Electrify America Slowing Down

[jeepfreakedc]

Hey! I’ve owned my R1T and love it! I’m already on a road trip and have noticed that every EA charger I’ve stopped at, has started charging really fast and then slowed way down to 41kwh. Am I doing something wrong or is this normal. The RAN and Tesla Superchargers definitely don’t have this issue.

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[Electrified Outdoors]

I avoid EA stations. My experience with them has been extremely frustrating.

I use Tesla, Rivian, and if neither of those are available I use EVgo.

 

[Mellowyellow]

It is because.....they're terrible.

 

[jeepfreakedc]

I avoid EA stations. My experience with them has been extremely frustrating.

I use Tesla, Rivian, and if neither of those are available I use EVgo.

Good to know. My NACS adapter arrived, after I left on vacay of course. From now on, it will be RAN and Superchargers. Very disappointed with EA. Charging limited by the charging station…. ?

 

[VSG]

I believe the 40kW rate happens when the cable cooling fails, and it seems to happen only on the 350kW pedestals. I haven't seen this on 150kW pedestals.

 

[BobinIndy]

I had the exact same thing happen at a brand new EA a couple weeks back… was at a lowish SoC and was jamming along at 200+ kW for a few minutes then got backed down to 41kW. Moved to the next EA stall, exact same thing happened after a few minutes. Had charged earlier that day at a different EA location with no issues. Had the same “limited by charging station” message you saw. Ambient temp in the 70’s… odd.

 

[SANZC02]

I notice EA chargers slower in high heat, outside temps 95+, but other than that my experience is usually not bad. My biggest issue is all of the free charging that companies give away at EA, makes all of the stations very crowded, especially where they have so many 4 bay stations.

 

[VSG]

EA is far from gold standard of charging. However, regardless of network, all chargers will ramp down as you near your preset SOC limit and/or when temperatures are high. This is normal and to be expected. Even at Tesla Supercharger.

The OP's image shows a 50% SoC - Rivians don't slow to 40kW until you're maybe 80% SoC.
Also, the subsequent image shows that the rate was limited by the charging station.

Regardless, go for the 150kW chargers and you won't have this issue. All the 150kW EA chargers I've used perform much better than spec - typically reaching ~167kW and in one case as much as 192kW. And the 150kW don't error out like the 350kW sometimes do.

 

[Dave Cundiff]

I had the exact same thing happen at a brand new EA a couple weeks back… was at a lowish SoC and was jamming along at 200+ kW for a few minutes then got backed down to 41kW. Moved to the next EA stall, exact same thing happened after a few minutes. Had charged earlier that day at a different EA location with no issues. Had the same “limited by charging station” message you saw. Ambient temp in the 70’s… odd.

On our recent trip from Chicago to WA via I-90, the exact same thing happened to us at the EA in Billings (the Target on Main Street). It was a cloudy day, around 70 degrees, and I didn't think this was heat-related. The R1T said it was the charger that reduced the speed to 41 kW. The charger and EA app didn't say anything.

At $0.64/kWh, we expect a charger to work rapidly and flawlessly. We weren't getting the service we expect for this super-premium price. We decamped to Dave Menholt Nissan on the west side of Billings -- barely any greater speed, but Dave Menholt Nissan (and the nearby Costco) gave us a far more pleasant and economical experience than EA/Target!

The other EAs on this trip all charged at what appeared to be the fastest rate our R1T would accept. So overall, my low opinion of EA rose during this trip. -- but it's good to know this glitch was on EA's side and not on our Rivian.

Glad this Forum is here for mutual support and information sharing. Best to all!

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

The OP's image shows a 50% SoC - Rivians don't slow to 40kW until you're maybe 80% SoC.
Also, the subsequent image shows that the rate was limited by the charging station.

Regardless, go for the 150kW chargers and you won't have this issue. All the 150kW EA chargers I've used perform much better than spec - typically reaching ~167kW and in one case as much as 192kW. And the 150kW don't error out like the 350kW sometimes do.

Deleted my post. Images were not loading at first.

 

[azbill]

I have had two failures similar to this at Tesla chargers. Plugged in once and got only 35kw, moved to a different charger and got 185kw. On another occasion started at 190kw, then dropped to 110kw after a minute.

I have seen the new EA power shared units do this twice, one time I got oscillations between 190kw and 45kw, going up and down every few minutes. The site was full, so I suspected it was the power sharing logic contributing to it.

 

[Riviot]

I believe the 40kW rate happens when the cable cooling fails, and it seems to happen only on the 350kW pedestals. I haven't seen this on 150kW pedestals.

Always avoid 350kW, they jam too many electrons in too fast. "Slow" and steady wins the charging race on the 150kW.

I personally like finding Shell 50kW or ChargePoint 125kW and taking the dog for a solid 30-60 minute walk.

 

[PeterSK]

Hey! I’ve owned my R1T and love it! I’m already on a road trip and have noticed that every EA charger I’ve stopped at, has started charging really fast and then slowed way down to 41kwh. Am I doing something wrong or is this normal. The RAN and Tesla Superchargers definitely don’t have this issue.

This happened to me Friday at the EA 8 station charger in Stratford, CT. I plugged into one of the 350kw units in 95+ degree midday heat. It peaked at 205kw then suddenly dropped to 39kw and held there. Fortunately I didn’t need much charge, and we left after 22.5 minutes. I didn’t take a screenshot but the graph looked similar though truncated. It worked out to an average rate of just over 100kw.

Based on this thread, next time I’ll pick a 150kw charger, which have given me 170-200kw in past - though I think the 150s were all occupied when I pulled up Friday.

 

[Baudio]

Hey! I’ve owned my R1T and love it! I’m already on a road trip and have noticed that every EA charger I’ve stopped at, has started charging really fast and then slowed way down to 41kwh. Am I doing something wrong or is this normal. The RAN and Tesla Superchargers definitely don’t have this issue.

I have had the same issue. If you stop the charge and restart I have gotten a fast charge that way it has happened 3 times to me.

 

[jeepfreakedc]

I believe the 40kW rate happens when the cable cooling fails, and it seems to happen only on the 350kW pedestals. I haven't seen this on 150kW pedestals.

That makes sense, but I’ve only had the issue with Electrify America. RAN, Superchargers and EVGO have had zero issues.

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