Car only "Requesting" 41 KWh from chargers?

[MyLittleMachEPony]

Hi there - sorry if this question is amateur or doesn't make sense. I have tried to search the forums for an answer and have come up empty and I have found the user manual and Ford website to be very unhelpful for anything related to the actual functioning of the electric part of owning a Mach E!

I just got my Mach E last week. It is a 2022 AWD extended range. We did the 225km (ish) drive up to Calgary on the weekend to see how it would go. I charged at two 50kW chargers and only got speeds of 41kW for the first part of the charge, eventually going up to 43kW. I thought that was maybe reasonable, but what was really disappointing was when we were at the 350kW charger at PetroCan and still only got 41-43kW. An unexpected 1.5h to charge and entertain a 2 year old who had just spent the day at the zoo was not what we had hoped for.

From another post on this forum, it seems like the MachE has capacity to charge at 150kW. When I plugged into a FLO charger here in Lethbridge it said on the display "Available = 50kW, Car requesting 41kW". Is my car set to only want a max charge speed of 43kW or something? I should mention battery was well below 80% at all of these instances. Air temp 5-10deg C. Can I change how much the car requests? Or is this normal?

I have to go back to Calgary to have a baby on Friday so trying to get this sorted out ASAP! I really appreciate all of your help. Thanks!

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[hybrid2bev]

Hi there - sorry if this question is amateur or doesn't make sense. I have tried to search the forums for an answer and have come up empty and I have found the user manual and Ford website to be very unhelpful for anything related to the actual functioning of the electric part of owning a Mach E!

I just got my Mach E last week. It is a 2022 AWD extended range. We did the 225km (ish) drive up to Calgary on the weekend to see how it would go. I charged at two 50kW chargers and only got speeds of 41kW for the first part of the charge, eventually going up to 43kW. I thought that was maybe reasonable, but what was really disappointing was when we were at the 350kW charger at PetroCan and still only got 41-43kW. An unexpected 1.5h to charge and entertain a 2 year old who had just spent the day at the zoo was not what we had hoped for.

From another post on this forum, it seems like the MachE has capacity to charge at 150kW. When I plugged into a FLO charger here in Lethbridge it said on the display "Available = 50kW, Car requesting 41kW". Is my car set to only want a max charge speed of 43kW or something? I should mention battery was well below 80% at all of these instances. Air temp 5-10deg C. Can I change how much the car requests? Or is this normal?

I have to go back to Calgary to have a baby on Friday so trying to get this sorted out ASAP! I really appreciate all of your help. Thanks!

Based on the air temps it sounds like the battery was cold, you won't see full speeds when DC charging on a cold battery. That's normal. Just highway driving alone won't heat up the battery that much.

Best practice is to NOT run the cabin heater while DC charging in cold temps. If you run the cabin heat it reduces the heat that can be used to warm up the battery.

(Also assuming the battery SOC was <80%.)

 

[phil]

When I plugged into a FLO charger here in Lethbridge it said on the display "Available = 50kW, Car requesting 41kW".

The request is faulty. Your car needs to say "please", before the full 50kW will be granted.

(I am renowned throughout Lethbridge for my helpful replies on this forum.)

 

[RickMachE]

If it's 50 degrees out, and you're on a 350kw charger, and you're at 20%, you should be getting a much higher rate of charge.

If you're above 80%, it should be around 44kw (except I got mid 30s last week).

You have no control over what the car requests.

 

[MyLittleMachEPony]

The request is faulty. Your car needs to say "please", before the full 50kW will be granted.

(I am renowned throughout Lethbridge for my helpful replies on this forum.)

This makes sense, since Canadian cars are expected to be very polite!

 

[MyLittleMachEPony]

If it's 50 degrees out, and you're on a 350kw charger, and you're at 20%, you should be getting a much higher rate of charge.

Thank you, that's what I thought. There were two 350kW chargers there and we tried both with the same result. The car was off the whole time of charging (no internal climate control going) and it never went above 43kW after over an hour. I guess it is hard to know if it was the car or the chargers. We tried calling the help number but it just kept disconnecting - not helpful!

But it sounds like this is not a known bug that I should be contacting my dealer about, just something we need to troubleshoot on our own.

 

[Tampamike]

Thank you, that's what I thought. There were two 350kW chargers there and we tried both with the same result. The car was off the whole time of charging (no internal climate control going) and it never went above 43kW after over an hour. I guess it is hard to know if it was the car or the chargers. We tried calling the help number but it just kept disconnecting - not helpful!

But it sounds like this is not a known bug that I should be contacting my dealer about, just something we need to troubleshoot on our own.

There ARE faulty chargers out there too. The EA (and maybe EC) chargers sometimes downgrade to around 34 kw, if I remember correctly. Haven’t seen it in a while but it does happen. It’s unusual to see two that low but it could happen. I always wait until I see what the charge rate is before departing for a bathroom break. If it’s low, I’ll switch chargers.

 

[brians253]

I find the PetroCan chargers to be very inconsistent (station to station). I have used a couple of stations and consistently got 125kw and another station and only got 35kw. I try to use Plugshare ahead of time to check out the comments and see which ones people are having problems at.

 

[breeves002]

The 50kW chargers are generally 125A max which means you won't get the full 50kW at the voltage the Mach E uses. The 350kW charger should do a lot more than mid 40's kW unless you're near or above 80%.

 

[slimothyjames]

Here's an example of my charging at a 50kW station up to 80%. It's normal to be in the low 40kW range. I used an EA charger in Buffalo and saw I peaked around 125kW; charged from 40% to 80% in about 30 min.

 

[nashbrydges]

This might also be useful to see what charging speeds look like at various states of charge. Obviously this will change based on outside temps...etc but still useful info to have.

 

[SpongeBad]

Thank you, that's what I thought. There were two 350kW chargers there and we tried both with the same result. The car was off the whole time of charging (no internal climate control going) and it never went above 43kW after over an hour. I guess it is hard to know if it was the car or the chargers. We tried calling the help number but it just kept disconnecting - not helpful!

But it sounds like this is not a known bug that I should be contacting my dealer about, just something we need to troubleshoot on our own.

If you were in Calgary trying to charge at the Petro Can chargers near Cross Iron Mills mall, I've never had those ones work the way you'd expect. Exactly the same symptoms you described, even in summer. I've had much better luck getting fast charges with the Electrify Canada chargers at Deerfoot City (but they're a lot more expensive when their billing platform is working - free when the platform doesn't work).

 

[Rogercin]

I charged at Seneca hill in Toronto in a 50kwh DC for 20 minutes at a consistent 48 kWh - I was testing the FordPass app using blue oval network, worked with no problem, arrived to the station, open the app and activate the charger, few seconds later car was charging.

 

[MyLittleMachEPony]

If you were in Calgary trying to charge at the Petro Can chargers near Cross Iron Mills mall, I've never had those ones work the way you'd expect. Exactly the same symptoms you described, even in summer. I've had much better luck getting fast charges with the Electrify Canada chargers at Deerfoot City (but they're a lot more expensive when their billing platform is working - free when the platform doesn't work).

I was at the southern Petrocan by Okotoks. But that’s good to know that the CrossIron Mills one is inconsistent. I won’t make an effort to head up there in the future. We had wanted to check out the Deerfoot city charger last weekend after I gave birth but long story short we didn’t make it. Will have to try it on another Calgary trip. There’s no 350 chargers down south here.
Thanks so much everyone for your additional insight and teaching.

On the plus side the car has been excellent in this heavy snow and ice!

Thanks so much everyone for your additional insight and teaching

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