Erratic charging from 85% - 90%

[user-name-required]

Hello

Have a '24 Flash trim in my driveway at the moment on a 2 day test from a local dealer, and I took it to a Shell 180kw fast charger to see how it does. I am not a lightning owner at the moment obviously, so if I am missing anything please keep that in mind that I can't find concrete info on every topic before posting....That out of the way, here are the details

• Couldn't use the Ford native navigation system to pick the chargers. I think because it is a test drive or something? Used the Android Auto to select the charger as a destination
• Arrived at 43%, after about 230kms of various driving and towing tests, battery temp guages in top of cluster were in the mid of their desired temp ranges.
  • Charged from 43-60% at a steady ~145kw.
    • Never saw the "surge" up to 180 that I expected from watching the State of Charge youtube channel and his charging curves (see link to his article)
    • BUT, a steady 145 is ok I suppose.
  • From 60% - 79%, was steady at 115kw
  • At 80% - 85%, dropped to about 55kw avg
  • BUT....from 85% - 90%, something weird happened
    • the charge rate on the driver dash was all over the map, changing every few seconds, and ranging from single digits kw up to the 60's indicated charge speed
    • The display on the charger also fluctuated, but much less frequently compared to the dash display.
    • See images attached for some of the variances

Has anyone seen this before? Is this something wrong with the charging of the truck? I notified the dealer, but as is common with EVs and dealerships, I expect nothing more than a shrug from them about what could have caused this.

I won't be able to get the charge down low enough to try and replicate the test again, in the time I have left with the vehicle unfortunately. So, hoping forum members can help me out here....


Trying to take advantage of 0% financing, but this charging thing has me a bit spooked.

Thanks

T

 

[Maquis]

The rate should drop to something in the 40s once you hit 80%. Then less than 20 once you hit 90%.

The easiest way to tell if it’s a truck problem is to try a different charger.

 

[user-name-required]

The rate should drop to something in the 40s once you hit 80%. Then less than 20 once you hit 90%.

The easiest way to tell if it’s a truck problem is to try a different charger.

Yes I expected it to behave like the graph from Tom Moloughney at State of Charge, so dropping rate is not the issue.....it is how wild the displayed charge was from 85-90 that has me concerned.

Seeing a rate drop from the 50's to the 20's from 85 to 90% was expected, but bouncing all over the place literally every few seconds from 8kw - 59kw - 42kw - 36kw - 54kw - 24kw, etc., had/has me concerned that something is up here.

That is really the part I am after. Has anyone ever seen their displayed rate of charge act that all over the place before?

And as noted in the first post....I won't be able to try another charger in time before I return it, as there'd be no way for me to go use up that much power to get it to a low enough state of charge to test another charge cycle at another location.....hence me trying the power of the interwebs to try and find an answer


Thanks

 

[The Weatherman]

It may have been the charging EVSE and not the truck. It’s hard to know for sure without a little more testing.

If the plug handle pins get hot this can happen. Or if the trucks pins get too hot the truck can also cause that kind of behavior.

I f you were getting a good steady curve to 80-85% that’s the normal range for charging on a DCFC. It’s not worth the time it takes to get from 85-100%. Some vendors are making it hard to get past 85% because it takes so long and holds the charger up so others can’t get to use it. This is an issue in the more congested stations.

Good luck and hope you take the plunge. Going electric has been awesome for my wife and I. It fits our live style perfectly.

 

[user-name-required]

It may have been the charging EVSE and not the truck. It’s hard to know for sure without a little more testing.

If the plug handle pins get hot this can happen. Or if the trucks pins get too hot the truck can also cause that kind of behavior.

I f you were getting a good steady curve to 80-85% that’s the normal range for charging on a DCFC. It’s not worth the time it takes to get from 85-100%. Some vendors are making it hard to get past 85% because it takes so long and holds the charger up so others can’t get to use it. This is an issue in the more congested stations.

Good luck and hope you take the plunge. Going electric has been awesome for my wife and I. It fits our live style perfectly.

Thanks Dean....we do have an EV crossover already and tow with it, so I agree it is awesome and that's why we're here now looking into this lightning.

Very, very seldom would we need to DCFC to 90 or 95, but I still wanted to see what it looked like as there's still some stretches here where I live in BC (entire province is mountainous) where you're ~250 kms between chargers that can do over 50kw....so for when we are towing, it becomes more of an issue.


Thanks again

 

[FloridaMan655321]

from 8kw - 59kw - 42kw - 36kw - 54kw - 24kw, etc.,
Thanks

I'm a bit of a newb, so ignore me, but if it happened that way, it might be just that it dropped from the higher 100+kw down to a more normal 50-60kw after 80% and it just kind of dropped too low to make the actual adjustment. Almost like 'hey, kill the power, ok, now lets go to 50kw' but it registered at 8kw briefly.

The good thing is that it charged how it should have up to 80%. So far I've only charged over 80% once as it was kind of an accident as I (and the dog) took too long to use the restroom. I think I was around 60kw when I disconnected, but I have no idea what it was from 80% to 81%.

Hope you enjoy the truck. I'm certainly enjoying mine thus far (also a 24 Flash).

 

[Monkey]

Yes I expected it to behave like the graph from Tom Moloughney at State of Charge, so dropping rate is not the issue.....it is how wild the displayed charge was from 85-90 that has me concerned.

Results from a Shell charger? I wouldn’t count on those chargers to be a reliable source of anything. In my travels, I find more Shell chargers inoperable than functional and they’re just not good. Try a couple others if you can. EA are hit or miss sometimes. Locations with their latest and greatest hardware updates are usually pretty good. Only way to tell is look for reviews in the various mapping apps and see what people rate them as for reliability. If you can find the newer 150kW and 350kW ChargePoint locations, they’re great and super reliable in my experience. Or if you have access to a Tesla CCS adapter and can try a Tesla Supercharger…

 

[user-name-required]

Results from a Shell charger? I wouldn’t count on those chargers to be a reliable source of anything. In my travels, I find more Shell chargers inoperable than functional and they’re just not good. Try a couple others if you can. EA are hit or miss sometimes. Locations with their latest and greatest hardware updates are usually pretty good. Only way to tell is look for reviews in the various mapping apps and see what people rate them as for reliability. If you can find the newer 150kW and 350kW ChargePoint locations, they’re great and super reliable in my experience. Or if you have access to a Tesla CCS adapter and can try a Tesla Supercharger…

Interesting your take on the Shell chargers...of course not doubting your experience, but in mine here in BC, I have actually found them to be quite reliable.

I've used their 180kw stations about 5 times with my 2023 ID4, and each time they have delivered the max charge curve my vehicle can take, capping out at ~143kw, and staying with the typical charge curve dynamics throughout.



Otherwise....this is a demo from a dealer, and it has to go back to them in about the next 2 hours lol. So no second chance at charging.


Thanks folks...still keen to hear more from other ppl if they have seen anything like this, or if the official Ford account I have seen here before would have anything to say on the matter....

 

[JRT]

The truck curve is driven by the truck, not the station. It could just be some wired issue, but in general above 90 is painfully slow. I have to goto 90%+ everytime I drive into Mississippi at the last Tesla SC available to make my destination with enough reserve range till I'm stuck at a overnight charger.

 

[Maquis]

Yes I expected it to behave like the graph from Tom Moloughney at State of Charge, so dropping rate is not the issue.....it is how wild the displayed charge was from 85-90 that has me concerned.

Seeing a rate drop from the 50's to the 20's from 85 to 90% was expected, but bouncing all over the place literally every few seconds from 8kw - 59kw - 42kw - 36kw - 54kw - 24kw, etc., had/has me concerned that something is up here.

That is really the part I am after. Has anyone ever seen their displayed rate of charge act that all over the place before?

And as noted in the first post....I won't be able to try another charger in time before I return it, as there'd be no way for me to go use up that much power to get it to a low enough state of charge to test another charge cycle at another location.....hence me trying the power of the interwebs to try and find an answer


Thanks

Even if you only got down to 80% you could try another station.

But to answer your question, no, I’ve not seen this behavior.

 

[YellowGoat]

Haven't seen this behavior either and I have DCFC'd up to 90% a few times. As mentioned above, I'd guess the charge port pins got warm with the extended charging and the truck started oscillating it's requested power rate as they cooled off back to a better temp and then warmed up again. It does seems a bit aggressive to cycle that fast, but I'm not sure how it's programmed. If it's a demo truck, the charge port on it might have gotten abused by EV newbies and it doesn't get a perfectly clean connection on the pins anymore which would cause that. I'm leaning towards it being a truck issue and not a general "Lightning" issue.

 

[Monkey]

Interesting your take on the Shell chargers...of course not doubting your experience, but in mine here in BC, I have actually found them to be quite reliable.

That’s good you have found them to be reliable! Just hasn’t been my experience. We’re seeing lots of other options pop up so any of the chargers that are not kept running optimally will eventually go out of business. So it will all sort itself eventually.

Like others are saying, I have not seen this behavior from my Lightning. DCFC charging past 80% is painfully slow and I only do it if absolutely necessary.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Trying to take advantage of 0% financing, but this charging thing has me a bit spooked.

Are you considering purchase of the truck you test drove or another?

 

[user-name-required]

Are you considering purchase of the truck you test drove or another?

Yes. It's the only flash they have on the lot here, they have one XLT, one Flash, one Lariat. Looks like a couple body panel gap issues at the front fender too that I noticed that are a rust issue waiting to happen....the two panels are touching each other, which is a recipe for paint wear then rust down the line.

Otherwise, was quite happy with the truck , how it drove, the efficiency of kw/100kms driving around town was pretty damn close to our car at about 21kw/100km.....highway at 115kmh efficiency wasn't too bad, worse than the official Cdn gov't testing figures, but those are at speeds of 80-90kmh, so that is not surprising.


Managed to get 35 kw/100km overall efficiency on the truck for the 300kms i had it....and about 90% of that distance was highway and/or highway towing a small tent trailer. So all in all, decent I think. Thats a real world range of ~370kms heavily slanted to highway/light towing. Pretty happy with that.


There is a dealer about 2 hours away that has like 30 Lightnings on the lot, so who knows....

 

[Pioneer74]

Yes. It's the only flash they have on the lot here, they have one XLT, one Flash, one Lariat. Looks like a couple body panel gap issues at the front fender too that I noticed that are a rust issue waiting to happen....the two panels are touching each other, which is a recipe for paint wear then rust down the line.

Aluminum doesn't rust.

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