Major Variation in Charge rates at Supercharger Station

[omarsultan]

At Fremont last week and had a similar issue where charging rate was lower than it should have been (charging at ~200mph when I had 50 miles or red range left). I assumed it was an equipment issue with the SC.

O

 

[johnmodels]

I appreciate all the feedback everyone has given!

I know that I have been looking at MPH rather than other indicators, but I and others have been consistent and there still is often an inconsistency in the charging rates, all things being equal.

Yesterday I was at the San Juan Capistrano supercharger, which was almost full, and once I plugged in, was full. I was receiving full charging of about 280 MPH with my battery at about 30% SOC, which hI was happy with. I was expecting less since I was "sharing" the power with others, the charge rate to be about 160 MPH, which my experience has shown me.

I have encountered this over 15 times and cannot understand any pattern why sometimes the charge rate is cut by over 40%.

I also am thinking that many supercharger users might not know this is occurring because they either do not check the app and look at their charging rates or "expect" the charging to be working properly and don't give it a second thought.

I will continue to report if I notice much change.

John

 

[Chipper]

I appreciate all the feedback everyone has given!

I know that I have been looking at MPH rather than other indicators, but I and others have been consistent and there still is often an inconsistency in the charging rates, all things being equal.

Yesterday I was at the San Juan Capistrano supercharger, which was almost full, and once I plugged in, was full. I was receiving full charging of about 280 MPH with my battery at about 30% SOC, which hI was happy with. I was expecting less since I was "sharing" the power with others, the charge rate to be about 160 MPH, which my experience has shown me.

I have encountered this over 15 times and cannot understand any pattern why sometimes the charge rate is cut by over 40%.

I also am thinking that many supercharger users might not know this is occurring because they either do not check the app and look at their charging rates or "expect" the charging to be working properly and don't give it a second thought.

I will continue to report if I notice much change.

John

When sharing, you share both the UP and the DOWN. For instance, if you are on A and sharing with B who arrived and plugged in first, and B is at 10% SOC, your intake will be severely limited because B is drawing all the juice it can take. As B's SOC begins to taper, you will get the "leftover" and your intake will increase as the taper increases on B. Hope this makes sense.

 

[Cottonwood]

When sharing, you share both the UP and the DOWN. For instance, if you are on A and sharing with B who arrived and plugged in first, and B is at 10% SOC, your intake will be severely limited because B is drawing all the juice it can take. As B's SOC begins to taper, you will get the "leftover" and your intake will increase as the taper increases on B. Hope this makes sense.

The MPH figure is the average of the session, which is an average of all of those downs and ups.

If you want to get your instantaneous MPH charge rate, then calculate Volts*Amps/(300Wh/mi); those units are even correct.

300Wh/mi is to be the number that Tesla uses for energy per rated mile while DC charging, and is consistent with 120kW=>400mph.

 

[C.r. Moorehead]

As an interesting tidbit - I have found that you can call Tesla and find out the "health" of the individual superchargers. Its usually in a % from 80-100% they will tell you which one to use. I try not to bother them all the time with this - but when I am road tripping I always call.