I’ve been using my EV6 GT-line AWD for about a year and a half now, and normally charge at home using AC. But recently, during longer trips over the holidays, I had to use fast charging to get back home.
I’ve charged before and seen speeds up to 200kW, but on these trips, it seems like I’m stuck at around 74-77kW, even after charging for almost 10 minutes. I’ve tried several chargers, including ones where I’ve gotten 200kW before
I tried driving up to the charger and also inputting the charger in the navigation system so it could precondition for about 10 minutes.
The outside temperatures were around 7C/44F on one trip and 5C/41F on the other.
The cabin was a little cold because we were hoping to get home, but ended up deciding to charge.
Thanks to those who mentioned the temperature and preheating. I gave it another shot with more patience, and EV6 owners are the best.
I’ve hit 231kW on a 300kW charger in 6°C ambient temperature in my 24 GT. But I did this after setting a DCFC route through the navigation, and I had the preheating going for nearly 50 minutes before I got to the charger. It takes a long time to heat up the battery in cold weather, and driving alone doesn’t do much for it. Make sure you follow the proper steps to activate preheating and know it can take up to an hour.
I need more info. How long did you precondition for? Did you use the inbuilt navigation to activate preheating? Preconditioning can take a while in colder temperatures.
How cold was it outside? What was the battery state of health?
Weston said: @Fane
Hi, thanks for asking for the missing info! I’ve added some details to the post. It wasn’t super cold, and the battery was pretty low.
Battery charging speeds in relation to temperature are roughly:
+25°C: 240kW
20°C: 200kW
15°C: 125kW
10°C: 80kW
Given the temperatures you mentioned, you can expect a max of around 77kW unless you preheat the battery. The battery was probably just above 10°C from driving and your previous DCFC session. The DCFC won’t heat it much at those low power acceptance rates, so preheating is needed. Below 10°C, the max power is even lower.
Weston said: @Fane
Hi, thanks for asking for the missing info! I’ve added some details to the post. It wasn’t super cold, and the battery was pretty low.
Just a note: preconditioning needs to run much longer than 10 minutes. Try 30 or 40 minutes. That’s what I found during my last road trip when preconditioning kicked in.
It’s because of the cold. The battery temperature will be close to the outside temperature unless preheated. You should preheat the battery for DCFC whenever the temperature is below 70°F. The battery is a large thermal mass, and it can take 20-40 minutes depending on the starting temperature. At the temperatures you mentioned, it needs about 30 minutes.
I need more info. My EV6 in summer (over 30°C) charged up to 235kW peak.
In winter (around 0°C) without preconditioning, it peaks around 75kW, and with preconditioning, it peaks around 150-180kW.
Blue said:
I need more info. My EV6 in summer (over 30°C) charged up to 235kW peak.
In winter (around 0°C) without preconditioning, it peaks around 75kW, and with preconditioning, it peaks around 150-180kW.
How long does it take to precondition to get it to 150-180kW?
And wouldn’t the speed increase as the battery heats up from charging?
My car went from 0 to 71kW in a minute, then up to 77kW in the next, and stayed stuck for 10 minutes until I stopped the charge.
@Weston
You can’t control how long preconditioning runs. You activate Battery Preconditioning in the EV settings, then set your navigation (on the car, not the app) to the DCFC. As you approach the charger, the car decides when to start heating. You’ll get a notification, and there’ll be a symbol on the SOC indicator in the bottom left corner of the display.
I think this is a flaw in the system, especially since the Kia nav is inconvenient and the list of DCFCs is far from complete.
@Frost
We usually don’t plan DCFC 30 minutes ahead, maybe just 10 or 15 minutes. I’ve seen from other responses that it might not be enough for preconditioning.
That’s why I was asking how far in advance we should plan.
@Weston
What’s strange is that your charge didn’t speed up as the battery warmed up during charging. When I arrive at a DCFC with a cold battery, it starts slow but heats up to 120kW after 10 minutes.
Frost said: @Weston
What’s strange is that your charge didn’t speed up as the battery warmed up during charging. When I arrive at a DCFC with a cold battery, it starts slow but heats up to 120kW after 10 minutes.
IIRC, if you have battery conditioning mode turned off, the heater won’t run while charging, so that could be the issue.