Still charging at full speed

[UncleCreepy]

Yesterday I returned to Toronto after being out of the country for 9 days.
The SoC had dropped from 66% to 59% during that time, which is more than I've previously seen. I never used the app while I was gone, nor do I use sentry mode or any other monitoring apps.

What I was mostly curious about was how much power I'd get from the supercharger. I was expecting far less than 250 kW since the car is now four years old with about 127,000 km on the odometer. I arrived at the Kingston, ON V3 superchargers with 3% SoC left, and after initially ramping up to ~105 kW, it went up to 255 kW, more than rated. The outside temperature was about 20 °C, and I set the supercharger as my target when I was about half an hour away from it.

I'm pretty happy with that kind of charging speed. The ease of use and the charging speed make the price per kWh a bit more tolerable.

What is everybody else's experience? Is that consistent with other M3's or should I consider myself lucky?

 

[Soul Surfer]

You did not mention whether you were on a wall charger. I’m assuming that you were not. Am also currently out of country, in Italy, however, my car is on a wall connecter generation three

 

[UncleCreepy]

I'm sorry, I thought V3 supercharger at 255 kW was self-explanatory. No, I was not talking about a wall connector. I was talking about supercharging still happening at full speed despite the car being 4 years old.

 

[Cosmacelf]

I'm sorry, I thought V3 supercharger at 255 kW was self-explanatory. No, I was not talking about a wall connector. I was talking about supercharging still happening at full speed despite the car being 4 years old.

You asked two different questions and you got an answer back on one of them….

 

[Sophias_dad]

253kw here(1016 mi/hr) this evening with Stacy's Mom, a 2018 with 65k miles. Was not surprised when the charge handle got warm after 5 minutes of charging.

 

[GHammer]

What is everybody else's experience? Is that consistent with other M3's or should I consider myself lucky?

Normal, my 2018 has 130,000 miles (210,000 km) and also tops out at 255kw. I know people with more miles than me and they also have full charge rate. I haven't heard of any 3's being throttled as they age unlike old S's.

 

[ucmndd]

. I was talking about supercharging still happening at full speed despite the car being 4 years old.

What led you to believe that calendar age would have an effect on supercharging speed?

 

[UncleCreepy]

What led you to believe that calendar age would have an effect on supercharging speed?

As @GHammer said, older Model Ss do get throttled. I wouldn't say I "believed" that Model 3s get throttled as well, I was just curious whether or not that is the case. Seeing @Sophias_dad's and @GHammer's responses that are consistent with my own observation, I no longer think it could be an issue .

 

[Videomatic3]

What led you to believe that calendar age would have an effect on supercharging speed?

batteries pretty much have a shelf life on them, they will never be as good as they once were from day 1. Things needs to be compensated for. Also tesla has said after a certain amount of dc charging speeds will be reduced, without giving that certain number, its more to protect themselves. My friends 2018 model 3 with 150,000 miles charging definitely sees reduced speeds from when he bought it. I don't think the car reaches 250kw anymore

 

[ucmndd]

As @GHammer said, older Model Ss do get throttled.

True, although this is generally limited only to 85kwh batteries.

I put 175,000 miles on a 2016 Model S. It supercharged the fastest it ever had right before I sold it a few months ago.

 

[KenC]

Yesterday I returned to Toronto after being out of the country for 9 days.
The SoC had dropped from 66% to 59% during that time, which is more than I've previously seen. I never used the app while I was gone, nor do I use sentry mode or any other monitoring apps.

What I was mostly curious about was how much power I'd get from the supercharger. I was expecting far less than 250 kW since the car is now four years old with about 127,000 km on the odometer. I arrived at the Kingston, ON V3 superchargers with 3% SoC left, and after initially ramping up to ~105 kW, it went up to 255 kW, more than rated. The outside temperature was about 20 °C, and I set the supercharger as my target when I was about half an hour away from it.

I'm pretty happy with that kind of charging speed. The ease of use and the charging speed make the price per kWh a bit more tolerable.

What is everybody else's experience? Is that consistent with other M3's or should I consider myself lucky?

I don't really know about what happened with throttling on Model S, but my thinking is that throttling happens naturally as batteries experience lithium plating. No charging speed issues with my 5yr old 3.

As for your SOC drop, did the ambient temps drop in the 9 days you were gone. If you left, when the car was calculating SOC and the ambient was 25C, and when you got back the car recalculated SOC and the ambient was 20C, then you could see a drop in SOC. At least my car seems to do that, but that's my anecdotal observation.

 

[UncleCreepy]

As for your SOC drop, did the ambient temps drop in the 9 days you were gone.

That is a good point. I didn't think about that. The temperature was 22 °C when I returned. I don't remember for sure what it was when I left, but it was definitely colder.

Come to think of it, it might very well be that the battery was much warmer when I parked the car as I had to supercharge before I arrived at the airport. Maybe that's what happened.

 

[GtiMart]

I would bet on battery temperature as well for a part of the SOC drop. For the 255kW power, the car requests some addirtional power to heat the battery and that is represented in the power. You might have been using 6kW for battery heating when you started charging...

 

[dhrivnak]

I am at 5 1/2 years on my Model 3 with 115,000 miles and I still charge at 250 kW, sometimes it maxes at 245 and sometimes at 252kW. My range is down 6% but SuperCharging is faster, as when I got the car there were not any 250kW chargers around.