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A little confused about these kW numbers, please help clarify for me.

5372 Views 60 Replies 23 Participants Last post by  GJETSON
I've seen 2 numbers associated with the Bolt.
11 kW, and 55 kW

I saw a public charging station outside of a Denny's restaurant, stopped by to look at the spec. It read "50 kW". This station only charges $0.50 per hour to charge.

So if I hook up my future Bolt EUV to it, will I get 11 kW/hour delivered to the battery, or will I get 50 kW/hour? I know there are losses due to battery SOC and other factors, so the numbers I posted are ideal/theoretical. Let's assume there's no loss to make it easier to understand.

Thanks!
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I saw a public charging station outside of a Denny's restaurant, stopped by to look at the spec. It read "50 kW". This station only charges $0.50 per hour to charge.

So if I hook up my future Bolt EUV to it, will I get 11 kW/hour delivered to the battery, or will I get 50 kW/hour?
The correct answer is neither.
A 50 kW DCFC can only provide max 50 kW. It can't deliver 55 kW.
The Bolt EV on a 50 kW DCFC will receive about 44-45 kW in the 0%-50% SOC battery range, if the amperage of the station is 125A (or about 35-37 kW if the amperage of the station is 100A). It will deliver less than 11 kW if you are charging the Bolt EV in the 95-100% SOC range.
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@jefro I think your answer should go the other thread.
Too Funny. I am with you, Zapster. The layman will understand if you said 50 cents per kw. Its like like saying $3.59 per gallon.
I am little conflicted with this approach. Let me explain why. The gasoline is used for more than 150 years already, and everyone knows that the gallon is a unit of volume. So yes, $3.59 per gallon, anyone knows what it means.
But the electric cars are new on the nowadays roads. And people aren't all "savy" about kW, kWh, what one is and what the other means. This is why it is good to remind people that kWh is a unit of capacity and kW is a unit of power. You charge in kW and your battery has x kWh capacity. Yes, if you charge during an hour at a constant power of 5 kW, your battery received 5 kWh but...
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Can you please provide additional information for those of us who have learned, apparently incorrectly, that Level 3 is DCFC?
There are two ways to charge a battery :
  • using AC
  • using DC
The AC charging can be done on 110V and 240V circuits, thus L1 and L2 names. L1 = AC @ 110 V, L2 = AC @ 240 V.
DC fast charging IS NOT a level of AC, thus the use of L3 name is wrong.

I hope I made it simpler for everyone to understand.

P.S. I find myself sometimes using the L3 naming when I talk about DCFC. This doesn’t mean I am right, only shows I am human.
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