[HogarthH]

We did our local ski hill round trip last week and to our delight we did not have to stop and charge.

Round trip: 165km
Temperature outside: - 10 C (14 F)
4 passengers + trunk loaded with ski gear (no skis)
Car charged to 100% before
Car sat parked in the cold temps for 5 hours prior to the drive home
Speed: 110 kmh (68mph) for 65% of the drive and 80kmh the other 35%
Eco climate control and regular climate control used sparingly when needed
Heat seaters all on

Remaining km on GOM: 68 without climate control, 47 with climate control on.

Surprisingly the trip home resulted in better kwh/100km consumption than the trip there despite being started and plugged in before we left for the day.

Will try again tomorrow but will increase speeds to 115 km/h for the highway portion.

 

[R P]

That's great info. Not sure where you live. What was your elevation gain on your trip?

 

[WeirdBal]

Charged at a DC fast charging station for the first time today. I had enough range, but we were driving by an EVgo station at a mall and decided to stop there for a bit to try it out. Was able to register for the auto charge feature and use up some of our credit from Subaru.

Plugged in for 37 minutes and got 19.61 kWh total, so average was only 32 kW from a station advertised as 200 kW. SoC was around 35% when I started. Other check ins on Plugshare confirm these stations can reach higher charge rates. Disappointing but not surprising. Don’t expect to take many road trips, but by the time I do I hope Subaru and Toyota can make some software updates that improve the charging curve. Given that the station charged by the minute, the slower rate stings even more.

 

[n6nl]

Approximate temperature?

How long had you been driving the Solterra right before charging?

 

[WeirdBal]

Approximate temperature?

How long had you been driving the Solterra right before charging?

Around 45F I think. Drove about 10 minutes after being parked for a few hours.

 

[n6nl]

This sounds like it might be addressed by Toyota with their cold charging changes. We can only hope.

 

[SolterraR]

Any solution to the slow charging problem on Level 3/CCS? We have had our Solterra for two weeks and have tried about six DC fast charging stations but have only been able to draw 20-20 kW instead of the promised 100 kW. This is with the starting charge anywhere from 10% to 60%, with a cold car or a car that have been driving for an hour, different types of stations (Petro Canada, Flo, Electrify-Canada). Very disappointed in this car. There is no way to do any long distance driving if it can’t rapid charge.

 

[WeirdBal]

Any solution to the slow charging problem on Level 3/CCS? We have had our Solterra for two weeks and have tried about six DC fast charging stations but have only been able to draw 20-20 kW instead of the promised 100 kW. This is with the starting charge anywhere from 10% to 60%, with a cold car or a car that have been driving for an hour, different types of stations (Petro Canada, Flo, Electrify-Canada). Very disappointed in this car. There is no way to do any long distance driving if it can’t rapid charge.

Out of Spec just posted a video yesterday testing fast charging on two identical ID.4 cars, both driven for 30 minutes after sitting parked in the cold. One was driven "normal", and the other was "yo-yo" driving (alternating quickly between heavy acceleration and heavy regen breaking). The car driven normally was only getting around 30 kW, but the yo-yo driving warmed up the battery a lot and it was getting around 130 kW instead. Shows just how much no software driven pre-conditioning applied in the car and a cold battery can hurt charging speed massively, and I assume this is a part of the problem for the Solterra.

 

[Ducatista]

Out of Spec just posted a video yesterday testing fast charging on two identical ID.4 cars, both driven for 30 minutes after sitting parked in the cold. One was driven "normal", and the other was "yo-yo" driving (alternating quickly between heavy acceleration and heavy regen breaking). The car driven normally was only getting around 30 kW, but the yo-yo driving warmed up the battery a lot and it was getting around 130 kW instead. Shows just how much no software driven pre-conditioning applied in the car and a cold battery can hurt charging speed massively, and I assume this is a part of the problem for the Solterra.

I agree. Only thing we can currently do is drive it hard for 20-30 mins before trying to fast charge.

 

[SolterraR]

Interesting. Not sure this is practical when coming off the highway to charge without giving EV’s a reputation for not being able to maintain speed. Will try this later today and report back.

 

[JayEM]

So, "yo-yo driving" it is!

 

[n6nl]

I am seeing up to 522A at 366V under heavy acceleration at 54F, battery 53F. Also seeing decent negative numbers for regen current into the battery pack. I need to actually capture this from some test runs, not just see it in my ScanGause II display. The ScanGauge people are sending me a CANBUS data logger so we can capture data. I don‘t have much of a temperature range, here in coastal California. Battery low temp from around town driving was 53F and high was 54F at the end of my short yo-yo driving (but reasonable for where I was). Back roads will be a lot more fun to test on, when I get the time and the car is past the recommended break-in period.

 

[n6nl]

If I like what I can get from the data logger, I might invest in building one. It would be nice to build a couple cheap enough to send them off to you people in much colder and much hotter climates and see if we can get a better handle on where the edges of decent battery temperature for reasonable charging performance might be.

 

[Shammer]

We did our local ski hill round trip last week and to our delight we did not have to stop and charge.

Round trip: 165km
Temperature outside: - 10 C (14 F)
4 passengers + trunk loaded with ski gear (no skis)
Car charged to 100% before
Car sat parked in the cold temps for 5 hours prior to the drive home
Speed: 110 kmh (68mph) for 65% of the drive and 80kmh the other 35%
Eco climate control and regular climate control used sparingly when needed
Heat seaters all on

Remaining km on GOM: 68 without climate control, 47 with climate control on.

Surprisingly the trip home resulted in better kwh/100km consumption than the trip there despite being started and plugged in before we left for the day.

Will try again tomorrow but will increase speeds to 115 km/h for the highway portion.

View attachment 1686
View attachment 1687

 

[Shammer]

We have a Subaru Solterra Limited—new in December 2022. We have done two trips now to the same ski area. Stopped to charge at a Level 3 DC charger (BC Hydro). It automatically stopped at 80%, and the readout indicated 178 mile range. Distance to home was 97 miles. We started driving toward home, watching actual mileage traveled and the vehicle range readout. The mileage on the vehicle immediately started reducing faster than actual mileage to the extent that we had to stop again on the way to make it home. This exact thing happened twice on the same route. No heater at all, driving consistent freeway speed before and after. Does anyone have a guess as to what happened here?

 

[Ducatista]

We have a Subaru Solterra Limited—new in December 2022. We have done two trips now to the same ski area. Stopped to charge at a Level 3 DC charger (BC Hydro). It automatically stopped at 80%, and the readout indicated 178 mile range. Distance to home was 97 miles. We started driving toward home, watching actual mileage traveled and the vehicle range readout. The mileage on the vehicle immediately started reducing faster than actual mileage to the extent that we had to stop again on the way to make it home. This exact thing happened twice on the same route. No heater at all, driving consistent freeway speed before and after. Does anyone have a guess as to what happened here?

How fast were you driving on the freeway?

 

[n6nl]

The Guess-O-Meter does not (yet) take route and the route’s weather and elevation changes into account in its guess.

 

[Ducatista]

The Ivy network in Ontario has free charging right now. I had some time today so I stopped by my local one and gave it a try (first time charging at a fast charger). I only wanted to experience it since it was free, I knew it would be terrible lol

plugged in (150kw unit), started at 72%, stayed for 20 mins and finished with 74% 😬

fastest rate I saw was 11kw, it was like -5C outside and the car wasn’t driven very long before charging.

 

[JayEM]

As you well know, DCFC best not started when the SOC is in the 70s!

I get that your were just trying it out.

Still, that charging rate is terrible. My i3, which cannot go over 50 kW, will usually take 50 kW even when it's cold out, all the way up to 90+% SOC.

 

[Ducatista]

As you well know, DCFC best not started when the SOC is in the 70s!

I get that your were just trying it out.

Still, that charging rate is terrible. My i3, which cannot go over 50 kW, will usually take 50 kW even when it's cold out, all the way up to 90+% SOC.

Oh totally. Starting a Fast charge at that high of a SOC is dumb. Just wanted to check to see how bad it would be. It should be way better than that. If the max rate is 100kw, even in the cold, this charging curve needs to be better. No reason why the car shouldn’t be excepting 25-50kw at that SOC in my opinion. Even in the cold.