Wed Jul 10, 2019 7:08 am
^^ It has taken me a long time to catch on because the media and manufacturer reports I read are not helpful. It comes down to knowing the voltage and amperage maxima * of each component * in the charging chain. The slowest component determines the fastest power delivery.
In CHAdeMO land it gets really messy.
Japan e.g., has a lot of chargers limited to 50 Amps (not sure about the cable, but the charger is the bottleneck)
The USA is overwhelmingly 100 Amp cables matched with 100 Amp chargers.
I gather that a handful of 200 Amp cables have been deployed. I presume that the charger is not the bottleneck for these locations but the car may be. E.g. my LEAF is limited to 100 Amps so it will continue to charge at its old rate of ~ 40 kW on these upgraded charger/cable installations.
Nowadays the charger is typically over-spec'd so either the cable or the car becomes the power limiter.
The other piece of this to understand has to do with voltage. The charger has been typically rated for 500 volts but the actual power output is dependent on the Amps flowing *and the voltage of the car battery.* In all non-custom EVs on the road today peak power occurs at peak Amps, and ~ 360 - 370 volts at the battery. So:
A '500 volt, 100 Amp, AKA 50 kW' charger that is not limited by the cable or car electronics will deliver ~ 100*0.37 = 37 kW peak power
A '500 volt, 200 Amp, AKA 100 kW' charger that is not limited by the cable or car electronics will deliver ~ 200*0.37 = 74 kW peak power
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Which all makes the v3 Supercharger for Tesla a marvel. It can actually output ~ 240 kW when the battery is at ~ 350 volts, so ~ 685 Amps are flowing at that time. Specs that Tesla submitted to the EPA implied a maximum of 525 Amps but in retrospect that was a continuous rating.
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It is a good idea to take a photo of the specs plate but see if you can sort out the charger from the charger+cable.
The maximum charger voltage does not matter since the car voltage sets charging voltage; the Amps will be informative.
Last edited by
SageBrush on Wed Jul 10, 2019 7:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
2013 LEAF 'S' Model with QC & rear-view camera
Bought Jan 2017 from N. California
Two years in Colorado, now in NM
03/18: 58 Ahr, 28k miles
11/18: 56.16 Ahr, 30k miles
09/20: 54.3 Ahr; 38k miles
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2018 Tesla Model 3 LR, Delivered 6/2018