Supercharging slowdown killing me

[tls]

My S85D with 70,000 miles on the clock is now charging so slowly I'm having to add multiple hours to my plan for any trip that requires more than one charge stop.

Took about a 1,200 mile trip last weekend, trying to arrive at each SC with under 10% for high charge rates, but by 20% SOC the car was down to 70-80kW every time, and down under 50kW somewhere right around 50%.

I can only assume this is the result of the software changes I've been reading about. I am a (relatively) long time, usually happy Tesla owner who's promoted their cars to family, friends, random passers-by in parking lots, but this is a real blow. I have a busy life and every extra hour I spend dumbly sitting at a charger is an hour away from my family and my home. I do a lot of winter travel so energy consumption is high and I have to charge a lot; when every charge session is tens of minutes longer, this really nails me.

The battery never _actually_ having the rated 85kWh capacity, as painfully documented here, has always grated, but I loved the car so I put up with it. The slow degradation in capacity and seemingly in charge speed (one noticeable drop after the SvC failed to properly test/diagnose failed louvers over multiple visits) has been annoying but I've lives with it. But this feels like the last straw. I don't think I can recommend these cars any more and I doubt I'd buy another one.

There are things I'll miss but dinner with my family at the end of a trip, the hour of sleep I lose having to get up earlier to charge longer on the outbound leg - I'm missing those _now_. Say what you like about ICE companies, they don't flip a switch and massively degrade the performance of their products when there's a safety problem - they recall and fix. It's hard not to see this as awfully much like the VW diesel issues where ultimately they had to spend billions on buybacks.

Maybe my view will change but after my first long cold weather trip with whatever the heck they did to my charging, that's how I feel. Bummer - this was good while it lasted.

 

[SSedan]

To me the 10miles I lost to the cell voltage being lowered was tolerable but supercharging last week was rubbing salt in that wound. I don't supercharger often, most commonly I do a 180mile clip and then needed 50minutes to get enough range to spend a day or two at destination. Another hour past there. 50minutes isn't bad with two elementary school age girls and a wife eating at a Panera.
Real afraid that will be 1:15-20 now which will cause some friction at worst or maybe just a lot of extra spending at Coldstone and Hallmark stores that are there.

 

[Alysashley79]

Mine does the same thing. But. I don’t really mind it. When I had my first Tesla in 13 it was completely normal to sit at a super for an hour plus because I was the only option to make it to the next leg which sometimes even leaving its max battery was barely doable.
I walked away from Tesla for 3 years and can tell you I’d rather spend a little extra time at a super than sit in gas lines at Costco.

I also look at this.....I had a 2008 chevrolet that when new got almost 40 miles to the gallon. By 25k on the odo I was down to 36. By the time I was at 80k i was down to 32. By the time we got rid of it at 140k it was barely getting 30. Less in winter. All this equals more time at gas stations and more $. I questoined the dealership and they said ya that’s normal. I just kept really good records most don’t.

 

[Electric700]

Tls, I recommend you contact Tesla for a diagnosis / confirmation. If you really need the longer range for frequent long-distance trips, you might also consider the 100D or the latest Model S Long Range, which has a maximum rated range of 370 miles.

Tesla is continually improving and sometimes safety issues come up. They may be able to optimize yours if the slowdown is due to the safety software adjustment, to slightly increase the kW power limit while still maintaining the safety factor.

Remember, there are still so many other benefits associated with EVs (clean air and no gasoline engine maintenance, spark plugs, oil changes, gas filter changes, etc...).

 

[aerodyne]

My S85D with 70,000 miles on the clock is now charging so slowly I'm having to add multiple hours to my plan for any trip that requires more than one charge stop.

Took about a 1,200 mile trip last weekend, trying to arrive at each SC with under 10% for high charge rates, but by 20% SOC the car was down to 70-80kW every time, and down under 50kW somewhere right around 50%.

May I ask if you are on range mode and navigating to the SuC before you arrive?

Also, are you on V10? I have noticed a difference in the charge curves compared to V9, see image

 

[maximizese]

I pretty much spent the entire summer level 2 charging from home, so I missed a lot of the slow SuC experiences. However, there were times when I would stop by a V2 SuC with a low SOC% and get no higher than 60kW. What was odd is that I could go to an urban charger and get a faster 72kW under the same conditions. This left me wondering if there was something wrong with the Supercharger hardware, my S85's hardware, or software limitation. I decided to just wait it out and coincidentally did not take any road-trips over the last 4 months.

Last weekend my wife and I headed up for a 260 mile drive to San Luis Obispo. We stopped at Oxnard, SLO (Madonna), and Atascadero Superchargers throughout or trip (all were V2). Half of the stalls were initially tried did not work or would go no faster than 9kW. However, we lucked out at Oxnard on our return where we saw an initial charging rate of 127kW! I have never seen our S charge that fast.

As long as we don't charge beyond 70% SOC, the time spent at the Supercharging isn't noticeably longer...but you never know what you're going to get at any given SuC stall. When I play with the charging limit slider, the on-board charging estimator will give me approximately 40mins to 80%, 1hr 15min to 90%, and 1hr 55min to 100%.

I hope things get better and I was pleasantly surprised this last weekend during our trip.

 

[Rocky_H]

Took about a 1,200 mile trip last weekend, trying to arrive at each SC with under 10% for high charge rates, but by 20% SOC the car was down to 70-80kW every time, and down under 50kW somewhere right around 50%.

There have been some issues with charging times being a lot slower, but your example isn't very much. If you check the rule of thumb values for your power versus charge taper, here is what I see:
20% + 80kW = 100
50% + 50kW = 100
The old 85 batteries used to have that value around 115 to 120. Now it is down some, to about 100, but that is not a huge difference. Sure, people would like things to not ever get any worse, but they sometimes do, as @Alysashley79 described with her gas car. For safety and reliability, this small change seems like a reasonable compromise.

 

[eye.surgeon]

My S85D with 70,000 miles on the clock is now charging so slowly I'm having to add multiple hours to my plan for any trip that requires more than one charge stop.

Took about a 1,200 mile trip last weekend, trying to arrive at each SC with under 10% for high charge rates, but by 20% SOC the car was down to 70-80kW every time, and down under 50kW somewhere right around 50%.

I can only assume this is the result of the software changes I've been reading about. I am a (relatively) long time, usually happy Tesla owner who's promoted their cars to family, friends, random passers-by in parking lots, but this is a real blow. I have a busy life and every extra hour I spend dumbly sitting at a charger is an hour away from my family and my home. I do a lot of winter travel so energy consumption is high and I have to charge a lot; when every charge session is tens of minutes longer, this really nails me.

The battery never _actually_ having the rated 85kWh capacity, as painfully documented here, has always grated, but I loved the car so I put up with it. The slow degradation in capacity and seemingly in charge speed (one noticeable drop after the SvC failed to properly test/diagnose failed louvers over multiple visits) has been annoying but I've lives with it. But this feels like the last straw. I don't think I can recommend these cars any more and I doubt I'd buy another one.

There are things I'll miss but dinner with my family at the end of a trip, the hour of sleep I lose having to get up earlier to charge longer on the outbound leg - I'm missing those _now_. Say what you like about ICE companies, they don't flip a switch and massively degrade the performance of their products when there's a safety problem - they recall and fix. It's hard not to see this as awfully much like the VW diesel issues where ultimately they had to spend billions on buybacks.

Maybe my view will change but after my first long cold weather trip with whatever the heck they did to my charging, that's how I feel. Bummer - this was good while it lasted.

I’ve had the same frustrating dramatic decrease in charge speeds that have changed my feelings about the practicality of using my car out of town. My 85 has definitely been charge limited. I don’t see sc rates over 60 kw ever. I’m a 5 year owner and former passionate ambassador of the brand. Now I’m looking to get back into an ice. Chargegate sucks.

 

[WilsonWilbur85]

I’ve had the same frustrating dramatic decrease in charge speeds that have changed my feelings about the practicality of using my car out of town. My 85 has definitely been charge limited. I don’t see sc rates over 60 kw ever. I’m a 5 year owner and former passionate ambassador of the brand. Now I’m looking to get back into an ice. Chargegate sucks.

Ugh as someone who has not supercharged recently, it makes me nervous for our road trip....

 

[Lasttoy]

It has added 2 hrs to my trip to DC. The screen never shows over 80kw charge, I used to see over 110k all the time, on new SC have seen 125 for long time charging. .I have kept a log of charging all over the USA for one yr of traveling. It started with v9. It is really bad.
One guy said he thought it was to be easy on our OLD cars get past the 8 yrs of warranty.
To another problem... they took off TPMS reset option with v9. I'm fighting that issue now.

 

[hikerockies]

I recently supercharged my 2014 S85 and 2017 S100D under very similar conditions and plotted the charging curve for both. I have documented the result at hikerockies' blog: Tesla Model S Supercharging Rate

 

[iRia]

I would be sympathetic if this was due to degradation of an old battery but I got a new battery last year and my supercharging speed is very slow with these new updates. With a warm battery in the 20s SoC I’m barely seeing 70-75%. This is on a 70D. I used to get 115kW until the 20s. This makes even shorter road trips more difficult.

 

[cpa]

There have been some issues with charging times being a lot slower, but your example isn't very much. If you check the rule of thumb values for your power versus charge taper, here is what I see:
20% + 80kW = 100
50% + 50kW = 100
The old 85 batteries used to have that value around 115 to 120. Now it is down some, to about 100, but that is not a huge difference. Sure, people would like things to not ever get any worse, but they sometimes do, as @Alysashley79 described with her gas car. For safety and reliability, this small change seems like a reasonable compromise.

Rocky, I don't even see those numbers any more. I am lucky if at 20% SOC the car receives 60kW. I recall that by 50%, the car receives about 45kW. From my perspective, the initial rate is gimped by about half. The taper is not as drastic as it approaches 50%, then the taper starts to become more pronounced as the SOC level climbs. The SOC+kW approaches 100 as the battery charges past 50%, then drops again around 75%. The last time I charged from 15% to 90% (I needed to; I was heading from Eureka to Corning) it took nearly 1:25.

I'll be on the road over Thanksgiving and into the first week of December. I'll try to make notes as to what the rates are.

Of course with Tesla and the way they tell us so much information, it is difficult to know whether the Supercharger stalls are functioning properly or not. Threads are popping up all over on this site complaining about defective Superchargers and Tesla's reluctance to send repair crews out timely to correct the issues.

 

[Cape Coddess]

I, too, notice a huge slow down supercharging my 5/16 MS 90D , but I thought it was after the version 10 updates. Originally charged between 107 to 110 kwh but now if it peaks at 77 kwh that's amazing.

I first noticed it 2 superchargers ago, I thought it was the whole supercharger station because every stall I tried did the same thing. I even filed a bug report about it. But the next time I visited the same station it was the same slow rate, and after talking to a model 3 that was charging correctly, and I realized it was my car.

I'm heading out on a 1500 mile trip next week and I'm not a happy camper. Although I have to admit, if it's a slow down versus a fire in the garage under my bedroom then I'll take the slow down.

 

[BestRadar]

I used to charge much faster and also for longer periods of time. I can only get decent charge rates if almost empty and it slows down quickly as we reach 50%.

On new superchargers I used to get over 100kwh charging and now I can barely reach 70kwh and around 50kwh when close to 50% and then dramatically slower after that. 80% charge can take an hour. It seems like Tesla is slowing down us unlimited super charger users.

 

[Mjsais]

Today I decided to supercharge to test the charge rate. I rarely supercharge. I have a 2013 S85 with 49k miles. I charged from 65% to 90% SOC, my fw is 2019.16.2. Charge rate was constant at 29 kWh. It took 40 min to put 63 miles. This is terrible.

 

[r1200gs4ok]

Today I decided to supercharge to test the charge rate. I rarely supercharge. I have a 2013 S85 with 49k miles. I charged from 65% to 90% SOC, my fw is 2019.16.2. Charge rate was constant at 29 kWh. It took 40 min to put 63 miles. This is terrible.

ouch....

 

[Cape Coddess]

With 13 supercharger stops on my upcoming trip it'll be a long road ahead. A Better Route Planner has an optimistic 33 minutes for me to charge from 10% to 80%. I'll need to double their charge duration times.

 

[xbox4me62]

I, too, notice a huge slow down supercharging my 5/16 MS 90D , but I thought it was after the version 10 updates. Originally charged between 107 to 110 kwh but now if it peaks at 77 kwh that's amazing.

I first noticed it 2 superchargers ago, I thought it was the whole supercharger station because every stall I tried did the same thing. I even filed a bug report about it. But the next time I visited the same station it was the same slow rate, and after talking to a model 3 that was charging correctly, and I realized it was my car.

I'm heading out on a 1500 mile trip next week and I'm not a happy camper. Although I have to admit, if it's a slow down versus a fire in the garage under my bedroom then I'll take the slow down.

This is something Tesla needs to fix not something we have to be ok with. They damaged the batteries by overstating the charge/discharge rates. And now instead of replacing our batteries, they don't want them to fail within the warranty because that would cost them money. So they are intentionally kneecapping them

 

[SilverSp33d3r]

I’m starting to wonder if this is actually the charge curves or are we just unable to see how “low” the battery charge level is. It seems like tesla is protecting the bottom and top of our batteries with a buffer

Maybe at 50% SOC were actually at 60%. 5% at the bottom and 5% at the top. Now if we place the old curve on the new but with a more accurate SOC comparison it will be slightly lower but less than everyone thinks...