I got a laugh out of a recent Wall Street Journal article that described “fast-charging” electric cars in which “fast-charging” was said to take 20 minutes to an hour. If that’s “fast-charging,” I’d hate to see what slow-charging looks like.
Maybe we should look at charging in winter time for a clue. Today’s chart is a little hard to make out, but it displays the data showing that electric cars will charge much slower in colder weather:
An article in Energy Policy (a journal for which I have occasionally served as a peer-reviewer) explains the situation:
Cold temperature in particular can considerably degrade the charging rate and extend the duration of charging, which potentially pose challenges in EV operation in cold regions. Therefore, in a large country like the United States where regional climate can vary from coast to coast, fast charger deployment for EVs requires careful consideration regarding the effects of regional temperature on fast battery charging.
