Cold weather ChargePoint / Tesla issue?

[DaBagBoy]

Over the past week I've tried to charge at ChargePoint stations near my office.

Three times previously then today I was completely unable to draw power from "working" ChargePoint chargers. I first called ChargePoint, they rebooted the station, but each time I ended up moving the car to another ChargePoint station, that worked.

Yesterday I called Tesla as I was again unable to initiate a charge, the pop-up in the car suggests "Charging Equipment problem" however other cars were charging at the stations and receiving power. The Tesla rep had no way to resolve the unknown issue either.

Today NONE of the ChargePoint stations worked, I called CP again....they spent 30 minutes with me on the phone re-starting charge sessions as I froze at 15deg F outside......

Wholly unable to charge at the stations I drove a mile to another EV station (Clipper Creek) and was able to get charging and had to walk back that mile in the bitter cold. Now I'm bitter.

FYI: I've had the car 8 weeks while my electrician and local utility drag feet to figure out how to use the $1,000 EV incentive to install a new meter, subpanel and the Tesla charge station in my garage. It's on the way but at $2,500 I was very shocked by the installation cost last week. So home charging is a PITA as my 120V 15 amp garage plug is 60 yrs old and starts at 12 amps gets hot and lowers the charge to 6 amps (about one mile for each hour I have it plugged in).....so that option is in progress

 

[ljbad4life]

Over the past week I've tried to charge at ChargePoint stations near my office.

Three times previously then today I was completely unable to draw power from "working" ChargePoint chargers. I first called ChargePoint, they rebooted the station, but each time I ended up moving the car to another ChargePoint station, that worked.

Yesterday I called Tesla as I was again unable to initiate a charge, the pop-up in the car suggests "Charging Equipment problem" however other cars were charging at the stations and receiving power. The Tesla rep had no way to resolve the unknown issue either.

Today NONE of the ChargePoint stations worked, I called CP again....they spent 30 minutes with me on the phone re-starting charge sessions as I froze at 15deg F outside......

Wholly unable to charge at the stations I drove a mile to another EV station (Clipper Creek) and was able to get charging and had to walk back that mile in the bitter cold. Now I'm bitter.

FYI: I've had the car 8 weeks while my electrician and local utility drag feet to figure out how to use the $1,000 EV incentive to install a new meter, subpanel and the Tesla charge station in my garage. It's on the way but at $2,500 I was very shocked by the installation cost last week. So home charging is a PITA as my 120V 15 amp garage plug is 60 yrs old and starts at 12 amps gets hot and lowers the charge to 6 amps (about one mile for each hour I have it plugged in).....so that option is in progress

I can honestly say the public L2 charging network is always a hit or miss. I find chargepoint are more functional and more responsive than other companies. I've had numerous issues even during the summer at EVGO stations. I've had a chargepoint station disconnect randomly saying my Model 3 was pulling too much power (which it wasn't, it was pulling the 7A it always does, restarted the station and it never happened again).

 

[webbbcam]

Last February I needed to spend the night in Butte, MT and stayed at the Best Western that shares the parking lot with the Supercharger.

A very cold night was forecast so I made sure to charge up to 85% the night before with the intent to finish my range charge in the morning to help warm up the battery.

When I got up it was -6F and when I tried to use the supercharger I got the slowly blinking green ring but zero kW. Same on two other chargers. Thinking it was the very cold battery I turned the heat up full with the car still connected to the Supercharger and went to breakfast.

It took 30 minutes but slowly it began to charge, first 5 kW, 10 kW and finally up to 30 kW.

I don't know if the cold you experienced caused your slow charging but it probably made it worse.

John

 

[brkaus]

Is the car doing anything? I sometimes set the amps low in the car before plugging in. Then I slowly increase them and watch the voltage drop.

I find most charge point stations near me are not installed very well. Lots of voltage drop, breakers tripping, etc.

 

[doghousePVD]

I've been zero out of five for trying to get public (non-free) chargers working on my Telsa X. I am very happy I got wall chargers installed in both houses, and a 14-50 at my mother's house.

Superchargers have been 100% successful.

My suggestion for cold weather is calculate how long the charge will take (start charging now), then set the charge start time appropriately, adding at least half an hour. By the time you want to leave, all will be toasty and charged. (I am in Maine and Rhode Island)