Half speed charging

[MM in SouthTX]

I’ve had lousy luck trying to charge on the road. Enough so that I told myself this was an Intown truck and we’d be only using my wife’s car on the road. I broke that rule today. Drove from Corpus Christi to Austin. I stopped at the EA at Walmart in San Antonio to charge. Three of the eight chargers were dead even though it said they were available. The one that I got only delivered 62 kW. It said on the screen that’s the amount that my truck was requesting. Not sure what that means.

This evening I checked into a hotel that has ChargePoint 6 kW chargers. I tried several of them and they only delivered 3 kW. Is there a setting on my truck that is causing this problem? I or do I just have a lousy luck?

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[USA EV]

I bet it is lousy luck. It's not uncommon in my limited experience for hotel chargers to not get the advertised rate. Also last weekend I charged my Lightning at EA and it was only getting 62 KW, I left and came back to the same station an hour later plugged into a different charger and got full speed. I've had full speed every other time (although it has only been 5 times or so).

 

[RickLightning]

Check PlugShare to see if chargers have known issues. If it is cold, use Ford's navigation to that the truck will prewarm the battery to mid 70s.

Many local chargers are shared, so you split the charge rate with the other vehicle plugged in.

The ER has a large battery. A 6kWh charger will deliver to the truck around 5kWh. 131/5 = 26 hours, so only 3.8% per hour if you weren't sharing power.

Always have a backup plan.

 

[metroshot]

I always have bad luck with EA - their app is awful and not truthful.

They are always full of people waiting in line (free charging for many brands: Mercedes, BMW, Audi, VW, Kia, Hyundai, etc).

Because they are used so much, there are more down chargers than live ones and EA never reports down chargers honestly.

I end up going to EVGo or Shell ReCharge - they have more available and truthful status info on their apps.

Yesterday, at an EVGo 350kW charger, I got 160kW peak charging and went from 38-90% in 40 minutes while I shopped at my grocery store and picked up lunch.

Timing was perfect and was back at my truck before the idle fees started.

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