?Drop off of rate of charge at Supercharger St Leonards

[ICUDoc]

I have a P90D (V3 battery). My charging speeds at Artarmon were slow the other day, too. So it's not just 85 kWh packs.
I'm off to the snow this week (anyone got any recommendations for snow accommodation w chargers??), so hopefully the Goulburn / Majura chargers will be quick?!

 

[smithy]

I've always found Goulburn to be great - really fast charging. Majura, slow. But you've also got the Cooma SC (never used that one)

 

[Blue heaven]

I agree. It is my car, or rather the new software that has been installed on it.
You know, even if all the technological reasons advanced on this and other forums are correct, for Tesla not to have told us they were doing this is very sneaky. Perhaps they dont owe us the technical reason (if there is one), but they should have put it in the release notes for the updates. This is not “minor bug fixes” .
I wonder whether a journey supercharger would be different? I am not going on a trip anytime soon, but would love to hear from anyone who has experienced this slow down issue with a metropolitan charger who then does an intercity trip. Are you getting the slower charge in the city but not in the country? Or, is it the same?

I have put in a formal complaint to [email protected].

I used a journey supercharger yesterday, before software update it was 60kw at 60% as per usual, after the software update and a few hours later the charge rate was 43kw at 60%, the car gets 44kw on a 50kw Chademo at 60%.
If you try a different supercharger can you screenshot the moment the percentage clicks over to 40/50/60%?
I'm all for safety and have no problem with a slower supercharger rate as The car gets mostly charged at home but can see this being a frustration for those that rely on the initial higher speeds of Superchargers.

 

[Blue heaven]

I have a P90D (V3 battery). My charging speeds at Artarmon were slow the other day, too. So it's not just 85 kWh packs.
I'm off to the snow this week (anyone got any recommendations for snow accommodation w chargers??), so hopefully the Goulburn / Majura chargers will be quick?!

That's interesting, @PJF000 is getting high charging speeds still in his 90 pack car.
Can you get some accurate screenshots at 40/50/60%?

 

[ICUDoc]

Will look at charging rates during the week at the "travel" Superchargers and post results.
Thanks for the Cooma tip- very reassuring!

 

[Shock-On-T]

They do but are not saying, early 85 pack cars have had supercharging speeds reduced to protect batteries. @Dborn charged at speeds in line with this, nothing wrong with the Superchargers, it's the cars.

My car charging profile has certainly changed over the years, but this is different.
In the last week I've charged at 93kW at two different rural superchargers, then still been severely limited when charging at St Leonards.

I have one other theory, which is that Tesla is now much more conservative with its battery temperatures while charging. My theory is that that even a 30 minute drive to St Leonards is not long enough to get the battery up to a temperature Tesla is happy with. That would explain the charge speed still being fine at regional stations.

I suppose I should test this theory by driving past my house when coming back from next trip and going straight to St Leonards.

 

[Shock-On-T]

Will look at charging rates during the week at the "travel" Superchargers and post results.
Thanks for the Cooma tip- very reassuring!

Cooma is great, in the outdoor carpark behind the Coles. Very central location.
Only problem is that occasionally ICE vehicles park in a spot. I've been there with 2 of 4 stalls ICE'd.
Probably less likely to be ICE'd in ski season, too many Teslas coming and going for people to be that ignorant of the nuisance they would cause.

 

[Jays200]

Cooma is great, in the outdoor carpark behind the Coles. Very central location.
Only problem is that occasionally ICE vehicles park in a spot. I've been there with 2 of 4 stalls ICE'd.
Probably less likely to be ICE'd in ski season, too many Teslas coming and going for people to be that ignorant of the nuisance they would cause.

2 of 4 stalls allow ICE parking for 60mins, if my memory serves me correctly. Did get ICEd bad last year though when visiting from Perth

 

[Dborn]

Will look at charging rates during the week at the "travel" Superchargers and post results.
Thanks for the Cooma tip- very reassuring!

I await your posts with baited breath!!!

 

[Dborn]

My car charging profile has certainly changed over the years, but this is different.
In the last week I've charged at 93kW at two different rural superchargers, then still been severely limited when charging at St Leonards.

I have one other theory, which is that Tesla is now much more conservative with its battery temperatures while charging. My theory is that that even a 30 minute drive to St Leonards is not long enough to get the battery up to a temperature Tesla is happy with. That would explain the charge speed still being fine at regional stations.

I suppose I should test this theory by driving past my house when coming back from next trip and going straight to St Leonards.

Ok, when I posted my detailed results yesterday, I drove straight there from home. 5.5km away. However half an hour before that I had driven 12km. I don’t believe the battery was “cold”. By the way, my post was written incrementally while sitting in it during charging. I really think this has much more to do with the cost cutting going on than anything else. Much like the total reorganisation that has gone on in Sydney. As a long time supporter, I even made a trip in 2010 to visit the factory (not for any other reason did I go to the USA at that time), they are rapidly losing my enthusiasm for the brand. I love my car, but if they keep on like this, my next car wont be a Tesla, although it will be electric. I don’t do many long trips at all.....
ICUDoc’s upcoming post following his snow trip is going to be very revealing, I believe!!

 

[Dborn]

It's also interesting that they chose this time to patch the method that allowed owners to get root on their cars. So we saw 3 major changes for the older cars:

- Reduced supercharger speeds
- Reduced range on some cars (have you checked your range dborn?)
- Removed the ability to get root (which would allow you to roll back to an earlier firmware)

Tesla really want these changes to stick....

It just makes it clear that these batteries aren't going to last the life of these cars. Tesla really need to figure out how they are going to do replacement/upgrades. You'd hope with the 2170s and the much better current battery pack designs.

I'm going to stick on 2019.16.1.1 as long as I can. I'm also no longer going to charge above 80% unless I absolutely have to. The packs are clearly much more fragile than we were led to believe.

Indeed, my range at 90% seems to have reduced. I have actually kept a note, but did not do so yesterday. Mind you, it would be variable since you use more power in cold weather especially because of the heater. This does affect overall range estimation, so I am not sure how useful this metric really is.

 

[rowdy]

Indeed, my range at 90% seems to have reduced. I have actually kept a note, but did not do so yesterday. Mind you, it would be variable since you use more power in cold weather especially because of the heater. This does affect overall range estimation, so I am not sure how useful this metric really is.

The range shown on the IC is a fixed constant related directly to the amount of KWh stored in the battery. It doesn't adjust for temp/weather. Affected cars in the US are seeing 20+ miles lower, so it should be very noticeable (assuming you have your battery level showing in KM instead of %).

The nav estimate is different and is generally pretty good at telling you what charge you'll arrive with (taking into consideration conditions).

Your low charging speeds look to me like you have one of the affected packs. Reduced range and reduced supercharger speeds combining.

 

[Dborn]

The real problem here is the total lack of transparency.
This, is not a “minor bug fix”. This should have been freely and openly declared in the release notes of the updates. If the restriction in charging speed is for safety reasons in certain early packs (mine is the 9th customer car in the country), then it should have been disclosed because it may well make a difference to travel planning. I don’t consider this just to be a few extra minutes charging time. It is a good 30% restriction in charging rate.
This is why I call the whole thing sneaky. If there is a difference between metropolitan charging rates and country charge rates, then I will be 1)vindicated in my belief that this is a cost cutting measure and 2) that I consider it a breach of faith.
The “free supercharging for life” was a significant consideration for me when I bought this car. The charge rates now are not so super after all. Simply having free access to the stations is not what I signed up for. Yes, I love the car and consider it the best I have ever driven, but there are new electric vehicles in the pipeline from other car makers that may well be more compelling. Fit and finish on my cars generation is far from crash hot, but the overall experience made up for that. This experience is now being eroded.

 

[lonewolf313]

Isn't there documentation out there (I think I read it somewhere in the forum) that owners who excessively use the Superchargers will eventually get lower charging speeds to safeguard the battery pack.

This may have now kicked in for you Dborn.

 

[rowdy]

The real problem here is the total lack of transparency.

It's been standard for the past couple of years unfortunately. Anything negative for customers gets hidden away.

This does seem a reaction to the increasing number of fires. Drastic steps required. Otherwise you were probably looking at an exponential rise in fires as more and more of the fleet age.

Isn't there documentation out there (I think I read it somewhere in the forum) that owners who excessively use the Superchargers will eventually get lower charging speeds to safeguard the battery pack.

It's in the current user's manual. I'm certain it wasn't when we bought the cars (2014). Don't think it matters anyway since Tesla never guaranteed the charge rate.

I agree it's all poor form. With Model 3 charging at 250kW they needed some positive spin for Model S/X and promised us faster supercharging rates. Yet it's all been quickly rolled back and then some...

 

[dalec]

I've always found Goulburn to be great - really fast charging. Majura, slow. But you've also got the Cooma SC (never used that one)

I got 117kw at Majura on 23rd June. Battery was at 34%. New S100D

 

[Shock-On-T]

I really think this slow down is just specific to the Sydney sites, and is not related to car software, battery health etc.

When cars are limited due to too much DC charging they still get 90kW or so. Cars with old batteries still get over 90kW. My S75D just got 93kW on several occasions this week during a road trip.

The St Leonards (Artarmon) supercharger keeps giving people between 40-60kW. There must be a problem with that site, or perhaps a deliberate restriction for whatever reason.

 

[mrpseudonym]

I got only 45kwh today at Artarmon and went in and asked the service techs about it. They did say they would look into it as a number of people had complained, interestingly he asked when I noticed the drop off and we worked out it was about the same the chargers were upgraded with the CCS cables...

 

[meloccom]

I got only 45kwh today at Artarmon and went in and asked the service techs about it. They did say they would look into it as a number of people had complained, interestingly he asked when I noticed the drop off and we worked out it was about the same the chargers were upgraded with the CCS cables...

Perhaps it’s designed to discourage Model S and X owners from charging from Model 3 priority Superchargers.

 

[rioli33]

Perhaps it’s designed to discourage Model S and X owners from charging from Model 3 priority Superchargers.

If every stall has the CCS then that would mean every stall is a Model 3 priority stall.