The EV Charge Stations to become the Norm (Shell Steps Up with Smart Parking Barrier)

[hridge2020]

Electric vehicles are the talk of the town, now that these cars are (almost) completely tax free in Malaysia. Sure, you still can’t buy one for the price of a Snickers bar – or, indeed, a Perodua Myvi, and you probably won’t for the foreseeable future – but you can’t deny that these cars are fast approaching the point at which someone who is reasonably well-off can afford one.

But Malaysians are a notoriously hard bunch to please, and the biggest stumbling blocks for these people are range and the charging infrastructure. Time and time again, we see the same comments in our articles – “The range is so short, how can I travel outstation?” or “How can I charge my car when I live in an apartment?” or the perennial favourite, “This public charger, can charge for free ah?”

Clearly then, this country needs a stable, well-developed charging network before a large enough chunk of the buying public will even consider jumping on the electric bandwagon. So it’s a good job that Shell has partnered with Porsche to install a string of fast chargers along the North-South Highway, the backbone of Malaysia’s road network. Sure, not everyone can afford a Taycan, but you don’t need a 761 PS electric sports sedan from Zuffenhausen to reap the benefits – although it would certainly help.

The Shell Recharge high performance charging (HPC) network, to give it its full and proper title, is open to the public, although only one of these stations is operational at the time of writing. This is at the Tangkak lay-by near the Johor border, some 170 km south of Kuala Lumpur – the halfway point of a typical KL to Johor Bahru trip.

It won’t be alone for long, as the fuel retailer is planning to implement five more charging stations within the first quarter of the year – the Tapah and Seremban R&Rs for those travelling south on the highway and the Pagoh and Seremban R&Rs and the Simpang Pulai RTC on the northbound side. This means there will be chargers not only down south towards JB, but also all the way up to Ipoh.

All will utilise ABB Terra 184 DC fast chargers, capable of sending up to 180 kW through their two Combined Charging System (CCS) connectors. Users will get the full output with one car plugged in, but if two cars are sharing the same station, they will each receive up to 90 kW of charging power. Unfortunately, because only one charging standard is supported here, you won’t be able to fill up a Nissan Leaf (which features a CHAdeMO socket) or a plug-in hybrid (most of which carry a Type 2 AC port).

Shell calls this Southeast Asia’s first “cross-border” charging network, as it also incorporates 87 chargers operated by its Singaporean subsidiary Greenlots (soon to be renamed Shell Recharge Solutions) – including 18 50 kW chargers at Shell petrol stations in the republic. The network will soon be expanded into Thailand, with plans for chargers in Bangkok and tourist cities – allowing for road trips right along the peninsula.

The real test – 177 km from Ara Damansara to Tangkak

To test out the new charger, Shell Malaysia and Porsche distributor Sime Darby Auto Performance (SDAP) took us on a road trip from Porsche Centre Ara Damansara to Tangkak along the North-South Highway. This was followed by a scenic drive through Sungai Mati and Kampung Bemban that eventually funnelled us back onto the highway at Ayer Keroh for a straight shot to the showroom. That’s a round trip of around 390 km.

Our chariot was a lightly-optioned Taycan 4S in gorgeous Carmine Red – crucially, without the optional Performance Battery Plus upgrade. Porsche claims a range of between 335 and 408 km on the WLTP cycle, although the company quotes a “real-world” range figure (inclusive of 30% of city driving, 40% on country roads and 30% on highways) of 316 km in our scorching circa-30ºC heat.

n order to give the car a “proper” challenge, the battery was only topped up to 70%, giving us a range of 270 km according to the sedan’s trip computer. This was still well beyond our 177 km drive to the Tangkak lay-by, although electric vehicles tend to be generous when calculating range. Should we have been worried?

The vast highway section allowed us to stretch the Taycan’s legs, occasionally making use of the all-wheel-drive 4S’ 435 PS (the full 530 PS is only available on overboost when launch control is activated, enabling the car to get from zero to 100 km/h in four seconds flat). Thanks to the two-speed transmission at the rear, the Porsche’s ability to kick us in the backside was undimmed even at higher speeds, flinging us to well beyond the highway limit in an instant.

Even so, our judicious use of the sedate Range drive mode – which minimises air-conditioning use and limits the top speed to 120 km/h – meant that we reached Tangkak with 93 km of range to spare, bang on the car’s estimate. With 23% of battery remaining, we needed a charge to make it back, which in this case required firing the app to book the charger.

Charger bookings made easy

Now, nothing in life comes for free, and neither does charging on the HPC network. Due to local laws, Shell isn’t legally allowed to sell electricity to customers, so it is instead selling the parking spaces next to the charger. To do so, the company has partnered up with ParkEasy, a smartphone app that allows users to book spaces at selected malls, offices, shops, hotels and hospitals. Many of these are fitted with AC charging stations, some of which were installed by Shell in an earlier collaboration with BMW.

Booking the HPC station is as simple as opening the ParkEasy app, selecting the Tangkak charger under “Shell HPC Southbound” and paying the prerequisite RM4 confirmation fee. Once you arrive, you can activate the space in the app, after which the smart barrier will lower, allowing you to park up and plug in. Note that reservations can only be held for ten minutes before they are forfeited.

Now, Malaysia is pretty well-known for being a nation of freeloaders – there have been instances of cheapskates parking next to ParkEasy bays and pulling the charging cable all the way to their own cars.


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[Crissa]

Ugh, I hate the parking app companies. They're terrible.

They'll charge you for using the charger whether it works or not and then make sure they aren't responsible for marking or even reporting that the station isn't working.

-Crissa