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You don't need to Charge full always when DC Fast Charging.

2123 Views 10 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  ChasingCoral
This is more of a helpful tip that new EV drivers may not know, but I find it very helpful. The bulk majority of the time you will spend DC fast charging will be on long trips where the distance, either there or round trip is longer than your range you have in the battery.

When you stop at DC fast chargers either on trips or not, you typically only charge enough to get to the next charger, or destination. If you have means to charge at your destination for a time that will get you to the next location or city driving you can arrive with 10-20% which many times means only charging for 5-20 minutes.

These short times will also work for DC fast charging to get to the next charger. Those long wait times will not be as common as thought.

There are a few factors that affect this such has towing (low range), and the increase of DC fast charger, and how well they are maintained so you can get in and out.
So when thinking of fast charging on trips, remember it is a low percentage you will have to wait that entire charge time, and it will be more like a bathroom, grab a snack kind of stop.
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I recommend charging to 80 percent min. If on a trip. Last year, I went from DC to Roanoke, Virginia. I topped off in Manassas at a free charger and then proceeded to stop in Woodstock (which was listed as a charging stop before my top off in Manassas). While the trip planner wanted me to go to Staunton for my next charge, it was a good thing that I stopped in Woodstock because the EA chargers in Staunton had just been taken out of service a few hours prior to my arrival. Without the charge up to 80% in Woodstock, I would never have made it to Roanoke (where I arrived with a 30% state of charge.

The advice for 5 or 10 minute charges makes sense if you know that all of the chargers are working along your route. The problem is that there is no certainty and chargers for our vehicles are not yet ubiquitous.
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