Restricted supercharging

[medphys]

Hi all, been running into some supercharging issues in recent months in commuting from Chesapeake Va to Bethesda Md. First I have a 2013 MS whose range now is about 244 miles on a 100% charge. I plugged into the supercharger station an Glen Allen Va which has 20 superchargers. After I plugged in I was told that my charging was limited 80 % due to the fact that it was a high volume center. When I visited the supercharging station in North Bethesda I got the same message 80% limit on charging. This restricts my limit of travel as 80% for me is quite less mileage than a later model. I also noticed that there are no signs which charging stations are out of order, map info said there were 3. This sounds like Apple slowing down the speed of older Iphones to get them to buy a newer model. Has anyone experienced this?

 

[house9]

After you plugin it will 'limit' your charging to 80% but you should be able to set it higher immediately after that.

It's more like a default charge limit at high use chargers. Most of the chargers around the SF bay area are the same.

 

[medphys]

After you plugin it will 'limit' your charging to 80% but you should be able to set it higher immediately after that.

It's more like a default charge limit at high use chargers. Most of the chargers around the SF bay area are the same.

Thanks for the info. Will try that next time.

 

[DerbyDave]

Interesting to know about this. I have never seen this in my area. We don't have many high use Superchargers around here yet.

 

[ATPMSD]

You may wish to read this

Tesla will limit charging to 80% at busy supercharger stations - Autoblog

The goal is to reduce wait times at busy locations.

www.autoblog.com

Note that charging to 100% on a regulator basis is not recommended. It also takes about as much time to go from 80% to 100% SOC as it does to go from 0% to 80%, which seems to be the reason behind the limit.

 

[GtiMart]

Yes, the reason is that the supercharger location is busy, reducing your maximum to 80% is so you leave faster, leaving room for others. The last 20% of the battery is very slow to charge anyway, you'll spend a lot of time there for no good reason (in most cases). If you really need that charge to reach the next supercharger or your destination, you can raise the maximum manually after if has been reduced.

 

[ATPMSD]

Yes, the reason is that the supercharger location is busy, reducing your maximum to 80% is so you leave faster, leaving room for others. The last 20% of the battery is very slow to charge anyway, you'll spend a lot of time there for no good reason (in most cases).

Better yet, if there happens to be two Superchargers along your route consider stopping twice as you will spend less total time charging.

 

[CaliSurfer]

There are at least four superchargers from Glen Allen to VA that you could stop at. This would also save you a lot more time than sitting at one charging station. The 80% limit is because the charger at Glen Allen is busy which helps other people charger vice you sitting there for another 20 mins at least.

 

[dbartram]

Just to emphasize: this is nothing to do with the car. Instead it is Tesla trying to increase efficiency of supercharger usage, facilitating access for more users.

 

[JimmyB]

I've seen both on recent road trips - an initial 80% limit that you can then override, and a hard 80% that you can't go above.

Both are fair enough IMHO (as are the idle fees) - and as others have said, an efficient trip strategy would be very unlikely to have you charge above 80% in the first place.

 

[EVRider-FL]

I’ve never encountered the 80% limit without being able to override it, but I’ve only used superchargers along the east coast.

 

[BCCA]

I've encountered this high usage message a couple of times. In all cases, the announcement that says charge is limited to 80% also includes a message that said if you need more than 80%, you can change the charge limit to whatever you need.