DCFC throttling when hot out?

[ThetaGod]

Did a road trip this weekend through Arizona, it was obviously hot…over 100° throughout much of the driving. Everything was fine except the DCFC at numerous stations would not go above 30kW. Nothing I attempted was able to get it going faster; tried every station, cable, and tried going to different locations down the road. Also attempted turning the cabin AC off to see if that would help…nothing above 30.

Is this just something I/we will have to accept during hot summer days? Or anything different I can do? I am planning future trips, but we may be taking the ICE vehicle if this is going to continue for the summer as it added well over an hour of charging when normally this route takes us less than 20 minutes of charging total.

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[Marcel]

What was your soc level when starting charging?

 

[ThetaGod]

What was your soc level when starting charging?

Anywhere from 20-50%.

 

[Marcel]

Ok at 20% 30kW is too low but at 50% and warm/hot from your trip is more of less expected....

 

[AZBill]

I live in Arizona and have seen this the first time I charged my car. I picked it up at a dealership in Chandler, with only 50 miles showing for range. I stopped at the EA station in Tempe, and could only get 30KW on two different chargers. Another Mach E was there and he was only getting 30KW on a third charger. The thing is these EA dispensers were not running the chillers or cooling fans, which I can normally hear when I charge my Bolt. On Plugshare, many people with different cars flagged this site as providing low power also.

I later tested Plug & Charge at a different EA station, but I had 74% SoC at the time and only got 33KW. My only purpose of doing that charge was for a short test of P&C, I will test again with lower SoC. I can tell you that my Bolt draws its maximum 55KW even in temps at 110F. It actually only throttles the rate in low temperatures, until the battery warms up. I charged the Bolt in January in Flagstaff with temps in the 30s and it started at 40KW, then ramped up to 55KW pretty quick.

 

[DanCoon]

Currently road tripping through Arizona myself... I have experienced this same issue at multiple EA charging stations. Max I was able to get was 32kw/h.

 

[Eosin]

Did you try letting the battery cool for a bit before charging? Not saying you should have to as this adds time to the trip, but Ford does recommend letting it cool first.

 

[SpeedRacer72]

This happened to me also, apparently the battery was too hot. A different time I plugged in and it started at 112Kwh and within 3 minutes dropped down to 32kwh.
It also happened to me in the winter when it was real cold out, I had been driving the car for an hour and stopped to charge and it would only charge at 32kwh

I guess the only benefit is it protects the battery, I have 42,000 miles on my '21 MME and the battery life is the same as last year.

I charge to 100% almost daily

See my previous post about charging to 100%
https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/battery-life-preservation-health.17383/post-415325

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