Problems with South Africa’s biggest electric car charging network

South Africa’s biggest electric vehicle (EV) charging network operator, GridCars, has played down issues with downtime, slower-than-advertised charging speeds, and the recent removal of a key station on a major intercity route.

GridCars operates over 400 EV charging stations in South Africa, making up the bulk of South Africa’s public EV charging infrastructure.

MyBroadband recently travelled on the N3 highway with Volvo’s EX30 electric crossover and stopped at several charging stations.

All three GridCars-operated EV chargers we used on this route had technical issues.

Firstly, the 22kW AC charger at the Engen fuel station near Villiers was not functioning.

This charger is intended as a backup for when the faster 60kW DC charger is occupied.

While we were charging the EX30 on a trip between Pretoria and Clarens, an Audi E-tron arrived and urgently needed to charge.

Fortunately, we only needed to recharge for about 20 minutes before we could hand over the DC charger to the E-tron driver and head home.

However, those 20 minutes could have added a valuable 7kWh to their battery on the slow charger, enough for about 36km of range.

The second troublesome charger was at the Engen N3 Tugela South station on the way to Durban.

Its faster 80kW DC charging connector would not detect when it was plugged into a vehicle, so it would not initiate charging.

Fortunately, the 22kW AC charger at this station was working, but its much slower speed meant it took three to four times longer than it otherwise would have.

The next GridCars station on our route — with a 30kW DC charger at the Engen N3 Mooi River — had a faulty RFID reader.

Customers with the GridCars ChargePocket app or a phone number linked to an account can request a remote activation of the charger through GridCars support.

As journalists, we did not have an account, so we had to call GridCars support and provide our charging card number to initiate the process.

Another GridCars charger in Irene Village Mall in Centurion also had a non-functioning backup AC charger.

That prevented a Mercedes-Benz EQS driver from charging while we were topping up the EX30.

GridCars charging station at Engen Tugela South on the N3, where the DC charger was not detecting it was plugged into the EX30 and we charged with 22kW power.

The RFID scanner of the non-functional AC charger at Irene Village Mall.

GridCars told MyBroadband that it regretted the inconvenience caused by our experience. It said it was busy resolving all these issues and had already brought some of the older chargers back online.

The company explained that a particular generation of its chargers had reached a point in their maintenance cycle resulting in unforeseen downtime for the “lower-priority” public AC chargers.

“We are actively monitoring the network to ensure proactive measures are taken to minimise any unexpected downtime,” GridCars said.

“We are currently in the process of scaling our technical team to increase maintenance and uptime of all of our chargers nationwide.”

Chargers not reaching advertised speeds

Many of GridCars’ older chargers are also unable to feed power to more affordable EVs with 400V battery architecture at the chargers’ advertised maximum speeds.

MyBroadband first noticed we were unable to charge the EX30, Volvo XC40 Recharge, or BMW iX3 at full speed at several GridCars chargers, including one 60kW DC charger at Irene Village Mall.

The charging speeds typically maxed out at 42kW, around 30% less than the advertised speed.

GridCars explained that several vehicle-side factors, including battery voltages, temperatures, and the amp ratings of cables and connectors, can cause slower charging speeds.

Charging speed also changes depending on the battery’s state-of-charge (SoC) level.

This fluctuation is commonly referred to as the charging curve and is designed to protect battery life over the long term.

Both the EX30 and XC40 had achieved 153kW charging speeds at other stations, so we assumed the issue was not the battery pack.

GridCars subsequently confirmed that the combination of the 400V battery architecture and the 125A current limit of the charging stations were to blame for the issue.

With GridCars’ newer default 300A connections, the theoretical charging speed limit on a 400V battery should be around 105kW to 120kW.

Only more expensive 800V-equipped EVs can charge at the maximum speeds advertised on the older chargers.

GridCars said it recognised these complexities could cause consumer confusion and aimed to address them by updating the ChargePocket user interface to simplify and communicate this information more effectively.

Volvo XC40 Recharge near its maximum charging speed at the Irene Village Mall charger.

BMW iX3 reporting near its maximum charging speed at a GridCars 60kW charging station at Mall of the North in Polokwane.

Charger removal

A third issue MyBroadband recently became aware of was the removal of a key DC fast charging station in Kroonstad near the N1 between Johannesburg and Bloemfontein.

There is now only one EV charging station on the GridCars network between these two cities — an 80kW DC charger at Ventersburg — which is over 230km from the nearest functional roadside DC charger in Johannesburg.

With realistic long-distance ranges of around 300km to 350km when travelling at 120km/h, owners of several mid-sized EV models coming from Gauteng might suffer from range anxiety during the journey.

One EX30 owner who had a 90% charge when leaving Centurion barely reached the now-defunct Kroonstad charger with an 8% charge.

Reaching the remaining Ventersburg charger, which is over 50km further away, would have required a full charge from home.

GridCars said it continuously monitored the network with a particular focus on its usage to optimise charger placement.

“Rather than removing chargers, we have reallocated certain units to different locations following a swift refurbishment process in our warehouse,” GridCars said.

“Future rollouts will include additional chargers and higher output units where necessary and feasible.”