Only getting 50% of stated charge rate

[Irvlatta]

I'm in the middle of a week-long road trip in the South West and at each charger I plug into I'm only getting 50% of the stated charge rate. For example, right now I'm at a 64 kw charger in Boise and only getting 32 kw. This has happened repeatedly on the trip regardless of vendor (ChargePoint, EA, Shell). I spoke with support and was told this is happening to multiple vehicles right now, not just mine, and that it's due to the extreme heat causing a problem with the charge port on the truck. Supposedly there is an update coming out within the month to address it. It's only 70 degrees today and it's still happening, so I'm a little skeptical right now.

Has anyone else experienced this?

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[mikehmb]

I’ve not, but would recommend (if you haven’t yet) to do a hard reset and see if that helps you clear out whatever overprotective gremlin is causing you problems.

 

[Irvlatta]

I've done the hard reset but it had no impact.

 

[CobraJerky]

Was anyone else at the adjacent charger? Could it be sharing the available amps? This sounds like a SC visit if not.

 

[Ventura]

Was anyone else at the adjacent charger? Could it be sharing the available amps? This sounds like a SC visit if not.

That's a good question. I've seen a reduced charge rate on occasion but either see a message on the machine or notice it reduced for the other vehicles as well - indicating it is a charger issue.

 

[Irvlatta]

Nobody was at an adjacent charger. In a couple of the situations (including today) there was only one charger.

Yes - occasionally I get the message that the charger is limiting output, but not all of the time. Today, for example, I was charging at a 64 kw station but only getting 32 kw and there was no message. Late yesterday was similar, charging at a 125 kw station and only getting 62 kw with no message. My focus right now with this thread is the situation where no message is being displayed but output is only 1/2 of what's stated.

 

[mikehmb]

Nobody was at an adjacent charger. In a couple of the situations (including today) there was only one charger.

Yes - occasionally I get the message that the charger is limiting output, but not all of the time. Today, for example, I was charging at a 64 kw station but only getting 32 kw and there was no message. Late yesterday was similar, charging at a 125 kw station and only getting 62 kw with no message. My focus right now with this thread is the situation where no message is being displayed but output is only 1/2 of what's stated.

Good info - definitely get service on the phone. They may be able to push a patch if possible, but if not they’ll want to see it in the service center. Good luck!

 

[jjswan33]

Nobody was at an adjacent charger. In a couple of the situations (including today) there was only one charger.

Yes - occasionally I get the message that the charger is limiting output, but not all of the time. Today, for example, I was charging at a 64 kw station but only getting 32 kw and there was no message. Late yesterday was similar, charging at a 125 kw station and only getting 62 kw with no message. My focus right now with this thread is the situation where no message is being displayed but output is only 1/2 of what's stated.

I'd add that sometimes chargers will rate for 62kW or 125kW but only 800V classes of vehicles can get that top rate due to current limitations on the charger. This is true of a lot of Chargepoint units and some other smaller charging operators.

On the other hand if you use a RAN station or a fully functioning EA charger then as others said it could be something wrong with your truck.

 

[COdogman]

I don't think this could be the cause, but since you are on a road trip are you entering the location of each charger as a destination in the nav? This starts prepping the batteries for the charge ahead of time. I'm just wondering if because you are in the SW the ambient heat is causing the charging to slow to protect the battery?

Just a thought?‍ I would still contact Service about it!

 

[Count Orlok]

I'm in the middle of a week-long road trip in the South West and at each charger I plug into I'm only getting 50% of the stated charge rate. For example, right now I'm at a 64 kw charger in Boise and only getting 32 kw. This has happened repeatedly on the trip regardless of vendor (ChargePoint, EA, Shell). I spoke with support and was told this is happening to multiple vehicles right now, not just mine, and that it's due to the extreme heat causing a problem with the charge port on the truck. Supposedly there is an update coming out within the month to address it. It's only 70 degrees today and it's still happening, so I'm a little skeptical right now.

Has anyone else experienced this?

what does the plubshare review look like for these chargers?

 

[VSG]

It's not clear to me from the information you've given us whether this indicates a problem with your vehicle or not. I find it odd that you always get 1/2 the rating - that really doesn't sound like something is broken.

The first thing I suspect is that the examples you give are from ChargePoint chargers. You don't say whether you've used these before your road trip, but in my experience many ChargePoint chargers are of this design: https://www.chargepoint.com/businesses/dc-stations/express
This is a 62.5 kW charger that, when paired, *may* give you 125 kW if no one else is using the other one. But in reality I always get 62.5 kW either because they're not paired or because one is broken. PlugShare usually lists these as 125kW stations. Another thing that can go wrong with these is that internally they have two 31.25 kW power modules. So if one internal module fails, you'll only get the 31.25 kW from the station.

Another thing that *could* go wrong is that either the station or your Rivian might be backing off on the current if the equipment temperature gets too high. When it backs off, it *might* choose cut the power by 50% as an initial guess to see if it can continue, but in my experience if the station throttles the power then your Rivian will tell you that the station is limiting the power. If your Rivian is limiting the power, I usually see a similar message about charge rate being limited by battery cooling or state of charge or something like that.

You mentioned 64kW stations and 125kW stations. I have never seen an EA station have either of these. You're on a trip in the SW and are in Boise? You mean Boise, TX? I don't see any chargers listed there ... If you would give a specific example of a specific charger you're having issues with then maybe we can give better advice. Your vehicle *may* have a problem, but getting exactly 50% of the rating doesn't really indicate that to me. If it were a problem with heat, then it would probably cut off at a certain kW value - if it gets too hot at 32kW at one charger, why wouldn't it cut off at around 32kW at another charger - why would it go up to 62kW at another charger?

 

[Donald Stanfield]

I'm having the L2 issues that a lot of people are having with the latest update. I don't DC charge enough to be much help with this though unfortunately

 

[emoore]

Agree with the comments so far. Need more information to be able to help.

 

[Dark-Fx]

50kW stations are almost all 100A limited. You will see ~30kW at the bottom of the pack up to about 45kW near the top.

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