DCFC restrictions, warning

[R1TCntrlMaIzzy]

If someone, with a Riv, were on a long road trip, 5 minutes here, and there can make a difference.

One might attain a higher rate at the 150 station, but it is more likely with the 350 stall.

Yes, the other stations might have been occupied. What a coincidence that the highest rated spots were charging the slowest vehicles.

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[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Shrug. Even if there were warnings people will still do it. Life goes on. They are paying customers, just like you, they have as much right to charge as you do.

 

[SANZC02]

If someone, with a Riv, were on a long road trip, 5 minutes here, and there can make a difference.

One might attain a higher rate at the 150 station, but it is more likely with the 350 stall.

Yes, the other stations might have been occupied. What a coincidence that the highest rated spots were charging the slowest vehicles.

I’ve had my R1S on 5500 and 7400 mile road trips, most of my charging stops are under 30 minutes. By the time I stretch my legs, hit the restroom, check out the next leg of the trip, the vehicle is pretty much ready to go.

Getting ready for another 6k plus road trips in March.

 

[R1TCntrlMaIzzy]

Shrug. Even if there were warnings people will still do it. Life goes on. They are paying customers, just like you, they have as much right to charge as you do.

If you were in marketing with that same mindset, you would not have stayed in marketing. This based on your name.

Yes, we are all paying customers, and have “as much right”. I think some people do have self respect and once properly informed change their behavior. I bet many folks would not have an EV if they did not think it was beneficial to our planet. I have one cause it saves me some dinero, in the long run.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

If you were in marketing with that same mindset, you would not have stayed in marketing. This based on your name.

Yes, we are all paying customers, and have “as much right”. I think some people do have self respect and once properly informed change their behavior. I bet many folks would not have an EV if they did not think it was beneficial to our planet. I have one cause it saves me some dinero, in the long run.

Marketing are suggestions. Not laws or even enforceable laws. You must not be in marketing. Companies can do as much as they can to educate their customers. That effort has nothing to do with how much of that education would actual stick.

Rivian Owner Guides for example. How many Rivian owners have actually read it? Have you? Even after Rivian added AI powered Q&A feature to the Rivian mobile app, people still jump online to ask the most basic questions when the answers are readily available at their finger tips, through multiple avenues.

 

[sherold]

My idea still stands.

When the initial handshake is done, a max “speed” warning would not be a bad idea. I believe most people are not aware of their vehicle’s charging speed limitation.

Agreed. At least inform the uninformed that their vehicle is not capable, and to move to a lower rated stall if possible. I would say to help speed up the education process, force an acknowledgement on the HMI so the user has to at least confirm they would like to continue with charging at a lower rate than what the stall is capable of.

Something along the lines of "Your vehicle is only capable of charging at a rate of XXXkW, please use an adjacent XXXkW stall if possible", then force an action to either continue with this session or cancel the session so they can move to a different stall.

Only after the prompts asking if they are a Speedycharge member and, if they would like to add a car wash of course...

 

[R1TCntrlMaIzzy]

Even though my subject has “restriction”, my post does not infer a law or even state such. It is just as suggestive as an ad would be. And correct me if I am wrong, the goal would be just like a ad, marketing campaign. To change the behavior of as many humans as possible.

 

[zefram47]

Good thing for you the R1 will charge nearly as fast on a 150 kW EA station as it will on the 350 kW, exception being if you pull in low and only need maybe 30% to get to your next stop. On a 150 kW EA station you can pull upwards of 180-190 kW as voltage comes up. Other sites like the "200 kW" ChargePoint units and you'll be lucky to get 150 kW due to amperage limitations.

 

[VSG]

You're never going to convince everyone to accept a "slower" charger when a "faster" one is available. And that choice doesn't always exist either - if there are only 350kW chargers at a site, everyone has to use those.

I'm not against an informational notice, but I don't expect it will change many people's behavior. Because once you're parked and charging and you get this notice, you're not going to want to go to the trouble of moving even if there's some other stall to move to. Maybe next visit ...

I think most people don't know much about charger/vehicle limitations and don't really care to learn.

Case in point, people parking next to you at chargers that share power, when there are other chargers open. Hurts both of you. How many people are aware of this? And how many people park every-other space even at chargers where this isn't necessary, which blocks spaces others could use?

Another case, chargers that have current limits, so you can't get the max advertised power with a Rivian. A lot of the 125kW ChargePoint chargers are like this - you can only get 62.5kW because the current is limited to 156A (or if the charger is paired with another the limit goes up to 200A so you might get 80kW = 200Ax400V.

Another case, chargers like the Freewire chargers which have an internal battery that is charged from the grid at a relatively slow rate but can charge a vehicle at a relatively fast rate. These can run out of energy to provide to your vehicle if too many people use them too close together.

Bottom line, there are all sorts of things that affect your charging rate, including the voltage/current limits of your vehicle, but the only thing most people pay attention to is the maximum "speed" listed on the charger. The bigger the better in most people's minds, and marketing isn't going to change that.

 

[R1TCntrlMaIzzy]

“You're never going to convince everyone to accept a "slower" charger when a "faster" ..”, is your opinion, not factual. A fact is I never inferred and much less stated “everyone” would do anything.

A warning, reminder might alter the behavior of some users and benefit all. Obviously if all the options were the same, my suggestion is a moot point, and one I would not have made. This is a fact.

As for this, “..and marketing isn't going to change that.”. This was never about marketing, though it could be seen as such. This is about educating. Similar to my response to AdMan. If marketing of any type we’re not successful, marketing would not exist.

I still think a warning, reminder would benefit us all, even if not immediately. Not a law, not expecting everyone to change, just a nudge in the right direction.

BTW: I use a DCFC once a month, at the most.

 

[Proxy]

I choose the 150kW chargers when I pull up to an EA station. The 350’s seem to be broken, super slow (limited because of issues with the 350kW chargers) or have charging failures that require unplug & plug back in more often. My R1T seems to get from 15% to 70% just as fast on the 150kW as the 350 kW (on the rare occasion when the 350kW works correctly).

 

[VSG]

“You're never going to convince everyone to accept a "slower" charger when a "faster" ..”, is your opinion, not factual. A fact is I never inferred and much less stated “everyone” would do anything.

Of course it's an opinion. I never said otherwise. And I explained my reasons for my opinion. I used "everyone" because "anyone" is obviously wrong, and "the majority of people" is too wordy. I never attributed "everyone" to you. But as long as you're picking on my word choice, wouldn't you agree that it only takes one Bolt to cause a problem? So even if only a small number of drivers don't get the message, the problem will still exist. While your "warning" may be necessary, I don't believe it's sufficient in order to significantly reduce the problem.

Do you think my reasons are wrong and don't justify my opinion? I gave examples of situations that have been extent for a decade now, and I haven't seen any significant shift in the way people use chargers that are too fast for their vehicle to fully use. Perhaps you have seen otherwise? If so, gives some examples!

I still think a warning, reminder would benefit us all, even if not immediately.

And I didn't contradict you - I said:

I'm not against an informational notice, but I don't expect it will change many people's behavior.

Again, opinion. You haven't presented any arguments to change my mind.

BTW, it was you who brought up marketing ... I'm just using your words.

 

[beatle]

I think it'd be nice if there were a more prominent way to identify the 350kw stalls. There is sometimes (always?) paint to indicate this on the pavement, but in my last experience, that painting had grown illegible, so I picked a charger at random which happened to be only 150kw. I was going from 9% to 69% and I topped out at 145kw. Would have been nice to have that extra boost as I needed to charge for 41 minutes. Compared to a 350kw charger on a similar trip, the first 10 minutes netted me 20%, on the 150kw charger I only got 15% in 10 minutes.

 

[VSG]

I choose the 150kW chargers when I pull up to an EA station. The 350’s seem to be broken, super slow (limited because of issues with the 350kW chargers) or have charging failures that require unplug & plug back in more often. My R1T seems to get from 15% to 70% just as fast on the 150kW as the 350 kW (on the rare occasion when the 350kW works correctly).

Me too. I find the 150kW EA chargers will give me ~190kW peak, which is almost the max that the Rivian can take. And they tend to work first time, whereas the older model 350kW EA chargers tended to be hit or miss. (The new design seems a lot better to me ...).

But if the only available charger is a 350kW EA, I'm going to use that for my charging session.

 

[VSG]

I think it'd be nice if there were a more prominent way to identify the 350kw stalls.

It would also be nice if you had some visual indication of which chargers were turned on and working, so you could choose before you maneuvered into the stall, hooked up the CCS cable, then failed to initiate a charge. Then had to check the screens of all the other chargers and ask the other people charging if they knew which ones were broken before you unhooked and moved stalls.

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