Slow charge and fast charge of electric vehicle battery
Battery technology is ubiquitous in our daily lives, making people more aware that "batteries" are technological marvels that need to be serviced and maintained. So it's no surprise that these discussions are turning to electric cars and electric car chargers. Any vehicle represents a huge investment, and people are right to wonder how to help their batteries - the heart of what electric vehicles do - last as long as possible. For the most part, these concerns center on how charging speed affects the battery.
Here, we want to let drivers and potential EV charger owners understand the impact of different charging speeds on the battery. To do this, however, we need to understand the charging speed and the battery itself. Let's take a look at how slow and fast charging affects car batteries.
Electric vehicle charging speed
In general, there are three different speeds for charging electric vehicles: Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 - also known as DC fast chargers (DCFC). Although Level 4 chargers are already on the market, they have not been extensively tested.
A Level 1 charger is something you are very familiar with. In fact, most of them are just ordinary residential shops. They are cheap but slow, typically taking 40-50 hours to fully charge an all-electric battery.
Level 2 chargers are devices specifically designed to charge electric vehicles and are the most common form of electric vehicle charger. They can be filled with an all-electric battery in about 4-10 hours. Anyway, we can think of level 1 and 2 chargers as "slow" chargers.
Level 3 (DCFC) chargers are high-end options. They are most commonly found on busy roads where people need to get in and out quickly, and can charge the battery from zero to 80% in as little as 20 minutes.
How chargers (and batteries) work
In terms of electricity, the charging speed is directly related to the amount of charge, and the amount of charge is directly related to heat. Think of it like pouring a cup of hot coffee. If you drop it drop by drop, the filling will slow down, but the heat will have time to dissipate into the air and the surrounding material. However, if you just pour the whole steaming pot into a cup, it's likely to burn you.
The same goes for batteries. This means that, in terms of charging speed, the number one issue is temperature. If batteries don't have a good cooling system, they can be damaged when the temperature exceeds a certain level: about 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Both cold and hot environments affect battery charging and overall performance. Sub-freezing temperatures or hot weather make certain battery conditioning techniques necessary. Both active and passive cooling systems exist, with active cooling systems being more efficient but also more expensive.
It's important to note that charging and discharging a battery consistently degrades its performance, just as engines, computers, and anything else degrade over time. Nothing can last forever, and while batteries seem magically filled with invisible stuff energy, the laws of physics still apply. Fortunately, degraded batteries can be maintained by repairing damaged ones, which can extend the life of electric vehicle batteries by many years.
External factor
So we determined that the main problem was heat. If the fast charger damages the car battery beyond the degradation that usually occurs during use, it may be related to heat. a
Therefore, there are two main external factors to consider: the ambient temperature and the cooling system of a personal electric vehicle. As with gasoline cars, you may have noticed that you are more likely to see broken down vehicles on the side of the road in hot weather, and those vehicles are more likely to be heavy and old.
The same is true for these batteries, but in terms of service life. Therefore, when deciding which charger to use, you should consider the external temperature and your own vehicle's battery cooling system.
So... What is the fault?
In the case of level 1 and 2 chargers, the charging speed poses little risk to the battery. Unless you live in the Arizona desert, both are likely to keep your battery well within its specified charging temperature. Level 3 chargers may deliver power faster, but they're still designed to keep your vehicle within its operating temperature range (which also depends on environmental factors like weather). The good news is that we have yet to see scientific evidence that battery degradation caused by charging heat leads to early battery damage.
