I'm planing a road trip this weekend and the forecast currently is 112F/44C. Are there any issues supercharging in high heat? Should I plan on it taking longer than normal?
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Supercharging on a really hot day
- Thread starter HappyDude
- Start date
Ostrichsak
Well-Known Member
It doesn't really impact the time. At least not in a negative way. If anything, the slightly higher heat helps the speed on the front end slightly. You shouldn't notice it either way, really. The one thing you may notice is that if it's really hot out and you're hanging out in the car with the climate control set to 70deg it may begin to get warm. Since the car's cooling system cools both the pack and the cabin it may reach maximum capacity of the system. When this happens, the system prioritizes the battery pack for safety. You may notice the cabin getting a few degrees warmer in these instances especially if sitting in direct sunlight. We noticed that occasionally but nothing in terms of charge times, really.
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V2 supercharger cables can get overheated on hot, sunny days, which will cause your charge speed to drop. You can boost it back up by wrapping a wet rag around the charge wand (evaporative cooling).
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Ostrichsak
Well-Known Member
We didn't notice this during our summer travels across the US. I think there's other factors that play a larger role than this but it wouldn't hurt to just budget a little more time just in case.
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SilverString
Member
I just completed a multi thousand mile road trip in 100+ degree heat. If your battery gets too hot it will reduce your charge rate but the battery will cool itself so not a big inconvenience. The worst effect of the heat is the range reduction. In 100+ degree heat my highway efficiency at 70 to 75 mph with AC runs above 350 watts per mile. When I hit a "cold front" at 60 to 70 degrees it will jump down into the 260 range. This has a bigger effect on travel time than the slightly lower charge rates, because you have to charge more often.
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“Are there any issues supercharging in high heat?” = NO
I guess it should have been NO/YES since Op had two questions.
“Should I plan on it taking longer than normal?” = YES
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Ostrichsak
Well-Known Member
I think just not quoting my post would have prevented confusion as it would have been clear you were replying to the OP rather then my post.
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My bad, not sure how that happened. I must have fat-fingered the reply.
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RTPEV
Active Member
The one and only time I encountered a slow Supercharger (maybe I'm just lucky?) was during a hot summer day. I plugged into a pedestal and things were just fine for a bit, and then after I went into the store, the charge rate dropped to something like 72kW where it remained steady:
This was low for my SOC, so I hopped over to another stall and I was back up to a more appropriate charge rate:
This was not due to a shared stall--I suspect that some of the chargers in the cabinet overheated and shut down to protect the equipment.
So that's what I would be worried about. It's probably not likely, but it could happen. I don't know if V3 Superchargers are more or less resilient in the heat than the V2 Superchargers. If this does happen, just try moving to a different stall.
This was low for my SOC, so I hopped over to another stall and I was back up to a more appropriate charge rate:
This was not due to a shared stall--I suspect that some of the chargers in the cabinet overheated and shut down to protect the equipment.
So that's what I would be worried about. It's probably not likely, but it could happen. I don't know if V3 Superchargers are more or less resilient in the heat than the V2 Superchargers. If this does happen, just try moving to a different stall.
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Watts_Up
Well-Known Member
If you can, try to avoid charging during the peak rate hours, and also driving when the sun is high to lower AC consumption.
But, when travelling this might be not always easy if you need to drive all the day to your destination.
Be carefull not to be drowsy when driving under hot weather.
It's happen to me but there were absolutly no place to stop and no trees to find some shade.
May be carry some cold water in a thermos bottle.
Also in areas with low superchargers density, avoid going below 30% Soc,
in case you may have to make a detour because of an accident or work on the road.
Also consumption incrrease a lot if you encounter high wind or drive above 85 miles/hour.
But, when travelling this might be not always easy if you need to drive all the day to your destination.
Be carefull not to be drowsy when driving under hot weather.
It's happen to me but there were absolutly no place to stop and no trees to find some shade.
May be carry some cold water in a thermos bottle.
Also in areas with low superchargers density, avoid going below 30% Soc,
in case you may have to make a detour because of an accident or work on the road.
Also consumption incrrease a lot if you encounter high wind or drive above 85 miles/hour.
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ucmndd
Well-Known Member
I’ve charged at 114f in Kettleman City CA before, regularly do so all around central CA well north of 100f.
It just works. As others have mentioned, if you can, get out of the car and let the cabin AC take a break so it can divert more cooling to the battery, which will prevent a more aggressive charge taper than you might otherwise be used to.
It just works. As others have mentioned, if you can, get out of the car and let the cabin AC take a break so it can divert more cooling to the battery, which will prevent a more aggressive charge taper than you might otherwise be used to.
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We were at Kettleman City a couple of years ago when the temps were 110F or higher and the V2 Superchargers were running quite slow. I believe they have beefed them up a bit more since then though.
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I got back from a road trip a few weeks ago, where it was like 109-110 degrees... Charging was perfectly fine... The only issue I had, is that at a few places I was charging at EA using a CCS adapter, which I kept in the frunk... When it was 110 degrees outside, the sun made the surface of the frunk hot AF, so I had to use a microfiber to close the trunk, cus the first time, I almost burned myself.
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battery hot while charging = good, BMS will manage it; charging cable or transformer hot while charging = bad
eg Bowling Green is terrible during the sunny summertime hours not bad otherwise. There's nothing but an empty field to the south of the Supercharger (at least, last time I used)
eg Bowling Green is terrible during the sunny summertime hours not bad otherwise. There's nothing but an empty field to the south of the Supercharger (at least, last time I used)
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Today ended up being 116F/46.6C, I took the advice to go inside while charging so that the a/c didn't have to cool the cabin and I can say it really was no issue at all.
My last charge was about an hour from home and when I parked in the garage the cooling system ran at a high speed for about 20 minutes.
My last charge was about an hour from home and when I parked in the garage the cooling system ran at a high speed for about 20 minutes.
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Was at Kettleman/Bernard and it was 115F. Didn’t have an issue. Felt like I got sunburn just walking to the bathroom lol.
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Increased energy use was something I did notice, I can usually beat the final estimate in the trip consumption graph but, not with this heat. I left my last charging stop before the computer said I should continue because it was estimating 5% remaining when I would get home. I knew there were two superchargers on the way in case it wasn't enough and sure enough I did have to stop and super charge for a few minutes to make it home.
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