In a recent meeting with Volkswagen officials to talk about their family of ID electric cars, of which the ID.4 has just been put on sale, those in charge hit the mark When buying a vehicle of this type, autonomy is placed before the price they told us. And, since the first battery-powered models appeared, the fear of being stranded because the car would drain the battery earlier than expected has been the sword of Damocles that hovered over the purchase decision.
The issue is on the way to being resolved, although more on the side of the autonomy of the vehicles than the development of the charging infrastructure, which is going much slower. In any case, it will depend on the use that car is going to give. If it is going to be the only vehicle in the home, things get much more cumbersome and tricky when traveling. On the other hand, for daily use of short distances, the solution to the problem lies in good planning since small refills, or a large one once a week will be enough to always have gasoline in the tank. Here’s how to charge an electric car, where and for how much.
START POINT
Approximately 70% of vehicles sleep on the street. That is, it depends on a public charging post or at work. And although the number of these grows continuously, it does not do as sales. In the last three years in Europe, the registrations of vehicles with plugs have doubled, but the network of poles increased less than 60%. Currently, in Europe, there are about 213,000 public points, of which according to Eurelectric, only 14% are fast. In Spain, the Anfac ‘Electromobility Barometer’ referred to 2020points out that there are 8,545 facilities of this type, of which 65% are located in an urban and peri-urban environment. Catalonia welcomes a third of them, for the 1,000 in Madrid, consistent with the fact that this type of car is eminently for the city and the periphery. Also, almost one in four poles have a power equal to or greater than 22 kW, which is known as a semi-fast charge: they allow the battery of an average car to be filled in about three hours. Either way, that indicator indicates that we are at the bottom in electromobility in Europe.
According to calculations made by European manufacturers, ecologists, and consumers, the region will need to have one million charging stations in 2024, and three million in 2029, to meet the expected demand (or to be reached). Of these amounts, Spain should provide 37,966 poles in 2024 and 214,341 in 2029. The decarbonization strategy of the Pedro Sánchez Government plans to install 100,000 of them by 2023.
DIFFERENT CHARGING SPEEDS
The speed at which an electric car can be recharged depends on two major factors how much energy can be supplied by the network to which we plug it in and how much electricity the car is capable of handling. It can be exemplified in two extreme cases. In a domestic outlet at home that works at 1.8 kW, we will not recharge more than that amount per hour regardless of the care we have. In the same way, it is useless that in Spain there are already poles that can supply 400 kW when the most capable vehicles in this sense (a Porsche Taycan or an Audi e-Tron GT) do not support more than 270 kW.
In this sense, a third variable operates the connector with which we connect the vehicle to the network (and not the other way around) because that will also condition the operation. In the models of general brands, the most common is that it comes as standard only with one of the Schuko types, the one with the plugs of all life, or that we can find in a garage without a specific installation for electrical. Obviously, it is the slowest and rarely supports more than 2.3 kW. Above there are up to four types that add more speed. The most widespread in Europe is the so-called Menekkes. As an option, it costs between 300 and 500 euros and is the one that will serve us in most public polls, except in those of continuous fast charging, which require, for example, the so-called CCS.
Taking into account the use that we are going to make of the vehicle and where we plan to load it, it is essential to find out about these aspects. That is, what is the maximum capacity that the car can support (both in alternating current for normal poles and in continuous current for fast ones of more than 50 kW) and what are the cables that they supply us, either free of charge or paying Besides.
All these aspects are covered by the autonomy simulators and recharging times that manufacturers offer on their web pages. But it is possible to approach it simply: we take the net capacity of the battery (lower than the gross, which is the data that is usually advertised) and we divide it by the power supplied by the network. We will know where things will go. Although the time that results has to be increased if we want to fill it to 100% since from 80% it slows down. For example, a car with a 50 kWh battery in a 1.8 kW domestic outlet will take more than 31 hours to go from being empty to full. And on a 50 pole, an hour and a half.
RECHARGE AT WORK OR AT DESTINATION
Let’s think about the usual daily commute going to and from work, taking the children to school, running errands. We would be talking about an average of between 60 and 70 kilometers, which we can easily recover with a small load every day. The duration of this, in addition to the elements considered above, will also depend on the electricity consumption of the vehicle. A very efficient one is around 14 kWh of expenditure per 100 km on average, the most gluttonous go over 20. In the first case, to recover the energy consumed each day, we would need to recharge about 10 kW in the second, up to 14.
It is something that would take us a few hours and we can satisfy by connecting the car in the office garage, (which will be charged or not). Also, more and more commercial establishments (supermarkets or large stores) have recharging points, which can be paid or free, although some with time limitations. Finally, there are the urban and peri-urban public networks, with poles of between 3.4 and 22 kW. One of them is Endolla, which operates in Barcelona and has rates for a car that range between 0.22 euros and 0.40 euros per kWh depending on whether it is day or night, on the street or in a garage. . That is, 70 kilometers per day would cost us between 2.2 and 4 euros in a very efficient electric vehicle, and between 3.1 and 5.6 in one of high consumption.
AT HOME INSTALLATION AND COST
If we have our own or community garage, we can install from a simple plug to a mailbox (the module that fits into the wall) that will charge up to 7.4 kW. since in the domestic environment the installation must have less than 10 kW of power. The so-called ‘smart’ wall boxes vary their performance in such a way that they give the car the excess energy (up to the maximum contracted power) that we do not use at home.
The cost of installation by an operator depends on several elements. The meters of cable that must be ‘pulled’ from our meter to the plug, the work that must be carried out to carry it, and the connector that we finally put. If it is in a shared garage, the community cannot prevent it, but the work must be notified, which must be legalized and carried out by an authorized company.
Putting us a Schuko plug can be (with work and wiring) about 400 euros on average. For another 100 euros, we can add an adapter called Green Up that allows you to accelerate the recharge up to 3.2 kW (for the 2.3 of the basic installation). The third step is the mailbox. They have an average price of between 500 and 600 euros, which amounts to 1,500 euros including all the work and permits. But it is convenient to ask for budgets, because the differences can be very large for the same elements, up to double, as the person who writes this could see. Coincidentally, the highest price corresponded to a company recommended by a manufacturer that offered help to the buyer …Many brands give away the placement of this element to increase the attractiveness of their cars.
The amounts mentioned can be reduced thanks to aid such as the Moves plan, with a subsidy (to be included later in the personal income tax return) of up to 40%. But you also have to increase the cost by adding the electricity consumed. Here it is key to know several things: if we have a regulated market rate or if it is the free market. And within the first type, if we pay for electricity at the same price regardless of the time, if that rate distinguishes between day and night (peak hours and off-peak hours) or if we also have super value periods (when electricity is cheaper because there is less demand, between 01.00 and 07.00 hours). According to these data, recharging 100 kilometers for a car that consumes 14 kWh would range between 1.12 and 2.1 euros. And in one with an expense of 20 kWh, between 1.6 and three euros.
One last point on this point. Many of the electricity marketers offer special plans for recharging, with very competitive rates and even giving away part of the energy consumed per year. And others have flat rates based on the annual consumption of the entire household, so it may be an option to add the expected expense of the vehicle when hiring it.
LOAD ON PUBLIC PAYMENT NETWORKS
Now, let’s think about how we are going to go on a trip in the car. Then, we will need a fast recharge pole, of at least 50 kW, if we do not want the recharge to take forever. We have two options: resort to the points provided by the navigation system integrated into the car, which will also inform us of which ones are within our reach according to the autonomy. Or benefit from the different apps that offer this service. They may have been developed by an independent entity such as Electromaps, the brand of our car, or by one of the companies that offer their own infrastructure: Iberdrola, Endesa-X, Repsol, EDP, Easy Charger, Cargacoches, Ionity (a European consortium made up of several vehicle manufacturers) and, of course, Tesla, which has its own network of superchargers in each country.
Depending on the app we use, we will find information about the charging stations only of that network (road and city) or also the rest. In addition to the location and data, we will be able to know the operating hours, if it can be reserved, if it is paid or free, the types of connectors, and the number of them. Rates, when available, are more difficult to find, especially in applications that work as aggregators. Being subscribed to several of these networks is interesting, especially when they are paid since that will mean cheaper prices. For example, Ionity charges 0.79 euros per Kw to any user, but those of the brands that are part of the project will pay less than half. The biggest hassle at present is the lack of interoperability between the different networks, especially when it comes to identifying and paying since some require a card, others use digital key rings; some are paid according to consumption, others require a kind of bag with funds.
The tariffs of the existing networks in Spain range between 0.29 euros per Kw that Tesla charges its customers and 0.79 for Ionity. Although most are between 38 and 50 cents, although that figure can be substantially reduced by agreements such as Repsol, which will only charge Nissan car users half. With these price ranges and taking up the two cars that we have been talking about from the beginning, for one a consumption of about 14 kWh we would be talking, between 5.2 and 11 euros per 100 kilometers. And between six and almost 16 euros for the 20. They are not cheap figures, but it must also be recognized that the installations of these quick connections have a very high cost and that it costs to amortize. Also, high-speed charges will be sporadic for most users, now not reaching 10% of the time they plug in their car.
It is also not recommended to abuse them, as they can shorten the life of the battery. In the same way, it is recommended to act a little in the style of smartphones. Do not let it download completely, or abuse it by always having it at 100%, but it is normally between 20% or 30% and 80%.
