Quote:
Originally Posted by VaFish
The Livewire has top of the line components on it. Neither the Zero or Energica have a DC fast charger on them. To get quick charging on a Zero you have to use multiple Level II chargers. And you still don't get an 80% charge in 40 minutes. A DC quick charger is what makes a long trip in a Tesla possible.
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You posted this while I was typing
my previous post, which includes the Livewire's charging details. Personally, I feel they did the charging all wrong. They made it support "fast" charging at relatively rare charging stations, with the tradeoff that it will charge very slowly everywhere else. If you're riding around a metro area, or along select highways, you can recharge in an hour. If you're heading out to Sturgis along I-90, the closest L3 charger is in Sioux Falls, 370mi away. If you fill up there, you'll get another 70mi before you have to recharge. You're 300mi away from Sturgis, with 10 hour recharges every 70mi. I'll be the first to admit that EVs are not made for every type of travel, especially with the current status of charging infrastructure, but this "typical" H-D trip points out just how useless the L3 can be.
I'd rather have 2 hour recharging almost everywhere, than 1 hour recharging in a few locations and 10+ hour recharging everywhere else. If L3 fast charging was as common as L2 charging is, I'd be ok with this setup; most people could handle overnight charging at home, if they could fast charge everywhere else. But the fact that they prioritized L3 charging (which isn't even available at home) over L2 in the current environment is a very dumb move in my eyes.
I believe they did this to cut costs. "Charging stations" are essentially just big extension cords with some safety features. With AC charging, the vehicle has an onboard charger that actually converts the power to store in the battery. Faster charging requires a bigger onboard charger. With DC charging, you're basically just dumping the power into the battery, without needing to convert it. They really skimped on the AC charger, not even supporting 240V L2, and get to brag about how they support the simple-and-cheap-to-implement L3. Which ends up being only slightly faster than L2 chargers in other vehicles, like my Volt.
I hope L3 DC fast charging gets more popular, and I like the idea of not having (as big?) an onboard charger on the bike to help keep it simple and light, but I don't see it as a great gift from the H-D gods, or even all that helpful right now, especially considering what they left off.