Poor charging performance

Author
Discussion

Double Fault

Original Poster:

1,384 posts

270 months

Wednesday 24th July
quotequote all
Hi

My wife got a Q4 e-tron as a company car very recently and we're using my dad's charging point whilst ours is installed.

He lives in a new build and the charging point was included.

The myAudi app shows we're only seeing 2.2kW as charging performance and it's going to take about 21 hours to charge the battery to 70%.

That seems really poor. Is the charging point just junk, and/or am I doing something wrong?


Puzzles

2,454 posts

118 months

Wednesday 24th July
quotequote all
Pics or details of the charge point? Its about the power of a 3pin plug iirc.

Double Fault

Original Poster:

1,384 posts

270 months

Wednesday 24th July
quotequote all
I'm not near it until later today.

Could it actually be such a poor charging point though?

JD

2,901 posts

235 months

Wednesday 24th July
quotequote all
Double Fault said:
Could it actually be such a poor charging point though?
It's possible, not sure what qualifies as EV charging for the purposes of a new development, but I imagine they would spend as little as possible to offer this.

But it's also possible to reduce the charging current from the car, so it could have been dialled down to 10A.

James B

1,314 posts

251 months

Wednesday 24th July
quotequote all
I had a similar issue following an electrician visit. My Ohme Pro had always been delivering 7.2kw for all the time it had been installed and then suddenly I got just 50% of that.

Fortunately I had a pic of the fuse box from the charger install and was able to spot that some form of wire clip/sensor wasn't on the wire it had been originally. I corrected this and all was sorted. It seems that the sensor was part of some load balancer that, when not in place, limits the output of the charger.

It may be worth checking if this could be the issue?

charltjr

285 posts

16 months

Wednesday 24th July
quotequote all
New builds can often have charge points which only deliver as much power as a 13A socket, it's cheaper than putting in a proper 7kW charge point.

SWoll

19,170 posts

265 months

Wednesday 24th July
quotequote all
charltjr said:
New builds can often have charge points which only deliver as much power as a 13A socket, it's cheaper than putting in a proper 7kW charge point.
This. As long as they've met the requirement of "charge point" they really don't care about the speed offered and will do it as cheaply as possible.

To be fair we've lived off a 3 pin granny charger for 5 years without it causing an issue so imagine it would be acceptable for quite a few. For an average EV with a 3.5 miles/kWh efficiency that's still 50-60 miles of range added between midnight and 7am, or enough to cover 18k+ miles per year.

ETA - it would appear they have to meet a requirement of delivering 7.4kWh according to regs so potentially an issue with the setup of the car or charger itself.

Edited by SWoll on Wednesday 24th July 16:20

KTF

10,058 posts

157 months

Wednesday 24th July
quotequote all
What brand/model is the charging point?

Double Fault

Original Poster:

1,384 posts

270 months

Wednesday 24th July
quotequote all
Maybe these pics shed some light?




JD

2,901 posts

235 months

Wednesday 24th July
quotequote all
Double Fault said:
Maybe these pics shed some light?



Inside the charger are a series of dip switches, these can be used to change the charging power output, so it can be used on varying house circuit types.

As yours is on a 32A MCB, you need to adjust the switches so you can then get 6kW.

blank

3,579 posts

195 months

Wednesday 24th July
quotequote all
Check in the car's infotainment for a "reduced charging current" or similar setting.

Even if it's not ticked it might be worth ticking it, charging, then unticking again to force it to full speed.


Charger looks capable of 7kW unless it's been derated as mentioned above, which seems unlikely.

JD

2,901 posts

235 months

Wednesday 24th July
quotequote all
blank said:
Charger looks capable of 7kW unless it's been derated as mentioned above, which seems unlikely.
Well it needs to be derated as it’s only on a 32A MCB.
You then have to think what are the chances of an electrician bashing these out on a new build estate knowing how to correctly do it…

Lancelot

139 posts

263 months

Wednesday 24th July
quotequote all
That's an old PP and there are DIP switches inside to set the output.
As others have said you'll need to set them according to the MCB and also your cable size running to the PP.



Double Fault

Original Poster:

1,384 posts

270 months

Wednesday 24th July
quotequote all
Ta for the pointers….will check it out tomorrow.