My car won't charge faster than 60kW

[PunchIT]

David, do you have any updates? I'm experiencing the same issue with my Model S. I emailed the local SC this morning. Waiting for an update.

 

[David99]

David, do you have any updates? I'm experiencing the same issue with my Model S. I emailed the local SC this morning. Waiting for an update.

I never heard back from Tesla about the issue. I have charged at different Superchargers since then and always got more than 60 kW so I think there must have been an issue with the stations in Arizona. I hope they fixed it by now.

 

[tonl]

Hi everybody. Norway calling...

I got the same issue on my S85 with the latest firmware. My car won't charger faste then 60KW on 2 specific SC. First time (one months ago) I got this problem, my car displayed 2 errors messages said "unable to charge" and "fault on cabel". Something like that. I don't remember exactly the last error message about the cable. Can't this be related to the latest firmware with a specific software on SC?

 

[Obsoletion]

Superchargers to start limiting charge rate

I noticed a few weeks ago that when I was supercharging my 2014 P85+ at the chargers that are close to home (less that 100 miles) that my my charge rate will only go to 59kW even at low state of charge (20%). Thinking that my car was having an issue, i called my service center and told them the issue and they made an appointment. Now, 2 weeks later, I had my appt yesterday and dropped it off. Later that day my adviser called me and said they couldn't find any issues and had discussed with Tesla engineers and they saw no issues in the logs (i had provided charging times for them to look up logs). So i agreed to take the car back and they were going to return to me. I suggested they meet me at a local supercharger so i could see it was not an issue or they could see the issue themselves. Needless to say, when they tried to charge it it stop for them at 59kW. They took it back and called today with an update. What my adviser just called to tell me is that Tesla is now starting to limit supercharger charging rates. He isn't sure if it is based on distance of charger from the persons home or the frequency of the use of a particular supercharger, or all chargers in general. Anyway they are returning the car and telling me Tesla will be making a official announcement soon. This REALLY affects me as it takes a lot more time to charge when I am coming back from a business call on one side of the county and headed to the other. Not what was sold to me when i bought the car!

 

[Kbsilver]

Tesla would hopefully not do something stupid. If suddenly all the 120KW chargers became 60 KW, and that short rest stop on your trip now became more like an hour+, it certainly would not help sales. I could understand them limiting the output of superchargers near your home as I'm sure the cost model did not plan for every mile driven to be powered from a supercharger. Like I said I could understand, but that's not what every purchaser until the "announcement" was sold.

But to make 100 miles means you need at least 50% charge to include a reasonable buffer. This could be quite common, I have this exact scenario on a common trip I take (about 95 miles each way plus the local destination driving). For this I would expect full charge speed until I hit at least 50% so I can make it home without having to wait longer than necessary for the charge.

 

[tga]

Also, allowing the charge rate could make contention/wait times worse at busy chargers.

I routinely drive 120 miles to a meeting, then turn around and head back. Especially in winter, I'd need to top off on the return trip. If my charge rate got throttled, I'd be a bit pissed.

 

[Odenator]

If true, I would go F'in nuts on them

 

[spentan]

This sounds like bs. I think the service center is more likely having you on.

Unless if its to do with the battery pack. What kind do you have?

my P85D has been charging at 120kW without an issue,

 

[ChriZ]

Did you try other chargers or other stations? Also try it when it's under 10%. FWIW I was charging at 100kwh on my 60kwh battery last night.

 

[Benjamin Brooks]

I noticed a few weeks ago that when I was supercharging my 2014 P85+ at the chargers that are close to home (less that 100 miles) that my my charge rate will only go to 59kW even at low state of charge (20%). Thinking that my car was having an issue, i called my service center and told them the issue and they made an appointment. Now, 2 weeks later, I had my appt yesterday and dropped it off. Later that day my adviser called me and said they couldn't find any issues and had discussed with Tesla engineers and they saw no issues in the logs (i had provided charging times for them to look up logs). So i agreed to take the car back and they were going to return to me. I suggested they meet me at a local supercharger so i could see it was not an issue or they could see the issue themselves. Needless to say, when they tried to charge it it stop for them at 59kW. They took it back and called today with an update. What my adviser just called to tell me is that Tesla is now starting to limit supercharger charging rates. He isn't sure if it is based on distance of charger from the persons home or the frequency of the use of a particular supercharger, or all chargers in general. Anyway they are returning the car and telling me Tesla will be making a official announcement soon. This REALLY affects me as it takes a lot more time to charge when I am coming back from a business call on one side of the county and headed to the other. Not what was sold to me when i bought the car!

I think 60kW charge limiting would only make sense if the SC is experiencing high utilization. i.e. 50/50 split makes it more "fair" average charge times for the 120kW split of A/B pairs.
However if the SC site is not running at full capacity, I don't understand why Tesla would want to throttle the max from 120kW to 60kW, unless they assume you're gonna pull fewer 'free kWh' overall if it's merely a 'local convenience charge' to you (and not a passing through 'road trip charge'). Tesla could have a fairly simply algorithm to identify the difference between those two scenarios.

 

[Archer]

Yeah, I would be shocked if this is for real. I just charged up last night at Oxnard and got 100KW for enough juice to get home which is 23 miles away.

 

[MikeL]

"Tesla is now starting to limit SuperCharger charging rates" and "Tesla will be making an official announcement soon"
I will be VERY interested to hear what THAT announcement says. Goes against everything that the SuperChargers are all about from day one. The local vs. road trip issue still rings pretty hollow to me. Tesla has stepped up the install of SCs in urban centers that have GOT to be more for apartment/condo/no home charger crowd. The brand new 10 stall SC right in the heart of my home town, for example.

 

[jerry33]

That would really mess up any road trips--and I plan to drive to Washington (state) this summer.

 

[saladman]

Someone else did the math - you'd need to drive nearly 50,000 miles to use up the fees for supercharging charged on a 60KWh battery.
And if I was tesla, worried about utilization, the real issue is that you need users to move through faster, at higher charge rates if possible, not slower, taking a charging stall up longer.

 

[MartinAustin]

Sadly the only thing you can do is wait... until Tesla makes whatever announcement it is, or doesn't do anything at all, at which point you can go back to that SC and say WTF. OK?

 

[Benjamin Brooks]

Someone else did the math - you'd need to drive nearly 50,000 miles to use up the fees for supercharging charged on a 60KWh battery.
And if I was tesla, worried about utilization, the real issue is that you need users to move through faster, at higher charge rates if possible, not slower, taking a charging stall up longer.

The SC chargers are design limited to 120kW max (usually shared for 2 stalls). You're not gonna get more than 120kW at any of the ~400 existing SC sites.
Perhaps someone can do the math to find out:
Say 2 cars show up, each with starting 20% SoC, plug in at the same time, and charge to 90%.
Does their total amount of time spent at the chargers (summed together), change all that much if the 120kW is split asymmetrically (as is done today), or with 50/50 (60kW) hard split?

 

[Obsoletion]

I am supposed to pick the car up on Monday morning and I will make sure that they state all of this in the comments of the work order. I will post it for everybody to see.

I'm also tempted to call the corporate office to confirm this as it is a 160 mile trip for me to get it. If they say it's BS then I could tell the SC I won't pick it up until i get something in writing from Corp that this is intended

 

[Archer]

I am supposed to pick the car up on Monday morning and I will make sure that they state all of this in the comments of the work order. I will post it for everybody to see.

I'm also tempted to call the corporate office to confirm this as it is a 160 mile trip for me to get it. If they say it's BS then I could tell the SC I won't pick it up until i get something in writing from Corp that this is intended

Is it the Rancho Cucamonga SC that is giving you issues? Perhaps other owners who live nearby can test it out and see if they are also limited.

 

[PunchIT]

Hi everybody. Norway calling...

I got the same issue on my S85 with the latest firmware. My car won't charger faste then 60KW on 2 specific SC. First time (one months ago) I got this problem, my car displayed 2 errors messages said "unable to charge" and "fault on cabel". Something like that. I don't remember exactly the last error message about the cable. Can't this be related to the latest firmware with a specific software on SC?

Hello Tonl! My local service center said that the issues is with the superchargers! Have you tried any other superchargers? Let us know if you do try any other supercharger.

I have experienced this on 2 superchargers that I use on my DC-NJ route. I'll try another one on Monday and report back.

 

[Benjamin Brooks]

Mods:
Looks like Superchargers to start limiting charge rate
needs to be merged with this thread.

So it appears there's more anecdotal evidence that if someone routinely uses the same SC site (frequency TBD?) that the car's charging is limited to 60kW!