At some point later I got around to playing with DC fast charging ... That market still has a long way to go as far as sorting out its business model, as billing based on time vs energy is completely unfair ... An excuse that's offered less and less often is that pricing by kilowatt-hours delivered is prohibited in some states by utility regulatory rules.
I didn't know they were billing for DC charging in the US based on Time instead of kwh. Thats odd. In Europe its just kwh.
In the EU, yes. When you go to those dark corners of Europe that never achieved the membership, all bets are off.
In Montenegro and Serbia they charge per minute because the only entity allowed to sell kwh's is the national electricity company (in Serbia it's owned by Russia, so it is heavily legally protected).
No need to go further than dead center EU to see chargers where the cost has a time component, and an energy component, and even a (small) one time fee. Sometimes the charger is inside a paid parking, there that comes on top. These aren't shady operators either either, just the way they saw fit to prevent abuse and make more money.
Some have reasonable limits to prevent abuse [0], others just charge the customer as much as they can get away with.
I think fast chargers in rush hour times will also bill for time to discourage long/slow charges on them. Naturally that'll vary on whoever sets the costs, but it does exist in EU as well.
Arguably it should be both. Sitting and occupying a DC fast charging booth, especially once you're not charging at the full rate, represents an opportunity cost since someone else could be using it.
I used a Tesla charger (as a non-Tesla driver) recently. I think their pricing model is pretty good: pay per kWh (varies between peak and off-peak), and if the station is busy they can impose a "congestion charge" for anyone occupying a charger and not charging, or charging above 80% when it's not necessary for their journey (presumably only works for Teslas where the satnav knows about your journey and charge locations).
I really like both the e-Niro and the Kona EV for their "normal" car look and I did some hacking too. Wanted to play with the Web Bluetooth API and Svelte, so created the open source Niro Spy app (should work with your Kona too), works on iOS through BLE browser. It might be a good template for some OBD2 hacking, you can also check Open Vehicle Monitoring System repo and the evDash project.
The car is somewhat reliable on the battery side (still have SOH over 101% after 90k km / 50k miles), but the gearbox and motor bearings issue can be tricky to fix.
Also the MY2019 vehicles do lack remote climate controls and battery preconditioning (which I'm still trying to fix with the app).
This is the kind of hacking / upgrades I’d love to see. All in cost was about $6k when I last checked probably a little more now. You get a pack teardown, and new CATL cells. Range goes to 400km~.
That is very cool! I can see myself keeping this car for a long time. It's just so well built and the interior is also something to behold (compared to a lot of cars).
Range is not an issue at the moment (we have a Land Cruiser) but once the batteries get really old this would be a great option.
For the original version released in 2013, range was a bit of a concern.
Later models, 120ah full electric version, the range is about 250km. In comparison to newer cars, not a lot, but considering you can buy newish used ones for under 15k, its not a bad deal if it fits your needs.
Funny how I'm downvoted for even mentioning an i3. I've also heard several comments insinuating that I must be gay for driving such a car. Are we still there in 2026?
I didn't know they were billing for DC charging in the US based on Time instead of kwh. Thats odd. In Europe its just kwh.
In the EU, yes. When you go to those dark corners of Europe that never achieved the membership, all bets are off.
In Montenegro and Serbia they charge per minute because the only entity allowed to sell kwh's is the national electricity company (in Serbia it's owned by Russia, so it is heavily legally protected).
Some have reasonable limits to prevent abuse [0], others just charge the customer as much as they can get away with.
[0] https://www.tanke.io/oeffentliche-ladestationen/
I don't think you want that as no car will be able to charge at 250kW for very long for example.
And I believe we're starting to see even higher peak charging rates. As always, there's no simple answers
The car is somewhat reliable on the battery side (still have SOH over 101% after 90k km / 50k miles), but the gearbox and motor bearings issue can be tricky to fix.
Also the MY2019 vehicles do lack remote climate controls and battery preconditioning (which I'm still trying to fix with the app).
Wow, instantly stopped reading after this. I can't comprehend how someone would even remotely have the courage writing such in a public posting.
https://mtgbattery.com/
This is the kind of hacking / upgrades I’d love to see. All in cost was about $6k when I last checked probably a little more now. You get a pack teardown, and new CATL cells. Range goes to 400km~.
Later models, 120ah full electric version, the range is about 250km. In comparison to newer cars, not a lot, but considering you can buy newish used ones for under 15k, its not a bad deal if it fits your needs.
As for the range, I'm getting about 110 miles of range. It depends how you drive. This is the 94Ah battery, the later models had more range.
I appreciate the autopilot effort of comma, but if this isn't hacking in the most classic sense of the word I don't know what is.