Not achieving full supercharger potential

[Russinating]

First supercharger use, currently sat at Membury services on the M4, tried two different charging points and only getting 28-33kW. Peak was 55 right at the start but that lasted for less than a minute. Charging from 50-90%.

We headed here via the sat nav so we got a precondition message and we've also been driving for over an hour so battery isn't stone cold anyway.

Using the CCS which are all rated as 150kW here. No other cars so no sharing going on.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[Harv3y]

I’ve heard that the higher percentage battery you have, the slower it often charges, but I wouldn’t expect it to be that low?

 

[OfficialMark_H]

First supercharger use, currently sat at Membury services on the M4, tried two different charging points and only getting 28-33kW. Peak was 55 right at the start but that lasted for less than a minute. Charging from 50-90%.

We headed here via the sat nav so we got a precondition message and we've also been driving for over an hour so battery isn't stone cold anyway.

Using the CCS which are all rated as 150kW here. No other cars so no sharing going on.

What am I doing wrong?

Usually get the highest speeds when charging from 20%

 

[Jason71]

Doesn't sound like you are doing anything wrong. Issue with the car?

 

[DJP31]

I’d stake my bottom dollar on a cold battery. Driving for an hour won’t get the battery anywhere close to optimum temperature, and it was pretty cold today. The best way to get your battery warm in situations like this is to floor it, then come off the pedal for max regen, rinse and repeat a few times just before getting to the Supercharger. It’s fun for the driver, not so much for passengers.

 

[Inky38]

I tried a supercharger for the first time yesterday too. Was very close to the Grantham so decided to call in and experience it .

On route to the charger I didn't get a preconditioning message, but I'm not sure if that's just the way that I planned the route (Selected grantham on the navigation page and just clicked the supercharger icon)

On arrival there were quite a few spare slots, and I made sure that I used a CCS charger well away from any other charger.

So with a starting charge of 60% I decided to charge to 90%

Even though the chargers were rated at 150Kw it never got above 44Kw I added 22.55Kw and it took 35 minutes. I was on a pretty sedate drive out there, so the battery was probably on the cold side

 

[NorfolkMustard]

The OP navigated to it, so preconditioning would have taken care of battery temp

 

[Russinating]

It was 8c outside when we arrived and it probably had ~22 mins of preconditioning (we changed route mid-drive from final destination to the supercharger to make sure we didn't drive past the services).

Wasn't an issue anyway, added 18kW in 29 mins according to Teslafi, was a bit of a test and just didn't want to get home with less than 50%.

 

[DJP31]

The OP navigated to it, so preconditioning would have taken care of battery temp

Only to a limited extent.

 

[DJP31]

It was 8c outside when we arrived and it probably had ~22 mins of preconditioning (we changed route mid-drive from final destination to the supercharger to make sure we didn't drive past the services).

The anticipatory Supercharger preconditioning only kicks in about 20 mins from the Supercharger anyway.

 

[DJP31]

On route to the charger I didn't get a preconditioning message, but I'm not sure if that's just the way that I planned the route (Selected grantham on the navigation page and just clicked the supercharger icon)

That’s the way to do it. As long as the SuC is the destination in the nav the preconditioning will kick if the car determines it should.

Even though the chargers were rated at 150Kw it never got above 44Kw I added 22.55Kw and it took 35 minutes. I was on a pretty sedate drive out there, so the battery was probably on the cold side

You’ll never see anything close to 150kW unless you are at a very low SoC e.g. 15% AND have a very warm battery. The old ‘rule of thumb’ on the S was SoC + kW rate = 120 kW. You getting 44kW @ 60% SoC with a cold battery sounds right to me.

 

[SimonT]

First supercharger use, currently sat at Membury services on the M4, tried two different charging points and only getting 28-33kW. Peak was 55 right at the start but that lasted for less than a minute. Charging from 50-90%.

We headed here via the sat nav so we got a precondition message and we've also been driving for over an hour so battery isn't stone cold anyway.

Using the CCS which are all rated as 150kW here. No other cars so no sharing going on.

What am I doing wrong?

I used the same charger twice yesterday. We were doing a round trip from Bristol to Dunkery Beacon and left home with about 70% charge. I don’t recall the exact KW but it was only charging at about 120mph. On the way home at only 10% battery it was back up to its normal 400+mph.

On charging we tried an Ecotricity charger on the M5 north - rubbish 30kw max. Not as bad as the guy next to me in a smart car who was limited to 7kw.

 

[GoTLSAGo]

The major factor with charging speed will be the state of charge of the battery. The lower it is the faster it will charge! As others have noted, ideally below 20% would give you the best speed. As the state of charge increases, the speed the battery can take reduces quickly so do not expect anywhere near top speeds over 50% charge. The temperature of the battery and the ambient temperature will also play a part but the main factor is the state of charge

 

[Rustybkts]

You need the SC as a destination to pre condition the battery. I saw 115kWh on my SR+ for a short time when charging at Scotch Corner. Only about 5 metres from a sub station so won't be much of a volt drop happening thats for sure.

 

[LukeT]

Even taking into account that charging power varies a lot with SoC and battery temperature, I'd still think the charging power you experienced was low. It's not like you plugged in at 70%. Every now and again I get a slower than expected charge though and I think there could be other reasons, so I wouldn't assume a car problem without more data. Supercharging is fairly infrequent for me though and I'm fairly unlikely to do it without near-ideal battery state and temperature, because it's a long journey only event. Are the paired chargers actually next to each other at Membury? They're not always. I would persevere over a few weeks and see what you experience over a few charges. If you have a long journey planned, maybe aim to plug in at 20% after a couple of hours driving to test whether you get full power.

 

[Rustybkts]

I pulled in for my first charge at the Woodall Services on the same trip as described above with around 50% left in the battery.
First charger simply didn't. Oh bugger I thought and wondered what I was doing wrong. Moved the car to another and it worked fine but was only around 35kWh as described by the OP.
I hadn't pre conditioned before arriving so assumed the battery was still a bit cold.
I used the service road to reach the SC's on the south side from the north bound M1 and rather hope we are allowed to.

 

[Jason71]

I pulled in for my first charge at the Woodall Services on the same trip as described above with around 50% left in the battery.
First charger simply didn't. Oh bugger I thought and wondered what I was doing wrong. Moved the car to another and it worked fine but was only around 35kWh as described by the OP.
I hadn't pre conditioned before arriving so assumed the battery was still a bit cold.
I used the service road to reach the SC's on the south side from the north bound M1 and rather hope we are allowed to.

That seems to be a bit of a grey area and by grey I mean aren't there big signs saying don't use that road which probably mean you shouldn't but I have never seen anyone post on here yet that they got in trouble. Hoping it stays that way until they build some more Northbound. It's a logical place for me to stop when heading north and there is no convenient SuC alternative.

 

[Adopado]

First supercharger use, currently sat at Membury services on the M4, tried two different charging points and only getting 28-33kW. Peak was 55 right at the start but that lasted for less than a minute. Charging from 50-90%.

We headed here via the sat nav so we got a precondition message and we've also been driving for over an hour so battery isn't stone cold anyway.

Using the CCS which are all rated as 150kW here. No other cars so no sharing going on.

What am I doing wrong?

I'm pretty sure you're not doing anything wrong. Lots of relevant posts here from others making sensible points. From my own experience, when I've done all the "right things" .. it turns out to be the charger ... yes, even Superchargers can sometimes turn out to be less than stellar! We are so used to them being reliable that it comes as a surprise. Thankfully even a disappointing rate from a supercharger is normally useful enough when you really need it! (To reassure yourself about how fast a Supercharger can go try getting down around 10% and see it fly! Also Google charge curves for Supercharging ... )

 

[Rooster6655]

First supercharger use, currently sat at Membury services on the M4, tried two different charging points and only getting 28-33kW. Peak was 55 right at the start but that lasted for less than a minute. Charging from 50-90%.

We headed here via the sat nav so we got a precondition message and we've also been driving for over an hour so battery isn't stone cold anyway.

Using the CCS which are all rated as 150kW here. No other cars so no sharing going on.

What am I doing wrong?

Above 100kW usually only lasts for 5-10 minutes at best anyway!