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My car won't charge faster than 60kW

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David99

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Jan 31, 2014
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Went on a road trip today from Los Angeles to Phoenix. I have done that trip many times. Never an issue. Today my car would not charge faster than 60 kW, even though I carefully planned to arrive at below 20 miles remaining. I changed stalls even though no one else shared my charger. And it was the same on all three superchargers I stopped it. So clearly it must be my car. I called Tesla but they couldn't see any issues with my car. They said they will pull the logs from my car and from the chargers and look into it. Pretty frustrating as we were already late for the meeting.
There is no error message, nothing. Temps are in the 70s,and I drove pretty normal with the traffic. Anyone else had similar problems?
 
Went on a road trip today from Los Angeles to Phoenix. I have done that trip many times. Never an issue. Today my car would not charge faster than 60 kW, even though I carefully planned to arrive at below 20 miles remaining. I changed stalls even though no one else shared my charger. And it was the same on all three superchargers I stopped it. So clearly it must be my car. I called Tesla but they couldn't see any issues with my car. They said they will pull the logs from my car and from the chargers and look into it. Pretty frustrating as we were already late for the meeting.
There is no error message, nothing. Temps are in the 70s,and I drove pretty normal with the traffic. Anyone else had similar problems?

Maybe it's not your car but the SuperCharger. The main (electrical) feed may be limited (not by design - maybe a current, less-than-optimal state).

-- Greg
 
I have used all these superchargers many times and never once they deliver less than full power. It's just strange that no matter which one and what stall, it always maxes out at 60 kW. So I'm pretty sure it's something on my car. But if it was a bad connection or something like that the car would give a warning and reduce the power. The fact that there is no warning message and even Tesla said there is nothing they see.

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Quartzsite and Buckeye
 
Update: on my way back the same thing. Quartzsite and Buckeye supercharger are 60 kW max. Just pulled into Indio and I'm getting well over 100 kW. Could it be that both Buckeye and Quartzsite have issues? Just odd that both have problems even when no other cars are there and the temperatures are also reasonable.
 
Update: on my way back the same thing. Quartzsite and Buckeye supercharger are 60 kW max. Just pulled into Indio and I'm getting well over 100 kW. Could it be that both Buckeye and Quartzsite have issues? Just odd that both have problems even when no other cars are there and the temperatures are also reasonable.

When oddities like this happens, be sure to call Tesla--the number is on the Supercharger. They may be able to fix it immediately--or not--but at least they will be made aware of the problem.

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And to think some car manufacturers think 50kW is just fine for "quick charge."

LOL. Well, it is if you only have a thimble-sized battery.
 
And to think some car manufacturers think 50kW is just fine for "quick charge."

That's exactly what I was thinking sitting there waiting for my car to charge. Gosh this is slow! LOL

I drove back last night and had the same issue on both the Buckeye and Quartzsite Superchargers. But then I plugged in in Indio and it was back to full power. Same in Cabazon. So it seems the issue was indeed with both Superchargers in Arizona. My car seems to be fine. I'm glad it's my car after all, but it sure sucks to be on a road trip and getting less than half the charge speed. It does add up a lot of time!
 
Here in Netherlands the same issue, and I believe it has something to do with the 6.1 software and/ or the software on the SCs as:

1) before 6.1 I never had this problems (and I use SC multiple times per week);

2) on "new" 120kW SC one time problem and twice it was ok;

3) most "old" 108kW now only give 60kW.

This from my visted SCs after 6.1 update mid last week:

* Limited to 60kW:

1) "old" 108kW all bays: Zevenaar (NL), Wilnsdorf (D);

2) "new" 120kW: Emsburen bay 1 (D)

* full power:

1) 108kW: Jettingen

2) 120kW: Emsburen bay 2 (D), Neuberg (D) bay 2 (rest not tested), Satteldorf (D)




On 23-1 I was talking to another end 2013 Teslas driver and he was also limited to 60kW at Zevenaar. When was your build David99? As is it general or to specific series of cars?

I called Tesla and they are looking into this.
 
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Here in Netherlands the same issue, and I believe it has something to do with the 6.1 software and/ or the software ...

That is very interesting! Yes I have just upgraded to 6.1 and never had that issue before at any Supercharger. The two superchargers I had the reduced charge speed were 'older' Superchargers. The two Superchargers where it worked fine were built more than a year later.

My car is 9 months old (delivered March 2014).
 
Any word from Tesla about the SC investigation into the logs?

Nothing. They said their Supercharger team would look at the logs from my car and the superchargers, but I have not heard from them. I assume they couldn't figure out what the issue is or they did figure it out, but don't have a solution yet. It's a little irritating as I don't know if I will be able to charge normally next time I drive that trip. It adds more than an hour of time to the trip. :/
 
A few weeks back charged my P85D @ 6.1 at a brand new SuperCharger (Springfield, Illinois). Charged at 70kw in a shared pool with 7 other Tesla's all hooked up at once. I was at about 45% SOC so my rate of charge looks normal. Sounds like waiting for the SC/Service teams for a detailed analysis is needed.
 
I just made a call to Tesla and I was right on the fact there is a relation to the older charger, but not for software reasons... it is about money. The first German SCs were built with Deutsche Bahn (DB) as the energy provider. And the initial plan was that all German SCs would be done with DB. This deal went bad and Tesla jumped for newer SCs to another energy partner.

Now the relation between Tesla seem to have further cooled and DB decreased the power to these early SCs. Tesla informed me that they soon to have this solved by getting a new energy partner at these earlier SCs.

For the Dutch SC in Zevenaar I do not expect DB involved, but the Tesla person was not able to provide me with a reason there. To be continued...
 
I just made a call to Tesla and I was right on the fact there is a relation to the older charger, but not for software reasons... it is about money. The first German SCs were built with Deutsche Bahn (DB) as the energy provider. And the initial plan was that all German SCs would be done with DB. This deal went bad and Tesla jumped for newer SCs to another energy partner.

Now the relation between Tesla seem to have further cooled and DB decreased the power to these early SCs. Tesla informed me that they soon to have this solved by getting a new energy partner at these earlier SCs.

For the Dutch SC in Zevenaar I do not expect DB involved, but the Tesla person was not able to provide me with a reason there. To be continued...

How can a power company legally limit their supply to a paying customer?
 
How can a power company legally limit their supply to a paying customer?

I also see no feasible way for a power company to do this, either, so it sounds like bologna to me. Power is limited by the feeder wire size and transformer size. I highly doubt the power company went around and changed out transformers.
 
Power co can "legally limit" draw by making the plan so unattractive you'd be stupid or poor to draw that power. Tesla limited the draw, not the power company.

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This thread title should have been titled: car pulls 60kw max at EU superchargers

At first, I thought a model 85 was only filling to 60 capacity...
 
I have been experiencing 60kW limit at Grand Hyatt SC in Tokyo. My firmware was 5.12 and now 6.0, but same results. Some of my friends got only 30kW with low SOC and 10C (50F) when he was the only Tesla.
Do I need to worry about SC firmware version as well?

# yes my car seems to receive firmware updates last in the world :)