Kona 2020 won't charge over 3.5kwh

Discussion in 'Hyundai Kona Electric' started by Bholland, Jun 6, 2021.

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  1. Bholland

    Bholland New Member

    Hello all,

    I have a tier 2 charging station installed with a 40 Amp 240v line and a grizzl-e dumb charger. I set the charger to be able to produce 40 amps (the breaker max) and the car picks up that it is a 240 line. I would expect that it should be able to charge at 7.4 but I can never really get it to charge over 3.7. I talked with Hyundai and they didn't have an idea. Any tips? I am in the US in the Boston area.
     
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  3. From what I read from the manual and web site, you need to adjust the dip switch to control the Amp/kwh output.
     
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  4. Bholland

    Bholland New Member

    I set the dip switches on the charger to 40amp from the default of 50. But again, this is a dumb charger. It is basically a fancy outlet. It was doing this when I used the factory default of 50amp. It was never drawing that much.

    As far as I know, the car is is the thing that sets the power draw and changing rate, not the adapter. Is there another charger that I should use?

    It's wierd because when this was on a tier 1 charger of 120v at 20amp, it would charge at about 1.5kw. The car recognizes the 240v line and charges at 3.5kw but it doesn't seem to puck up the amperage increase to charge at 7.5.
     
  5. Check on the car, you should see something charging management /charging current. Select the 240V and make sure is maximum.

    If the problem is still occuring, I would suggest paying at a charging using 240v, to see if the speed is the same. Not the fast charging at 50 kwh or more.
     
  6. Check to see if both legs of the 240 volt are hot. ( Or have an electrician do it.). I have run my 240 volt level 2 charger on 120 volt. It works, but the car still indicates 240 volt but the wattage is half the max ( 3.7kw)
     
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  8. GeorgeS

    GeorgeS Active Member

    The Kona can only charge at 32 amps. That is 240vac * 32 amps = 7.2 kwh. It doesn't matter if you have 40 or 50 amps available to the car. For safety and code you should never pull the max current the breakers are rated for. You should only pull max 75% of the breakers. 32 amps require a 40amp minimum breaker.

    There are several ways the limit could be occurring.
    First, the car can be set to reduce the charge rate on AC. Go into the EV menu on your dash monitor and set your charge level of AC to max. This will allow it to use the full supply of the supplied charger.

    Second, is the bad charge unit. If it is only passing half the voltage to the car the car will report 3.5 kwh. Double check the dip switch settings and call the company. Replace the unit if you can't check it. I prefer one with Bluetooth like the JuiceBox 40 that you can see the status and control it with a phone app.

    Third, your dumb charger could not be wired correctly. If it is only producing 3.5 kwh, then it looks like you might only be getting half your power. That would be only one leg of 240vac or 120vac. Unless you are familiar with how to check AC wiring, you should contact the electrician that installed the plug to test and repair it.
     
  9. mikeselectricstuff

    mikeselectricstuff Active Member

    I assume the car's state of charge is below about 90%....?
     
  10. Pheonician

    Pheonician New Member

    Just want to add a picture of what others have mentioned. Check to make sure the settings for charge current are set to maximum in your car.
     

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  11. mikeselectricstuff

    mikeselectricstuff Active Member

    Is it tethered or untethered? If the latter, just wondering if it's a 16A cable ( cable limit is indicated to the car using a resistor in the plug)
     
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  13. Bholland

    Bholland New Member

    The charger is plugged directly into the 40 Amp breaker using a plug rated to 50 amps. The charger is set to 32 amps. I know the car will pull 32 amps max but the car manual said to set the breaker and charger to pull at 40 Amp max knowing the car will never draw that much. The line is rated for 60.

    I did plug this into a charging station at it was able to charge at 7.4, just not at home. I also don't have a setting for charging at max on my car. I think it just is supposed to work.

    The voltage is at 240v and the breaker is at 40amp. The charger is set to 32. I just verified all of this.

    And yes, this is the case charging from 40% or 95%. It only charges at 3.5.
     
    Last edited: Jun 8, 2021
  14. As it's a tethered cable, assuming you've configured it and the car correctly the only plausible answer is that it's hooked up to 120 VAC instead of 240VAC.

    The EVSE provides a square wave to the EV with the duty cycle representing the maximum current the EVSE can provide. The EV makes the final decision as to what part of that to draw. As it's analog, there can be slight errors but not as much as 50%. Voltage doesn't enter into this part of the control function and it's very possible that the EVSE itself is happy to power itself off 120VAC despite being speced as 208-240.

    upload_2021-6-9_10-55-21.png
     
    Last edited: Jun 8, 2021
  15. Bholland

    Bholland New Member

    I actually have the 4 dip switch version and it is set to 32amp. I wonder if the unit it bugged or something. I don't drive a huge amount but I will wait until it gets below 80%. I also followed the guide to calibrate the GFCI offset is, whatever that means.

    Given that I was able to charge at 7.4 from a charge point, is the most likely culprit a faulty charging unit?
     
  16. Changed the image to suit. It seems that it may be faulty. Have you contacted the vendor?
    You try working the DIP switches back and forth in case one is dodgy.
     
  17. TRSmith

    TRSmith Member

    Have you tried on a different Level 2 charger? Like a public one, or a friend’s? If you get more than 3.5 kW from that, you can eliminate the possibility that it’s the car’s problem.
     

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