The effects of fast EV charging: not what you'd expect

Fast-charging might not be the death sentence for electric vehicle batteries we’ve been warned about, with new research finding no observable impact on driving range.

Science (and common sense) tells us that fast charging a battery, whether in your phone or electric vehicle, is bad for its long-term health. New data collected from 13,000 Teslas and published by EV-focused insights platform Recurrent challenges this assumption.

Here’s what they found:

• Recurrent compared driving ranges from vehicles of the same age, splitting data between cars whose owners used fast charging just 30% of the time and those who used it 70% of the time.

• As anticipated, the older the vehicle the more intense the effects of battery degradation. Less expected was the lack of difference between frequent and infrequent fast chargers.

• While only a small minority of EV owners rely heavily on fast charging, no statistical difference in driving range was observed in either category.

The implications: Public infrastructure such as Tesla’s Supercharger network typically offers Level 3 capabilities, meaning they can charge most vehicles in a matter of minutes compared to the hours needed for Level 2 outlets. With inadequate access to charging frequently cited as a key obstacle to EV adoption, anything that makes public chargers seem safer or more reliable is likely to drive demand.

That being said, there are a few notable limitations to Recurrent’s research.

• Since the overwhelming majority of EV owners do most of their charging at home, only 2.6% of Recurrent’s data included vehicles in the frequent fast charging category. Although this still represented more than 300 units, such a tiny sample size decreases the reliability of the data.

• The vast majority of EV models examined by Recurrent were built after 2018, with more than half being less than three years old. While trends were consistent regardless of vehicle age, this means that the impacts of long-term fast charging use past the five-to-six year mark is still up for debate.

Bottom line: With so much negativity surrounding the EV market today, it’s encouraging to hear some positive developments, especially those related to critical issues such as charging accessibility. That being said, it’s always healthy to keep in mind that EVs are still a relatively new invention, and there’s a lot we still need to understand about their longevity.

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