I set it as a destination in the car nav, that’s the only thing you can do it seems.
That works on some. What model is it?
RS Etron GT
Nice. I’ve been thinking about one of those as my next car.
Don’t have any direct experience with the e-tron GT. The internet seems mixed as to whether setting a DCFC as destination is enough or if it needs to know it is a charging stop. You probably know more about that than me.
Do you have any direct way to measure either battery temperature or battery discharge rate? If it is preconditioning you should see a higher discharge rate.
Properly conditioned your car should be able to start right away at 250 kW.
But what you are describing sounds like what people see when the battery is not in optimal temperature range.
EA has multiple types of chargers. For ones that have two cords, some can support full charge speed on each cord, some will shut down the second cord while the first is in use, and some will split between the two.
The ones that split will typically have the word “Balanced” somewhere on the labeling or screen.
If everything is working right you should get better charge speeds than you are reporting.
The ones I use say balanced, but the 350kw ones only have one cord. The 150kw has a CCS and a ChaDemo cord.
I’ve tried different chargers at the same station, different starting SoCs, etc, the only thing I can think of is that the battery is not pre-conditioned, but there’s no way to tell whether it has or has not done so or how long it takes. Does driving 10 miles get you up to temp? 30? 100?. I wish these things just came with a switch on the dash that you can just flip to “precondition”.
I agree that car makers should make this easier instead of abstracting away the information.
Ideal battery temperature for charging is in the 60 to 90 range. If it is 0 degrees outside the system might never be able to get the battery to 60. If it is 30-40 degrees outside the system might take 30-60 minutes to get there.
The best time to really test your charge speed might be spring when your battery can soak in ambiant temperature in the 60s, and then accept that winter DCFC is a compromise.
As an FYI - EQS does display the maximum DCFC speed based on the current battery temperature. But I agree most do not. Ford doesnt even preheat.
It’s unseasonably hot in SoCal right now (no, not a fire pun), I should go see how fast I can DC charge.
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How long does it usually take to get up to optimal temperature? I know it’s a different car obviously but I’d like to get at least some ballpark, right now I don’t know if it’s 15 min or 2 hours.
The pre-conditioning takes battery energy, so sometimes it’s better to start early and use minimal energy over time. I’ve seen it start as early as an hour beforehand in both the BMW and the Tesla EVs.
How does EA decide when to make a location a congestion charger?
The only ones I’ve seen are the smaller 2-4 station chargers next to a bank. But all the mall chargers are not.
I would always go to a congestion charger if they were closer to me. Unfortunately the closest one to me is in a shopping center and although it has many chargers, it’s not a congestion one. The other day I saw an Ariya next to me charging at 94% and they were on 45 minutes. Didn’t matter that there were 5 cars waiting (and she was in the car).
I wonder if reaching out to EA asking for more chargers to be congestion limited would make a difference.
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Consumer:
EA:
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One of my local EA places has a charger with some nasty stuff on the screen. It looks like someone threw up on it. I first noticed it some time last summer. I was there last night and it’s still there!! Same nastiness all over the screen, but now with extra dirt, having frozen and thawed a few times. I ain’t touching that thing!!
I don’t expect screens to be wiped down every night with Lysol. But you’d think every 6 months, a cursory cleaning would happen?
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Could be someone’s creative way of ensuring a charger is always available for him/her.
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They have a phone number, next time you’re in line you can call them?
EDIT: I called the help line once for an issue, it was a problem with the dumb Audi app not the charger and they couldn’t really help but were pretty nice and prompt with the response.
your secret is out!
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At the “flagship” indoor EA station I go to, they actually have staff cleaning and dusting the chargers.
I’ve called them a few times.
Usually if one of the chargers is down, while I’m charging at a good one, I’ll call support and have them reboot it.
It’s worked about 2 out of 3 times. The first time I called, I think it was the older charger because I saw the Windows start up. This last time, it took the support 4 remote reboots (didn’t help that Mr Impatient kept trying to plug in when I told him I was having support reboot it) before it finally restarted and it was an EA logo screen… and then went straight to the “First Plug In…” screen so not sure what OS they are using now.
