[Sankar]

Why does the Kona and the MG EZS have their charging port located on the front bumper or nose?

Disadvantages:

• For those who reverse park the nose will be pointing out of the garage and possibly facing a gate/shutter.
  
• For those with small garage/front yard and have to park the vehicle really really close to the wall to be able to close the gate and/or garage door. Which leaves almost no place for a person to stand and use the charging port properly.
  
• When the portable charger and or extension cord is in the boot it user have to walk to the other end of the car with all that paraphernalia. If it was like Tesla it would have been a lot more convenient.
  
• If the EV is involved in a small crash it could leave the vehicle perfectly driveable but the charging interface broken and unusable, preventing the owner from being able to charge the vehicle till the front end gets fixed. You don't want that if you are traveling out of station and has to re-charge to get back home or anywhere.
  
• The front end of the car after a monsoon drive will be dirty. Well how many of us really wanted to touch the front ends of our cars after a monsoon drive. But the Kona/MG owner will have to get his hands dirty to recharge to get home. There could be ton of bug splatter too depending on season, dead bits of large dragon flies and beetles will have to be hosed down before the front end is clean to touch. I wouldn't touch the front end of my vehicle (not EV) with bare hands when its bug splattered or coated with mud and grime (mixture of mud, oil, soot, spit, human and animal No1 No2 which all gets mixed and washed down the road and sprayed from the leading vehicles wheels)

Why can't they simply do it like Tesla and place the charging port on the flanks? What are the advantage of having the port on the front end of the car??

[jailbird_fynix]

Probably due to a lack of product localisation since they're some of the first entries into a brand new market. Hopefully, companies can work upon customer feedback and resolve them in the generations that follow. Here's an article on the subject -

Source - What's the ideal location for the charge port on plug-in electric cars?

When I brought up the topic of the unusual charge port location that Mercedes is using on all of their PHEVs, he told me they gave this much consideration, and after doing so they decided the right corner of the rear bumper was the ideal location. He went on to explain that the majority of the cars they sell are to left hand drive markets, and when a driver of a left hand drive car pulls into the garage they usually leave more room to the right side of the vehicle, so as to make sure they don't hit anything on that side as they pull in. So they concluded the placement of the EVSE would be best on the right side wall of the garage, where the customer can easily plug in. Also, by placing the charge port there, the customer would be able to walk back around the car and into the house without the cable being in their way. I think the assumption that most Mercedes owners have a private garage for their cars, since it is a premium brand, played a role in this decision making.

However Mary Smith, a Ford Electrified Vehicle Technology Integration supervisor says, "The left front fender location keeps the charge port in sight, before the customer enters or exits the car, for an easy reminder to unplug or recharge. It creates an intuitive placement for owners that also has aesthetic appeal."

For the i3, BMW's first all electric vehicle, the charge port was positioned on the rear, right side of the vehicle. Reasons? First, this location made the most sense because the car will be sold all over the world, and in many European countries curbside charging would require the port to be on the left side of the vehicle. It would be too expensive to have different carbon fiber passenger cells made to accommodate different charge port locations so they needed one location for all i3s made. Secondly, having the charge port in the rear of the vehicle, close to the power electronics, meant weight and cost savings. During the development process, i3 engineers would fight to cut every gram of weight they could, and having a three foot long high voltage cable instead of one that was eight feet long made the decision easy.

Then there's Tesla. All of Tesla's cars have their charge ports on the rear left side of the vehicle. It's undoubtedly an elegant design, but is it the best place for it? Some Tesla owners say it isn't, and it can make plugging in difficult on many public chargers, especially if they are in a parking lot that prohibits backing into the parking space.

[GTO]

Would this have something to do with the fact that the Kona & EZS are based on regular ICE engine cars? Was that the easy way out?

I agree that having it at the front is a bit tricky. My ideal location would be at the rear-right corner (Teslas have it on the rear-left corner). The rear-right would work well for India because:

- It suits both, the rear as well as the side placements (being on the corner).

- We would generally leave a bit of space on the right side of the car to get out.

- If parking on the left side of the building, it's as simple as parking in reverse (as the wall is on the left) and vice versa for parking on the other side of the building.

[Rahul Rao]

I think the EV's need two charging ports, and both should be recessed into the body, with lockable covers like lids on our fuel fillers.
First Rear RH fender for charging in your own parking.
Second front LH fender so that even if public parking spots have angular parking, it remains approachable.


Note that larger buses have two fuel lids on both sides so that they can fuel from either side as per availability. Nothing to prevent other vehicles from same arrangement.


Rahul

[blackwasp]

Our own homegrown EV brand had got this right!

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Hardly surprising to find a charging point on an electric vehicle...however, the e2oPlus has TWO!


The other one is a "Type 2" charging plug, which is the common standard across the EU. It's also good to see that the charging point has moved from the boot (old e2o placement) to a more conventional fuel filler cap location:

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

Our own homegrown EV brand had got this right!

This is nice and it is a luxury that sneaked past bean counters! I only wish they used same kind of bolts for fixing both charging ports on the body but

Originally Posted by Rahul Rao

I think the EV's need two charging ports, and both should be recessed into the body, with lockable covers like lids on our fuel fillers.

Yes this thought did occur to me and either one can be used as per the convenience to fill it with electrons. But i do not see the manufacturers adopting this on a widescale due to the costs involved - copper, electronics, auto locks etc.

Then there should be ways to prevent idiots from plugging two fast charging cables from two machines to charge it faster LoL Never underestimate human stupidity. It has to be foolproofed by intelligent circuitry or autolocks which locks one port when another is open etc. That adds to the cost.

Originally Posted by jailbird_fynix

Probably due to a lack of product localisation since they're some of the first entries into a brand new market. Hopefully, companies can work upon customer feedback and resolve them in the generations that follow. Here's an article on the subject -

Source - What's the ideal location for the charge port on plug-in electric cars?

Ford says driver side location on the front fender. Which i suppose is OK and should be good as Tesla's position as long as it is not on the area of the fender which is sprayed by the wheel.

Originally Posted by GTO

Would this have something to do with the fact that the Kona & EZS are based on regular ICE engine cars? Was that the easy way out?

I agree that having it at the front is a bit tricky. My ideal location would be at the rear-right corner (Teslas have it on the rear-left corner). The rear-right would work well for India because:

- It suits both, the rear as well as the side placements (being on the corner).

- We would generally leave a bit of space on the right side of the car to get out.

- If parking on the left side of the building, it's as simple as parking in reverse (as the wall is on the left) and vice versa for parking on the other side of the building.

I guess it could be the reason and I hope front port would really really not become the standard. New body panels for EV to accommodate the charge port would need a different stamping and i believe metal stamping dies are much much more expensive than moulding plastic.

Rear right would be a good location for RHD countries since it is the same side as the driver door and will be in drivers view and clearance will never be an issue, unless the driver prefer to climb out through the sunroof or passenger door (I have done that many times, its routine for me in the i10 auto) after parking close to the wall

But we can expect the majority LHD countries to decide what location is best for them and compel the rest of the world to use that. But some standard has to be brought into the location of the charge port.

[Rahul Rao]

In a vehicle running on liquid fuel the best location is behind the driver, but for EV it will be the opposite side. Think as if you are a designer whose job is to design a parking lot with EV charging points. For RHD country like us it will be the LHS or front LH corner.
Percentage of people parking in reverse is very small.



Rahul

[Wanderers]

I guess its also to do with the location of battery and wiring charging cable inside car. Remember DC power have higher loss with increase in cable length. Also routing high power cable from front to rear side will require cable duct to ensure safety. You can fix a protection like auto cutoff better if source and battery are close.