Not getting the charge speeds I'd expect

[snerkler]

I've only had my first EV (iX M60) a couple of weeks and it's not charging anywhere near the speeds I'd expect.

Last week I only got 118kW charging speed from a 240kW public charger despite my car having a 200kW max charge speed. I was told that external temperature can affect it, as well as whether the battery was predonditioned or not and whether other people were using the charge points (no-one was) so I didn't think too much of it.

However I've just had a pod point installed which is supposed to charge at 7kW but it's nowhere near that. It started at 24% at 3.35pm UK time, and it's now 6.38pm and it's only at 31%, that's 7% in 3 hours. My car has a usable capacity of 105kW, 1% is near enough 1kW so based on this it's only charging at 2.33kW. It's saying there's over 22 hours to reach 80%.

I didn't precondition the battery but would it make that much difference? Next time I'll precondition the battery (when I read how to do it) and see if it makes a difference.

If I can't get to the bottom of why I fear it may be a trip to the dealership.

[LeeM135i]

Pre conditioning makes a massive difference to charging speeds at the fast chargers in my Polestar. I usually set the charger as part of the route and it automatically preconditions the battery. At this time of year the battery is very cold unless it’s intentionally pre heated. For example the Polestar usually pulls 150KW on average 205KW max, last night I popped out to charge it at the hotel I stayed in without telling it and it just about got to 70KW.

At home it always pulls 7.4KW unless it’s being throttled by Octopus Intellegent during the ‘bonus’ extra cheap charging slots you get when there’s excess capacity. Overnight it always gives the max charge. Which home charger do you have and which energy tariff are you on?

[blank]

For DC charging, you need a charger capable of 500A output to get 200kW. This is not a given even on high power chargers.
If you look for the data plate on the charger and labels on the cable you can sometimes find the maximum current.

If you saw 118kW on a 240kW charger it's very likely that it had a 300A maximum current. That would give 240kW at 800V but only 120kW at 400V.

Battery also needs to be at the right temperature and low SoC as well.

Temperature and SoC don't matter for home charging. It should do 7kW until it's pretty much full.

Sounds like there could be a reduced charge setting in the car or charger that's accidentally set. Or an issue with the charger's CT clamp (if fitted) that's causing it to play it safe. Need to try different chargers or different cars on your charger to narrow it down.

Edited by blank on Wednesday 12th February 19:14

[snerkler]

LeeM135i said:

Pre conditioning makes a massive difference to charging speeds at the fast chargers in my Polestar. I usually set the charger as part of the route and it automatically preconditions the battery. At this time of year the battery is very cold unless it’s intentionally pre heated. For example the Polestar usually pulls 150KW on average 205KW max, last night I popped out to charge it at the hotel I stayed in without telling it and it just about got to 70KW.

At home it always pulls 7.4KW unless it’s being throttled by Octopus Intellegent during the ‘bonus’ extra cheap charging slots you get when there’s excess capacity. Overnight it always gives the max charge. Which home charger do you have and which energy tariff are you on?

Thanks, it's a pod point 3s. I'm with Octopus but just the standard tariff at the moment so in theory it shouldn't matter what time of day I charge.

I'm trying to get onto the Intellegent Octopus tariff but it's refusing to recognise the charge point, I'm in conversation with Octopus currently.

[snerkler]

blank said:

For DC charging, you need a charger capable of 500A output to get 200kW. This is not a given even on high power chargers.
If you look for the data plate on the charger and labels on the cable you can sometimes find the maximum current.

If you saw 118kW on a 240kW charger it's very likely that it had a 300A maximum current. That would give 240kW at 800V but only 120kW at 400V.

Battery also needs to be at the right temperature and low SoC as well.

Temperature and SoC don't matter for home charging. It should do 7kW until it's pretty much full.

Sounds like there could be a reduced charge setting in the car or charger that's accidentally set. Or an issue with the charger's CT clamp (if fitted) that's causing it to play it safe. Need to try different chargers or different cars on your charger to narrow it down.

Edited by blank on Wednesday 12th February 19:14

Thanks, interesting what you say about the ampage, if I ever go back I'll take a look. Seems a bit of 'false advertising' if it says it's 240kW but can't deliver that though.

I don't have another car to try on the charge point. AFAIK there's no reduced charge setting active in the car, in fact I can't even see an option for this. No idea what a CT clamp is, I'll have to look on google.

Edit: just seen on the BMW app you can restrict AC charging but this is off so it should be charging at the max available power.

[blank]

snerkler said:

Thanks, interesting what you say about the ampage, if I ever go back I'll take a look. Seems a bit of 'false advertising' if it says it's 240kW but can't deliver that though.

I don't have another car to try on the charge point. AFAIK there's no reduced charge setting active in the car, in fact I can't even see an option for this. No idea what a CT clamp is, I'll have to look on google.

The charger can deliver 240kW, but only at 800V which your car can't take. Not exactly false advertising but certainly not clear for lower voltage vehicles.

A CT clamp is a Current Transducer that measures how much current your house is pulling and adjusts the charger maximum to avoid overloading the supply. If there's a problem with one the charger might go into a failsafe "low power" mode.

If you plug your car into a public 7kW charger and it pulls 7kW it's reasonable to assume the problem is with your charger at home.

[CrgT16]

I always thought that on DC charger it depends on the number of chargers being used at one time to deliver what it can.

At home I have no issues with either 7Kwh or 11Kwh. Mine charge always at the maximum speed they can. I am on British Gas EV tariff and BT Gas standard on the other.

[Knock_knock]

According to this 'ere graph the top charging speed is about 200kW measured in the real world.

https://evkx.net/models/bmw/ix/ix_m60/chargingcurv...

But you only get it for a little bit, and won't unless the battery is at the perfect temperature.

[paddy1970]

It does sound like something is not right, especially with your home Pod Point 3S charging speed. While external temperature and battery preconditioning can impact DC fast charging rates, your home AC charging issue is more concerning.

A 7kW home charger should add ~10% per hour on your iX M60 (assuming no power limitations). You are only getting 2.33kW, which is way too slow. Open the Pod Point app and check what power is being delivered. If it shows something much lower than 7kW (e.g., 2.3kW), the charger may be limited.

In your BMW iDrive settings, check the Charging Rate. Make sure it is not set to "Reduced" or "Low." Max Charge Current: Set to 16A or Max Allowed. Charge Scheduling: If a schedule is set, it might limit power at certain times.

Some electricians mistakenly wire 7kW chargers on a lower setting. Did your installer confirm the charger is set to 7kW? Ask Pod Point support to check remotely if it is restricted.

Lastly try charging with Intelligent Octopus disabled....just in case

[TheRainMaker]

snerkler said:

Last week I only got 118kW charging speed from a 240kW public charger despite my car having a 200kW max charge speed. I was told that external temperature can affect it, as well as whether the battery was predonditioned or not and whether other people were using the charge points (no-one was) so I didn't think too much of it.

It all depends on the battery %, weather and the charger, all have an effect on how much power you will get.

Here is the charge curve for an iX M60 in perfect condition with a fully operating charger.

snerkler said:

However I've just had a pod point installed which is supposed to charge at 7kW but it's nowhere near that. It started at 24% at 3.35pm UK time, and it's now 6.38pm and it's only at 31%, that's 7% in 3 hours. My car has a usable capacity of 105kW, 1% is near enough 1kW so based on this it's only charging at 2.33kW. It's saying there's over 22 hours to reach 80%.

You can set a max charge rate in both of our EVs and also on the charger; it could be worth checking that it has not been lowered.

In my experience, getting the fully advertised charge speed on public chargers is pretty rare.

[TheDrownedApe]

TheRainMaker said:

In my experience, getting the half the advertised charge speed on public chargers is pretty rare.

FIFY.

[quinny100]

snerkler said:

I'm trying to get onto the Intellegent Octopus tariff but it's refusing to recognise the charge point, I'm in conversation with Octopus currently.

PodPoint chargers are not supported on Intelligent Octopus Go.

You would need to onboard the car as the Device, not your charger. I have read of some issues with BMW blocking remote access to Octopus recently though, not sure if that’s affecting all cars or not.

I wouldn’t be overly concerned about getting 100kW+ when DC charging. There are so many variables on both vehicle and chargers it tends to vary quite a lot. You’ll only see 200kW with a preconditioned battery and starting from a low state of charge - and where the charger has sufficient power.

Edited by quinny100 on Wednesday 12th February 20:28

[plfrench]

With reference to the home charger, definitely contact pod point. Ours had been set to a lower mode. I can’t recall if this was manually set only or if there was a remote way of doing it.

https://www.speakev.com/threads/pod-point-installa...

[Mahalo]

1. The A/C charging on the Podpoint - sounds like the pod point is setup for 16Amp rather than 32A. It could also be that the max charging rate in terms of amps in the ixM60 is set at something like 12Amps etc which would explain you only getting the slow charging rate. Adjusting the pod point should be done by your installer - adjusting the charge rate for amps can be done in the ixM60.
2. The charging rate on a DC charging is very much affected by preconditioning - you need to use the BMW Nav which will pre-condition at the appropriate time for the selected charger. If you are not using the BMW Nav to find charger then you need to use the manual pre-condition option from the ixM60 menu so that the battery can be brought up to temperature to accept the peak charge rate.

[Discombobulate]

As above re slow home AC charging. See here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iE_V-iL-6U

Edited by Discombobulate on Thursday 13th February 08:21

[loudlashadjuster]

TheDrownedApe said:

TheRainMaker said:

In my experience, getting the half the advertised charge speed on public chargers is pretty rare.

FIFY.

In my experience, the car makes a big difference.

Our Model 3 will reliably get 150+ kW from a capable rapid charger, but I’ve had a few Polestar 2 hire cars recently and even on a 250 kW chargers I’ve rarely seen them charge at much over 80 kW, even with a low SoC etc.

[raspy]

snerkler said:

I've only had my first EV (iX M60) a couple of weeks and it's not charging anywhere near the speeds I'd expect.

Last week I only got 118kW charging speed from a 240kW public charger despite my car having a 200kW max charge speed. I was told that external temperature can affect it, as well as whether the battery was predonditioned or not and whether other people were using the charge points (no-one was) so I didn't think too much of it.

However I've just had a pod point installed which is supposed to charge at 7kW but it's nowhere near that. It started at 24% at 3.35pm UK time, and it's now 6.38pm and it's only at 31%, that's 7% in 3 hours. My car has a usable capacity of 105kW, 1% is near enough 1kW so based on this it's only charging at 2.33kW. It's saying there's over 22 hours to reach 80%.

I didn't precondition the battery but would it make that much difference? Next time I'll precondition the battery (when I read how to do it) and see if it makes a difference.

If I can't get to the bottom of why I fear it may be a trip to the dealership.

You haven't mentioned what battery level you had when you plugged in at the public charger. As others have mentioned, the max charge rate of 200kw is only at lower levels of battery when plugging. Every EV has its own charge curve.

Some public chargers are crap at giving reasonable amounts of power, even if you have done everything correctly. It's luck of the draw sometimes.

I have an iX40, which has a max charge rate of 150kw.

Last time I went on a road trip in November, I was getting almost 150kw when plugging in on rapid chargers, each and every time, even on Tesla V4 superchargers, but I tend to manually precondition the battery from the menu in the car and I arrive at the rapid charger with a battery between 5-15%.

I've found preconditioning makes a significant difference on my iX in colder weather.

[snerkler]

paddy1970 said:

It does sound like something is not right, especially with your home Pod Point 3S charging speed. While external temperature and battery preconditioning can impact DC fast charging rates, your home AC charging issue is more concerning.

A 7kW home charger should add ~10% per hour on your iX M60 (assuming no power limitations). You are only getting 2.33kW, which is way too slow. Open the Pod Point app and check what power is being delivered. If it shows something much lower than 7kW (e.g., 2.3kW), the charger may be limited.

In your BMW iDrive settings, check the Charging Rate. Make sure it is not set to "Reduced" or "Low." Max Charge Current: Set to 16A or Max Allowed. Charge Scheduling: If a schedule is set, it might limit power at certain times.

Some electricians mistakenly wire 7kW chargers on a lower setting. Did your installer confirm the charger is set to 7kW? Ask Pod Point support to check remotely if it is restricted.

Lastly try charging with Intelligent Octopus disabled....just in case

Thanks, car is set to 32A no schedule in place, it's set to charge instantly.

TheRainMaker said:

You can set a max charge rate in both of our EVs and also on the charger; it could be worth checking that it has not been lowered.

In my experience, getting the fully advertised charge speed on public chargers is pretty rare.

As above there's not restriction on charge capacity set in car

quinny100 said:

PodPoint chargers are not supported on Intelligent Octopus Go.

You would need to onboard the car as the Device, not your charger. I have read of some issues with BMW blocking remote access to Octopus recently though, not sure if that’s affecting all cars or not.

I wouldn’t be overly concerned about getting 100kW+ when DC charging. There are so many variables on both vehicle and chargers it tends to vary quite a lot. You’ll only see 200kW with a preconditioned battery and starting from a low state of charge - and where the charger has sufficient power.

Edited by quinny100 on Wednesday 12th February 20:28

The 118kW charging doesn't worry more per se, more of a case of whether the car is only accepting a fraction of what it should on a general basis, more so the home charger.

plfrench said:

With reference to the home charger, definitely contact pod point. Ours had been set to a lower mode. I can’t recall if this was manually set only or if there was a remote way of doing it.

https://www.speakev.com/threads/pod-point-installa...

Mahalo said:

1. The A/C charging on the Podpoint - sounds like the pod point is setup for 16Amp rather than 32A. It could also be that the max charging rate in terms of amps in the ixM60 is set at something like 12Amps etc which would explain you only getting the slow charging rate. Adjusting the pod point should be done by your installer - adjusting the charge rate for amps can be done in the ixM60.
2. The charging rate on a DC charging is very much affected by preconditioning - you need to use the BMW Nav which will pre-condition at the appropriate time for the selected charger. If you are not using the BMW Nav to find charger then you need to use the manual pre-condition option from the ixM60 menu so that the battery can be brought up to temperature to accept the peak charge rate.

As above, car is set to 32A, could well be pod point and I contacted them earlier but not had a reply yet. I'm not holding my breath, my experience with pod point customer service has not been the best so far.

raspy said:

You haven't mentioned what battery level you had when you plugged in at the public charger. As others have mentioned, the max charge rate of 200kw is only at lower levels of battery when plugging. Every EV has its own charge curve.

Some public chargers are crap at giving reasonable amounts of power, even if you have done everything correctly. It's luck of the draw sometimes.

I have an iX40, which has a max charge rate of 150kw.

Last time I went on a road trip in November, I was getting almost 150kw when plugging in on rapid chargers, each and every time, even on Tesla V4 superchargers, but I tend to manually precondition the battery from the menu in the car and I arrive at the rapid charger with a battery between 5-15%.

I've found preconditioning makes a significant difference on my iX in colder weather.

I was at 9% and charged to 50%

[snerkler]

Just tried it again and it's now charging at 7kW, will be at 80% by 6.10am now.

Not sure what the issue was

[thisnameistaken]

I had similar from my wall charger. Turns out I’d set it to charge to full by 5am and because it could do that easily it throttled the charge rate so it just got to 100% by 5am on the dot. If I removed the schedule it just charged at max immediately.