Cold Weather Charging Quirk?

[Rajiv Vaidyanathan]

Okay, with the return of ultra-cold weather to northern Minnesota (temps the last two days have ranged from 0-15 F), I'm experiencing all the problems of cold-weather EVs. I've complained about some of this in another thread, but today, I found that cold weather KILLS the car charging. Where I would normally charge at about 5.5 kW at my 240V charging station at work, today, I found the car chargeing at less than 2 kW.

Before I was heading out, I remotely turned on the heating (remote a/c) and found on the ChargePoint website that the charging of the car jumped to 5+ kW.

Is this a workaround to get the car charging at a higher rate? Suppose I park the car and immediately turn on the charger. Will it charge the car faster?

Here is an image of my Chargepoint Charging Summary:

ColdWeatherCharging

• Rajiv Vaidyanathan
• Jan 17, 2019

Slow charging in cold weather that jumps up when I turn on the remote heating.

 

[KentuckyKen]

I think the higher draw was due to the demands of the resistance heater when preconditioning. I’ve seen spikes that big that on my Charge Point when PCing.
We’ll all enjoy our Claritys much more after winter is over.

 

[cafr11901]

My experience with the really cold weather is that your best chance to get a faster rate is plugging in immediately after driving (when the battery is warmest). But as the temperatures drop it really hasn't helped much. I still see around the 3-4 kw rate. Preconditioning doesn't seem to increase charge rate, just supplements the draw from the heater.