Is Shell ReCharge finally a good choice for EV fast charging? Let me know down in the comments if you have used their chargers before and how your experience was.
I've used Shell ReCharge a few times and never had a good experience. Good to see that their hardware is improving and being more reliable. Excellent review.
At least this this it wasn’t a complete disaster. But the price is just to high and not very competitive. Big oil still needs more time to adjust to an all electric future.
I agree...they still need time to adjust their strategy. It would be nice to see all those gas pumps be replaced with reliable and price competitive EV fast chargers, sometime in the future of course!
Are you planning to do a series covering chargers, specifically at road side rest areas on the Trans Canada and Sea to Sky etc. As I previously suggested?
I got 197 kw/hr at the Boundary and Marine Dr location in Vancouver on my EV6. 30-90% in 20 minutes. Too bad I had to wait 10 minutes for someone else to finish changing because the cables are too short on the one side. Why don't they arrange the charger islands like the fuel pumps?
I’m glad you had a good experience there. They really need to rearrange that site, the way they installed these chargers makes no sense at all. In Norway many chargers were installed to replace gas pumps and they are easy to drive up to, connect and charge. I think the same will eventually happen here where they will replace pumps with chargers. But I agree, they should start with this sort of arrangement in the first place making it easier to hook up and charge.
Then you are good to go. It will take some time to set up all the values and the app is far from intuitive, but well worth it if you want as many stats as possible.
I use the Car Scanner ELM OBD2 app on the Android phone. It’s also available on iPhone. And I pair it with the OBDLink LX. Works great but it takes a while to set up the app with all the values you wish to track.
Shell Recharge sent me an email this week saying they are replacing their UK chargers with the same model. Here we pay $1.32 Canadian equivalent per kWh using the to 50kW units or $1.42 when using the 150kW units, so your $17.94 would be cheap for us Brits! Then again, our "gas" is $2.34 a litre!
Oh wow didn’t know it was that expensive to charge an EV in the UK! We should count our blessings then and not complain so much about pricing at our chargers. I’m guessing that given the DC fast charging prices in the UK most EV owners charge at home if possible correct?
@@LeftCoastEV DC rapid charging in the UK has gone from about 30p to 70-80p per kWh in the last three years. I'm paying 7.5p at home between 23:30 and 05:30. That's up from 5p when my previous tariff ended last week. Daytime rate went from 16p to 40p!
During busy times, a higher price means the charger is less likely to be full, which means you're less likely to have to wait in line. So, it all comes down to the tradeoff of time vs. money; my personal opinion is that waiting 20-30 minutes in line to save $5 is not worth it, but the fact that lines exist at cheaper places means that there are others that feel differently. The same situation applies to gas car drivers too; I don't know how many times I've seen long lines at a gas station offering slightly cheaper gasoline than the competition. But, at least EV drivers only need to think about the time/money to charge when out on a long trip; the rest of the time, we can just plug into our home chargers and forget about it.
Very well said and I appreciate your feedback! The parallel here to gas station pricing makes sense…and looking back on my ICE days I sometimes gave up waiting in line to fuel up and headed to the less busy but slightly more expensive options when I didn’t have time to wait. Same thing with EV charging. Thanks again for your input.
I would say so! But to their credit the second session started right up so I guess it was just a small connection issue. Still miles ahead of my first first experience with Shell ReCharge.
By the hour is a joke for slow-charging EVs like my Bolt (I've only ever seen 51kw once on my EUV, and it's usually slower); I'll only use a Shell charger if I'm desperate. Thanks for the review, though.
I went to check it out so you don’t have to! I totally agree. There are much better (and cheaper) options for slower charging EVs out there. I do wonder if any of the Canadian charging networks will switch over the kWh billing since Measurement Canada approved it already. So far all of them are radio silent and no one wants to move away from the more lucrative per minute system.
@Left Coast EV -- They're now allowed to legally sell by the kwh in Canada, so I hope this gets implemented. I always try to find the slow chargers for my Bolt.
The new renewable electricity producing organic air batteries discovered in India convert residual ambient solar heat available around us 24hrs in the "shadow" to electricity for the first time in the world. The silicon solar panels are widely used to convert sunlight to electricity but sunlight is not always available! The new renewable electricity producing organic air battery will also have a major role in the future in making the lives of households, including the poor households living in India and the world more comfortable. This new renewable electricity production method has the potential to replace all other methods of electricity production to power household devices, to power EVs and to supply electricity to the grids! Further, this new renewable electricity production method has potential to give additional income to landless homeless poor households living in cities/towns/villages in India and the world, including the cities in the USA, Europe and other countries, to rent or to build their homes instead of living in streets which became a serious societal problem all over the world.
If you don’t like the Shell app, and I don’t blame you, Shell, FLO, Chargepoint, and BC Hydro have a roaming agreement. You should be able to start a charge from any of those apps.
found the problem with charging No money can be made from charging a fuel station costs $14,000 it can serve hundreds in hour a charging station costs $25,000 it serves 1 person realistically is not profitable
No. It disconnected and then reconnected and continued charging. No issues there. Plus the charging speed was the max that the Kia can take. This location works well.
Shell recharge is wide open ass, they bought up all the volta free chargers and are now trying to charge for them. I won't be using Shell for any of my cars gas or ev. Bushleague.
They did? Will need to look into this. Thanks for the info. I’ve never been a fan of Shell but at least they are now providing somewhat reliable chargers to those who need them.
Is Shell ReCharge finally a good choice for EV fast charging? Let me know down in the comments if you have used their chargers before and how your experience was.
I've used Shell ReCharge a few times and never had a good experience. Good to see that their hardware is improving and being more reliable. Excellent review.
The reliability at this location looks to be quite good so you can go ahead and give them a try. Thanks for watching!
At least this this it wasn’t a complete disaster. But the price is just to high and not very competitive. Big oil still needs more time to adjust to an all electric future.
I agree...they still need time to adjust their strategy. It would be nice to see all those gas pumps be replaced with reliable and price competitive EV fast chargers, sometime in the future of course!
Hopefully the future is not all electric
Are you planning to do a series covering chargers, specifically at road side rest areas on the Trans Canada and Sea to Sky etc. As I previously suggested?
Yes. I plan on starting this series next month. Thanks again for the suggestion.
What is that display he is showing in the video with all those stats? Thanks.
The display is a combination of a OBD adapter and the Car Scanner app. I have added links to both in the description of this video.
Can you also add 'kWh Energy Delivered' in your summary 12:20 so viewers can calculate cost/kWh.
Thanks. I will make sure to add it to future videos!
I got 197 kw/hr at the Boundary and Marine Dr location in Vancouver on my EV6. 30-90% in 20 minutes. Too bad I had to wait 10 minutes for someone else to finish changing because the cables are too short on the one side. Why don't they arrange the charger islands like the fuel pumps?
I’m glad you had a good experience there. They really need to rearrange that site, the way they installed these chargers makes no sense at all. In Norway many chargers were installed to replace gas pumps and they are easy to drive up to, connect and charge. I think the same will eventually happen here where they will replace pumps with chargers. But I agree, they should start with this sort of arrangement in the first place making it easier to hook up and charge.
What app are you using for your SOC, temp, current, etc.
It is the Car Scanner ELM OBD2 app on either the Play or Apple app stores. You will ask need an OBD2 dongle to make it work.
@@LeftCoastEV Thanks. I have an OBDII dongle with bluetooth already plugged in.
Then you are good to go. It will take some time to set up all the values and the app is far from intuitive, but well worth it if you want as many stats as possible.
What app do you use on your phone? I have an iphone and OBDLinkCX OBC2 scanner
I use the Car Scanner ELM OBD2 app on the Android phone. It’s also available on iPhone. And I pair it with the OBDLink LX. Works great but it takes a while to set up the app with all the values you wish to track.
only rated for 200Amp so non liquid-cooled cables these chargers will de-rate pretty fast on higher current draws
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, these cables are not liquid cooled unfortunately.
Shell Recharge sent me an email this week saying they are replacing their UK chargers with the same model. Here we pay $1.32 Canadian equivalent per kWh using the to 50kW units or $1.42 when using the 150kW units, so your $17.94 would be cheap for us Brits! Then again, our "gas" is $2.34 a litre!
Oh wow didn’t know it was that expensive to charge an EV in the UK! We should count our blessings then and not complain so much about pricing at our chargers. I’m guessing that given the DC fast charging prices in the UK most EV owners charge at home if possible correct?
@@LeftCoastEV DC rapid charging in the UK has gone from about 30p to 70-80p per kWh in the last three years. I'm paying 7.5p at home between 23:30 and 05:30. That's up from 5p when my previous tariff ended last week. Daytime rate went from 16p to 40p!
Thanks for the info! This is a huge difference in price between Canada and the UK.
During busy times, a higher price means the charger is less likely to be full, which means you're less likely to have to wait in line. So, it all comes down to the tradeoff of time vs. money; my personal opinion is that waiting 20-30 minutes in line to save $5 is not worth it, but the fact that lines exist at cheaper places means that there are others that feel differently.
The same situation applies to gas car drivers too; I don't know how many times I've seen long lines at a gas station offering slightly cheaper gasoline than the competition. But, at least EV drivers only need to think about the time/money to charge when out on a long trip; the rest of the time, we can just plug into our home chargers and forget about it.
Very well said and I appreciate your feedback! The parallel here to gas station pricing makes sense…and looking back on my ICE days I sometimes gave up waiting in line to fuel up and headed to the less busy but slightly more expensive options when I didn’t have time to wait. Same thing with EV charging. Thanks again for your input.
If charging fails and you have to charge again does it count as 2 chargers 🤨🤔
I would say so! But to their credit the second session started right up so I guess it was just a small connection issue. Still miles ahead of my first first experience with Shell ReCharge.
@@LeftCoastEV sadly that could be abused connection's breaking than charging multiple charging sessions 🤑🤑🤑
Very true. Thankfully we don’t pay session fees (yet) in Canada so a break in connection is fine if it restarts charging right after.
Same in the UK. Very expensive.
I think the prices for DC fast charging in the UK are way more expensive than for us in North America.
By the hour is a joke for slow-charging EVs like my Bolt (I've only ever seen 51kw once on my EUV, and it's usually slower); I'll only use a Shell charger if I'm desperate.
Thanks for the review, though.
I went to check it out so you don’t have to! I totally agree. There are much better (and cheaper) options for slower charging EVs out there. I do wonder if any of the Canadian charging networks will switch over the kWh billing since Measurement Canada approved it already. So far all of them are radio silent and no one wants to move away from the more lucrative per minute system.
@Left Coast EV -- They're now allowed to legally sell by the kwh in Canada, so I hope this gets implemented. I always try to find the slow chargers for my Bolt.
I hope the switch to kWh happens sooner rather than later so slower charging EV owners can reap the benefits.
The new renewable electricity producing organic air batteries discovered in India convert residual ambient solar heat available around us 24hrs in the "shadow" to electricity for the first time in the world.
The silicon solar panels are widely used to convert sunlight to electricity but sunlight is not always available!
The new renewable electricity producing organic air battery will also have a major role in the future in making the lives of households, including the poor households living in India and the world more comfortable.
This new renewable electricity production method has the potential to replace all other methods of electricity production to power household devices, to power EVs and to supply electricity to the grids!
Further, this new renewable electricity production method has potential to give additional income to landless homeless poor households living in cities/towns/villages in India and the world, including the cities in the USA, Europe and other countries, to rent or to build their homes instead of living in streets which became a serious societal problem all over the world.
If you don’t like the Shell app, and I don’t blame you, Shell, FLO, Chargepoint, and BC Hydro have a roaming agreement. You should be able to start a charge from any of those apps.
Good to know! Thanks for the tip. The Shell ReCharge app just didn’t work for me.
found the problem with charging No money can be made from charging a fuel station costs $14,000 it can serve hundreds in hour a charging station costs $25,000 it serves 1 person realistically is not profitable
So did you have to pay for two hour (sessions)? This pay for time is BS.
No. It disconnected and then reconnected and continued charging. No issues there. Plus the charging speed was the max that the Kia can take. This location works well.
I'll never try it at that price. Charging by time is never good.
Unfortunately right now charging by time is the standard in Canada. Maybe one day it will switch to billing by usage.
Shell recharge is wide open ass, they bought up all the volta free chargers and are now trying to charge for them. I won't be using Shell for any of my cars gas or ev. Bushleague.
They did? Will need to look into this. Thanks for the info. I’ve never been a fan of Shell but at least they are now providing somewhat reliable chargers to those who need them.
ABB chargers are highly unreliable
You are correct. This is the first time I managed to get a decent charging session on ABB hardware, all others didn’t work out as intended.