What are the differences between PHEV and BEV charging?

Let's talk about the use of charging before the holiday. For electric vehicles, a very important part is the charging characteristics. Compared with the cruising range, how to quickly recharge the electric vehicle is actually a common consideration for most owners who buy electric vehicles. At present, there are two different plug-in vehicles, one is a 12kwh PHEV (Roewe eRX5) and the other is a 70.8kwh BEV (Xiaopeng P7). After using it for a while, let's talk about the feeling of using the plug-in method.

01. Charging usage mode

1) PHEV Charging

First of all, let me talk about PHEV. I drive this car to and from get off work. Because the range is 63km (it has been used for two years and the current display is 61km), I go from the city to Hongqiao to pick up Yanyan every day, then go to work, and repeat the return trip. The actual distance of a single trip is about 40 kilometers. So I usually charge it once at home and once at work. Cost: The actual bill is about 7-8kwh. It is calculated at 30 cents/kwh at home and 1 yuan/kwh at work. The cost of 80 kilometers a day is 10 yuan.

Charging experience:

1.1) Mode 2 charging with a mobile charging box - At home, since there is no condition to install a charging pile in the entire community, the method adopted is to buy a special cable, which is connected from the household power supply and charged in mode 2. The charging current is AC 13A and the charging power is about 1.7kW. At a single trip of 7kwh, each charge takes 4-5 hours.

1.2) Mode 3 AC charging pile charging - At the company's dedicated pile, you need to scan the code or swipe the card every time. Sometimes some AC piles have maintenance problems and you have to try a few more parking spaces. I also use mode 3 in my hometown, but it is more convenient because I bought an extra dedicated charging pile with the help of a friend. The charging current is 32A, the charging power is 3.3kW, and the speed is faster.

In fact, for PHEV, charging is a measure to increase the economy of the vehicle. With charging, the driving cost can be reduced, but charging outside requires trying to choose a place, and there is a lot of randomness. When using oil, my current monthly pure electric mileage is between 85% and 95%.

2) Charging of BEV P7

At present, Yanyan's pure electric P7 has not yet obtained the official license. It has been used for long-distance driving (more than 100 kilometers) on weekends. Here is the background. Unlike plug-in vehicles, the 70kwh battery is equipped with a 7-11kW charger. Three charging methods have been tried here:

2.1) Mode 2 - Mobile charging box charging. This method does not seem to work at present. Because the charging time is very long, the continuous 13A has a great impact on non-dedicated sockets and plugs, which is mainly manifested in being very hot - this is outdoors in winter. Large-capacity pure electric vehicles use mode 2. Since the original wiring system is not suitable, this grandma charging mode can no longer be used.

2.2) Mode 3 - AC charging pile charging. I used an AC charging pile to charge my car in my hometown. Unlike PHEV, the large-capacity BEV generally uses a 6.6kW charger. This car used the previous line and the air switch tripped. This problem was later solved by replacing the switch.

2.3) Mode 4 - DC fast charging One of the selling points of P7 is that this car comes with 3000kwh of free charging quota (it should be exclusive to Xiaopeng Motors' charging stations), and it is convenient to check the charging points through the APP. There is a charging facility about 900 meters away from my home. Under the right distance, this is a good choice for a one-time charging of long-range pure electric cars. Of course, overall, Xiaopeng currently has a good number of charging stations in Shanghai (I found them near my home and near Hongqiao), but there are relatively few charging piles at each station (there are about 10 at each station in Hongqiao), and the sales of P7 have been good recently. Later, I was a little worried that each charging point would be crowded, and it would be difficult to reverse a row of P7s charging here.

From the current point of view, with the hot sales of electric vehicles this year, the investment in charging infrastructure is accelerating in China. In December at the end of last year, the number of public charging piles increased by 112,000 from the previous month (a year-on-year increase of 56.3%). With the increase in private charging demand, various charging operators have increased the investment and access of public charging piles, and the incremental number is obvious. As of December 2020, there were 807,000 public charging piles in China, including 498,000 AC charging piles (the main use of this part is destination charging, which can be parked and charged for a long time) and 309,000 DC charging piles (this part is mainly used as a supplement for the lack of charging piles at home).

From the perspective of maintenance, the demand can be met by fast charging 1-2 times a week, which will definitely become the mainstream in old urban communities. As the power load of some new residential parking lots is also used up, this mode will become the inevitable choice for pure electric car owners.

02. Some charging details of P7

1) Selection of charging maps while driving

When you go out, you currently rely on two main parts to choose a charging station. One is to rely on the prediction in the APP to find charging facilities according to the expected location. This is a bit like a planned choice. Check it before you go.

One is to solve the problem by choosing a parking location based on charging needs (display the charging stations that can be searched near the current map, click to select the charging station you want to go to, and the system starts navigating).

2) Design of the charging port

The P7's charging ports are all electric, with the DC charging port on the left side of the vehicle and the AC charging port on the right side. There are several ways to open it. My dad currently uses a physical key, which is opened by double-clicking the button (the left side is the slow charging port and the right side is the fast charging port). Before getting off the car, you can also call "Hello, Xiao P" through the voice system to open it. Another way is to use the distributed mobile phone Bluetooth key (this is now installed on every mobile phone), and it will automatically open after clicking on the Xiaopeng Motors APP.

Summary: At present, the usage of plug-in vehicles, mainly in the charging strategy, is actually quite different.