Driving on ‘0’ km range
Electric car drivers are careful not to tempt fate. An Empty Fuel Tank Can Be Refilled Quickly, But With An Empty Battery, You’re Hopelessly Lost. However, thanks to v2l, more and more evs are willing to share their energy with others, making running empty less daunting. We put it to the test with two long-term test cars. How does an ev drive to its last drop, and how does another ev help it get back on the road?
A Warning in Advance: This article Contains fragments that people with range anxiety May find shocking. Range Stress is Still One of the Biggest Hurdles Car Buyers Must Overcome to Switch to Electric Driving. Those who have done so usually stay well away from the point where the on-board computer indicates 0 percent. After all, you can’t just hitch a ride to the nearest gas station with a jerry can.
We’re Taking the Kia EV3 because it’s a vehicle-to-load EV
With the rise of evs that are v2l (vehicle-to-load) -ready, another car can act as a jerrycan. Our Kia EV3 Long-Term Test Car is Such A V2L-ready EV, So It’s High Time to Put It To The Test. What’s it like to really Run Your Battery Completely Empty, and how do you get back on the road with a little power from some Else? The Victim Today is Another Long-Term Test Car From Our Stable, The Renault R5 E-Tech Electric. It is also v2l (and v2g, vehicle-to-grid, but that is not relevant in this article).
We’re Looking for Space for Experimentation
For this experiment, we’re going to a quiet place with plenty of space, because it’s Questionable How, When, and Therefore Where the Last Meters of An Empty Ev Will Pass. You don’t want to stall on the highway or, worse, in a tunnel. A Long, Dead-End Dike North of Almere is our Pring Ground Today. When we arrive there, me in the Almost Empty R5 and driver Johan in the Almost Full EV3 in My Wake, the R5 Drops from 6 to 5 percent. Remarkable, at that moment it also drops from 31 to 0 km of range and alarm bells start ringing. I put the car in Eco and the Test Has Begun. I Drive Back and Forth On The Dike (1.5 km) Until the Last Life is out of the battery.
12 kilometers after 0 percent, the energy runs out
When the on-board computer drops to 4 percent, I get another yellow battery light. Six kilometers after the start of the test, I still have 3 percent, and after nine kilometers it’s 0 percent. The Motor Doesn’t Care About That Yet, It’s Still Performing normally. Only 12 kilometers after 0 percent does the energy start to run out, shortly after I get an orange turtle on the screen. The Eco Light Flashes and the Car Becomes Slower every meter. With difficulty, I can still reach 80 km/h, but with each run that top speed drops. Eighteen kilometers after 0 percent, it doesn’t go faster than 50 km/h and all the control lights start flashing. That’s how I get one more kilometer ahead. Nineteen kilometers after the moment when 0 percent appeared on the screen, the car stops completely, right at the head of the dike. The on-board Systems Still Work thanks to the 12V battery, but the drivetrain is dead. Time to call Johan.
Turn on Kia’s Camping Mode
To put the Renault on an Iv Drip With the Kia, You Need An Adapter. After all, You’re Actual Connecting the R5 to a Home Outlet, in this case the EV3 Fulfills That Role. That adapter looks like a stylized thermos with a ccs plug on top and a standard household outlet on the bottom, where you plug in the 230V charger of the recurring car. We do so, but that’s not all. To start, you have to turn on the adapter by pressing the power button. The prick in his forearm is not Enough, you still have to tell the kia that he is going to donate blood. You do that on the screen inside. In the menu, you choose ‘Camping Mode’ and Turn it on. The name of this function already says what it is primarily intended for. From now on, your Italian espresso machine, your vacuum cleaner and your dishwasher can also come along next to your tent. Camping Holidays Will Never Be the Same.
V2L transfer
Anyway, the car next to us sighs with relief. The KWH’s are coming in Again, Life is Slowly Dripping Into The Dead Battery. And Indeed, the Message ‘V2L Transfer …’ Appears on the Kia’s Dashboard. To prevent the Kia Battery from Dying for Someone Else, this only works when the kia has least 20 percent left. The Renault’s Dashboard also Gives Hope. The Pulsating Blue Surface Lights Up: We’re Charging! But Let’s Not Cheer Too Early, That’s Happening at 1.7 kW at the moment. If only we had that italian espresso machine with us now. The Renault Says That The Full Charging Time Under Thesis Circumstances is More Than 24 Hours, But That Is Of Course Not The Intention. We now have all the time to search the charging app for a fast charger nearby. We Find One: A Shell Recharge, Only 6.9 kilometers from our position.
Maximum 3.6 kW
The Kia Can Deliver a maximum of 3.6 kW of Power via V2L, but the 230V Charger We have with us is the limiting factor in this case. It cannot go faster than 1.8 kW. While the Kia Delivers with 1.9 kW, the Renault Says It Receives Energy with 1.7 kW, which can be explained by the loss in the charger and perhaps some measurement deviations. Since I Drove for QUITE TIME WITH ‘0%’ On the Dashboard, It is Logical That It Will Take Much Longer for the Meter to Jump To ‘1%’. After half an hour, we are completely done with doing nothing and have come with something smarter. We drive in Emergency Mode to the nearest ac charger and add some there, to continuous to the fast charger after about about. We find a dc charger at only 850 meters, across the water, with no less than 22 kW. So we disconnect everything and go on our way. The R5 is Still Driving Under ‘Limited Performance’, But That Is No Objection for That Small Piece.
Search for dc charger
What is an Objection: The Promised 22 KW Charger is not where the app says it should be. The Sent us to a dead-end Dirt Road Beind a Row of Houses. It is probable a private charger at Someone’s House in the Garden Or Garage. Learning moment: do not do these child of experiments too far from the inhabited world. There is Nothing Else To Do But Continue to the Next DC Charger, which is accordance to the app is locationed at 3.9 kilometers. Exciting … on the other hand, we now know that the car does not sauddenly stop, but slowly fades and since there is currently QUITE A BIT OF LIFE IN THE ENGINE AGAIN, we assume that we can bridge those fourfore we stop complicely forfore forfore for -full.
We can assume anything, but practice Doesn’t Care about that. With six hundred meters to go, the r5 blows its last breath again. In the Verge of an Almere Industrial Estate, we have little choice: for the second time we put the renault on the kia IV drip. Having Learned from the Earlier Disappointment, I go to explore on foot to make sure that our goal is not another pig in a poke. That turns out to be a good decision, because this charger belongs to an equipment lly deserted business premises. Between Me and the Coveted Charging Station is a fence that they would be jealous of on the South Korean Northern Border. Anyway, we are now only one kilometer away from the fast charger, which I know is part of a large gas station; A Third Disappointment is Unlikely.
After Another Twenty Minutes of V2L Trickle Charging, we dare to take the third stage of the long journey to the fast charger and here again it turns out: three times is still a charm. Two 300-KW Power Cannons Are Waiting For Me Like Soldiers in Formation. Johan can return to the editorial office by kia, I have to spend a little half an hour at the charger before I can chase him. Today I Not Only Learned How An Ev Gives Up, But also what dehydrated Bedouins must have felt when they spotted an oasis after days of Trudging through Hot Sand.