Lowest kW to expect in first 10 minutes

[Missile Toad]

You arrive to a SuperCharger with 15% or less State of Charge (SoC). The Supercharger is empty, except for you. Ambient temperatures are room temperature or colder, but above freezing. Your car is in good condition/repair. What is the lowest kW you think is reasonable to expect during the first 10 minutes of charge? Please, describe your car year/model, whether you assume your SuperCharger is in an urban or rural area, and your # of supercharger experiences. Assume further, that the Supercharger is rated for 120 kW and not a mythical 135 kW, or an ancient 90 kW.

This poll is limited to the Model X and Model S lines only.

 

[Missile Toad]

85 kW is least Tesla's Superchargers should give me. I'm driving S 70D, 2015 and assuming a rural SuperCharger. 6 of my 9 supercharger visits are in rural towns, such as Springfield, IL. None of my supercharger visits required me to pair with another stall that is in use.

 

[TonyWilliams]

You were obviously above 17% SOC, where you would have about 116kW (365a * 320v). All the current Superchargers are capable of 120kW DC into the car, even if the absolute limit is that "mythical" 135 to 145kW of power pulled from the grid.

What would the location of the Supercharger have anything to do with your charge rate?

 

[Missile Toad]

You were obviously above 17% SOC, where you would have about 116kW (365a * 320v). All the current Superchargers are capable of 120kW DC into the car, even if the absolute limit is that "mythical" 135 to 145kW of power pulled from the grid.

What would the location of the Supercharger have anything to do with your charge rate?

I limit it to rural, since I can't be 100% sure that there isn't any 'throttling of locals'. I'm strongly inclined to think the 'throttling' is an urban myth... but I can't rule it out for sure... so I'm wanting to remove that as a question anyone may have later. I know that might mean less data, but my hope is to remove any concerns that others may have about the true expectations we should have concerning a well maintained SuperCharger. What I'm trying to develop, is a handy 'rule of thumb' for when your current charger stall is lame, and you should move your car, to another stall, to finish, perhaps, 5 minutes sooner.

 

[AWDtsla]

If your pack is under 0C, then expect no charging.

 

[Saghost]

I noticed you said nothing about how far you'd been driving or battery pack temperature, which can have a huge impact.

(How far you've been driving only matter because if you've driven for more than half an hour you've almost certainly got a warm pack unless it's very cold out and range mode is on.)

 

[robaross]

At Fort Drum service plaza (FL Turnpike) yesterday, two separate times (going and coming), at 14% SOC, I got less than 60kw at start. No one at any of the other 7 stalls. I guess I should have switched to a different stall. Model S 90D, summer 2016 build. Very few supercharges in the 10 months of ownership. Only 8400 miles on the odo.

 

[Saghost]

At Fort Drum service plaza (FL Turnpike) yesterday, two separate times (going and coming), at 14% SOC, I got less than 60kw at start. No one at any of the other 7 stalls. I guess I should have switched to a different stall. Model S 90D, summer 2016 build. Very few supercharges in the 10 months of ownership. Only 8400 miles on the odo.

What was the temperature when you were charging?

Did the handles feel hot when you went to plug in?

One of the things I learned on my Florida road trip last month is that Supercharging is throttled based on plug/cord temperature among other things, and a hot cord on a hot day doesn't go over about 50kW (while a "cold" cord that's at the ambient temperature went straight to 90 kW - but was back at 50 kW within a couple minutes as it heated up.)

 

[robaross]

Daytime was 95 but evening, 10pm, was mid 80s. Not unusual for August in SF. Cord did not feel hot at any time, at least no worse than my UMC.

 

[Rocky_H]

I put my vote in as 85kW. I would say that technically, given all the conditions, 95 is probably more exactly on the dot of everything working exactly as it should, but given several things that can be slightly off, I would not consider 10kW less to really be a problem worth noticing or complaining about. Lower than 85kW and I would consider it a problem that needs to be addressed.

So as to car and experience, mine is a March 2014 S85 with 41K miles. I've probably had a little over 40 total Supercharger sessions. They have all been in pretty low population areas of Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Montana, so I've never had to share charging with a paired stall. I have never seen one of these throttled, reduced charging rates.