2017 P100D ludicrous slow to charge

[Physicslawyer]

Is this normal? I had the pleasure of having a 2017 P100D with ludicrous plus. The car has around 11k miles with every available option.

At full capacity, the battery is at 265 miles. Here's the issue- it took exceedingly long to charge. It was 70 degrees out and I drove 30 minutes to get to the supercharger.

I went to a supercharger and was the only car there. I started at 126 miles and after an hour, I was at 262 miles. It took 22 minutes for the first 88 miles, from 126 to 206, then another 40 minutes to get to 262 miles.

Another time charging, I was at 204 miles, and it took 28 minutes to get to 254 miles.

Is this car supposed to supercharge this slowly? I would need to stop for an hour to charge 125 miles. That doesn't seem right. And, 100 miles was more like 80 miles and that was going 55 mph on the highway or slower on local roads.

It seems like I couldn't go more than 200 miles away and return home to charge. Is this normal? I loved the car, but this seemed ridiculous.

I asked a few people at Tesla, over the phone and in person, and Tesla knows nothing about Tesla

Thanks.

 

[Jillmark99]

There’s nothing super about supercharging. I have an S and an X and they both supercharge super slow. It’s ridiculous how slow they supercharge. It’s painful on a road trip. And it’s frustrating seeing 3’s and Y’s come in and charge and leave 15 minutes later.

 

[Physicslawyer]

So this is normal? I absolutely loved the car, but for 90k, I couldn't go anywhere except for local trips. We have a house in NY and a vacation home in PA, and I would imagine this car wouldn't make it 200 miles in winter.

How much faster does a MY or M3 charge? I like the MY performance, but the X had so many additional features, was larger, had a plusher ride, and was more luxurious. Would you buy a MY instead? Wait for a new X? The yoke steering wheel, lack of turn signals and drive stalk are kind of deal breakers though.

 

[Tam]

Is this normal? I had the pleasure of having a 2017 P100D with ludicrous plus. The car has around 11k miles with every available option.

It's not what I want but perhaps it is normal for the design. Remember that Tesla's specification is for a brand new battery pack under optimal charging conditions.

On a road trip, I stay about 45 minutes which should get me about 80% and leave so I would say your experience is within mine.

The fuller the battery is, the slower the charge rate. For time's sake, leave after 80% charge or your charging rate will be very slow after that.

That is what you are describing for charging 1 hour and get 262.

From 262 and if you want to wait to reach 265, it is not unusual that you might have to wait for another 45 minutes to an hour for the last 3 miles.

That's why there has never been enough range for an EV. Buy the longest range you can so you can charge to 80% and leave and still have a lot of range.

 

[ngng]

are you charging to 100%?

there are 3 "versions" of superchargers. depending which you use, your charge rate will very. but, regardless of where you charge, a low battery will charger faster before tapering. the goal of a supercharger is not to allow you to charge to 100%, it's to get you to the next charger. this car is totally fine for road tripping, but you're going to be charging a whole lot more with a heavy foot. here's a low soc to 100%. the only reason I fully charged was to eliminate an extra charging stop when I was towing 5000 lbs.

 

[Physicslawyer]

I was wondering if something was wrong with the battery. And, if taking this long to charge is normal and if new Teslas charge faster?

 

[ngng]

I was wondering if something was wrong with the battery. And, if taking this long to charge is normal and if new Teslas charge faster?

no, that's normal. yes, the new 3/y charge can take full advantage of faster scs

 

[DCGOO]

I was wondering if something was wrong with the battery. And, if taking this long to charge is normal and if new Teslas charge faster?

I don’t think there is anything wrong with your battery. You only get the highest charging rates when your battery is very low. You started the charging with your battery at roughly 50% (126 miles), the rate you got was 94 kw. That is not bad. Most superchargers have a maximum rate of 150kw, but the stalls are shared (A vs B). There is no need to charge to 100% or close. You only need enough to get to the next stop. If you are navigating, the computer helps with that. The built-in NAV tries to minimize the number of stops. If you use external tools like abetterrouteplanner.com, you will find more stops, but less total trip time.

The 3 and Y can charge faster due to newer battery tech. The new X and S may charge a little faster, but not dramatically so. I just finished my first trip through one of the new 250kw superchargers, planned my arrival at roughly 10%. For a few minutes I got up to 155kw, but it dropped off quickly.

 

[Harvey Danger]

Your question has been so thoroughly answered by this point I'll just pile on and say it one more way:

Observe a typical graph of charging speed vs how full the battery is and you'll see you don't want to be hanging around a supercharger trying to cram that last bit of energy into the pack. See Tesla Supercharging - Summer 2019 Update

The other big variable is temperature. If your car hasn't been driven for long before you arrive, the pack is cold, and Superchargers won't charge cold packs at a high rate.

These two together will go most of the way to optimizing your supercharging: arrive nearly depleted and nicely warmed up. Then you get fast rates.

After you take care of that, sure, we can go into which battery pack do you have and other things that could limit the max supercharging rate of your car. Yes Model 3's can charge faster than Model X's.

A very few cars have been limited by Tesla to charge at a slower rate due to excessive supercharging history for that particular vehicle. That doesn't seem to be happening to you.

And occasionally you may find yourself parked right next to someone else at a "V2" supercharger causing both of you to share the same charging equipment somewhere on the back end. Both cars are slowed by this.

And finally recall what others have mentioned, not all superchargers have the same maximum rate: click on the supercharger on your in-car navigation map to display its highest rate in kW. You can't expect to get 100 kW at a 72kW supercharger.

Bottom line there's nothing unusual going on with your car.

Your particular case shows 94 kW at (estimating from your picture) 40% full battery. This is more than normal, it's about perfect. Happy X owners report that the sum of these two values (kW plus % "state of Charge", in this case 94 + 40) will total somewhere around 130 for most of the charging session. You're in that zone.

If you need something else, what can I say? This is not working out for you. Investigate alternatives. But whether it pleases you or not your reported behaviors are sqaurely in the middle of acceptable behavior that nobody else (at least nobody buying 2017 battery technology) is troubled by. You are enjoying the best. You have the best, now work on the enjoyment.

 

[Tam]

I was wondering if something was wrong with the battery.

No

And, if taking this long to charge is normal and if new Teslas charge faster?

Yes. It is normal. You need to learn to get the fastest rate when you are on the road.

You described:

"It took 22 minutes for the first 88 miles, from 126 to 206

That's about right.

206 is 78% of 265 so that's the fastest rate (almost to the goal of 80%) that I would charge and leave.

 

[Rocky_H]

So this is normal? I absolutely loved the car, but for 90k, I couldn't go anywhere except for local trips. We have a house in NY and a vacation home in PA, and I would imagine this car wouldn't make it 200 miles in winter.

Well, you're trying to put a square peg in a round hole. You're trying to do trips exactly like you used to in a gas car: drive as far as possible and then "fill 'er up". That is a terrible way to try to use Supercharging. As people have pointed out, the charging speed drops off quite a lot above about 70-80%, so you are frustrating yourself trying to fill it all the way up and being angry at the time needed for that bad idea.

The fastest way is nicknamed "splash and dash" and feels less irritating and boredom inducing and will frustrate you less. Just try to make those jumps from one Supercharger to the next, which should maybe be about 1.5 to 2 hour apart. That will keep your charging only up to about 60-70% most of the time and will always be using the fastest rates from the Superchargers.

And you can also mix in some intentional alternating of short stop / long stop. Every other stop would be about 4 hours apart and time for lunch or dinner, so you go eat, and the car gets a bit more than it needs at that point while you're still eating. Then, at the next in between stop, there's still some extra energy leftover from the previous meal stop, so it's shorter--maybe 15-20 minutes.

I have a 2014 Model S 85 and still love traveling with it. Just this past Summer, I did a 3,000 mile round trip to visit my mom. Granted, the X is a bit more of an energy hog, so charging times are going to need to be a bit longer than for an S.

And the other very key tip of a habit change is that people are used to gassing up a car, where they put the hose in and then have to stand there and wait and watch and do nothing as they wait for it to fill. With charging you definitely don't want to do that. Don't just plug in and then sit in the car and stare at the screen waiting and watching and fuming and grumbling about how slow it is. Always plan to plug in and walk away. Go walk down the block and find a coffee shop and get a snack or something. It's usually not hard to make 15+ minutes disappear without being too noticeable if you go do something.

 

[Physicslawyer]

Thank you all so much!

 

[ngng]

Thank you all so much!

electric cars require a little different thinking than gas. this is my first EV as well, but my thinking quickly changed. I just did a 300 mile trip south. charged to 100% this morning, one stop while we ate lunch, and arrived with about 30-35%.

one tip that came in handy for me is using the energy consumption screen while navigating. this will show you your est battery at your destination. if you see your percentage quickly dropping, slow down. I typically drive slow early in the drive (70mph) and keep an eye on my est battery. I adjust my driving (faster/slower) as necessary so I arrive with a value I want. if I'm arriving somewhere, I may want to keep more range for around town stuff. if it's a charger, I may drive faster to drain the battery down lower.

enjoy the car!

 

[dmurphy]

electric cars require a little different thinking than gas. this is my first EV as well, but my thinking quickly changed. I just did a 300 mile trip south. charged to 100% this morning, one stop while we ate lunch, and arrived with about 30-35%.

one tip that came in handy for me is using the energy consumption screen while navigating. this will show you your est battery at your destination. if you see your percentage quickly dropping, slow down. I typically drive slow early in the drive (70mph) and keep an eye on my est battery. I adjust my driving (faster/slower) as necessary so I arrive with a value I want. if I'm arriving somewhere, I may want to keep more range for around town stuff. if it's a charger, I may drive faster to drain the battery down lower.

enjoy the car!

This is the way and the light.

We’ve done a bunch of road trips in our X, and this is the sane strategy.

At home, I usually charge to 90% overnight.
On a road trip, I pretty much never go over 80%, and most times way less than that.

Can’t recommend the “A Better Route Planner” app strongly enough. If you tune the parameters a bit it gets incredibly accurate and will give you the optimal charging schedule. Really well done!