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MS60 charging rate

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Just got S60 less than two weeks ago. I am little confused about super charging speed for this car. I had 130 miles left on the car when I stopped by at SC. It took 35 minutes to charge 100% (to 207 miles).

Max charging speed I noticed was 140 mi/hr. I checked few youtube videos and noticed that users are charging at 360+ mi/hr using SC. This is not even close.. way faster. What am I doing wrong?

Attached pic shows the max. charging speed I noticed.
 

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Welcome to ownership!

First, check out this link.

Supercharger | Tesla

Scroll down to where it talks about 'how it works' and that has a lot of good information.

The short story is, the more full your battery becomes, the slower the charge rate will become. This is to protect the battery by not putting too much in too fast.

If you started at 20 miles left, getting up to about 160 miles would be pretty fast, but going from 160 to full will take about the same amount of time as the 20 to 160.

Enjoy your new car!

Zach
 
There is a lot of charge rate variability between Superchargers even at the same location. The next time you charge your MS you will most likely find that it will charge at a different rate. It could be faster or it could be slower depending on a lot of different factors other than your MS.
 
Thanks Zach. I was wondering because this video shows even at 95% charging over 306 mi/hr on MS60.


The 306 mi/hr is an average over the entire charging time and not the actual rate of charging. Still, that is an amazing, high number at 95% SOC. I have an original 60, turning 4 years old in only a few weeks, and I can only dream of charging at such speeds as the tapering is much more pronounced with my early batter pack.
 
I noticed your location and was curious if this occurred in Bethesda. Even though they don't officially exist anymore I have heard that they might still be functional. From what I understand those never charged at a "normal" rate.
 
Also realize that the mph charging rate is the average rate for the session, not the instantaneous rate. The number you need to watch for the rate at any particular moment is the kW number.

I took bunch of pics throughout my first SC charging session. I noticed 48kw was the highest number it reached in 35 mins of charging. Also I was the only one there, other 7 stations were empty.. at Laurel, MD.
 
I have screenshots showing 98 kW on our S60, but believe I saw it go about 105 kW at one point. At 99% it was still going at around 35 kW.

There are a lot of factors that influence it, the amount you get depends on supercharger capacity, if other people are using your paired charger, if the machine is broken, battery temperature. I read that it's better faster to charge after driving for a while since the battery is at optimal temperatures.
 
I took bunch of pics throughout my first SC charging session. I noticed 48kw was the highest number it reached in 35 mins of charging. Also I was the only one there, other 7 stations were empty.. at Laurel, MD.

Your charge rate, starting at 60ish%, is not unreasonable. The battery will not be able to safely charge at high rate, the more full the battery is.

There are still some possibilities that can cause slow Supercharger rate, other than having a mechanical problem with the car.

Temperature can be an issue. The battery must be at an optimum temperature to accept the highest charge rate. If it is cold out, that will reduce charge rate some, particularly if you have not driven the car enough to warm the battery or have let it sit in the cold before starting to charge. I'm not a cold-weather owner, but others who have experienced this can be more helpful.

Constant Range Mode use can be your enemy. Related to the temperature problems above, Range Mode cuts back on the energy used to control the battery temperature. Possibly good for increasing range when you really need it, on a daily basis it is a mistake (that's why there is a switch to turn it on and off). Your battery will have to warm up while it charges at the Supercharger, and full power will not be applied to the battery until it is warm. By that time, it may have charged enough to be tapering off on the charge rate, so you may never reach full power. Also, battery longevity is somewhat dependent on maintaining battery temperature at optimum -- running constant Range Mode does not allow that to happen.

Most likely is that the Supercharger is having an issue. Try moving to a different unit (meaning a different NUMBER in the stall, not just a different letter with the same number). There may be times that the grid has less power available, again probably temperature related, where the entire Supercharger is not able to run at peak. Take what you can get and stay warm!
 
Based on "trip planner" - I expected to see 120 kWh at "every" supercharger. I once found a 98 kWh rate, that quickly tapered to 30 kWh. My typical SC rate is 45 kWh, regardless of being discharged or nearing full (80%).
I have a 60 => 75 converted and seem get the same rates. (on 20%-80%) charge. I have seen the rate drop when another car took up the adjoining "b" slot - but even when I was the sole charging fellow, I get 45 kWh +/- 15 kWh.

So what gives? Just plan on longer lunch breaks?
.
 
Based on "trip planner" - I expected to see 120 kWh at "every" supercharger. I once found a 98 kWh rate, that quickly tapered to 30 kWh. My typical SC rate is 45 kWh, regardless of being discharged or nearing full (80%).
I have a 60 => 75 converted and seem get the same rates. (on 20%-80%) charge. I have seen the rate drop when another car took up the adjoining "b" slot - but even when I was the sole charging fellow, I get 45 kWh +/- 15 kWh.

So what gives? Just plan on longer lunch breaks?
.


I have never got above a 96KW with my 60 limited 75. Then i get the usual taper
 
Based on "trip planner" - I expected to see 120 kWh at "every" supercharger. I once found a 98 kWh rate, that quickly tapered to 30 kWh. My typical SC rate is 45 kWh, regardless of being discharged or nearing full (80%).
I have a 60 => 75 converted and seem get the same rates. (on 20%-80%) charge. I have seen the rate drop when another car took up the adjoining "b" slot - but even when I was the sole charging fellow, I get 45 kWh +/- 15 kWh.

So what gives? Just plan on longer lunch breaks?
.
First, off, kwh is for amounts of energy, not charging rates. You're thinking of kilowatts (kW).

OK, now, you will not ever be able to see 120kW charge rate with your car, because it is the lower voltage battery pack that doesn't support that power level. The 60/70/75kwh battery sizes use 350V. The 85/90/100kwh battery sizes use 400V. Since power is the product of voltage times current, the higher voltage pack will be able to take a little bit higher power level. So the high voltage packs can get up to about 120kW of power from a Supercharger. The lower voltage packs can only get a little bit over 100--maybe about 104 or 105kW maximum, I think.
 
OK, then perhaps the Trip Planner should be updated to reflect NOT 120 kw, but 20% less power and 20% longer charge time.
Expecting 1 a 120 and getting 90's was an upset, because I did not know better. Now, expecting 90 and getting 96 or 88 kw can be explained with temperature, equipment wear, etc.

Who can tell Trip Planner?