First time charging on EA Fast Charge

[Kalaua_Farms]

Aloha all,
Today, because I was on the Ewa side of Oahu, I tried an Electrify America Fast Charge located in a WalMart parking lot in Pearl City.
For a reference, the island of Oahu (Honolulu City & County) is only 597 square miles, thus, I always charge at home. (40 AMP Elnex Juice Box) I have a MY 22 Select, SR RWD (Ice Blue, baby!) and just made 3K miles averaging 4.4 Mi/kW. The weather is beautiful, but there just ain't a lot of places to drive.
BUT: since we have a home PV system overproducing, we can charge 2 EV cars for almost free*. (2017 Leaf 40kW battery and my Pony)
*Free... not including the $40K we paid in 2013 to install! hehe

I pulled in at 63%, and plugged in. The rate was $0.37 per kW (home rate is $0.32.. I was experimenting!) plus tax. The unit advertised 150kW, but I peaked at 74 kW, then quickly went down to about 52kW. Once it reached 80% charge, it dropped to 28kW rate. It took under 15 min to add 48 miles (more than enough to run the additional errands needed). The external temp was about 78F, rainy, but the cooling levers were not open in front. I stopped it at 80% because this was, after all, an experiment. Total charged was about $5.20 with taxes.

I know there was an OTA update to allow the charging rate to stay up until 90%, but when I look at my User Interface, it says the OS is up to date.
I think this is the part that frustrates me the most: How in the heck can I keep the Pony's OS up to the latest version?
Just thought I would post for additional data in the Pony-Verse.

Sponsored

 

[RickMachE]

First, you cannot determine if your car is up to date. That has to be done by someone with FDRS. You can't do anything to stay current but drive the vehicle regularly, and set a schedule to apply updates that require the car to be immobile for 7 days a week, like at 1AM.

Second, Pearl City shows as a brand new location. It should be working perfectly. At 63%, you're already down on the charging curve. What you experienced is proper. Next time show up with less than 60%.

Lastly, your charging rate is per MINUTE, not per kWh. So as your curve slows, you're paying more for each kWh.

https://www.plugshare.com/location/368518

 

[Kalaua_Farms]

First, you cannot determine if your car is up to date. That has to be done by someone with FDRS. You can't do anything to stay current but drive the vehicle regularly, and set a schedule to apply updates that require the car to be immobile for 7 days a week, like at 1AM.

Second, Pearl City shows as a brand new location. It should be working perfectly. At 63%, you're already down on the charging curve. What you experienced is proper. Next time show up with less than 60%.

Lastly, your charging rate is per MINUTE, not per kWh. So as your curve slows, you're paying more for each kWh.

https://www.plugshare.com/location/368518

Thanks for the insight. I am not actually likely to repeat, as I am retired and have a JuiceBox 40 in the garage. But it is good info to keep in mind when family come and borrow the Pony

 

[RickMachE]

If you had used Plug and Charge, or the Ford app, you would not have paid because you have 250kWh of free charging.

 

[dbsb3233]

I know there was an OTA update to allow the charging rate to stay up until 90%, but when I look at my User Interface, it says the OS is up to date.

That's not quite how it works. The update from about a year ago significantly improves the charging curve between 80-97%, which used to drop to Level 2 speeds (about 11kw) as soon as you hit 80%. Now it drops to a max of ~43kw at 80%, and usually holds in the 25-40kw area until about 97% (where it drops way down for the final 3%).

That's when the charger and the car are operating at max. A variety of conditions can reduce that. You were getting 28kw at 80% which is a bit low but not too bad. It's possible the SR battery could be a little slower there too (I'm more familiar with the ER battery).

Sponsored