Using a 16A Charger for the Mustang Mach-e, does it affect battery health?

[mtbikemj]

I have a ClipperCreek EV Charging Station (Level 2, LCS-20P, 14-30 Plug, 16A, 25 ft Cable) that I use to charge my 2013 Ford Fusion energi PHEV. It will only charge around 12 miles per hour of charge, which is not a problem for the Fusion.

My question: Does amperage affect battery health? Will I have better long term battery health using the Level 2 charger that came with the MME? It would cut charging time in half, but I am concerned about battery performance and health.

Basically, other than slow charging, is there anything else I should be considering?

Required Circuit / Breaker Rating	Charger Amperage	Estimated Driving Range Added Per Hour of Charging
20A	16A	12 mi (19 km)
30A	24A	18 mi (29 km)
40A	32A	25 mi (40 km)
50A	40A	30 mi (48 km)
60A	48A	36 mi (58 km)
70A/80A	50A	37 mi (60 km)

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[SnBGC]

As with every thing.....heat management is key.
The slower you charge, the less heat management is needed. No harm by charging at 16A. If that works then you are fine. Nothing to worry about.

 

[generaltso]

Will I have better long term battery health using the Level 2 charger that came with the MME?

No.

 

[RickMachE]

And the amount of heat generated between some options is very negligible, especially when you don't live in the desert.

 

[HuntingPudel]

Since the battery cooling system is designed for the battery to be charged at L3 rates, a slower L2 charger isn’t going to buy much (if any) increase in battery longevity. If the charge rate is sufficient for your purposes, I don’t see why you should spend extra to get a higher rate charger. ??

 

[breeves002]

100kWh battery pack charging at a realistic max of about 7kW with the Ford mobile charger assuming conditions are perfect. That's 0.07C charge rate. Versus a 3.5kW charge rate on the 16A charger approx which is only 0.035C. Point being it is a negligible difference with that large of a battery pack at that low of charging rates. Even the fastest L2 charger charges at a realistic max of 11kW which is 0.11C charge rate. These are tiny numbers.

Key comes down to heat and the car will manage that properly and adjust current/run cooling if it gets too hot. The real issue is the super fast DC fast charging when you're doing 165kW at an EA charger. That's way harder on the pack and heats it up super fast in comparison to the slower charging. It's also way faster..obviously!

I charge multiple times a week at a 50kW charge point charger because it is free here. 125A ~less than 0.5C. I don't think it is that hard on the pack personally. It is rare the battery cooling even runs. If it does it is only on a really hot day.

 

[SnBGC]

And the amount of heat generated between some options is very negligible, especially when you don't live in the desert.

Agree. L2 charge rates around 6A sometimes doesn't even run the pumps. 32A will always activate the cooling system during warmer months but now that our temps are in the 70s and 80s the pumps just run. I haven't heard the fans or compressor turn on in weeks. If I get lonesome and want to hear that stuff then I can just use a 48A EVSE and the car will come alive.

 

[TheVirtualTim]

Don't think of the Mach-E as being one battery... think of it as a whole lot of batteries.

The standard range has 288 cells.
The extended range has 376 cells.

Divide the amperage by the number of cells and you quickly work out that each cell is not really getting much amperage.

If you charge the smallest battery pack at the highest amperage possible it's 48 ÷ 288 = 0.1666... not a lot. Multiply by 240v and that works out to 40 watts per hour being added to each cell (on an extended range car it's about 30 watts added to each cell per hour.)

 

[Mach-Lee]

Don't think of the Mach-E as being one battery... think of it as a whole lot of batteries.

The standard range has 288 cells.
The extended range has 376 cells.

Divide the amperage by the number of cells and you quickly work out that each cell is not really getting much amperage.

If you charge the smallest battery pack at the highest amperage possible it's 48 ÷ 288 = 0.1666... not a lot. Multiply by 240v and that works out to 40 watts per hour being added to each cell (on an extended range car it's about 30 watts added to each cell per hour.)

The math is a little different because of the voltage change and the series/parallel strings. 240V x 48A = 11.5 kW going into the pack, which coverts to 33A at 350V nominal.

Standard range: 3 strings in parallel
Extended range: 4 strings in parallel

All cells in series must have the same amperage.

33A/3 = 11A per cell
33A/4 = 8.2A per cell

Cells are about 71 Ah so that means:

11/71 =0.15C
8.2/71 = 0.12C

So the fastest L2 charge rate you can achieve is only 0.15C, which is very low still. Just like breeves002 said, it’s almost nothing so don’t be at all concerned about L2 charging affecting the battery life. It’s the DC fast charging that’s hard on it.

 

[Neil4Real]

I have a 40amp breaker and using the mobile charger I am only getting like 16 miles of range an hour, does that mean somethings wrong with the new breaker installed for it?

 

[SnBGC]

I have a 40amp breaker and using the mobile charger I am only getting like 16 miles of range an hour, does that mean somethings wrong with the new breaker installed for it?

Might be normal. Miles of range added per time unit of charging isn't really a good way to measure the charging system performance. You really need to know how many watts were transferred but the mobile charger doesn't provide that info.

My guess is your EVSE is working as intended. Nothing to correct or fix.

 

[mkhuffman]

I have a 40amp breaker and using the mobile charger I am only getting like 16 miles of range an hour, does that mean somethings wrong with the new breaker installed for it?

The mobile charger draws 32 Amps. The breaker does not impact anything related to the charge speed. If you use a different charger that draws 40 Amps or more, the breaker will trip and turn off the charger. Otherwise, it does nothing but sit there and smile. OK, it really does not smile.

 

[Neil4Real]

The mobile charger draws 32 Amps. The breaker does not impact anything related to the charge speed. If you use a different charger that draws 40 Amps or more, the breaker will trip and turn off the charger. Otherwise, it does nothing but sit there and smile. OK, it really does not smile.

Yeah, I understand that. It just doesn’t seem like I’m getting the proper miles added per hour for a 32 amp draw. But, like someone else said, I have to focus on power draw more than miles added which I can’t do.

 

[SnBGC]

Yeah, I understand that. It just doesn’t seem like I’m getting the proper miles added per hour for a 32 amp draw. But, like someone else said, I have to focus on power draw more than miles added which I can’t do.

What you can do is note the charge percentage when you start and then again an hour later. Do that for 2 or three days and report back and we can help you make some sense of it.

I say 2 or 3 days to help smooth the rounding errors with state of charge percentage. Also, checking after the first 60 minutes is most accurate because as the vehicle approaches the charge limit it usually slows down the rate. Sort of a tapering off of sorts....

 

[mkhuffman]

Yeah, I understand that. It just doesn’t seem like I’m getting the proper miles added per hour for a 32 amp draw. But, like someone else said, I have to focus on power draw more than miles added which I can’t do.

The easiest thing to do is use your typical efficiency rating and battery level to determine how many miles you are adding. For example, if you charge 50% of the battery, you just added 50% of the 88 kWh usable capacity (44 kWh). Ford will give you the % charge added in the charge log, and the time it took. Or you can manually calculate it.

Then just divide your typical efficiency into the amount of battery capacity added, and you have the miles added. So if you added 44 kWh and your typical driving efficiency is 3 mi/kWh, you added 44*3 = 132 miles.

I have a power meter so I can see how much power the charging is drawing. If you are concerned your charger is not providing enough current, you could get a power meter and measure the current. The equation is P = IV (power = current * voltage). The Ford supplied charger pulls 32 amps so if you measure something less than that there may be a problem.

Keeping in mind the charger current will drop as the car nears your target charge percentage. Which I find very annoying. I understand why it slows down with DC charging, but 32 Amp L2? It should go full speed to 100% IMO. but it does not.

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