Supercharger not going over 200 mi/hr

[mswlogo]

The first time I used a super charger it ran at like 98kw and was well over 400 mi/hr. I forget how long it did that.

It was the warmest weather and the lowest battery. Like 20%

Since then I’ve not come close. But the battery has been at 40% worst case and it’s been cool, like 45F.

I’ve charged twice a weekend every 1-2 weeks. 7 times total in 6 weeks and 2000 miles.

The slot on either side of me has been empty.

What is limiting it?

Battery not low?
Temperature (car often just went into full regen (no dots)) as I arrived at supercharger)?
Limited do to frequent supercharging?

 

[TexasEV]

Battery not low and temperature certainly. You also might have been paired with another car. The spaces on either side of you being empty is irrelevant if your paired stall is a few spaces down. You need to look at the stall numbers. 1A pairs with 1B, 2A with 2B, etc. Some sites are set up 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, etc., others are 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 1B, 2B, etc.

It has nothing to do with having supercharged 7 times! Hundreds of times with certain batteries may limit peak rate slightly.

Also don’t pay any attention to the miles/hr when supercharging. That’s the average of the session, not what you’re getting at that moment. The kW displayed is the instantaneous value but miles/hr is averaged.

 

[Helmuth]

Most likely the temperature if you just got full regenerative braking before you arrived at the Supercharger.
That means the battery can take roughly 40-60kW at that time! Which is about half of what it can take if warmed up. And that equals to about half of what you’v seen as your peak of ~400miles/h.
But as mentioned before that’s the average over the whole charging session.
You want to look at the power you get which is the kW displayed. That’s what you get right now!
Hope that helps...

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

The first time I used a super charger it ran at like 98kw and was well over 400 mi/hr. I forget how long it did that.

It was the warmest weather and the lowest battery. Like 20%

Since then I’ve not come close. But the battery has been at 40% worst case and it’s been cool, like 45F.

I’ve charged twice a weekend every 1-2 weeks. 7 times total in 6 weeks and 2000 miles.

The slot on either side of me has been empty.

What is limiting it?

Battery not low?
Temperature (car often just went into full regen (no dots)) as I arrived at supercharger)?
Limited do to frequent supercharging?

Same site? Different sites?

 

[MacGreiner]

At the local supercharger I only managed to get 27 Kw this morning. 28 Deg. F outside. Arrived with 48% SoC.
This is the first time I have supercharged on my 3 having supercharged many times on the S.
I waited for the rate to go up as the pack heated and it never happened. Heard the pack squeak and pop with expansion as others have mentioned. Ave. charge rate was 22 Kw.
I'm concerned how this will work for cold weather operation.

 

[mswlogo]

Battery not low and temperature certainly. You also might have been paired with another car. The spaces on either side of you being empty is irrelevant if your paired stall is a few spaces down. You need to look at the stall numbers. 1A pairs with 1B, 2A with 2B, etc. Some sites are set up 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, etc., others are 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 1B, 2B, etc.

It has nothing to do with having supercharged 7 times! Hundreds of times with certain batteries may limit peak rate slightly.

Also don’t pay any attention to the miles/hr when supercharging. That’s the average of the session, not what you’re getting at that moment. The kW displayed is the instantaneous value but miles/hr is averaged.

That’s why I said no car was on either side. I know about the pairing and ruled that out.

It’s two sites. It’s a rest stop with chargers on northbound and southbound.

Sounds like it’s probably temperature.

 

[mswlogo]

At the local supercharger I only managed to get 27 Kw this morning. 28 Deg. F outside. Arrived with 48% SoC.
This is the first time I have supercharged on my 3 having supercharged many times on the S.
I waited for the rate to go up as the pack heated and it never happened. Heard the pack squeak and pop with expansion as others have mentioned. Ave. charge rate was 22 Kw.
I'm concerned how this will work for cold weather operation.

Same here it never goes up.

 

[Sophias_dad]

I've only just supercharged once, as an experiment, but found that it only did 27Kw. The car was fully warmed up and I was the only user in the bank of 8 superchargers, at something like a 60% SoC. More than a bit disappointed, but good to know when I really need it, it would sort of work.

I wonder if there's some software throttling going on, for us peons that didn't get the P.

 

[Kermee]

I've only just supercharged once, as an experiment, but found that it only did 27Kw. The car was fully warmed up and I was the only user in the bank of 8 superchargers, at something like a 60% SoC. More than a bit disappointed, but good to know when I really need it, it would sort of work.

I wonder if there's some software throttling going on, for us peons that didn't get the P.

That sounds about right. My battery was "cold soaked" at about 45F ambient.

SoC at 12%

• 27-29kw for the first 15 minutes (Yes, quarter of an hour).
• Jumped to 58-60kW from 15-30 minutes.
• Then to 87-89kW after half an hour.
• Finally settled at 122kW near the 50 minute mark. Almost a FULL hour later.

In some cases, how cold your battery pack is will affect your Supercharging rate more so than SoC.

 

[hoang51]

It's the ambient temperature. I don't have the exact temperature thesholds, but anything below 60 degrees F. will definitely have an effect on the Supercharging speed. I've already experienced this a few weeks back when the temperature dropped from 70s to 50s when charging. 60s didn't last long. Basically, if you ever want higher Supercharging speeds, make sure you time it such that you've been driving the car for a long time so that the battery will be warmer, but it's no guarantee you'll hit max 120 kW. I've hit 90 kW before being lowered when temps were just around the low 60s/upper 50s if I recalled correctly.

 

[bxr140]

That’s why I said no car was on either side. I know about the pairing and ruled that out.

Except...that’s not how pairing works. It’s about stall number, NOT about having empty stalls next to you. In many cases paired stalls are in fact next to each other, in many cases they are not.

 

[mswlogo]

Except...that’s not how pairing works. It’s about stall number, NOT about having empty stalls next to you. In many cases paired stalls are in fact next to each other, in many cases they are not.

Ok, I’ve seen 1A/1B, 2A/2B on the stalls all paired next to each other.

In most cases I was the only one or one other car at the site. I’ll double check stall labels.

I assume the labels are correct?

 

[mswlogo]

I should also mention. The one time I did get 98kw was when the site was the busiest 3-4 cars charging.

 

[bxr140]

I assume the labels are correct?

Yes, that’s a very fair assumption.

At least in so far as supercharging 101 goes, there’s only one other stall you care about—your paired stall. Don’t be afraid to park next to someone if they’re on the next cabinet.

Also, age of the car (more specifically the battery type) plays a part too. My old 60 starts to taper immediately, for instance...so I definitely don’t ever get the same charge rate at 40% soc that I do at 20%.

 

[TexasEV]

That’s why I said no car was on either side. I know about the pairing and ruled that out.

Then you didn't read what I said, which explained that a paired stall might not be one on either side of you. You may want to go back and read my post #2 again before assuming you know about pairing.

 

[mswlogo]

Battery not low and temperature certainly. You also might have been paired with another car. The spaces on either side of you being empty is irrelevant if your paired stall is a few spaces down. You need to look at the stall numbers. 1A pairs with 1B, 2A with 2B, etc. Some sites are set up 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, etc., others are 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 1B, 2B, etc.

It has nothing to do with having supercharged 7 times! Hundreds of times with certain batteries may limit peak rate slightly.

Also don’t pay any attention to the miles/hr when supercharging. That’s the average of the session, not what you’re getting at that moment. The kW displayed is the instantaneous value but miles/hr is averaged.

There are discussions on model S forums that frequent supercharger use might trigger a limit. I wasn’t sure how frequent, frequent was. I used it 3 times in one weekend once.

I’m 99% sure that every station I’ve visited was 1A,1B, 2A, 2B. And 90% of the time I was the only car there. But I’ll double check.

I’m assuming it’s temperature for now. Won’t probably see 100kw until spring.

 

[Big Earl]

There are discussions on model S forums that frequent supercharger use might trigger a limit. I wasn’t sure how frequent, frequent was. I used it 3 times in one weekend once.

I’m 99% sure that every station I’ve visited was 1A,1B, 2A, 2B. And 90% of the time I was the only car there. But I’ll double check.

I’m assuming it’s temperature for now. Won’t probably see 100kw until spring.

That was mostly for the 90 kWh packs.

Low charging speed is almost certainly due to low ambient temperature. Try to time your charging sessions so that you’re charging after driving for a while (at least 30 minutes... 60 minutes is better).

When the regen limit first disappears, the battery can accept about 60 kW of energy. It takes more time for it to warm up enough to accept the 120 kW provided by a Supercharger.

 

[mswlogo]

That was mostly for the 90 kWh packs.

Low charging speed is almost certainly due to low ambient temperature. Try to time your charging sessions so that you’re charging after driving for a while (at least 30 minutes... 60 minutes is better).

When the regen limit first disappears, the batter can accept about 60 kW of energy. It takes more time for it to warm up enough to accept the 120 kW provided by a Supercharger.

I had driven for about an hour at 65 mph before entering supercharger. But like I said, the regen was limited for ~50 minutes of that. This is at around 35-45F. So battery might have been warmed up enough for full regen, but still not going above 50kw supercharging.

It also didn’t increase during the 45 minutes of supercharging. If anything, it dropped.

I think by the time the battery might have been warmed up from supercharging, it’s starting to taper off.

 

[mswlogo]

Just an update.

This time it was:

MUCH colder, around 12F.
Car went to full regen (no dots) about the last 10 miles out of 70 before the supercharger.
The biggest difference was under 20% battery when I arrived.

It got up to 111 Kw and was doing almost 400 mi/hr.

But it was down to around 65 Kw when battery was at 50%.

So I think SOC was a bigger factor than the temperature. Just like the very first time I supercharged and got near 100kw.

And all 3 superchargers are paired A/B next to each other.

One sad thing though is one stall was completely plowed in (as in snow for you southerners), I used the stall paired with that one

 

[jlghertner]

Just an update.

This time it was:

MUCH colder, around 12F.
Car went to full regen (no dots) about the last 10 miles out of 70 before the supercharger.
The biggest difference was under 20% battery when I arrived.

It got up to 111 Kw and was doing almost 400 mi/hr.

But it was down to around 65 Kw when battery was at 50%.

So I think SOC was a bigger factor than the temperature. Just like the very first time I supercharged and got near 100kw.

And all 3 superchargers are paired A/B next to each other.

One sad thing though is one stall was completely plowed in (as in snow for you southerners), I used the stall paired with that one