Update August 2019: this original post was written based on a Polar 50kW charger. I have since used a 62kW Instavolt which just opened at Frilford near Abingdon, UK. Even though I started with more charge, this saved over 5 minutes on the Polar- 101 miles added in 20 minutes, with an average rate of 50kW.
After driving 160 miles over a few days it was time to charge – instead of hooking up at home I realised this was an opportunity to time a “rapid” charge at our local Polar Ultracharger. Bear in mind that the Ioniq can charge faster than this – however that’s academic since as of mid-2019 I’ve not come across a faster charger.
The car started at 4%; this is as low as I’ve taken the battery simply because I’ve never had to push the range. The driver is given ample warning; at around 18 miles range the low battery warning is triggered, this is around 13% battery remaining. At 158 miles or so turtle mode appears and the power is limited- 5% or so- which is mildly alarming. It’s the first time I’ve seen this, and we’ve had an Ioniq in the family now for 19 months. However when you’ve driven an old Leaf you soon learn battery warnings are nothing to be scared of.
You can see above that on this occasion I’d driven over 6 hours without charging; 2 and a half summer commutes and general errands.
The Polar charger delivers up to 50kW, as I’ve noted in previous posts this is a peak rate and you can’t assume that you’ll get it for the whole charge. Typically we use this type of charger to add some miles to finish a trip, not to fully recharge since that’s just not necessary most of the time.
So, to answer the question I posed above, how long did it take to add 100 miles? 25 minutes. Literally, the time it took to buy and drink a latte. Cost: £2.16 (less than the latte!)
The geeky charging stats (for the Polar):
160.7 miles at average 6.4miles/kWh (commuting on A, B roads and urban driving)
I used a total of 20kWh from the charger, a little over 100 miles by the time I disconnected.
Measured at the car (not the charger): started charging at battery temperature 20C, 4% display SOC, 42kW charging power, 340V.
Ended at 35C, 73.5%, 46.6kW, 385V.
Battery fan came on at a low speed during charging.
simonselectriccar 