[NomoTesla]

Hello everyone,

After completing a 3,000-mile round trip last year (1,500 miles each way), I posted about how our iX put a notification on the screen saying that due to too many DC charges in a row, the vehicle will limit the DC charging rate for up to 2 days. This is a vaguely documented behavior in the owner's manual.

I am happy to report that we just completed the same road trip at roughly the same time of year and did not see any throttling behavior or warning. We drove about 800 miles on each leg, and DC fast-charged four times before arriving at our hotel, where we AC charged all night.

Two big differences from a year-ago: 1) We did not unplug and re-plug to get a free charge after the first 30 minutes, and 2) we AC charged overnight at a hotel. One or both of these caused the throttling behavior to not kick-in. It is my personal hypothesis that the car keeps a simple count of how many DCFC in a row, and once exceeded, the car will throttle until another condition is met.

I believe that unplugging and re-plugging during our first trip caused the DCFC count to nearly double. BMW published a technical bulletin on this stating that the throttling behavior will begin after the 5th DCFC in a row. One can easily hit that if unplugging and re-plugging due to the 30 minute free limit.

Keeping the vehicle plugged in beyond the free 30 minutes until finished resulted in a total cost of about $20 for each 800 mile leg. It also resulted in less stress because, when re-plugging, sometimes the charge rate would drop precipitously due to load balancing, refuse to authenticate, or worse. I've learned with EA that if you get a good rate upon plugging-in, don't touch it!

Another (new?) behavior I noticed this trip was battery pre-heating was done above 60ºF. I was surprised at this, but we also received nearly the full charge rate at every single EA station we stopped at—many of which were the same as last year when we received poor charge rates. The battery pre-heating icon lit up during most of our trip. We traveled in temps ranging from the low 40s to the mid-60s. Not sure if this is new behavior under 11/2024.40 or if it was there before and I just didn't notice it.

Anyway, I'm happy to report that road tripping is much more pleasurable this year than it was this time last year!

[LuisBoston]

Thanks for the report

I really want to take the iX on a trip from Boston to California

[Louis_BE]

Well so we do not know if that ridiculous limit is gone, the AC charging has nothing to do with it not appearing, this has been tested … it’s 5 to 6 consecutive DC fast charges that will initiate it … So the reason you did not see it was you did not did the unplug, replug …99% sure of this.

[mnx5er]

I have not seen this issue. I have driven 700 mile days a few times in various weather.

[Louis_BE]

Originally Posted by mnx5er

I have not seen this issue. I have driven 700 mile days a few times in various weather.

You would not see them if you DC charge less then 6 times in 24 hours …
It’s better in the new cars but still an issue, look at Kyle’s trans America trip with the i7, it was a drama …
Quite frankly it’s unbelievable BMW still does this in this day and age …
To be quite fair though people driving more than 1600km’s (1000miles) a day should be taken away their permit …
So if you gonna drive for 800miles, always charge to at least 85% and you will not encounter the limit if you start at a 100% AC charge.

[ricerboi]

I’ve gotten it multiple times when I was in the free EA period. Not many of us go over 700-800 miles a day on a road trip but before, especially during the winter/uphill/against-wind etc and you’re getting 160-200 miles per full charge and essentially 1.6-2.2mi/kWh, you’re going to hit that 6-7 charges if you do the plug/replug since you really do need to get to 90%+ to try to skip 1 EA station and not charge every 80 miles (faster to plug/replug rather than take time to exit and find another station).

With the BCM update for older 2022-2023 cars at the 2 year mark, my 2.3-2.3mi/kWh average for trips went up to 2.5-2.6mi/kWh and it’s better.

Regardless, if you’re not unplugging/replugging and you’re charging 45 min from 20-90% or so, you won’t hit it at 4-5 DCFC’s within 20 hours. Yes, the full AC charge helps “reset” this number.

I’ve done 1400 miles in a day with ICE but this will never happen in an EV. It absolutely sucks.

[Louis_BE]

Originally Posted by ricerboi

I’ve done 1400 miles in a day with ICE but this will never happen in an EV. It absolutely sucks.

No Problem in my Macan, 15 minute stops if you live in Europe with its vast 800v charging network that works. 1400miles, would be 8 15 minute stops … not that bad …

[NomoTesla]

The fewer stops the better IMHO. There is a certain amount of overhead for each stop: Taking the exit, finding the charger, plugging-in, authenticating, etc. Then you have to get back on the freeway. All in, that adds a minimum of 15 minutes to each stop on top of the time it takes to charge. Add more time if you have to wait in line or have issues with the charger. Due to the severe overcrowding of EA chargers throughout Southern California, we opted to charge to 90% at one point so we could skip the next charge in a busy part of the region where we would have to queu in line and likely wait longer than the additional time it took for us to charge enough to skip the stop.

So much about this process feels like conjuring and trying to look into a crystal ball!

[NomoTesla]

Originally Posted by Louis_BE

It’s better in the new cars but still an issue, look at Kyle’s trans America trip with the i7, it was a drama …

Do you have a link to this video? I looked up all of his i7 videos but couldn't find a trans-America trip.

[LuisBoston]

Originally Posted by Louis_BE

Well so we do not know if that ridiculous limit is gone, the AC charging has nothing to do with it not appearing, this has been tested … it’s 5 to 6 consecutive DC fast charges that will initiate it … So the reason you did not see it was you did not did the unplug, replug …99% sure of this.

Originally Posted by ricerboi

I’ve gotten it multiple times when I was in the free EA period. Not many of us go over 700-800 miles a day on a road trip but before, especially during the winter/uphill/against-wind etc and you’re getting 160-200 miles per full charge and essentially 1.6-2.2mi/kWh, you’re going to hit that 6-7 charges if you do the plug/replug since you really do need to get to 90%+ to try to skip 1 EA station and not charge every 80 miles (faster to plug/replug rather than take time to exit and find another station).

With the BCM update for older 2022-2023 cars at the 2 year mark, my 2.3-2.3mi/kWh average for trips went up to 2.5-2.6mi/kWh and it’s better.

Regardless, if you’re not unplugging/replugging and you’re charging 45 min from 20-90% or so, you won’t hit it at 4-5 DCFC’s within 20 hours. Yes, the full AC charge helps “reset” this number.

I’ve done 1400 miles in a day with ICE but this will never happen in an EV. It absolutely sucks.

Isn’t the ‘plug/replug’ due to the free charging limit?

If you know you will be throttled after x times at the DCFC on a trip, you could just not unplug and {ahem} pay {ahem} for your kWs beyond the 30 min once or twice.

[NomoTesla]

Originally Posted by LuisBoston

Isn’t the ‘plug/replug’ due to the free charging limit?

If you know you will be throttled after x times at the DCFC on a trip, you could just not unplug and {ahem} pay {ahem} for your kWs beyond the 30 min once or twice.

Exactly what we did! Plugged-in once and paid past 30 minutes. No throttling and 800 miles cost no more than $20. A pretty sweet deal IMHO and not even worth the hassle of re-plugging. Also, EA has caught on and will send you a warning email if you engage in plug/re-plug shennanigans.

This is a prime example of how something like charge throttling can be made out to be a bigger issue than it is. It's actually a non-issue to all who don't engage in the plug/re-plug two-step and who don't drive more than 1,000 miles per day without an overnight stop with A/C charge. I'm fairly comfortable in saying the throttling is a complete and total non-issue for 99.99% of iX owners (unless your names are Kyle Conner and Bjørn Nyland).

[ricerboi]

Originally Posted by LuisBoston

Isn’t the ‘plug/replug’ due to the free charging limit?

If you know you will be throttled after x times at the DCFC on a trip, you could just not unplug and {ahem} pay {ahem} for your kWs beyond the 30 min once or twice.

Yeah that’s the idea. Free charging is coming to an end of many of us. EA has generally gotten better than when it was really terrible in Q2-Q3 2023 when you would actually need to plug/replug not because of trying to milk the free 30 min sessions but because the charger was doing something stupid like throttling at 45kW or just randomly stopping a charge 3 minutes in. I’m glad we don’t have to deal with those issues.

That being said, I went from charging at EA DCFC 99% of the time when it was free, to only twice after my free charging expired 5 months ago. I do overnight AC at a public charger nearby every other night or so. For DCFC there’s no choice but EA (unless SC is opened) when I’m doing the LA-Vegas corridor, but otherwise I dig into Plugshare and figure out other networks because EA is still really saturated from all the free contracts.

Back to topic: This should be a non-issue now that EA is enforcing the 60 min wait time between DCFC’s. It’s ONLY possible now that chargers are more reliable. I would be upset if I got kicked off for no reason after 3 min like I did so many times in 2023 and then it made me wait an hour before I get another free session.

[Kennethjk]

I know some people won’t like this but there should not be any free DCFC from any manufacturer . Maybe give people a gift card or something but let people charge what they need when they really need it and what they are willing to pay for a charge.

I think that would free up chargers.

There are always some that I have witnessed that stay plugged in for 1 hour after they were fully charged, a Taycan (yes they were racking up idle fees and an Audi that was charging to 100% because he “needed to” but if people had to pay for any usage you would see less waiting times.

[LuisBoston]

Originally Posted by Kennethjk

I know some people won’t like this but there should not be any free DCFC from any manufacturer . Maybe give people a gift card or something but let people charge what they need when they really need it and what they are willing to pay for a charge.

I think that would free up chargers.

There are always some that I have witnessed that stay plugged in for 1 hour after they were fully charged, a Taycan (yes they were racking up idle fees and an Audi that was charging to 100% because he “needed to” but if people had to pay for any usage you would see less waiting times.

How’s a gift card any different than what BMW is doing now (1000 kWh free)?

Anyway, I like my free 30 minutes. I’ve got it for another 15 months. I don’t use it too much though.

Honestly the 30 minutes is the best of the free options: it psychologically encourages people to unplug when their time is up, thus freeing the charger up for others. A gift card or kWh cap does not such thing.

The worst behavior are those charging to 100% when other waiting in line.

[Kennethjk]

Originally Posted by LuisBoston

How’s a gift card any different than what BMW is doing now (1000 kWh free)?

Anyway, I like my free 30 minutes. I’ve got it for another 15 months. I don’t use it too much though.

Honestly the 30 minutes is the best of the free options: it psychologically encourages people to unplug when their time is up, thus freeing the charger up for others. A gift card or kWh cap does not such thing.

The worst behavior are those charging to 100% when other waiting in line.

The difference is that you can use a gift card elsewhere and not tie up any DCFC’s. I think if people got a free gift card they would use it when shopping on line etc. not necessarily to charge.

I use the 30 minutes free and like it, when needed but as some people mention they try to scam the system by unplugging and then pluging in again.

Let people use the chargers when they need it, not because it’s free. Gives more room for people that may really need it.

I get what your saying about encouraging people to unplug at 30 minutes but also encourages use for no other reason than why not.

[LuisBoston]

Originally Posted by Kennethjk

The difference is that you can use a gift card elsewhere and not tie up any DCFC’s. I think if people got a free gift card they would use it when shopping on line etc. not necessarily to charge.

I use the 30 minutes free and like it, when needed but as some people mention they try to scam the system by unplugging and then pluging in again.

Let people use the chargers when they need it, not because it’s free. Gives more room for people that may really need it.

I get what your saying about encouraging people to unplug at 30 minutes but also encourages use for no other reason than why not.

In that case just give another $1000 incentive.

The point of the charging credits is to get people to use the DC fast chargers. But I guess that’s not what’s needed (encouragement) when there is still scarcity of chargers.

[Pictor]

The only benefit of free charging is to encourage new EV drivers to try public charging. You can do that with 250kW of free charging and that would limit the abuse while still enticing new drivers to try it out. VW is now offering a 3 year Pass+ membership and 500kW of free charging which is a step in the right direction from the all you can eat plan that they used to offer.

[deutsch100]

That is great! I have to make a decision ASAP....pay $$$ to have my iX shipped from Calabasas, CA to Scottsdale, AZ or risk driving.

Researching routing I will only have two EA choices (Indio and Quartzite). Reviews on both EA chargers are not good; very few working available and usually a 1-2 hour wait for an available charge and then a Bolt or Kia will be using the 350k charger, instead of letting a car with a big battery and faster charging use it.

[NomoTesla]

Originally Posted by ricerboi

Yeah that’s the idea. Free charging is coming to an end of many of us. EA has generally gotten better than when it was really terrible in Q2-Q3 2023 when you would actually need to plug/replug not because of trying to milk the free 30 min sessions but because the charger was doing something stupid like throttling at 45kW or just randomly stopping a charge 3 minutes in. I’m glad we don’t have to deal with those issues.

Yep, happened to me last year. At one station I had to move three times before I got a reliable connection.

Originally Posted by ricerboi

That being said, I went from charging at EA DCFC 99% of the time when it was free, to only twice after my free charging expired 5 months ago. I do overnight AC at a public charger nearby every other night or so. For DCFC there’s no choice but EA (unless SC is opened) when I’m doing the LA-Vegas corridor, but otherwise I dig into Plugshare and figure out other networks because EA is still really saturated from all the free contracts.

Check out https://buzze.biz. The CEO trialed the program with my Tesla group and so far it's been a success. EV owners with home chargers make them available for public charging using this app and can also make a few bucks. Give it a try and you'll find a ton more AC charging locations that you won't find on Plugshare.

Originally Posted by Kennethjk

There are always some that I have witnessed that stay plugged in for 1 hour after they were fully charged, a Taycan (yes they were racking up idle fees and an Audi that was charging to 100% because he “needed to” but if people had to pay for any usage you would see less waiting times.

Some of the EA locations in socal have an 80% charge limit due to volume.

Originally Posted by LuisBoston

The worst behavior are those charging to 100% when other waiting in line.

Sadly, last year we had to charge to a high SOC in order to get home. The only DCFC between our current location and our destination was unexpectedly offline and being serviced. It was the only way to get home without spending several hours at a public AC charger.

TIP: If you're in a situation where you need 100%, see if charging to 95% will get you where you need to go. You'll be done much sooner than having to wait to hit 100%.

Originally Posted by deutsch100

That is great! I have to make a decision ASAP....pay $$$ to have my iX shipped from Calabasas, CA to Scottsdale, AZ or risk driving.

Researching routing I will only have two EA choices (Indio and Quartzite). Reviews on both EA chargers are not good; very few working available and usually a 1-2 hour wait for an available charge and then a Bolt or Kia will be using the 350k charger, instead of letting a car with a big battery and faster charging use it.

Indio is a sh*t show and always cars waiting. It's the one location I try to avoid at all costs. You can always count on a Bolt to sit at a 350 for over an hour. This last trip a Bolt took up a whole spot while someone was sleeping inside. Judging by the condensation inside the vehicle, I'd say they spent a good part of the night.

Quartzsite is bad if you are traveling on either side of a holiday. We did that stretch on the 29th and were #6 in the queue of cars waiting. A gentleman I talked with told me that the line was around the block two days prior—a Friday—and he had to wait 2 hours for his turn. This location is at a Love's Truck Stop. While we were waiting, a fight broke out somewhere near the gas pumps and three police cruisers showed up to the scene, blocking any more EVs from lining up. The lined-up EVs were also blocking cars that needed to pull out of their spaces.

If you can make it to the outlets near Palm Springs, thereby skipping Indio completely, you might be able to grab a high enough charge to skip Quartzsite and charge in Buckeye. Even if you have to spend extra time charging to 90%+, you'll likely get that time back by skipping Quartzsite and saving time not waiting in line.

We time our road trips to leave very early in the AM, like 3-4am, and then we do them over a Saturday/Sunday so we don't have to contend with the commute traffic.

[Windshieldfarmer]

Originally Posted by NomoTesla

Indio is a sh*t show and always cars waiting. It's the one location I try to avoid at all costs. You can always count on a Bolt to sit at a 350 for over an hour. This last trip a Bolt took up a whole spot while someone was sleeping inside. Judging by the condensation inside the vehicle, I'd say they spent a good part of the night.

Quartzsite is bad if you are traveling on either side of a holiday. We did that stretch on the 29th and were #6 in the queue of cars waiting. A gentleman I talked with told me that the line was around the block two days prior—a Friday—and he had to wait 2 hours for his turn. This location is at a Love's Truck Stop. While we were waiting, a fight broke out somewhere near the gas pumps and three police cruisers showed up to the scene, blocking any more EVs from lining up. The lined-up EVs were also blocking cars that needed to pull out of their spaces.

If you can make it to the outlets near Palm Springs, thereby skipping Indio completely, you might be able to grab a high enough charge to skip Quartzsite and charge in Buckeye. Even if you have to spend extra time charging to 90%+, you'll likely get that time back by skipping Quartzsite and saving time not waiting in line.

We time our road trips to leave very early in the AM, like 3-4am, and then we do them over a Saturday/Sunday so we don't have to contend with the commute traffic.

Given those charging scenarios, no wonder EV adoption has slowed. I respect your willingness to accommodate with workarounds, but most people are not willing to accept this level of inconvenience. I so much enjoy driving the IX but when it comes to long distance travel it adds a lot of time and inconvenience to the trip. On a more positive note I beginning to see more charging options open in my part of the world…but there are still long rural stretches without DCFC. Guess having long waits is better than no options at all. Thanks for sharing info about your recent trip.

[AlanG]

Originally Posted by NomoTesla

Do you have a link to this video? I looked up all of his i7 videos but couldn't find a trans-America trip.

It’s in the out of spec motoring channel. Look for cross country I90 surge. I think it comes in the second of the three part series.

[Louis_BE]

NomoTesla

The last 2 - 3 minutes of this video explains exactly what is wrong with this current crop of BMW’s …