Charging Limit

[JPT]

Hi Mech-e Gang, my first post. Just bought a 2023 Mach-e and took it on my first trip. Things went great learning about the car, the drive and the fun. I now have all the charging and charger locator apps I never knew I had to have. It's quite a few to my surprise. Two noticable things I cannot figure out.

1. Every charger capable for 50-150 kw I tried the charging did a hard stop at 48 kw. Thats it. Not sure what to make of that. I even went to 4 different 150kw chargers and the same result.

2. There appears to be a way to limit what % charge to stop at but it only appears to be if your setting up your own at home charger. Is there not the same setting for charging at any charging station?

Comments and thoughts welcome. Thanks everyone!

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[Thunderbuck]

In reverse order:

Yes, FordPass only lets you limit charge at the locations you set. I, too, think that's dumb but it's a minor irritant.

As to the charge derating, it's possible the battery may have been too cold to take a full charge. Ford, unfortunately, does not make it easy to activate preconditioning. The only way I'm aware of to get the battery to precondition is to set a charger as a destination in the Ford navigation ahead of time. That's mildly painful, to be sure. There's also the significant possibility they were just bad chargers. That happens.

 

[Deleted member 16048]

Welcome to the forum.

Since you're not too far south, I would say the 48kwh hard stop you're seeing could be many things. If it was through the winter, it's due to battery temp or the station itself.

If it is warm out like it has been lately. It more likely the station. It's hard to know without having all the details really.

To add to your list of apps, I would suggest plugshare as well. It's a great way to check on DC fast chargers and see what others have experienced for speed.

 

[hybrid2bev]

Hi Mech-e Gang, my first post. Just bought a 2023 Mach-e and took it on my first trip. Things went great learning about the car, the drive and the fun. I now have all the charging and charger locator apps I never knew I had to have. It's quite a few to my surprise. Two noticable things I cannot figure out.

1. Every charger capable for 50-150 kw I tried the charging did a hard stop at 48 kw. Thats it. Not sure what to make of that. I even went to 4 different 150kw chargers and the same result.

2. There appears to be a way to limit what % charge to stop at but it only appears to be if your setting up your own at home charger. Is there not the same setting for charging at any charging station?

Comments and thoughts welcome. Thanks everyone!

1. We need more information. What was your battery SOC? What brand of dispensers did you try? Do you know the amperage limit for the dispenser and cables? What was the temperature outside at the time?

2. You can only set a limit for AC charging (not for DC fast charging). Only at AC L1/L2 location’s where you have charged at least for a minute or two. After charging for a few minutes the location should be available to save on the SYNC (big) screen in the car, then you can set a schedule/charge limit.

 

[DevSecOps]

Every charger capable for 50-150 kw I tried the charging did a hard stop at 48 kw. Thats it. Not sure what to make of that. I even went to 4 different 150kw chargers and the same result.

If it's not due to SOC or ambient then this is most likely due to the amperage of the units. A lot of Shell and ChargePoint units have a max of 150/200A but are listed at 150kW because they have a higher voltage (up to 1000V) and more than the MachE can accept. So, if we charge at 400V/150A we would max at 60kW - throw in some losses and you'll be close to 48. Technically the station could do 150kW but it would require that the vehicle accept 150A @ 1000V.

On the back/side of the units that you charged at there will be a metal plate. It will list the manufacturer of the unit and it's ratings. Take a look at that and pay attention to the amperage. Your best bet will always be to use stations with at least 350 amps.

 

[louc757]

As other people have said, max charging rate depends on a number of things. Since we are in a warm spell in most of the country, you should have seen a higher charging rate if your SOC was low. Your charging rate will go down as the SOC increases. If you have a standard range battery, you will be capped at 115 kW, extended range batteries can accept up to 150 kW.

In another thread, I posted a graph of what rates I got at different states of charge. That said, I got between 70-106 kW on a Memorial Day road trip last weekend. Below 55% with a warm or preconditioned battery, you should see about 100 kW, depending on the station, number of people charging, etc.

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/mach-e-fast-charging-rate.25126/

 

[Monke]

For 50kw station, I usually get 48kw. Some 150kw stations only charged at 30kw, so I moved to another station. It is very strange that all of 4 stations would give only 48kw. You are in Des Moines. The weather is nice during this time of the year. I would blame it on the chargers first and try other locations.

 

[jgillmer]

For 50kw station, I usually get 48kw. Some 150kw stations only charged at 30kw, so I moved to another station. It is very strange that all of 4 stations would give only 48kw. You are in Des Moines. The weather is nice during this time of the year. I would blame it on the chargers first and try other locations.

If all the machine are sharing the same power source, you may be sharing with others on that line.

Plus, you'll want to check the actual specs on a machine (can be found on the side on a aluminum-backed sticker). The rating you see is the machine's volt max x cable Amp max / 1,000. For you, for rough estimate of real-world expectation, take the lower of your 350v or the machine's volt max X the machine's cable Amp then divide by 1,000.

My experience:
- 50 kW max DCFC: 38-46 kW rate
- 100 kW max DCFC: 46 - 65 kW rate
- 150 kW+ - Here, the Amp max of the cable and your car's max volt capability come into play. With a high-quality, liquid-cooled cable on a 150-350 kW EA machine, you should see (unless adverse weather or battery temp or SOC) around 113-131 kW initial rate and them most of the charge it hanging around 100.
EVGo is notoriously cheap on their cables, so for 200 kW EVGo machines, expect something closer to 61-71 kW rate.

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