Peak charge rate from 150+ kW stations?

[Replika]

Just took my ER on a 5 station trip yesterday. Not once did I get even 150 kW, let alone 170 kW.
The stops were 125, 90, 138, 138, 125.

Weather was 70s to start, then 60s by the later charges. Truck was driven 125 miles before the first stop and temps showed dead center on the instrument cluster. Plugged in as low as 10%, mostly around 15-20. Plugshare checkins showed at least 2-3 recent checkins that well exceeded those kW rates.

What are people seeing from fast chargers?

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[RickLightning]

Were these EA chargers?

Were they the new, shared EA chargers, and were others using them when you were charging?

 

[Replika]

Were these EA chargers?

Were they the new, shared EA chargers, and were others using them when you were charging?

EA, but not the latest units.The stations were mostly empty aside for me.

 

[metroshot]

Using 350kW EVGo chargers, I get a peak of 170kW initially at low SOC and then slows down as it reaches over 70%.
Then it crawls to 90% which is where I usually stop unless I am on a road trip.

 

[vandy1981]

Just took my ER on a 5 station trip yesterday. Not once did I get even 150 kW, let alone 170 kW.
The stops were 125, 90, 138, 138, 125.

Weather was 70s to start, then 60s by the later charges. Truck was driven 125 miles before the first stop and temps showed dead center on the instrument cluster. Plugged in as low as 10%, mostly around 15-20. Plugshare checkins showed at least 2-3 recent checkins that well exceeded those kW rates.

What are people seeing from fast chargers?

A lot of the 150 kW EA chargers are limited to 350 amps. The Lightning's battery ranges from about 330 volts at low states of charge to 390 volts at high states of charge.

330V*350A=115 kW+overhead for cabin and battery conditioning at lower SOC
390V*350A=137 kW for + overhead cabin and battery conditioning at higher SOC

You can often squeeze more kW from a 350kW charger, although some of those are also throttled to 350 kW depending on the manufacturer.

Simple, right (LOL)?

 

[Replika]

A lot of the 150 kW EA chargers are limited to 350 amps. The Lightning's battery ranges from about 330 volts at low states of charge to 390 volts at high states of charge.

330V*350A=115 kW+overhead for cabin and battery conditioning at lower SOC
390V*350A=137 kW for + overhead cabin and battery conditioning at higher SOC

You can often squeeze more kW from a 350kW charger, although some of those are also throttled to 350 kW depending on the manufacturer.

Simple, right (LOL)?

So even achieving 150 kW requires a 350 kw charger? I had actually tried two 350s and didn’t break 138.

 

[SoFLALightning]

Wrapping up a 1800 mile road trip. In good weather as you state in your post, we get 138kw on a 150kw and 178kw on a 350kw. Temps under 40 degrees we were throttled at 80kw.

 

[Joneii]

I routinely see between 167 and 177 for the first 10 minutes of charging on EA 350 kW chargers here in the midAtlantic area. I see between 137-147 after initial ramp up on the 150 kW stations. Of course, this isn’t every time, but more often than not I am seeing these speeds. I will say that during the latest cold snap (10-25 degree F) the speeds were slower (120-140 ish). I also saw 151 on a 150 kW charger once! Based on that I would assume that the EA reported speeds may have some room for error. That first 10 minutes is the money maker and if I hook up and see shit speeds, I’ll try another station if one is available (that’s usually a big if these days as reliability is sketchy).

 

[vandy1981]

So even achieving 150 kW requires a 350 kw charger? I had actually tried two 350s and didn’t break 138.

Yes, at least for Lightnings on EA . Even then, some of the older 350 kW units are throttled to 350 amps so you would have the same potential KW on those as on a 150 kW labeled unit.

Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing that a 350 kW is throttled until you plug in. And then there are stations where the 350kW and 150kW units are mislabeled on the pedestal or in the app (e.g. Jackson TN for the last 2 years).

Either way, it's only going to take you 5 minutes longer on a 150 kW unit for a typical charge.

It would be nice if the Lightning displayed KW requested by the vehicle, kW delivered by the charger and an explanation for throttled charging on one or both of the massive LCD screens on the dash.

 

[Replika]

It would be nice if the Lightning displayed KW requested by the vehicle, kW delivered by the charger and an explanation for throttled charging on one or both of the massive LCD screens on the dash.

This is so necessary. Knowing whether to move or stay put has the potential for big time savings. Of course, I don’t have enough experience with the Lightning yet to know expected charge rates in various temperature conditions. I think the latest EA units might display this info.

Another thing I have noticed is the top of the CCS plug often fails to sit flush (much like other EVs), but, it’s still able to communicate. Haven’t had to hold it in place yet during initiation. The new units with longer cable will also help us out a lot with our massive truck.

 

[Monkey]

I picked up my Lightning in Iowa and drove it back to Denver. EA charging is the absolute worst. None, and I mean absolutely none of the EA chargers we stopped at had functional RFID/NFC readers -- so no tapping with phones or cards to pay. Meaning no use of the EA app to get member rates without jumping through hoops or calling in and sitting on hold.

We decided to make a detour to look at something on our way back. That ended up messing up our charging options more than we anticipated. So couldn't make it all the way to the 350kW EA charger we had mapped. Had to stop at a ChargePoint location, which are 50kW and that delivered real close to the 50kW for the time we were there. Topped off enough to hit the 350kW charger and that was our first EA charger with this truck. Never got more than 44kW out of that supposedly 350kW charger! I called EA and they blamed it on the cold... WTF? Uh, it was 35 degrees.

Decided to stay the night in Kearny, NE since charging had us hosed for the evening. topped off enough at the 350kW, er.. 44kW, EA charger to get to Kearny. Grabbed dinner and plugged into another ChargePoint next to our hotel and started the next day at 90% charge. Made a stop at a WalMart and charged at an EA charger again... Once again supposed to be 350kW, was getting about 60kW out of it. What a joke. Made one more stop at an EA charger at a WalMart in Ft. Morgan, CO and this one actually was kinda fast. Once again a 350kW unit and it delivered well over 150kW for most of the charge and I topped up to about 85% and drove the rest of the way home, had about 100 miles of estimated range left when I got home.

Some observations about route planning tools and chargers...
The Ford navigation and route planning tries to minimize charge stops, but wants to hit chargers closer to the first part of the trip and will cut it too close on range estimates.

Using ABRP is annoying... It seems to want to micro-manage charging with lots of short stops.

It seems we had the best results on the second day of our trip by letting the Ford navigation do its thing but we would use the EA app to scope out charge options along the route. Chose to skip the Ford Nav's recommended stop, which was only 20 some miles or so from where we had the truck route us. It wanted us to top up to 88% at that charger in 20 miles and then drive the rest of the way, saying we would arrive home with about 15% charge. We chose to skip that first charge and top off in Ft. Morgan, for example. The truck told me for nearly 15 miles to turn around and then finally adjusted and directed us to our chosen charger, which was the next fast charger on the route.

Love the truck, but much of the software is buggy or just downright poorly implemented. The public charging situation is pathetic. Electrify America is installing lots of new fast chargers and they are backing them with adequate power, huge transformer cabinets, etc.. Should be no problem. The charger units themselves are absolute garbage.

Oh, and the touch screens on the EA and ChargePoint chargers just don't work that well when they're dirty and forget about it if it's cold.

I had to call EA and give them my charge info from the couple receipts I had texted to me to see if they can apply my account for discounted rate. Two separate people blamed the NFC/card reader issues on the cold as well as blaming the slow charge rates on the cold. One of them tried to insist that the my vehicle was more the problem, but no, especially when I was starting out each leg of the trip with a warm battery and was hardly losing any energy to the not-so-cold environment that hovered between 30 and 40 degrees the whole trip. But I'm supposed to be getting some credit on my EA account to compensate for not getting the member rate by swiping my credit card.

At my two slowest EA charger stops, I talked with a guy in an Ioniq 5 who says he charges at that location occasionally and the charge rate will vary wildly. He was having the same dismal performance I was and said that was about the slowest he had seen at that location. The other stop I encountered two ladies in a Rivian who had worse luck than me. They were calling EA trying to figure it out because as was my experience on this trip, they couldn't get the card readers to work and let them use their membership. And they were getting less than 30kW out of that particular charger. EA reset/rebooted that charger unit for them remotely, but it didn't fix anything.

As mentioned in this thread, it would be nice to know more info during a charge session. I'd really like to see what the truck is trying to negotiate for and why the charger is throttling back or unable to deliver.

I've been spoiled by Tesla where I can plug in at -10F or 110F degrees or anywhere in between and it just works.

 

[Ryanbosski]

Thanks for the details

my Lariat arrives in 2 weeks and your feedback has me convinced I’m better off driving my wife’s Tesla YLR to Iowa from Idaho

ZERO range anxiety with Interstate driving and the Tesla charging network

sure wish Tesla would open up their network to Tesla owners who have non-Tesla trucks - I’m on CyberTruck waitlist and will sell it or the Lariat depending upon which EV I like more

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