Chevrolet Equinox EV’s DC Fast Charging Quirks, Explained

Tom located that when charging the Equinox EV from 0% on a 150 kW Electrify America terminal, the power going into the vehicle never ever surpasses 100 kW. It stays quite consistent, though, and it keeps between 80 and 100 kW until about 80% state of cost when it begins reducing.

When you want to charge an electric automobile at its maximum DC quick billing price, you just have to discover a charger that supplies that number, right? Well, that may not be the case with the 2024 Chevrolet Equinox EV, and this video clip describes why that’s the case and likewise why finding a more powerful charger doesn’t really issue.

The Equinox is not be amongst the most effective EVs for quick charging, and General Motors hasn’t published its main 10 to 80% charging time, but it still did quite well in Tom’s examinations. It hangs back vital competitors like the Tesla Version Y or the Kia EV6, although we claim it’s not enough to destroy what overall is an excellent electrical automobile, at the very least based on our very first drive experience.

This reduced pack voltage implies that the vehicle needs to call on more amps from the charging station, and the majority of 150 kW terminals in the U.S. can not deliver it. That’s why if you want to see your Equinox EV billing at the marketed 150 kW, you will certainly have to discover an extra effective charger, which should be able to deliver the additional amperage that it needs.

Tom Moloughney assembled this extensive video clip for his channel State of Fee to discuss why even though Chevrolet says you can bill the Equinox EV at as much as 150 kilowatts if you plug it into many 150 kW chargers, its actual billing rate will most likely be reduced. He videotaped 4 separate billing sessions using different DC rapid chargers, 2 flat to full sessions, and 2 more from 20% to 80%.

The factor for the lower-than-expected charging power, even from a charger that’s rated to provide it, involves the Equinox EV’s battery pack voltage. Tom discusses that despite the fact that in a lot of 400-volt EVs it remains well over 300 volts also when their state of fee is close to zero, it can drop as reduced as 260 volts in the electrical Equinox when its pack is close to diminished.

When charging from an EVgo 350 kW charger, the cars and truck rapidly begins charging at 150 kW. Nonetheless, even though the 350 kW terminal started billing the automobile quicker initially, the 150 kW battery charger at some point captured up, and, at the very least in this collection of tests, it in fact completed charging quicker. Tom credits to the end-of-charge cell balancing taking much longer on the more powerful charger.