Fiat 500 and Leapmotor T03 Charging Philosophy Thoughts
For many months I have been using a Fiat 500 and I usually charged it to around 80 percent before stopping the charge because the last 20 percent took an hour, and I paid for electricity that was wasted as heat, when the car trickled charged to one hundred percent.
I knew that if I drove two trips to Morges I would either need to charge when I got home, or ideally on a private charger at destination. I knew that within around two hours I could charge from 20-80 percent, and be set for a few days.
With the leapmotor T03 the charging habit needs to adapt. The charger is single phase so it pulls 7.7 kw of power rather than full power. This means that it takes two to three times longer to charge. The two hour charge window that charged the Fiat 500 to eighty percent only charges the battery 20 percent or so.
The issue is that the parking at Porte de Nyon is limited to two hours, and that limit is enforced so if I want to charge the car to full, then I need to find an alternative charging point or philosophy.
The Regular Top up
The idea is that whenever you park, you charge. If you go to Morges for a 6am run then you go to the charging point, you park, you plug in, you run for an hour with the group, have breakfast, and then interrupt the charge and get on with your day.
The Irregular Sixty Percent Charge
In this case, if you know it takes two hours for the battery to charge, then you park the car while you’re social for two or more hours, and when you get back you’re at 80 percent and above and happy
The Long Stay
If you go for the 6am run, then hypothetically if you have a “home charger” you plug in, and then you stay for five to ten hours, and by the time the visit is finished you go home and your battery is at 100 percent. If you charge at work, or overnight then this is the most rational use.
The Fast Charge
I think I charged from 56 percent to 80 percent in about 15 minutes and 13 seconds with the fast charger. I know the duration, but I’m not sure about the start percentage. In this scenario I set the limit to 80 percent. Once the limit was hit I stopped the charge. The last twenty percent take time, and waste energy that we pay a premium for.
Assessment
With the Fiat 500 I knew that I could drive to Morges and back twice before I needed to charge. With the Leapmotor T03 I could easily do two trips to Morges and back but then it will take much longer to charge from 30 percent to 80 percent or more so it makes sense to top up on every trip, to avoid being trapped, or to use fast charging.
And Now for Whataboutism
I hear you ask “but what about placing a wall charger at home, wouldn’t that resolve the problem?” and the answer is “yes of course, but I live in a PPE where everyone else uses dinosaur soup cars, or petrol, as normal people call it. Convincing eleven people to invest in car charging infrastructure when they drive dinosaur soup cars is a challenge.
If you have charging at home then slow chargers don’t make a blind bit of difference, but when public charging is limited to two hours of parking, or you pay after the first hour then slow charging becomes more of an issue.
The Road Trip Ability Test
Since the Porte de Nyon chargers were unavailable yesterday I tried fast chargers and the result was positive. Now that I know that fast charging is fast, as long as you’re patient about being trapped for half an hour or so, then the car gains in road trip feasibility.
Well Trained
If you go along some routes, by train, or bus, the infrequency is once per hour, so if you miss the connection the wait is an hour. If you know about one hour break you plan a meal, or a run, or to sit and read a book.
For those used to waiting for trains, and buses, the 30-50 minute fast charge is familiar.
The Home (Charger) Advantage
Fast charging is great, when you want to get from A to B, and each charging stop adds half an hour to a journey. I found that the two hour charging window for the Fiat 500 was convenient because it was long enough to go for a run, or a walk, and then read a few pages of a book.
With the Leapomotor T03, with a charge time of five hours or more, that requires plans for half a day. That’s great if you’re spending the day at work, or if you have a home charger.
The Modern Village
Some villages, such as Arnex, Céligny and others have public charging stations where you can go to charge EVs. Others such as Eysins and others do not. There is a large parking space where it would be convenient to have public chargers with a preferential tariff for people living in the village. With a convenient local charger, EV accessability would grow.
This blog post exists because I need a new convenient solution.