85kWhr Model S reduced Supercharging rate reduction confirmed by TOCWA

[Murbs]

Over the past few weeks there have been mixed reports from owners of older 85kWh Model S cars – some of whom are reporting significantly reduced supercharging rates, while others have experienced no noticeable reduction. The Tesla Owners club of Western Australia has been able to definitively resolve this issue thanks to the fantastic efforts of Rob Dean, owner of a 2015 SP85D.

(Sourced from TOCWA's forum here: 85kWh Model S reduced Supercharging rate reduction confirmed by TOCWA)

Before the charging test commenced, Rob’s car was indicating there were two software updates ready to be installed. The first test was undertaken with software version 2019.16.1.1. After this test was completed, Rob updated his car’s software to 2019.24.1 and then drove several hundred kilometres to run his battery back down to 20% and immediately repeated the test at the same Supercharger stall. The air temperature remained even from 15°C to about 18°C over the duration of the two tests.

Both tests checked Supercharging rates from 20% to 70% with screen captures taken at 10% intervals. The following images show the before and after results:

While there is a substantial reduction in Supercharging rate with the latest software version, an important metric to note is that 20%-70% charging took 29 minutes with the older software and 36 minutes with the latest software – a mere 7 minute difference.

 

[aerodyne]

If this helps the battery last longer, and if they keep on adding more SC, I am ok with this...

 

[EVCarGUy]

Lots of data on Rob's car is not proof of anything beyond Rob's car

 

[AmpedRealtor]

If this helps the battery last longer, and if they keep on adding more SC, I am ok with this...

If that's true, you should also be okay with Tesla taking away anything that you paid for at any time. I'm amazed how many Tesla owners—presumably successful individuals with money—are quick to subvert their own best interests to that of a multi-billion dollar corporation that doesn't think twice about removing value from a car it doesn't even own.

 

[aerodyne]

I am not OK with many things Tesla is doing, but in this case, in my situation, I would trade a few minutes a month at the SC for a chance at a longer lived, more thermally stable battery pack.

I like to keep my cars 20 years, not everybody does that.

 

[davewill]

So he started with a cool battery, supercharged (warming the battery), drove hundreds of miles (warming the battery), then was surprised that supercharging the hot battery went slower? I think this needs better methodology.

 

[Blue heaven]

So he started with a cool battery, supercharged (warming the battery), drove hundreds of miles (warming the battery), then was surprised that supercharging the hot battery went slower? I think this needs better methodology.

No, arrived at the supercharger on both occasions under the same driving conditions in similar outside temps, this car has used the same stall at the rarely used Eaton supercharger approximately a dozen times over the past year and has charged at very similar pre software update speeds.
As the West Australian car gets most charging done at home the extra 7 minutes or so to supercharge from 20 to 70% on a rare occasion is fine, for the S85 owners in Europe that have supercharged on a regular basis for the past 4 years and are accustomed to a consistent time they would rightly like an answer.
Footnote: the P85D has, and always will be a magnificent car, if a Tesla has reduced supercharging speed to make it safer well done to them, the test was done for all those that had already completed the update and had no accurate data.

 

[Lukez]

Why are people arguing this test. It's just proof what many in other threads have said they noticed.

 

[Dborn]

When you dont get more than 52kW and the car next to you in a different bank is getting 85KW, I would say it has nothing to do with safety. I say it is Tesla, short changing those who supported them from the beginning with free supercharging for life!!!!

 

[Speedr117]

When you dont get more than 52kW and the car next to you in a different bank is getting 85KW, I would say it has nothing to do with safety. I say it is Tesla, short changing those who supported them from the beginning with free supercharging for life!!!!

I hate to say it, but this is probably directly related to the one or two fires that occurred either at superchargers, or right after. I think this is more about safety than saving a few dollars on free supercharging.

 

[David.85D]

It certainly worries me, but the last time I used a supercharger, it was 100% full and I got 36 kW the whole time. So, hard to tell in locations that are perpetually full....

 

[Litigate28]

This is definitely happening to me. I originally thought I was being throttled (which I still may be?) because I moved recently and don't have access to much charging other than superchargers. So I've been supercharging 90% of the time. However, it seems a little too coincidental that other 85kw pack people are also experiencing the same.

Here are my numbers yesterday. I plugged in at 8% and it shot up to 122 kw or so then dropped just as fast. It was over 100kw for maybe 10 seconds total. Then it just kept dipping:

(There should be 4 pictures total, not sure if they uploaded correctly.)

 

[rsg123]

A few results here and there are anecdotal. I supercharged 2 months ago and hit 118kW in my 85kWh car at low SOC. I supercharged a few days ago at similar SOC and hit 38kW at another 150kW SC. Then I saw a 100d playing SC musical chairs and asked her what speed she was getting. She replied 40kW. Too many variables at play; we need more data.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

I've hit low speed SCs as well on recent trips, nothing that moving to another stall didn't fix. I tried three in Burbank before I found one that would go over 100 kW. Some of the SC locations aren't maintained very well.

 

[Michelx]

A few results here and there are anecdotal. I supercharged 2 months ago and hit 118kW in my 85kWh car at low SOC. I supercharged a few days ago at similar SOC and hit 38kW at another 150kW SC. Then I saw a 100d playing SC musical chairs and asked her what speed she was getting. She replied 40kW. Too many variables at play; we need more data.

I suppose you alredy know that if you are on say 1a and another Tesla is on 1b then current is divided in two. Every transformer as two stalls to feed (1a,1b 2a,2b 3a,3b etc)

 

[swegman]

I am convinced this is all due to the recent fire that occurred in China. My car was on ver 8.1 for about a year and consistently got 227 miles indicated range at 89% charge level. On June 20 ver 9 was forced onto my car by Tesla and i’ve Been having issues ever since.

In June 19 (ver 8.1), my battery had a useable capacity of 74kWh. On June 20 (ver 9), the useable battery capacity was 70kWh and has dropped further with each charging of the car. As of July 12, the usable capacity of the battery is only 67kWh, with a 89% charge being only 201 indicated miles of range, a drop of 26 miles in about 3 weeks of time and about 1600 miles of driving. Further, the car will only charge to 97% for an indicated range of 220 miles (I would get 253 miles indicated range at 100% under ver 8.1), a reduction of 33 miles in about 3 weeks of time.

I’ve complained to Tesla and was told the changes were made for safety reasons, and also that Tesla considers there to be no difference between being able to charge the car to 100% under ver 8.1 but only 97% under ver 9.

Btw, it took 2 hrs to supercharge from 30 miles to 220 miles. Once the car reaches 92% charge, the charging current drops to 1-2kW (the indicated rate would fluctuate over time). The few times I needed a full charge to get to the next location, I used to be able to charge from about 10 miles to 248-250 in about 65 miles. So yes, the charging speed is dramatically slower now and it is not possible to fully charge the battery now. Not happy. I’ve escalated the issue with the FL people and on Friday I also reported the matter to the MD people.

I typically use more battery energy than the EPA ratings. I have to add 50% additional charge to get to another location (if distance is 100 miles I charge to an indicated range of 150 miles). In fact, even doing that, I arrived at the Rocky Mount SC on Friday’s driving with a 0 mile indication the last 2 miles of the drive (which never happened to me before; I also drove the last 24 miles at 47mph and the last 2 miles at 25mph on a 70mph road, even thou I charged adding the 50% at the prior SC). So this is a big issue for me.

 

[bmah]

I presume the people reading/posting to this thread are also aware of the following (somewhat lengthy) thread linked below, but just in case...

Sudden Loss Of Range With 2019.16.x Software

Bruce.

 

[sorka]

So glad I'm still on v8.

 

[Pellihu]

I will also do a test with my friend next week

 

[aerodyne]

I have never had less than 265 RM, even after the last update, Since i store the care for days on end at 55%, it will drop, but then go right back to 269 RM or so.

Clearly, the last updates did not affect every S85 negatively as far as range goes