‘Do your research on home chargers before buying one’: Woman gets an electric Kia. Then she finds out it’s going to take 41 hours to fully charge

Charge times are a big complaint amongst drivers of electric vehicles.

While conditions for electric car ownership are getting easier, “charging concerns are second only to vehicle cost among reasons cited for those respondents against buying an EV,” reads a November 2023 report from S&P Global.

“About 46% of respondents are concerned about the time required for charging, while 44% are concerned about the availability of charging stations—a reversal of reasons from last year,” the report states.

The time for charging an electric vehicle is significant.

For example, while Tesla’s website says that the car can reach up to 200 miles’ worth of charge in just 15 minutes if one uses a Tesla Supercharger, these charge speeds slow to a crawl if one employs a charger that plugs into a standard wall outlet. In that case, the car will only see up to 3 miles of range per hour of charge.

Now, a user on TikTok has sparked discussion after sharing their own gripes about long charge times.

41 hours to recharge a car

In a video with over 177,000 views, TikTok user Cristal Vera (@cristal_vera) advises viewers to “do your research on home chargers before you buy one.”

As for why, she shows her car’s charging status. The car is a Kia EV6, and it is charging at a rate of 1.1 kW—meaning that, to reach a full charge from 50%, it’s going to take her over 41 hours.

Vera isn’t the first to go viral for noting this issue. Another electric Kia owner recently complained that charging their vehicle with a standard plug was projected to take 73 hours. 

Luckily, these charge speeds aren’t standard for the Kia EV6. 

“All versions of the Kia EV6 can charge at a maximum of 11 kW at an AC charging station. This means it takes approximately 6 hours to charge the standard range 2WD from 0 to 100 percent, and 8 hours to charge the long-range 2WD, long-range AWD, and GT versions,” EVBOX reports.

“As for charging at a DC fast charging station, the Standard Range 2WD can charge at a maximum power of 175 kW, while the Long Range 2WD, Long Range AWD, and GT versions can charge at a maximum power of 233 kW,” the piece continues. “This means it takes the standard range 2WD around 17 minutes to charge from 10 to 80 percent, while the long-range 2WD, long-range AWD, and GT versions take around 16 minutes.”

In an email to the Daily Dot, a Kia spokesperson affirmed that slow charge speeds are only typical if one is using a low-powered charger, and that more powerful chargers will provide significantly improved charge speeds.

"Our dealers have all information on charging options including installation of a higher voltage (220v) charging unit at the customer’s home," the spokesperson said.

Vera noted in a comment that superchargers create a much different charging experience. “When I take it to the superchargers it takes about 30 min depending on what the charge was before,” she said. “It’s actually pretty fast.”

@cristal_vera And it was already at 50% ???? #electriccar #kiaev6 #kiaev6gt #car #carsoftiktok #electricvehicle #carcharger #ev #funny #dissapointed #comedy #foryou ♬ nintendo wii (mii channel) song - julie on the internet

Commenters share their thoughts

In the comments section, users agreed that EV owners should be a little more careful before they simply buy a home car charger that they believe will work with their vehicle.

“I got a level 2 charger installed at home plus I get free charging at work,” said a user. “Just gotta plan accordingly.”

“Yeah you need to have a commercial grade 220v outlet, the 120v outlets just don’t cut it,” noted a second.

“If you’ve got a dryer outlet available and an adapter that’s a great place to start,” observed a third.

“I can hardly keep my phone charged. no way I'm ever getting an electric vehicle unless it's like a gokart or something,” joked a further TikToker.

The Daily Dot reached out to Kia via email and Vera via email and TikTok direct message.

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