An electric car is a fairly significant consumer of electricity, and the minimum time for charging it with alternating current is more than 6-8 hours. This makes it impossible to fully charge an electric car, even with scheduled shutdowns, because the power is turned on every 4 hours.
During the attack on November 23, there was a period when only 5% of charging stations for electric cars in Ukraine were working, the other 95% were unavailable or turned off. That is, out of 1,700 stations of one of the largest charging infrastructure operators, ECOFACTOR Network, 1,500 were offline. Currently, the situation is better – energy companies are actively restoring the network and communication, approximately 1,000 stations are already working.
It is interesting that this company is seeing a steady increase in the number of users of charging stations and registrations in the ECOFACTOR Network application. At the end of November, the number of users increased to 51 thousand, which is several thousand more than the number of officially registered owners of electric cars in Ukraine. The fact is that owners of environmentally friendly cars register on several networks of power plants, and family members and employees who use electric cars also have applications.
Owners of electric cars understand the situation, because they have long been accustomed to planning their trips and charging. Despite the queues that appeared during the energy crisis on November 24 and 25, people helped each other, shared hot tea and useful advice.
A few tips for saving and managing electricity shortages:
- Switch the electric car to Eco mode and use enhanced recuperation more often;
- Do not discharge the battery “to zero”, but maintain the charge at the level of 50-80%;
- Charge the car as soon as possible
- Monitor power cut-off schedules by district;
- Search for a charging station, focusing on the application, which shows where there is energy and communication;
- Remember the addresses of the stations where the network is most often connected
- Purchase an RFID card to start the charging station without a smartphone;
- Remember that the battery charges quickly up to 80%, and the other 20% will be charged much longer;
- Do not leave electric vehicles plugged in at the station for a long time to make room for others.
Ecological transport always involves alternative means of power supply – the sun, wind, biogas, water, and the conversion of coal, firewood, household or agricultural waste into electricity. They can be used to power generators on internal combustion engines, or to be converted into energy through steam turbines. That is, there are many options for obtaining electricity.
