sessions, three very different situations

Posted bylukefrugalevPosted inUncategorized

On a recent road trip to Ottawa, I found myself using three different charging setups. Lets compare and contrast home charging (before my trip), DC fast charging (while enjoying lunch), and L2 destination charging. Costs varied greatly, from less than 10 c/kWh to about $1/kWh, convenience was my guiding virtue, and I did not specifically seek out charging stations along the route, nor did I need to.

Ottawa is a joy to visit, with so many places to enjoy. It is about 400 km drive from Toronto, something my EV4 can cover without stopping to charge. Nevertheless, I wound up stopping to enjoy lunch, as there was some EV charging available nearby, I decided, to plug in and charge up. Once in Ottawa, I found myself spending much of the day at the excellent museum of history, which as it happens, has L2 EV charging available, so once more, why not charge up, which as it happened, gave me enough charge to make it back to Toronto. Once I got back, with a near-empty EV, I charged up at home, the following evening.

Enjoying the fall colours at the Rideau Canal.

Lets compare these three charging sessions, in the table below we have the cost/speed for my three charging sessions.

kWh addedTimeCostc/kWh
DC fast charging (*)301 hr$35115
L2 destination charging30.65 hr 15 min$9.7632
Home charging49.295 hr 30 min$3.557.2
(*) – This charging session was an example of a sub-optimal EV driver behaviour. For you my dear reader, I plugged in at about 60% state of charge, as we all know, charging speed is going to be quite slow at the top half of the charging curve, and sure enough it was. But, since the station was empty, except for my EV, I decided to stay and charge up a bit since it might make my life a little easier once I got to Ottawa. This station does charge by the hour, had I plugged in at say 10 %, and stopped at 80%, the cost would likely have been less, as my EV 4 can do that in about 45 minutes. Yet the kWh added would have easily doubled, improving my c/kWh statistic quite considerably. I just got hungry, well before the state of charge got to 10%.

The highest charging speed is usually found with DC fast charging. An excellent idea, when you are on the road, needing to top up a little as you tend to lunch. But it is also the most expensive, with slower L2 charging, often a far better option if you do have the time, which we did as we enjoyed some museums in Ottawa, and of course having L2 charging at home, that is where the economic case for an EV is really made, with the lowest cost by far.

Ultimately, on this trip, I went with convenience, while DC fast charging does indeed provide the fastest speed (about 30 kW, or more realistically closer to 100 kW, had I plugged in at a lower state of charge), but it is all about convenience, and plugging into the L2 charger in the museum parking garage proved ideal in many ways. I am there any-ways enjoying the museum.

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