HELP: Stuck at a supercharger and the car won't charge

[Brandon332]

Ok everyone, the issue has been solved, and it appears that @systemcrashed was the closest! Someone from our local SC reached out to me today, apparently they are reading the forums because I didn't talk to them about it. He said the following:

"Based on your screenshot [my screenshot of the app saying 0 amps available] and the logs, the reason the vehicle took so long to supercharge was because it was so low on charge. This problem really only presents itself in the summer, but basically the battery pack is too hot to take a charge, so the Supercharger waits until the battery pack cools down before it starts charging. If the battery was at about a 20% state of charge this would not be nearly as much of a problem. Therefore, my suggestion would be not to run the battery down below about 40 miles or so if the ambient temperature is over 60 Fahrenheit when looking to go Supercharge."

I had been driving for hours and the temp was about 80, 6 people in the car and I had 8 miles to empty, so this would make sense. Problem solved

 

[LovelyCarrot]

Hi just wanted to add my own experience, I had this happen today on my X. I was down around 5%. Screen said 1 hour 20 to charge but 0 kw. It would occasions flicker to 6kw and back to 0. Called tech support and they confirmed when battery is very low around 5% the supercharger trickle charges for up to an hour before going full out. Sure enough about 45 minutes later charging took off. It came in fairly close to the 1.5 hour mark. This is in winter in Oregon so definitely not a summer only problem.

 

[Trnsl8r]

On my S I've been below 10 miles a few times coming into a Supercharger and haven't had these issues, including summer days, definitely 60F+. Wondering if it's a characteristics with the newer 90kWh batteries?

 

[3s-a-charm]

Same with me - never had this issue on my Model S. Seems like a pain in the butt for road trips. I guess I won't push the limit and get to a low SOC or I may take a 1-hour penalty

 

[apacheguy]

Same. Never had it on my S. I've arrived plenty of times with 1-2% SOC. It ramps very quickly. I could see this being extremely frustrating and annoying on a road trip. It ridiculous to have to accept a 1 hour ramp.

 

[Dcr26]

For those of you without the waiting issue before full charging speed what is your cars firmware?

 

[Electroman]

That explanation seems total baloney. I have had my car come to do 2% and plugged in my home J1772 at 30 amps and it charges exactly at the usual rate of 20mph all the way through. There is none of this "zero amp for 45 minutes" nonsense.

if it can charge without any issue at low amps AC, it should be able to do the same through DC also.

I am simply not willing to buy this explanation.

 

[TexasEV]

30A is 7kW charging. At a 120 kW supercharger I think that would be considered "trickle charging".

 

[Evbwcaer]

Was the cooling fan running? The explanation seems like BS to me too, but I do wonder if some combination of battery temp, state of charge, and HVAC setting can cause this unique situation. Was your regenerative braking limited when arriving at the Supercharger?

 

[Quetz]

Just happened to me. 104 degrees. Down to 4 miles. Took twenty minutes of the me bouncing around between 0 and 6 before it started charging. Very slowly moving up now 30 min later to 54 kW. Have a banquet to get to! It would sure be nice to know the rules ahead of time...

 

[apacheguy]

I just don't understand why it can't pull a meager 10 kw until it has sufficient charge to begin the ramp. @Quetz what is your build?

 

[Lbkmxp100d]

This makes me second think our planned road trips this summer. Waiting at a supercharger for an hour before getting any kind of charge with wife and two toddlers would not be fun. I'm curious to know what software version everyone experiencing this problem are on and what battery size and version?

We just got rid of our ice and now own 2 Tesla as our only means of transportation. I seriously hope this doesn't become the norm for traveling in a tesla as my wife will not be very happy since I convinced her to sell the ice and go Tesla

 

[MP3Mike]

I think one of the keys is to try not to arrive at a Supercharger with a very low SOC. (It would be nice if Tesla told us what that was.)

I think most people have reported this type of issue when they were below 5%.

 

[Dj B]

Ok everyone, the issue has been solved, and it appears that @systemcrashed was the closest! Someone from our local SC reached out to me today, apparently they are reading the forums because I didn't talk to them about it. He said the following:

"Based on your screenshot [my screenshot of the app saying 0 amps available] and the logs, the reason the vehicle took so long to supercharge was because it was so low on charge. This problem really only presents itself in the summer, but basically the battery pack is too hot to take a charge, so the Supercharger waits until the battery pack cools down before it starts charging. If the battery was at about a 20% state of charge this would not be nearly as much of a problem. Therefore, my suggestion would be not to run the battery down below about 40 miles or so if the ambient temperature is over 60 Fahrenheit when looking to go Supercharge."

I had been driving for hours and the temp was about 80, 6 people in the car and I had 8 miles to empty, so this would make sense. Problem solved

Why does driving the battery down to <5% cause the battery to become hotter? So the less charge the hotter the battery? Seems like a pretty blowed explanation to me..

 

[jerry33]

I think one of the keys is to try not to arrive at a Supercharger with a very low SOC. (It would be nice if Tesla told us what that was.)

I think most people have reported this type of issue when they were below 5%.

It probably varies with circumstances (battery temperature almost certainly is one of them), so there's no absolute number Tesla can give, other than the lower the SOC the more likely this will occur.

 

[K-MTG]

I arrived at the supercharger with 8 miles and was able to charge at full amperage after driving 85 mph in 80 degree weather

 

[SMSMD]

Just happened to me. 104 degrees. Down to 4 miles. Took twenty minutes of the me bouncing around between 0 and 6 before it started charging. Very slowly moving up now 30 min later to 54 kW. Have a banquet to get to! It would sure be nice to know the rules ahead of time...

Welcome to TMC..sorry to hear about your distress..what a situation to start a first post. I had a situation where the superchargering would stop after 5min of charging. Switched spot, same situation. I think by the time I moved to a third spot the battery got cooled and started to charge full speed. It was a hot day and I just pulled in and plugged.

 

[vandacca]

There are at least 3 design iterations of the battery pack that I know of, and probably a whole lot more. Each battery design has a different charge curve, probably created by Tesla to maximize battery health. Not only that, but Tesla can change the algorithm over time if they determine it's better for the pack.

Also Tesla can tweak the algorithm per user, depending on history. Recall that Tesla began limiting charging speeds to those that were using a lot of Superchargers in a short period of time. I think they reversed course on that decision.

Then you have to take into account pack temperature and current fluctuations in the infrastructure, which can also slow down charging. There are just so many variables in Tesla's algorithm, that I think it would be difficult to figure out why it charges the way it does.

 

[Bangor Bob]

Why does driving the battery down to <5% cause the battery to become hotter? So the less charge the hotter the battery? Seems like a pretty blowed explanation to me..

As pack voltage drops, the current required to deliver a particular power level increases. Heat created in the battery is proportional to current squared, times the pack resistance.

TL;DR: Amps create heat. Low charge, more amps.

It still seems bogus to me, since people have reported plugging into L2 chargers during this condition before, and received the expected charge rate.

 

[gabeincal]

When I call the 'charging hotline' they always answer within a minute or 2. Your wait time is unacceptable....