hi i apologize if this has been asked before. I have been charging at the EA stations and every time i have used it I never get more that 60-80KW charging speed. But these stations are rated at 150KW and there are others next to it that are rated to 350KW.

Does anyone know what I am doing wrong? I am still on the free 30 min charging from the dealership as the car (for all of us) is relatively new and we all still have the free 2 years charging. Has anyone gotten over 100KW? btw i am in Central Florida. The weather here is warm , so i thought that there would be no issues with ideal charging temps.

please help i am a EV newbie!

 

You are probably not doing anything wrong and your EQS working fine. EA sites in many cases have been reported not to charge at the maximum rates posted especially if there are other cars at that particular site. EA has a long way to go being reliable all of the time.

 

He is correct about many EA stations but I was wondering if you are you preconditioning your battery before arriving at an EA charger? Preconditioning is required to achieving the fastest available charging. And when your battery reaches 85%-90% state of charge, the rate of charge will slow down significantly to protect the battery.

To precondition your battery, use the NAV to select a charging station and the EQS will start warming up the battery for a faster charge.

 

OP appears to live in Florida. Do the batteries need warming up there? Maybe they need to be cooled down! 😊

 

​​​​

so every time I go to charge I always use the Mercedes nav to select the EA charging point. And go from there , so I should be preconditioning toward the station. Also living in central Florida we don’t have many locations where we have dc fast chargers so when I go to this location it’s always full of cars sometimes we have to queue up too. I select this station because I figure I’f I can get in and out fast I will let the next person in But you are right there is always other csars there.

 

Yes, by choosing the station on the NAV screen as you are driving there should kick on battery preconditioning. Somewhere in the commands a few screens down there should be a setting for “automatic preconditioning”.

 

I live in SE Florida and during the last few charging cycles at the EA 150 kW stations near me a fan comes on in the frunk area which sounds like a jet plane taking off. I had never heard it before so it took me by surprise the first time I heard it. Obviously it was a cooling fan. I believe ambient temps were in the mid 80’s. Car charged fine. I would get about 130-135kw tops charging rate at this station. When I was up north during the new year I would get 70-80 kw rate at a CT EA station (yes, preconditioned), so I believe it’s all dependent on the station and how many people are charging at the same time. And yes if you go over 80% soc, charging rate goes down significantly.

 

Last week I turned on AC from in the APP while in the house to pre-cool my 580 SUV that was in one of my barns where it was a bit over 90F. I too was surprised when I opened the barn door and heard a sound like a jet engine from the front of the SUV. Apparently the cooling fan for the batteries had turned on in conjunction with the Air Conditioning.

 

If you read the capacity on the EA chargers, it says "up to 150kW" - so yes, it really depends on the charger at that point in time. I usually switch to a different station if I see less than 100 kW. It just happened today as well. I had a station which wouldn't go more than 50 kW so I moved to another and I was able to get 135 kW.

 

Having used several EA charging stations in TX I haven't encountered any problems. I do enter the EA site into the navigation so the battery will be preconditioned. However, in Texas weather I find it really isn't relevant if I do that or not. Here is why....and this is something you should check....

The EQS 580 SUV is in the garage and the temperature there is 83 degrees. I just pressed the EQ button on the screen as though I was going to start charging and it indicated the max charging speed was 142 kW. When I have charged the car in the past I find I can attain the max charging speed as long as I start charging when the charge remaining is the 20-35% range. So if I were going to charge the car right now, I wouldn't even bother pre-conditioning because I only use a 150 kW charger at EA.

So, I suggest you check the max charging speed next time you charge, and go ahead and pre-condition on the drive there. Watch how that number changes as you go to the EA station. If it gives you a number like 60 - 80 kW it looks like you have a problem with the car. If it gives you a number far in excess of that and that is all the charger is putting out, then it is an issue with the EA charger. Try another if a slot is available.

My peak charging rate (again starting out with about a 20-30% charge on the battery) is typically in the 145-153 kW range. The rate slowly drops such that it typically drops below 100kW when I get to about an 75-80% charge on the battery. I typically end a session when I get to a 80% state of charge because I am at about the 30 minute mark.

On the flip side last winter we had a very cold day with temperatures in the teens and a pretty brisk wind blowing that gave a wind chill of around 0 degrees. So I just had to do a cold weather experiment. It was a somewhat flawed experiment because I did not need to charge the car, the state of charge was about 60%. I forget what the charging speed was when I left the garage (garage temp was probably mid-60s) to go to the charger about 25 miles away. I used pre-conditioning. The charging speed actually dropped when the car was exposed to the frigid temps. I realized preconditioning was not working as intended. Then, about 20 miles from the station, preconditioning kicked in. So I believe preconditioning does not turn on until it gets within 20 miles of the station. My sample size is just 1, so I won't conclude it is designed to not turn on you are within 20 miles...but I suspect that to be the case. With preconditioning on the charging speed did not drop, but it also barely went up. My conclusion was I like living in a climate that rarely sees freezing temperatures, I can't imagine owning an EV in upstate NY where I went to college!

Hope you figure it all out....car vs charger issue.

 

So after following the advice here .... i.e navigating to the charging point using MB NAV i am getting a max charge rate of 92KW which is much better. I am usually withing 20 miles away from the charger .... the other night i was at the charging station .... no one else was getting close to my charge rate which was 92KW, the other cars there were a couple of polestars , 1 lucid and 1 kia and they were getting 30-50KW really slow

i heard from talking to the folks there that particular EA location sucks *****

 

When I fast charge I always try to use the 350kwh stations because it is free either way.

As I mentioned in the other thread you must get an l2 home charger. The strategy of going to an l3 station to "fill up" like an ICE car is just not the right way IMHO. And once you start charging overnight at home you realize how much easier it is to actually own an EV especially for in city by driving.

 

I agree that having a home charger makes owning an EV much more practical. I have ChargePoint flex chargers in both homes I own. In my winter home in Florida I had the charger installed but have never even used it. I use the local EA 150 kw free charger and haven’t incurred any expense in charging the car so far. Also brand new EA chargers are coming on line soon closer to my home so when I go back to Florida in the fall I will have an alternate station to utilize. Now if I can only figure out how to get my electric pool heater to work more efficiently.

 

Everyone is focused on DC charging speeds but some vehicles like Cadillac LYRIQ can AC charge at 19.2 KW. I'm still using a 24 AMP clothes dryer outlet charger but think I'm going to get an 80 AMP 240V level 2 charger installed to future-proof my charging needs. Will probably need to upgrade my residential service and panel to accommodate a dedicated 100 amp circuit though so ain't gonna be cheap.

 

Most people don't need such charging speed at home, as your car can be plugged in for 10 hours, 12 hours or more.
So I think 80 amp is bit of a overkill unless you have long commute every day and stay only for a few hours at home.

 

that actually annoys me when people who can charge higher go hog up the 150KW to 350KW chargers ! they take forever and a long line builds up!

It could be that they can charge at a higher rate but their car did not pre-condition the battery before arrival and as a result they are maxing out at 40-50KW

Tesla chargers next to EA ones i see such a high turnover they are getting really fast DC charging and they are in out in 30 mins or less