Charging Time Not Accurate

[Resist]

I was at a Supercharger today and noticed how inaccurate the charging time is. I knew it was always a little off but this time it kept showing there was 5 minutes left, and that lasted around 30 minutes. I don't get why the system isn't smart enough to be more accurate, especially when it's recalculating all the time. A difference of 5 minutes here or there isn't a big deal but a 5 minute estimation should not end up being 30 minutes.

One more thing, is it just me or did the battery screen graphics get more detailed? I don't remember exactly how it was before, but now the body of the car is more faded and the motors are shown in more detail. It looks really good.

 

[swaltner]

One way I've seen it do something like this is when it switches from "X minutes to continue on your trip" to "X minutes to complete". This would happen if you have the charge limit set to something fairly high, and have a destination set where the navigation system calculates that you need to make a Supercharger stop. When you first plug in, the display will read something like "X minutes to continue". This is the time it will take to charge the battery enough to reach the next Supercharger stop or your final destination. If you don't stop it when it says you can continue on your journey, it will then switch to a countdown timer to when the charging session will reach the set point that you have. If you are set to something in the 90% to 100% range, that last bit will take a LONG time.

I don't know if this is what you were seeing, but it's one way I've see the charging time at a Supercharger change in mid session.

Steve

 

[Gasaraki]

Yeah don't know why your estimate would be "inaccurate". Mine is working fine.

 

[byeLT4]

My last 5-10 minutes is usually at least 20, but that is probably because I'm pushing into the 80-90+% range.

 

[camalaio]

See, and I thought I was going crazy about the battery graphics. I also swear something is different, but I looked at old pictures and it seems the same??

Anyhow. There is one large-ish inaccuracy, but it usually doesn't show up on Superchargers. The time estimate is based on gross input power, which is different from the net power actually making it to your battery.

This is most obvious with a CHAdeMO station. If you have 45kW coming in, it isn't factoring in the ~7kW used to heat the battery (AWD models), 0-3kW for climate control, and about 1kW for everything else going on during charging. That's a significant portion of this scenario, but also why I mentioned it's not really a factor as much at Superchargers - usually they exceed 45kW, for example.

@swaltner 's point is probably closer to reality, unless you happened to be charging really slow.