Think twice about what you said about "keeping it in reserve" It actually means that the vehicle may not be fully charged when you need it, whereas if you had used max current all along, it would have.
You're assuming I use scheduled charging. But it would not, because I'm using off-peak and scheduled departure. The car starts charging whenever it decides it needs to in order to finish charging at the specified time, and I generally aim for that to be the time I'm leaving. Whether it's at 32A or 48A, it's still going to finish charging (typically to 55% most days) at the same time, because the start time was automatically changed to get the desired end result.
But let's say I realize I need to leave a little earlier, or that I need a few more percent for the day If it's already maxed out, there's nothing I can do to speed it up (get to the same charge level sooner) or get more juice in the same amount of time. At a base setting of 32A, I can crank it up and get more juice or finish a little faster. It may not be by much, but it can and has helped bail me out when I forgot to set things up right the night before, or plans changed at the last minute.
They have certified that when the right wire size and plugs and sockets and breakers are all used together, they will safely sustain the rated load. In reality, that means that it can actually handle significantly more.
I tend to have excellent luck with machinery and equipment in general (mechanical sympathy has benefited me well, personally and professionally), and part of that I think comes from babying things a little--or at least, not my driving stuff hard unnecessarily. It's like not flooring it in an ICE vehicle all the time, or not hitting the brakes hard every stop, or not cranking the g's on hard every time I turn in an airplane. A really extreme example is gas turbine engines; when you get to high power levels, even a relatively small reduction or increase in max temperature (and this thrust) can result in significantly longer or shorter service life. Electronics can apparently be the same way. In this case dropping the amps on my charger when I don't need it maxed out drops the heat in the wires and connections by about half, and it's already warm enough here. It's sort of the same reason I don't just charge to 80% all the time; I
can, but I don't
need to, and by not doing so I'm going easy on my stuff and helping it last longer.
But back to my original point, I think I have anthe answer... I have my wall connector scheduled to cut out between 1400 and 1900 (our on peak hours). If I plug in during that time, it doesn't get the test current pulse and therefore I think it defaults to the known max charge rate. Plugging in outside the time limit, it works normally and recalls the last setting used.
What I have not tested yet is whether the 48A setting actually sticks, or if it reduces when charging is actually supposed to start. But this is my best working theory at this point.
