First v3 Supercharge - why so slow?

[HuftonR]

Picked up my Model 3 SR+ from the Leeds SC after getting some bits n pieces sorted (sodden boot floor anybody!).

Anyway thought I'd grab a splash and dash of electrons before setting off home. Plugged in with about 50% battery into their shiny new v3 superchargers and got a massive 32kW speed. Thought these units were capable of 250kW?

Not an issue (didn't need much charge) but surprised/disappointed by this. Tried an Ionity charger ar similar charge levels a few weeks ago and was getting 75kW.

Maybe because the battery was cold, been stood overnight?

 

[Jason71]

If you did not preheat the battery that is probably the reason. If you use Sat nav and set SC as the destination car will know and will preheat. Can take 20 minutes if cold

 

[Saghost]

It can only hit the full 250 kW with a fully warmed battery pack that's around 10% SoC. The rates fall off as the state of charge goes up, though not to the 30 kW range. Most likely your pack was pretty cold.

 

[HuftonR]

OK thanks. Yes I guess typically the car would have been driven before being charged. Still 30kW is slowest I've seen on on rapid charger.

 

[Mr H]

SR+ will only ever get 170kw, if you want the full 250kw you need a LR or P

 

[jamherber]

SR+ will only ever get 170kw, if you want the full 250kw you need a LR or P

2nd ever SC charge today with our SR+ at Exeter Darts farm. When we arrived there were only 3 cars there. Ours pre-conditioned at 26% and initially ramped up to 153kw but as other cars arrived, dropped to 23kw ( when all stalls were occupied) - took us 40 mins overall to get from 26% to 90% so ok but not staggering.

 

[Saghost]

2nd ever SC charge today with our SR+ at Exeter Darts farm. When we arrived there were only 3 cars there. Ours pre-conditioned at 26% and initially ramped up to 153kw but as other cars arrived, dropped to 23kw ( when all stalls were occupied) - took us 40 mins overall to get from 26% to 90% so ok but not staggering.

Pushing up to 90% is always painful - and usually not worth the time unless you have special circumstances.

It’s generally better to charge just enough to get to your next destination (with a reserve,) because charging slows down so much at the top.

 

[bhav]

Pushing up to 90% is always painful - and usually not worth the time unless you have special circumstances.

It’s generally better to charge just enough to get to your next destination (with a reserve,) because charging slows down so much at the top.

Totally agree. In my view/experience it's not worth treating chargers along routes like petrol stations where you top up to full. More costly and time-consuming.

You're better of just making sure you're going to get back home with 10-20% and plug in there.

 

[NewbieT]

Don’t beat yourself up. You probably couldn’t have charged much quicker.

The old charge curves are here:
Tesla Supercharging - Summer 2019 Update
These are pre- V3 and for the SR+ it’s now software unlocked to 170kW (from 100kW Nov/Dec 2019). Wish ABRP would publish new ones. SR+ is probably the old SR+ curve but starting higher. It is a steep taper due to the battery size.

Unfortunately the old graph does show about 30kW at 90%.

[EDIT: Twitter]

 

[Jason71]

2nd ever SC charge today with our SR+ at Exeter Darts farm. When we arrived there were only 3 cars there. Ours pre-conditioned at 26% and initially ramped up to 153kw but as other cars arrived, dropped to 23kw ( when all stalls were occupied) - took us 40 mins overall to get from 26% to 90% so ok but not staggering.

I assume you know about pairing on V2 superchargers? The power supplies are shared between a pair of chargers labelled a & b. Never share a pair if you can avoid it. Does not sound like you had much choice though this time.

 

[Yev000]

Pushing up to 90% is always painful - and usually not worth the time unless you have special circumstances.

Does being half way through a burger and trying to avoid idle charges count?

 

[MrBadger]

I have to admit to one occasion when I would have run a bit late for car to finish (but not too late to incur idle fee, nor busy not that I would have known that from the McD at Fleet ) that I upped the charge limit by a few % just so that when I got back to the car it would still have been charging.

 

[Saghost]

Does being half way through a burger and trying to avoid idle charges count?

That's one of the exceptions to the "generally." On a trip, if you're busy with something you want to finish at that stop and the car can be charging, the car should be charging.

I had actually started to write a line about finishing dinner in the prior post, but decided that adding all the caveats wouldn't help.

 

[jamherber]

I assume you know about pairing on V2 superchargers? The power supplies are shared between a pair of chargers labelled a & b. Never share a pair if you can avoid it. Does not sound like you had much choice though this time.

Yep, aware of this and so picked a charging point at the end away from any car (well until all the stalls filled up). Started off exceptionally but by the time we got to 50%, and all the stalls filled up, it was down at 23kw and stayed that way until charging was complete.

 

[kcrane]

I had a similar problem yesterday with my M3P.

After setting off from east London at 40% SoC I remembered I was passing Park Royal and the V3 chargers. I started pre-conditioning, but it only had 5 mins before I arrived. At 40% SoC and without warm batteries I was not going to get full speed charging. On the other hand I had full regen, so I didn't expect temperature to be much of an issue. I plugged in expecting say 150-175kw. I got 50kw.

I waited a few minutes, but that was it, so I moved to another charger, just in case. Same thing - 50kw.

With enough charge to get home I gave up and left somewhat disappointed.

 

[MrBadger]

Its all just a marketing numbers game. In the end, the car will decide and much of the time it won't care where the DC came from.

 

[Plagued]

Yes, from my own testing with an SR+ with ideal conditions you will only charge faster than the "normal" 120kw between 10 and 35%
By about 40% you're down to 100kw. You hit the base public rapid charge rate of 50KW at around 73%
So there's not a huge advantage from V3 with an SR+ but any super charger is still a lot faster than most of the public 50kw unless the stalls are congested.