When the Hyundai Ioniq 5 first appeared, people may have fallen in love with its looks. Yet, the new electric crossover offers way more than a pretty face when it comes to technology, and one of its best features is the 800V battery pack. Although that high-voltage level can be scary, it also presents a significant advantage: lowering charging times. This video from the Battery Life YouTube channel shows that pretty well.
The video is based on how fast the Ioniq 5 goes from 6% to 100% of charge. That is pretty interesting precisely for showcasing how the charging process has some peculiarities that anyone willing to buy an EV has to learn.
Most automakers will only tell you how fast their electric cars can go from 5% to 80% of charge. The reason is that this is when battery packs are more willing to get extra electrons. Above 80%, most EVs don’t present full regenerative braking because the cells cannot take as much charge anymore. The temperature of the battery pack also plays a role in accepting more or less charge.
You can observe that in the video pretty clearly. It is at around 30% of charge that the battery pack starts accepting 220 kW. For you to have an idea, Car and Driver tested their 2019 Tesla Model 3 Long Range, and it reached a peak of 201 kW in a 250 kW Supercharger. It lasted less than one second, but the car could sustain 198 kW for two minutes. The Ioniq 5 went with 220 kW for four minutes in this Battery Life video.
Although the car took a total of 42 minutes to reach full charge, it already had 80% of it in 21 minutes. Services such as A Better Route Planner would tell you to leave by then and recharge when your car had about 10% of charge.
That would allow the battery management system (BMS) to pre-condition the battery pack, making the charging process faster. Experienced EV owners never let the charge drop below 5% and never charge more than 80% on a road trip to save time and preserve the battery pack. Fast charging is an aggressive process that may reduce its lifespan.
Before the Hyundai Ioniq 5, the only EV with an 800V system was the Porsche Taycan, which costs twice as much. The Lucid Air has a 900V system, but it is also an expensive machine. Some companies, such as Toroidion, think that is not the right solution for EVs, mainly because these high-voltages can be life-threatening in case of accidents. They prefer swappable battery packs.
Make sure you watch this video and learn with Christian Stadler a bit more about what makes the Ioniq 5 a unique electric car.
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