Natalia Reen works as part of the EU-funded bIoTope project, running various Internet of Things trials and pilots in Kalasatama.
Writer: Natalia Reen
On the second day I visited Messukeskus and at the same time tried to charge my car there. It was not absolutely necessary to charge but I was interested how charging services are provided by such a big event organizer on their parking slots. No need to write long story about this experience – there are no charging services in the parking of Messukeskus.
When I asked some service guy about that – he said that they have only charging stations for Tesla, but if I have a need he can find for me an ordinary socket. It is hard to understand the reason, why people usually spent hours in such places. Even slow charging would be have been acceptable.
On my way back home, I again looked at plugshared.com. It is not so that I would not trust dashboard info service, but it was easier to see from plugshared.com, which ones are those fast chargers – they have different colour on the map. From the dashboard you have to make several clicks to read the details of the charging service, so interfaces could be more user friendly.
The nearest station was surprisedly again the same station on the yard in a car shop, Nissan.
I charged my car there and here is some comments and findings.
– You can set the target percentage to charge, for example, I had 68% and I set the target to 80%. There is a clock that shows you how long you are charging (I wonder why is it needed – we all have watches or clocks) but there is no estimated time to complete the charging. So you never know how long it will take. I have noticed that at the beginning it gave me 50 A current then later only 35 A. I assume there are two reasons for that. First, current depends on how full your batteries are, second – fast charging should have something to do with the grid. I might be wrong, but first 10% took about 10 min, then it was seemingly slower.
Additional observation – it is really matters whether you use A/C, climate control, eco mode, heating. I have heard that there are some models that use biofuel for these features. This would help a lot in winter time and it would be more climate friendly.
The intermediate conclusion – when you are traveling you need to have good access and enough poles for fast charging. Slow charging is not an option, you can use it over the night or when you are shopping, working, away from your car for at least several hours.
…..to be continued.
Read first chapter: The journey by electric car #1