i recently returned from a 2000+ mile trip and was surprised by amount of time spent at superchargers. I never was not able to charge near the stated 150kW or 250kW and after connecting power was rapidly stepped-down 60-80kW 5-10 minutes after charging commenced. Given long distance of travel I was usually charging when battery was ~10%. I'm driving at '20 Tesla S Long-range Plus
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excessive charging time
- Thread starter atlcraig
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The first question would have been "what is your state of charge" but you've covered that. Charge is faster when the SOC is low. You have that. Do a search for "Tesla S charging curve" on Google. You'll see that your charging speed will go down as your SOC goes up.
The second question is "is the battery warm enough". Do you navigate to the supercharger ? When you do, the car will precondition the battery if necessary during the drive. If you don't, the car cannot plan and your might arrive with a battery that's not hot enough.
The second question is "is the battery warm enough". Do you navigate to the supercharger ? When you do, the car will precondition the battery if necessary during the drive. If you don't, the car cannot plan and your might arrive with a battery that's not hot enough.
If you are on a road trip in the summer, driving down to 10-30% before arriving at the supercharger, your battery is going to be warm enough. The other question is whether it is too hot, as the car will slow down charging to protect the battery if it is too hot. What was the air temperature? Was the AC on max (roaring like a jet) when charging?
Potential issues of slow supercharging that I know about
- SOC too high, starts to slow around 50%, slows a lot after 80%
- Battery not warmed up yet, in winter, driving for 60 minutes or setting destination to charger and driving around 20 min will warm it up
- Battery too hot, may be an issue on the hottest days, though I haven’t seen this issue myself.
- Sharing A/B stall with another charging car
- Too many cars charging at the station, rationing limited power to the entire station
- Broken charger
- Degraded/broken car battery
Simple answer is to plug your route into A Better Route Planner website or app and see the recommended charging stops and times. With your car's metrics inputted ABRP is fantastic at telling you the optimal amount of time to charge at each stop. ABRP is much better than the in car nav in my experience.
airborne spoon
Active Member
My best guess for your issue is you were sharing a stall whenever it would be so slow.
If you were at a gen 2 SC the cable is pretty thick and the stalls are labeled A-B and if there is a car sharing the opposite letter on the same number (you're on 2A and another car is on 2B) the SC will split the speed and you will usually end up with 60kW-80kW with a minimum max of 32kW.
A V3 SC has the thinner cables and is labeled A-D and there is no load sharing so it wont matter if you park next to someone.
If you were at a gen 2 SC the cable is pretty thick and the stalls are labeled A-B and if there is a car sharing the opposite letter on the same number (you're on 2A and another car is on 2B) the SC will split the speed and you will usually end up with 60kW-80kW with a minimum max of 32kW.
A V3 SC has the thinner cables and is labeled A-D and there is no load sharing so it wont matter if you park next to someone.
Thanks for the assistance and quick response to several questions raised. I always navigated to supercharger location and battery was below 15% on all occasions. Weather was hot - low 90's and AC was running. While at most all charging stations I was either the only car or just one or two others. I also noted a much higher cost for charge - almost 2x from previous experiences. Note my tesla is relatively new - just 11 months with 16000 miles.
Some stations bill by time rather than energy used due to state regulations, where only certain entity can sell electricity but others can only rent space. In such case, a charge will cost more if it charges slowly because you are there longer. Try switching slots or charger, if this persist, you should file a service request with Tesla and have them look into it.
Tesla's charging curve sucks compared to other brands. For instance, Porsche/Audi batteries charge at over 150 kW-200 kW for most of the battery's charging range. Teslas charge at a higher initial number but then drop rapidly. It's purposely done so Tesla can claim 250 kW Supercharging even though the effective rate is much, much lower.
Same with EPA ratings. According to MKBHD in a recent test video, Tesla actual real-world range is 15% below the EPA rating. Porsche, Audi, and Ford go much further than their EPA ratings. MKBHD stated that a 305 mile EPA rated Mach-E can go just as far as a 350 mile EPA rated Model S Plaid. It's unfortunate, but most everything Tesla says about its products is either a lie or a ridiculous stretching of the truth.
This is also why my next EV will not be a Tesla. One can only accept so many lies and broken promises before exiting a bad relationship.
I wouldn't want to burst your bubble but it's not as clear cut as that. IF you look at the tests that people like TeslaBjorn did, for example his 1000km runs, you'll see that it's not just about kW charging power. The consumption is also a significant factor. Consuming less means you need less energy to do the same distance, so charging speed could be slower without a dramatic effect to usability. You can also look at overall charging time (not kW) to get from x to y SOC, or gain x range. TeslaBjorn also has some of that data. You could see that the e-tron and Taycan are not necessarily faster there too. See TeslaBjorn's sheets here : Public - Google Drive
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