I always try to spend the night at a hotel adjacent to a supercharger. ~90% charge or so at night, or whatever is convenient for your timeline, then move your car overnight so you're not a jerk. Then go out in the morning, put it back on charge, slide to 100% to get a few more miles and heat up the cabin/battery. You'd get a terrible rate up top anyway but the means it doesn't really matter that the battery is cold, plus you save a kWh or three (or more, if it's really cold) by using shore power to put heat in the car.
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Some California Superchargers not providing maximum charging rates
- Thread starter Tony8489
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- California Supercharging USA
I always try to spend the night at a hotel adjacent to a supercharger. ~90% charge or so at night, or whatever is convenient for your timeline, then move your car overnight so you're not a jerk. Then go out in the morning, put it back on charge, slide to 100% to get a few more miles and heat up the cabin/battery. You'd get a terrible rate up top anyway but the means it doesn't really matter that the battery is cold, plus you save a kWh or three (or more, if it's really cold) by using shore power to put heat in the car.
For overnight staying someplace with a destination charger is more convenient IMO. Though sometimes there aren't any hotels with them near where you want to stop for the night.
37 kW? That's the same rate I charged my Bolt at the crappy EVgo station over the weekend! You did save $10.95 at least. That's how much my charge cost.
So is it confirmed that lower battery pack temperatures indeed limit Supercharging rates? I bet that's why my Bolt took so long to ramp up to peak charging rates at the EVgo station I used the other day.
Jumping on this thread a bit late... but it appears that apacheguy's observations pretty clearly point towards handle/connector overheating as at least one of the root causes of SC power limiting.
Is it also the case that this problem wasn't observed in the past (or at least not as much), and therefore it's assumed that Tesla made some change in how they program the SC's to prevent overheating the handles/connectors?
(Side note, I was always amazed by how Tesla was able to get so many amps through their small proprietary connector compared to the relatively-huge SAE CCS and CHAdeMO connectors. Maybe it's actually not so amazing after all if they can't handle the heat?
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Is it also the case that this problem wasn't observed in the past (or at least not as much), and therefore it's assumed that Tesla made some change in how they program the SC's to prevent overheating the handles/connectors?
(Side note, I was always amazed by how Tesla was able to get so many amps through their small proprietary connector compared to the relatively-huge SAE CCS and CHAdeMO connectors. Maybe it's actually not so amazing after all if they can't handle the heat?
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We are dealing with a much, i believe, more conservative charge taper also than just a year ago.
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
I've had a couple instances this weekend of reduced charging rates in Manteca and Folsom. Both times charging started at normal ~95 kw speeds and abruptly fell to the mid-40s after 10-15 minutes.
Both times the SCs were basically deserted, me and one other car. Decided to do a little experimenting and moved to the adjacent stall on the same pair, and charging immediately ramped back up to full speed. That seems to suggest it's not something further upstream in the charger itself.
Both times the connector handle was quite hot - hotter than what I've come to regard as "normal" over the last few months. So I think there's a bit of legitimacy to that theory.
Both times the SCs were basically deserted, me and one other car. Decided to do a little experimenting and moved to the adjacent stall on the same pair, and charging immediately ramped back up to full speed. That seems to suggest it's not something further upstream in the charger itself.
Both times the connector handle was quite hot - hotter than what I've come to regard as "normal" over the last few months. So I think there's a bit of legitimacy to that theory.
FlatSix911
Porsche 918 Hybrid
A few TMC members have suggested that cleaning the plug with electrical contact cleaner can significantly improve performance.
BrokerDon
Active Member
That's EXACTLY what I did on our recent 2,000 mile road trip: 90% charge when we arrived each evening at our destination, then started 100% charge (if we needed it) as soon as I got up the next morning since the 90% to 100% charge and cabin pre-heating can take ~ 1 hour... Perfect to get breakfast and packed back up for travel.
Just tried to charge at Mammoth. 55 degrees out and 45 miles of range. I could not get above 23 kW. Somebody else arrived at the same time and he too had the same issue. My batter was "cold", but 55 is not that cold outside. The other gentleman just arrived, so had a warm battery. I called Tesla, and they reported that several of the stalls were drawing reduced power. I finally was able to get about 74 kW out of one stall, even though I only had about 90 RM at the time. This is a fairly new SC, that is used infrequently. Oh, handles were not hot.
Bet TSLA
Active Member
AMPd
Well-Known Member
Boy what a ****ing pOS the SC network has become. (Pardon my French)
Went on a road trip to the coast, supercharged 3 times, not once did I even hit 80kW, the fastest I saw was 76 and that was with a low state of charge and no one on the other pair.
The charge times have nearly been doubled.
Instead of charging at 120kW and ramping down, I'm charging at 70 ramping down to 60-30
Went on a road trip to the coast, supercharged 3 times, not once did I even hit 80kW, the fastest I saw was 76 and that was with a low state of charge and no one on the other pair.
The charge times have nearly been doubled.
Instead of charging at 120kW and ramping down, I'm charging at 70 ramping down to 60-30
Tesla better get a handle on the "neutered" Supercharging issue quick. With thousands of Model 3's supposedly hitting the road by the end of the year, it ain't gonna be pretty if these issues persist.
Now I don't feel quite as bad about my Bolt's "slow" fast charging rates.
Tesla better get a handle on the "neutered" Supercharging issue quick. With thousands of Model 3's supposedly hitting the road by the end of the year, it ain't gonna be pretty if these issues persist.
Now I don't feel quite as bad about my Bolt's "slow" fast charging rates.
Glad you don't feel bad about the Bolt's slow-charging, but for many people, only being able charge at 40 kW (320V x 125A) when starting at 0% SOC at supposed 50 kW stations is a serious drawback. Not to mention the aggressive tapering beginning at 55%. Then there's the issue of many CCS "quick" chargers only being 25 kW at best and often limited to 16 kW in the Summer.
altman
Member
Anyone have specific feedback about (eg) the Barstow charger, which has several tesla powerpacks presumably feeding the chargers onsite?
That would at least help with peak power draw, I would hope (and insulate slightly from utility issues), though for longevity those aren't rated at super high power output - 50kW per pack maximum, so you'd be draining 3 for a full speed charge. Certainly there are optimizations possible there though - especially if you're tesla - just do DC/DC instead of the round trip to AC.
That would at least help with peak power draw, I would hope (and insulate slightly from utility issues), though for longevity those aren't rated at super high power output - 50kW per pack maximum, so you'd be draining 3 for a full speed charge. Certainly there are optimizations possible there though - especially if you're tesla - just do DC/DC instead of the round trip to AC.
jgrgnt
Member
We drove from Irvine to San Francisco and back a couple of weeks ago and had the opportunity to use several chargers along the way. Redondo Beach, Bakersfield, Harris Ranch, Gustine, and Dublin on the way up. San Mateo, Gilroy, Harris Ranch, Bakersfield, Tejon Ranch, and Fountain Valley on the way down. We hit max charge rate (for our 90D, that was ~110-112KW) at every single station. Never had to share with anyone, so that helped.
Generally, I found that 100+KW was sustained up to about 50-55% before the charge rate would start tapering downward. Twice, we experienced a sudden drop in the charge rate (once down to ~60KW, and once down to 42KW) well before hitting 50%, which we fixed by switching to a different stall.
Generally, I found that 100+KW was sustained up to about 50-55% before the charge rate would start tapering downward. Twice, we experienced a sudden drop in the charge rate (once down to ~60KW, and once down to 42KW) well before hitting 50%, which we fixed by switching to a different stall.
That is exactly the way it's supposed to be. We have had two trips to Mammoth in April, plus a late March Tahoe trip (395 on the way up, I-5 on the way down) with all but one charger working normally. Our tapering gradually drops below the 100kW level around half full. We usually have a short stop in Inyokern on the away up and on one of the trips we came back from the restroom and noticed a slower charge rate. We had enough to leave anyway but noticed that the handle was hot. If we had needed a longer charge I would have switched stalls. There is no question in my mind that a hot handle is a red flag for likely reduced performance, as observed in last October's trip when I had 3 instances of slow charging, all with hot handles when I disconnected and/or switched stalls.
We have never had a problem at Mammoth. We usually arrive 6-7PM, check into our hotel and go out to dinner immediately within walking distance of the charger. Thus we have never had a cold battery for our main charging session at Mammoth. We top off on the last night there, but that one will be slow anyway.
We just arrived at Mammoth today, 4th trip this season and 8th since we got the car. I arrived at Lone Pine with 8 rated miles, left the car when charge rate was over 100kW. I came back 25 minutes later, noticed charge rate at 60 with 135 rated miles, just under half full. I switched stalls, charge rate went back over 100kW and had normal gradual tapering from there.
The handle of the first charger was hot when I removed it to change stalls. Temperature in Lone Pine was 74F, there was one other person charging when I arrived and none when I left.
The handle of the first charger was hot when I removed it to change stalls. Temperature in Lone Pine was 74F, there was one other person charging when I arrived and none when I left.
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