Discussion
New to electrics having just bought a PHEV
The car has a 6.6kW charger, which should charge the battery in 2.5-3 hours. I gave it a short charge on a Podpoint charger the other day and it said it would be about 2.5 to full so working correctly.
Last night I connected it (with the type2 cable) to a Dutch on street charger that claims to be 13.8kW according to the app, but it only charged at 2.8kW, which is the speed of a 13A granny charger.
Do some cars not like some chargers? Can chargers break in such a way they limit the power? It was a double charger post with an EV9 on the other port, is the supposed 13.8kW shared?
The car has a 6.6kW charger, which should charge the battery in 2.5-3 hours. I gave it a short charge on a Podpoint charger the other day and it said it would be about 2.5 to full so working correctly.
Last night I connected it (with the type2 cable) to a Dutch on street charger that claims to be 13.8kW according to the app, but it only charged at 2.8kW, which is the speed of a 13A granny charger.
Do some cars not like some chargers? Can chargers break in such a way they limit the power? It was a double charger post with an EV9 on the other port, is the supposed 13.8kW shared?
According the street charger's app it was delivering 2.8kW, but was listed as a 13.8kW post. I was assuming if I plugged my cable in to something capable of providing more than 6.6kW the car would just charge at 6.6. Is there a handshake thing in the same way ethernet devices will negotiate a 100 MB or 1GB connection? If so is there a reason my car would have asked for 2.8 rather than 6.6? This was for the duration of the charge. meaning it took 7 or 8 hours in total, rather than it just slowing as it got near to full.
RizzoTheRat said:
New to electrics having just bought a PHEV
The car has a 6.6kW charger, which should charge the battery in 2.5-3 hours. I gave it a short charge on a Podpoint charger the other day and it said it would be about 2.5 to full so working correctly.
Last night I connected it (with the type2 cable) to a Dutch on street charger that claims to be 13.8kW according to the app, but it only charged at 2.8kW, which is the speed of a 13A granny charger.
Do some cars not like some chargers? Can chargers break in such a way they limit the power? It was a double charger post with an EV9 on the other port, is the supposed 13.8kW shared?
Did you use your own cable, or was the charger tethered? If you used your own cable, are you sure it is a 7.4kw cable? The car has a 6.6kW charger, which should charge the battery in 2.5-3 hours. I gave it a short charge on a Podpoint charger the other day and it said it would be about 2.5 to full so working correctly.
Last night I connected it (with the type2 cable) to a Dutch on street charger that claims to be 13.8kW according to the app, but it only charged at 2.8kW, which is the speed of a 13A granny charger.
Do some cars not like some chargers? Can chargers break in such a way they limit the power? It was a double charger post with an EV9 on the other port, is the supposed 13.8kW shared?
Other things that can effect charging speed:
1. Charger load balancing (sharing capacity with other chargers)
2. Car limiting charging speed due to battery charge level (too low or too high and it will slow down)
3. Car limiting charging speed due to battery temp (same as above)
4. Unlikely but there are different charging speeds for AC and DC, what is the AC limit, was the podpoint AC or DC ?
The car only has a Type 2 AC charge port, and I'm using the cable that came with the car (Lexus) so I'm assuming is rated for the 6.6kW of the built in charger. I'll check that when I get home but I used my own cable at the Podpoint one as well where it seemed to work fine.
If it's the post that's rated to 13.8 not the two individual ports, presumably the EV9 that was already on the other port is capable to taking at least 13.8 so I guess it could be load balancing for that post, or locally for the grid.
According to google "Vattenfall uses dynamic load balancing for its on-street charging posts to prevent overloading the electrical grid by adjusting the power supplied to charging cars based on the grid's capacity and total demand. By temporarily reducing the charging power at peak times, Vattenfall's smart charging system ensures that the grid remains stable, allows for more efficient use of existing infrastructure, and makes it easier to deploy new charging points." I guess 7pm is pretty much peak time for the grid so it could well be that. That could be a bit annoying for a BEV owner though if you were expecting to charge at a given rate.
The car maintains a certain level of charge (20% or so) to operate as a hybrid when the battery is to low to run as an EV so presumably not being limited due to the battery being too low
If it's the post that's rated to 13.8 not the two individual ports, presumably the EV9 that was already on the other port is capable to taking at least 13.8 so I guess it could be load balancing for that post, or locally for the grid.
According to google "Vattenfall uses dynamic load balancing for its on-street charging posts to prevent overloading the electrical grid by adjusting the power supplied to charging cars based on the grid's capacity and total demand. By temporarily reducing the charging power at peak times, Vattenfall's smart charging system ensures that the grid remains stable, allows for more efficient use of existing infrastructure, and makes it easier to deploy new charging points." I guess 7pm is pretty much peak time for the grid so it could well be that. That could be a bit annoying for a BEV owner though if you were expecting to charge at a given rate.
The car maintains a certain level of charge (20% or so) to operate as a hybrid when the battery is to low to run as an EV so presumably not being limited due to the battery being too low
Edited by RizzoTheRat on Thursday 18th September 12:32
It's a dedicated charger post rather than a lamp post, so I assume they have thier own power supply separate from the street lighting.
https://www.google.com/maps/@52.1143832,4.2878078,...
Most in the area seem to be 11kW or 13.8kW, with the occasional 22kW
https://www.google.com/maps/@52.1143832,4.2878078,...
Most in the area seem to be 11kW or 13.8kW, with the occasional 22kW
JonnyVTEC said:
probably only 16A per phase, so your single phase charger can only take that rather than the 3 phase on offer by the charger.
This certainly sounds plausible. I can't find anything specific in Lexus's online documentation about 1 vs 3 phase, but did find this line"For charging at 6.6 kW, an AC charger with a maximum power supply of 32 A or greater is required. " whuich suggests 230 volts rather than 400 to me.
Also one of the charger providing companies has a calculator saying how long they'd expect it to take to charge, which claims 2.5 hours on a 7.2kW single phase 32 Amp supply, 5.2 hours on a 3 phase 16A supply, and 2.5 hours on a 22kW 3 phase 32 amp supply. that definitely sounds like it's only using a single phase to me.
The chargers around here are all 11 or 13.8 kW so presumably all 3 phase? Not really a problem as I can just leave it on charge over night rather than free up the charger for someone else after a couple of hours.
RizzoTheRat said:
JonnyVTEC said:
probably only 16A per phase, so your single phase charger can only take that rather than the 3 phase on offer by the charger.
This certainly sounds plausible. I can't find anything specific in Lexus's online documentation about 1 vs 3 phase, but did find this line"For charging at 6.6 kW, an AC charger with a maximum power supply of 32 A or greater is required. " whuich suggests 230 volts rather than 400 to me.
Also one of the charger providing companies has a calculator saying how long they'd expect it to take to charge, which claims 2.5 hours on a 7.2kW single phase 32 Amp supply, 5.2 hours on a 3 phase 16A supply, and 2.5 hours on a 22kW 3 phase 32 amp supply. that definitely sounds like it's only using a single phase to me.
The chargers around here are all 11 or 13.8 kW so presumably all 3 phase? Not really a problem as I can just leave it on charge over night rather than free up the charger for someone else after a couple of hours.
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