Slow charging at 250KW station

[Fry-kun]

So I stopped by Tejon Ranch Outlets supercharger today, with ~20% in my model 3. I navigated there so the battery would precondition.
For some reason, the charge rate hovered around 60KW and wouldn't budge much (only went up to ~70 for a couple minutes) and took significantly longer to get going than planned

Any ideas why that happened?
I asked another Tesla owner if only some of those stalls were 250, and he said they should be. He also tried to convince me that even 250kw chargers share power in pairs and I should try a stall without a neighbor. I did, to no avail (same ~60KW)

 

[ucmndd]

Just to confirm - you were at the new Tejon Outlets station on the east side of the freeway, not the original station by the Firehouse subs and Chipotle on the west side?

250kw V3 superchargers DO share power insofar as there’s a max power output for the whole station that’s a good deal lower than 250kw x number of stalls, but they can send any available power to pretty much any available stall, so where you park is usually inconsequential. And that shouldn’t have been an issue for you at all unless the site was chock full and every car was trying to draw max current at the same time, which basically never happens.

That’s a weird one.

 

[ngng]

So I stopped by Tejon Ranch Outlets supercharger today, with ~20% in my model 3. I navigated there so the battery would precondition.
For some reason, the charge rate hovered around 60KW and wouldn't budge much (only went up to ~70 for a couple minutes) and took significantly longer to get going than planned

Any ideas why that happened?
I asked another Tesla owner if only some of those stalls were 250, and he said they should be. He also tried to convince me that even 250kw chargers share power in pairs and I should try a stall without a neighbor. I did, to no avail (same ~60KW)

Was the battery fully warmed? If it wasn't, you won't get a full charge rate even if you're low SOC.

 

[ucmndd]

Was the battery fully warmed? If it wasn't, you won't get a full charge rate even if you're low SOC.

FWIW, it’s pretty hard to arrive at Tejon with a not fully warm battery, as you’ve either just come over the grapevine or been going ~80mph at a gradual incline on I-5 or SR-99 for at least 20 miles beforehand.

 

[ngng]

FWIW, it’s pretty hard to arrive at Tejon with a not fully warm battery, as you’ve either just come over the grapevine or been going ~80mph at a gradual incline on I-5 or SR-99 for at least 20 miles beforehand.

Yeah that's true. Figured I would ask. I have seen slow charing with a warm battery and low SOC at 250kw chargers. Usually isolated to a specific stall.

 

[Fry-kun]

Just to confirm - you were at the new Tejon Outlets station on the east side of the freeway, not the original station by the Firehouse subs and Chipotle on the west side?

250kw V3 superchargers DO share power insofar as there’s a max power output for the whole station that’s a good deal lower than 250kw x number of stalls, but they can send any available power to pretty much any available stall, so where you park is usually inconsequential. And that shouldn’t have been an issue for you at all unless the site was chock full and every car was trying to draw max current at the same time, which basically never happens.

That’s a weird one.

It was actually pretty full, there were about 15 stalls available on ef 50-something. Guess that was the problem.

 

[sacfan]

So I stopped by Tejon Ranch Outlets supercharger today, with ~20% in my model 3. I navigated there so the battery would precondition.
For some reason, the charge rate hovered around 60KW and wouldn't budge much (only went up to ~70 for a couple minutes) and took significantly longer to get going than planned

Any ideas why that happened?
I asked another Tesla owner if only some of those stalls were 250, and he said they should be. He also tried to convince me that even 250kw chargers share power in pairs and I should try a stall without a neighbor. I did, to no avail (same ~60KW)

So I stopped by Tejon Ranch Outlets supercharger today, with ~20% in my model 3. I navigated there so the battery would precondition.
For some reason, the charge rate hovered around 60KW and wouldn't budge much (only went up to ~70 for a couple minutes) and took significantly longer to get going than planned

Any ideas why that happened?
I asked another Tesla owner if only some of those stalls were 250, and he said they should be. He also tried to convince me that even 250kw chargers share power in pairs and I should try a stall without a neighbor. I did, to no avail (same ~60KW)

Well I was at the Tejon Outlets this afternoon as well, about 3:30 pm. It was very busy, but like you said, perhaps 10-15 chargers of the roughly 58 were still available. I charged at the normal rate. When I first started it was getting 400-450 miles/hour. It got to 80% full very quickly and stopped charging. I restarted it when I realized that it had stopped. Above 80% it was obviously a lot slower. I recall about 150 miles/hour between 80-90%, however I was quite distracted at the point because my Model X (2019 Raven) FSD beta decided it needed a total software reinstall of 2022.12.3.20 .

 

[Fry-kun]

Hmm.. I stopped by

Well I was at the Tejon Outlets this afternoon as well, about 3:30 pm. It was very busy, but like you said, perhaps 10-15 chargers of the roughly 58 were still available. I charged at the normal rate. When I first started it was getting 400-450 miles/hour. It got to 80% full very quickly and stopped charging. I restarted it when I realized that it had stopped. Above 80% it was obviously a lot slower. I recall about 150 miles/hour between 80-90%, however I was quite distracted at the point because my Model X (2019 Raven) FSD beta decided it needed a total software reinstall of 2022.12.3.20 .

Hmm.. I stopped by 2-2:30. I guess by the time you got there, enough cars were later in the charging curve, so there was more power to go around.
I think on the way there I saw there were well over 20 stalls available, so it's likely I just arrived during usage spike, unlucky

Thinking on the design, it makes perfect sense to under-provision total power, since on average some cars will be charging slower - so 250 * #stalls would never be necessary.
Of course, the number of cars that can take 250KW is increasing, so this will be getting worse over time.

 

[ucmndd]

so it's likely I just arrived during usage spike, unlucky

I think this conclusion is pretty unlikely, particularly at such a large site. I doubt it was an overall site power output limit.

 

[Fry-kun]

I think this conclusion is pretty unlikely, particularly at such a large site. I doubt it was an overall site power output limit.

Maybe a large station like this is built up of several sections which don't share power?

My 2nd attempt was in the same general area (same row, just a couple stalls down), maybe it would've worked in a different row, I didn't think to try.

 

[DelPhonic1]

So I stopped by Tejon Ranch Outlets supercharger today, with ~20% in my model 3. I navigated there so the battery would precondition.
For some reason, the charge rate hovered around 60KW and wouldn't budge much (only went up to ~70 for a couple minutes) and took significantly longer to get going than planned

Any ideas why that happened?
I asked another Tesla owner if only some of those stalls were 250, and he said they should be. He also tried to convince me that even 250kw chargers share power in pairs and I should try a stall without a neighbor. I did, to no avail (same ~60KW)

I've been only one of 2 cars at a 15 stall 250w on my old 2018 MX and it charged around 60 or 70kw the whole time too. I couldn't understand it then or now. Maybe it was preconditioning? Or I was already at 60% plus?

 

[ucmndd]

Maybe a large station like this is built up of several sections which don't share power?

V3 superchargers are 4 pedestals to a cabinet, up to 7 cabinets total, for a max integrated install of 28 stalls. Each of the cabinets is connected together for power sharing via a 575kw DC bus.

The Tejon Outlets site is actually 2x 28 stall sites.

 

[Patrick Henry]

I just stopped with my 2018 100kw model X at a 250 kw station in Winston Salem 240 Harvey street. I prewarmed the battery in route and when I arrived there was no other person at the entire supercharger yet I never got more than 70kw and now it’s at 47 kw and says I have 30 more minutes until I have a 90% charge. I moved the car two more times to see if I was at a bad charger but it didn’t change anything. I am leaving now 212 miles when I arrived I had 161 and it has taken around an hour. Luckily there was a Starbucks and I got and coffee and did some work otherwise this would have been very painful. I still am the only Tesla charging.

 

[Patrick Henry]

BTW The temperature was 39 degrees

 

[DCGOO]

I just stopped with my 2018 100kw model X at a 250 kw station in Winston Salem 240 Harvey street. I prewarmed the battery in route and when I arrived there was no other person at the entire supercharger yet I never got more than 70kw and now it’s at 47 kw and says I have 30 more minutes until I have a 90% charge. I moved the car two more times to see if I was at a bad charger but it didn’t change anything. I am leaving now 212 miles when I arrived I had 161 and it has taken around an hour. Luckily there was a Starbucks and I got and coffee and did some work otherwise this would have been very painful. I still am the only Tesla charging.

That sounds pretty normal, since you arrived with over 70% (161 miles) on board. The 100D rarely exceeds 160 Kw, and that only happens with around 20% SoC, and quickly drops off. The V3 Supercharger does not provide much advantage for a 2018.

 

[bmah]

There are a lot of factors that influence Supercharging speed (usually making it slower). Just yesterday, I wrote up a partial list as item U10 in the California Superchargers FAQ, because this issue comes up a lot in that part of the forums too.

California Supercharger Locations FAQ

Bruce.

 

[Les236]

May be correct. I usually try to arrive around 20% or less. Here's a typical charge at a 250kw station with my 2018 MX

Arrival Time	Chrg %	Charge Rate	Time Remaining	Charge Limit
			minutes
12:15​	33​	130​	45	to 90%
12:16​	35​	124​	45
12:18​	40​	114​	45
12:21​	45​	102​	40
12:21​	45​	101​	30	to 80%
12:25​	53​	89​	25
12:27​	55​	86​	20
12:30​	60​	78​	20
12:40​	73​	65​	7
12:40​	73​	65​	20	to 90%
12:43​	76​	60​	20
12:50​	83​	45​	10
12:52​	85​	40​	8
12:58​	89​	34​	6	to 92%
13:00​	90​	33​	4
13:02​	91​	31​	1
13:02​	91​	31​	3	to 93%
13:05​	93​	0​	0	completed