Issues at L3 chargers

[thestvff]

I pretty much always charge at home, so I don't have a ton of data points to go off of here - however, I've yet to have a flawless experience at an L3 charger.

Back in October, I took drove down from DFW to Austin and stopped at the EA chargers in Round Rock. The session lasted for about 15 minutes, then there was a failure which forced me to get out and restart a new charging session. The second session had the same issue, but I had enough juice to get me through the stay.

On the way back, I tried the same location again (different charger stall). This time, the session started fine, was getting good charge rate and I went to the outlet mall to look for a few things. I checked the Rivian app a little bit later and the charging speeds had slowed to a crawl.

I left Round Rock and made it up to Waco and tried an EA charger at the Walmart there. Same story as the first few attempts where it will charge quickly for a bit, then there's a failure forcing me to restart the session.

All the EA chargers claimed 350KW speed.

A bit further north there was a Road Ranger station with a 150KW charger. I stopped there and was able to charge enough to get back home. Speed was quite a bit slower (~50 or so IIRC), but at least it didn't fail on me.

Until yesterday, that was the only time I've needed to charge away from home.

I stopped at an EVGo 350KW charger yesterday and had the same issues with the charge session failing after about 10-15 minutes.

I opened a support ticket with Rivian to see if they can help figure what's going on... Haven't heard back yet but wanted to post here to see if anyone else had run into similar issues.

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[superfly_snook]

Probably a dumb question but are you sure you’re plugging the CCS connectors all the way in until they “click”? The only time I had an issue was when I couldn’t get close enough to an EvGo charger to get enough slack in the cable to plug straight in and get that click. It would fault after a minute or so and I would have to restart.
For the slow charging speeds that is hard to offer any opinion without more details. I have seen speeds drop when a charging unit has multiple cables being used, where the 350kW or whatever is being split by multiple vehicles. Would be interesting to hear what Rivian service says if they can get any data from your vehicle and charge sessions.

 

[thestvff]

Probably a dumb question but are you sure you’re plugging the CCS connectors all the way in until they “click”?

Yeah, it worked fine for several minutes. Pretty confident the connection was solid.

 

[Riviot]

DCFC*

What SoC at each stop and charging? External temps? Battery temps?

 

[mikehmb]

If you have a RAN anywhere near you, or one worth a road trip, it would be a good test to make sure that experience is flawless. If so, then it’s possible the charges you’ve hit so far were bunk - certainly wouldn’t be the first time.

Alternatively, try one of the Supercharger Magic Dock stations for the same test. Those have seemed quite reliable (at least compared to EA/EVGo/etc).

 

[ER1T]

I’ve only DCFC once and had the same experience with EA. Took 3 attempts in order to work. FYI, you’re only going to see peek speeds of around 220KW, between 20-50% SoC. And that’s in optimal conditions.

 

[Bruins06]

I also almost always charge at home, but the few times I've charged at EA, the 350 KW chargers always give me problems. I use the 150KW, have problems 50% of the times with those.

 

[thestvff]

DCFC*

What SoC at each stop and charging? External temps? Battery temps?

I don’t recall the ones from October, but it varied each time. Less than 20-30%

Most recently, I pulled in at around 15%. Left with 40 after having to restart. Was about 50* outside. I didn’t check the battery temp, but the vehicle did notify that it was preconditioning.

 

[thestvff]

If you have a RAN anywhere near you, or one worth a road trip, it would be a good test to make sure that experience is flawless. If so, then it’s possible the charges you’ve hit so far were bunk - certainly wouldn’t be the first time.

Alternatively, try one of the Supercharger Magic Dock stations for the same test. Those have seemed quite reliable (at least compared to EA/EVGo/etc).

No nearby RAN chargers, but there is a Tesla magic dock I can test at. I don’t think they peak quite as high though.

At the EVgo charger yesterday, I think it peaked around 180.

 

[Riviot]

I don’t recall the ones from October, but it varied each time. Less than 20-30%

Most recently, I pulled in at around 15%. Left with 40 after having to restart. Was about 50* outside. I didn’t check the battery temp, but the vehicle did notify that it was preconditioning.

Sounds like EA and random other company issues. Echoing others, Tesla Magic Dock gives me a solid 150 for a long time. RAN is obviously the best for us too.

Avoid 350s and go for 150s. They overheat real quick, even in subzero temps, and throttle down lower than if you started with a 150.

 

[superfly_snook]

Yeah, it worked fine for several minutes. Pretty confident the connection was solid.

“Pretty confident” doesn’t sound like you are certain the plug clicked into your charge port.

 

[Tucker74]

I’ve used those same chargers in Waco w/o issues, 167kW max (60kW in 24min) from the EA 350 and 74 kW max out of the Road Ranger FreeWire. I think something is up with your DC charging, hopefully they figure it out.

 

[thestvff]

“Pretty confident” doesn’t sound like you are certain the plug clicked into your charge port.

It isn’t user error. The charge cable was inserted fully, clicked and locked into place.

 

[MidnightRivian]

I’ve stopped at the exact same charging station on two of the busiest days and had no issues hitting 199 kW and 200 kW.

One charging station was down and there was a tech on site fixing it. I even gave some nice chocolates for his kids and wife who were patently waiting on their dad to finish working on New Year’s Day so we could have minimal issues with charging.

I’m extremely happy with the performance from the exact EA chargers you used.

I would work with Rivian to troubleshoot your vehicle.

 

[MidnightRivian]

Same story with the Waco EA chargers you used.

I am able to hit 150-210 kW at those chargers consistently during peak holiday times.

No issues at all with any of my sessions. The only thing is one time I had to activate using my Apple Pay EA wallet card. Every other time I can activate using my app.

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