Will not take more than 150kW. Is something wrong with the battery?

[Tooney]

@Jonathan S. is a resource for high DC charging speeds in NE USA.

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[Jonathan S.]

@Jonathan S. is a resource for high DC charging speeds in NE USA.

Sigh...

So I saw this thread yesterday evening at the same time when I was about to drive back to Western Mass from our new Mt Washington house and was reading a text from my wife that she wanted to take my A6ar on a complicated Amherst MA > Watertown MA > Glastonbury CT > Amherst MA trip for today since didn’t want to deal with public charging.
(Note that in warm wx this could be done w/o charging, but temps have briefly dropped back to winter here.)

Upon checking our her itinerary in Google Maps and performing some simple calcs, I concluded she could take her i4 and stop at the Enfield CT Magic Docks since Tesla just ... works. Like it should.
As did the top sekrit ABB R&D facility she once stopped at mistakenly, which is only one of two times we’ve hit the i4 charging curve, along with one mysteriously fast Auburn EA visit, which was more than 2x all the others.

In another coincidence, upon returning home I found that the A2Z adapter had arrived.
Feels like a nearly magical portender of a most welcome future – perhaps if I throw it up into the air a la the 2001 “Dawn of Man” scene then I’ll be able to access TSCN right now?

(And when I arrived earlier in the week at the Mt Washington house, the Tesla Universal Wall Charger had arrived, yay! Installation though will have to wait until the electrical service in the detached garage is updated, which might wait until the ground gets a bit softer in case the currently buried conduit necessitates some digging.)

[...] starts at 150kW and then drops to 100kW around 50%. [...]

The only time I’ve come close to 150 in my Taycan has been at Magic Docks.
For my wife’s i4, other than those two sessions previously referenced, never come close to 150 in New England.

I'm in the Boston area and the best EA so far has been Manchester, where I get ~200kW until 50%, ~150kW until 75%, <100kW after 80%.

[...]

The Merrimack and Seabrook EA chargers are derated more than that, dropping to ~90kW after five minutes. [...]

When were you that successful in Manchester?
My in-laws live nearby.
The PlugShare checkins have generally been miserable since when I started looking in May 2023.
My brother-in-law bought an EV before then and told me not to bother going there.
But looks like it was fixed recently and apparently all four chargers have been operational now for a couple weeks.

Seabrook, stopped there b/c my wife wanted coffee on the way back from a Portsmouth tourist day.
(You’d think she could have found coffee in Portsmouth?)
Never got out of the low 40s.
In summer.

It’s been many months but I got 270 at the Burlington Mall (EA)

I made the mistake of going there a couple weeks ago...

I had planned to stop at the two ChargePoints on the I-95N service plaza just north of Route 2.
Previously I met a forum member there to check out my Taycan – never got above the 80s, even when not shared, but we were there to socialize, so didn’t matter.

This time though, pulled in just as the one open charger was being taken by a Bolt.
With a sticker for either (can’t remember which one) Uber or Lyft.
Okay, that’s entirely hopeless!
Asked (politely) the F150 driver at the other charger if he knew about how long he’d be – at most half an hour.
To add insult to injury, Tesla has eight adjacent chargers.

I should have waited there, since I wasn’t in any rush (visiting elderly aunt in whichever hospital or nursing home she was currently at...), and I had to change out of my skimo race lycra from Wachusett dawn patrol skinning, plus I had my work laptop with me (as always).
But figured I’d check out the Burlington EA since I’d never been there before.

Only three DC chargers. Plus a L2.
But just three parking spots.
Fortunately, the three parking spots were not ICE’d or L2'd, but all three DC chargers were taken.
Hmm, why not top off with L2, since I’m in no rush, and needed just several kWh.
Answer = because all the payments systems were broken for the L2, leading to wasted time and general frustration.

Eventually a DC charger opened, and I never got out of the high double digits for kW of course.
This is not from me, but it was another Taycan only a day later at the same EA:

 

[d00d]

Hey Jonathan, that was February 5th at Manchester and they had fixed the broken one by then.

 

[Jonathan S.]

Good to know, thanks! Sounds like since then one of the chargers broke but was subsequently fixed. Let's hope all four stay fixed...

 

[daveo4EV]

Let's hope all four stay fixed...

funniest thing i’ve heard all day!

 

[Jonathan S.]

funniest thing i’ve heard all day!

I didn’t specify what time period!

Meanwhile, here is my wife with her i4 at a Magic Dock right now.
Maxed out the charging curve despite air temps in the 30sF. And despite no battery preconditioning. And despite driving only a short distance from her prior stop.
So both the battery and the charger were quite cold.
Just amazing how bad the CCS1 scene is here by comparison.

 

[refazi]

I didn’t specify what time period!

Meanwhile, here is my wife with her i4 at a Magic Dock right now.
Maxed out the charging curve despite air temps in the 30sF. And despite no battery preconditioning. And despite driving only a short distance from her prior stop.
So both the battery and the charger were quite cold.
Just amazing how bad the CCS1 scene is here by comparison.

i4 is 400v platform, that's why i guess there is no preconditioning, kinda high curve ihad an i4 e35 and it usually goes to 170 for like 3 mins and drops to 70 for the rest

 

[Jonathan S.]

The i4 definitely has a preconditioning feature, accessed via either selecting an officially designed DCFC station in the car nav app or by pressing an icon in the car charging app.
But even without that, got up to speed almost immediately at the Magic Dock.
By contrast, on the EA FB group, aside from the usual complaints, some EA defenders are quick to blame the victim, attempting to explain away every slow EA charging session, often citing lack of battery preconditioning.

 

[d00d]

Yeah, lets hope they stay fixed!
That Manchester charge was with preconditioned battery at ~100F.
For comparison, February 23rd last year at 63F only got ~50kW because it was under the 77F DC charge minimum.
Seabrook February 25th last year at 68F (45F when set destination 25 minutes before) ramped up to ~100kW, settled at -85kW, at 80% down to 80kW, at 85% down to 75kW.

 

[Jonathan S.]

The 77F DC charge minimum?
I doubt my wife’s i4 battery was even at 60F when she started charging yesterday with air temps in the 30sF yet the Magic Dock quickly delivered at 212F.

 

[d00d]

That i4 does well.
77F DC minimum for the .1 Taycan, yes.

 

[Jonathan S.]

What is meant by "minimum" in this context?
My understanding is that, all else being equal, charging speed is a function of battery temperature, with the max charging curve attainable only over some range of optimal temperatures.
But DCFC can certainly occur far below that cited 77F current min.

 

[d00d]

They probably mean minimum acceptable speed is at 77F or higher, what that particular curve is they're not saying.

 

[Vikram]

Sigh...

So I saw this thread yesterday evening at the same time when I was about to drive back to Western Mass from our new Mt Washington house and was reading a text from my wife that she wanted to take my A6ar on a complicated Amherst MA > Watertown MA > Glastonbury CT > Amherst MA trip for today since didn’t want to deal with public charging.
(Note that in warm wx this could be done w/o charging, but temps have briefly dropped back to winter here.)

Upon checking our her itinerary in Google Maps and performing some simple calcs, I concluded she could take her i4 and stop at the Enfield CT Magic Docks since Tesla just ... works. Like it should.
As did the top sekrit ABB R&D facility she once stopped at mistakenly, which is only one of two times we’ve hit the i4 charging curve, along with one mysteriously fast Auburn EA visit, which was more than 2x all the others.

In another coincidence, upon returning home I found that the A2Z adapter had arrived.
Feels like a nearly magical portender of a most welcome future – perhaps if I throw it up into the air a la the 2001 “Dawn of Man” scene then I’ll be able to access TSCN right now?

(And when I arrived earlier in the week at the Mt Washington house, the Tesla Universal Wall Charger had arrived, yay! Installation though will have to wait until the electrical service in the detached garage is updated, which might wait until the ground gets a bit softer in case the currently buried conduit necessitates some digging.)





The only time I’ve come close to 150 in my Taycan has been at Magic Docks.
For my wife’s i4, other than those two sessions previously referenced, never come close to 150 in New England.




When were you that successful in Manchester?
My in-laws live nearby.
The PlugShare checkins have generally been miserable since when I started looking in May 2023.
My brother-in-law bought an EV before then and told me not to bother going there.
But looks like it was fixed recently and apparently all four chargers have been operational now for a couple weeks.

Seabrook, stopped there b/c my wife wanted coffee on the way back from a Portsmouth tourist day.
(You’d think she could have found coffee in Portsmouth?)
Never got out of the low 40s.
In summer.




I made the mistake of going there a couple weeks ago...

I had planned to stop at the two ChargePoints on the I-95N service plaza just north of Route 2.
Previously I met a forum member there to check out my Taycan – never got above the 80s, even when not shared, but we were there to socialize, so didn’t matter.

This time though, pulled in just as the one open charger was being taken by a Bolt.
With a sticker for either (can’t remember which one) Uber or Lyft.
Okay, that’s entirely hopeless!
Asked (politely) the F150 driver at the other charger if he knew about how long he’d be – at most half an hour.
To add insult to injury, Tesla has eight adjacent chargers.

I should have waited there, since I wasn’t in any rush (visiting elderly aunt in whichever hospital or nursing home she was currently at...), and I had to change out of my skimo race lycra from Wachusett dawn patrol skinning, plus I had my work laptop with me (as always).
But figured I’d check out the Burlington EA since I’d never been there before.

Only three DC chargers. Plus a L2.
But just three parking spots.
Fortunately, the three parking spots were not ICE’d or L2'd, but all three DC chargers were taken.
Hmm, why not top off with L2, since I’m in no rush, and needed just several kWh.
Answer = because all the payments systems were broken for the L2, leading to wasted time and general frustration.

Eventually a DC charger opened, and I never got out of the high double digits for kW of course.
This is not from me, but it was another Taycan only a day later at the same EA:

So after all that I just stopped to charge at a EA 350kw charger in Lee, MA - the battery was pre heated to 116.F thanks to the planner and right of the bat I got 264kw sustained from 20% to about 35%. After that it slowed as expected but held 188k till 60%. Glad to see nothing is wrong with the car!

 

[d00d]

Nice, the hotter the better!

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