When charging EVs goes awry

You can rest assured that any car with an internal-combustion engine can be conveniently refilled within minutes of the low-fuel light activating.

Even if the car runs on diesel or LPG, finding a nearby service station, refuelling and continuing on your way is a simple, tried and proven practice.

It is a process we have come to accept as part of life, particularly as cars have become more efficient and service stations have sprung up all around us in convenient locations.

It’s a far cry from the early years of the 20th Century, when cars were uncommon and service stations as we know them in the modern era were practically non-existent.

But the convenience factor of owning an electric vehicle is still somewhere back around the 1930s era.

At least these days many more homes have electricity hooked up to their garages, making recharging EVs easier – unlike the 1930s.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out as planned. In November, I had an Audi e-tron for a week, to compare it with the Mercedes-Benz EQC. 

The Audi e-tron is a car that I’ve looked forward to driving for a long time, having learned quite a bit about it during the lead-up to the car’s long-awaited local launch. Colleague Sam Charlwood drove the e-tron for that launch and came away impressed.

But when I raised the e-tron’s tailgate to retrieve the charging lead/adapter, it wasn’t there. After lifting the folding floor to reveal the deep bin for it between the inflatable space-saver spare and the rear bumper, and there was nothing inside the bin. Nothing.

That ruled out charging the e-tron at home overnight or at destination chargers located in public places.

At the end of the first day’s video shoot we recharged the Audi’s battery at an RACV/Chargefox ultra-fast charger located at the Westfield shopping centre in Airport West, one of Melbourne’s northern suburbs. The 350kW ultra-fast charger has its own lead to recharge EVs with what is known as a ‘CCS’ plug.

But that made recharging the e-tron puzzling initially. While the plug at the end of the lead from the charger was a CCS type, the port on the passenger-side front quarter panel of the e-tron was designed for a Type 2 (Mennekes) plug. Whoops.

Fortunately, Audi has matched the Mennekes port with a CCS port on the driver’s side. Once the plug was inserted in the correct port and the ultra-fast charger received credit details for payment (and the e-tron was locked), charging commenced – at a fairly astonishing rate of 120kW.

With the Audi’s battery charged to just over 80 per cent of capacity, I set course for home. That same night, I took the e-tron out for a familiarisation drive. The next day I drove back across town for more video production and then returned home once more. By this time, the range had dropped from over 200km to just 59km.

It was looking like I would have to leave the e-tron sitting in the garage for five whole days, reserving the remaining battery capacity for the car’s return to the Audi dealership in Brighton the following week.

To have such a nice car just sitting in the garage not going anywhere seemed like a crime. So I began to look at nearby recharging facilities.

Google provides a list of charging stations in the vicinity of my home, and reveals the respective power output for each, but the best I could find was a destination charger supplying output of just 22kW. That’s a far cry from the 350kW ultra-fast chargers at the Westfield centre in Airport West.

The destination charger in question was a Chargefox unit at the Forest Hill Chase shopping centre, and it was likely to take some several hours to replenish the e-tron’s battery to anything like 80 per cent of capacity.

I asked Jenni, my wife and daughter Stephanie whether they wanted to pay a visit to the shopping centre. Leaving home is still a novelty several weeks after the conclusion of the Stage 4 lockdown in Melbourne, so they were delighted to go for a drive.

A full orbit of the shopping centre failed to locate the destination charger, compelling me to ask directions of a young bloke collecting trolleys. We eventually spotted the charger tucked away under cover, near parking spots for the disabled.

There was practically no signage for the charger, so locating it was a feat in the same order of magnitude as Arthur Dent finding the plans for the demolition of his home.

We pulled up behind a Tesla Model 3 that was already plugged into the charger. As I watched the Model 3 owner disconnect the lead from the charger and replace it in the boot of the Tesla, I realised that I wouldn’t be able to recharge the Audi, without the e-tron’s own adapter.

Never having used a destination charger, I presumed it would have its own lead, like the ultra-fast charger in Airport West.

After loading his shopping, the Model 3 owner approached for a chat. He had spotted straight away that the Audi was an e-tron, so he was clearly an EV enthusiast.

When asked he said he was very happy with the Tesla, but admitted a couple of minor issues with the Model 3, although nothing much worse than a misaligned bonnet and a scratch on the rear bumper when he took delivery of the car.

I asked my wife and daughter how they felt about making the trip to Airport West, where I was certain we could recharge the e-tron. They were both up for it, so we set out on the 26km journey with about 52km of range remaining.

I left the e-tron in its most efficient mode for the drive, and was feeling relieved by the time we reached the Tullamarine Freeway. Barely 15 minutes later, with just six per cent of battery charge remaining (about 20km of range), we arrived at the ultra-fast chargers in the car park outside the Westfield shopping centre.

I quickly connected the lead to the car and set the charger to do its thing. We then wandered off to buy a household cleaning appliance (a robot vacuum, to be precise). After doing some window shopping as well, we returned to the car.

To my surprise, the e-tron was fully charged – from six per cent to 100 per cent in just 45 minutes. My wife was impressed, because with all the mucking around up to that point, the anticlimactic final act was notable for the complete lack of fuss to charge the e-tron.

After that, we were on our way once more, with over 300km of range to carry us through the rest of the week.

This article is not intended to be a cautionary tale; it’s a long-form anecdote.

Jenni was not demoralised by our travails, and remains more committed than ever to buying an EV. She is someone who learns about electric-vehicle and attendant infrastructure development, not over a period of days and weeks, but in discrete intervals measured in months and sometimes years, so for her this was like watching the future unfold before her eyes – at a fast-forward pace.

With the e-tron’s battery capacity topping out at 71kWh, and recharging fully within 45 minutes from a 350kW ultra-fast unit, the e-tron offers the potential to run three and a half hours without stopping, transporting three people at 100km/h with the climate control operating.

That’s not a long distance by the standards of a diesel passenger car, but who wants to be driving eight hours in one session anyway?

From my wife’s perspective, the e-tron provides a good balance of driving range with fast charging for that point in your journey when you’re ready to stop for a bite to eat on the way to Echuca or Portland. To her, the ultra-fast charger is no more intimidating to use than a petrol bowser or the self-serve checkout at the supermarket.

The challenge of charging an EV in 2020 is not something we’ll have to confront for much longer anyway. It’s just where we happen to be right now. The fast-charging network will proliferate much faster than service stations ever did.

For me, and the family budget, the bigger challenge in future will be ensuring my wife doesn’t become a shopaholic from frequently recharging the car.

Oh, and the missing charge cable in the e-tron? As explained to me by the Audi service adviser, it was where it was supposed to be... at the front of the car, concealed beneath a plastic cover under the bonnet.

So there’s a further challenge right there: ensuring your colleagues who pick up press vehicles relay all the pertinent information – like where the charge cable is stowed!