[Michael78]

We charge our EV6 at home and for the last week it keeps saying “charge interrupted” and stops charging. To restart the charger, we are having to unplug and plug 5 or 6 times to get a full charge.

 

[Snake52]

Michael, I am having a similar issue. My level 2 charger will only work with my EV6 for about 10 seconds, then the car stops charging for a few seconds and starts again.
The exact same charger and outlet work fine on a Niro EV, which makes it seem like an issue specifically with the EV6.
I have been able to level 2 charge in other locations with the same portable charger, and the only thing we have been able to isolate that is different at my house is that the voltage is around 252V at the outlet, while other places I have seen more like 245V.

My theory at the moment is that the EV6 has a very sensitive over-voltage threshold for level 2 charging, and it is interrupting to protect itself.

I spoke with KIA support today, but they just said I should have an electrician look at the outlet. No offense to support, but an electrician can't change the voltage coming from the street, and if the same outlet and charger work with a Niro, the only variable is the car.

Anyone else have any ideas?

 

[alansh42]

The voltage tolerance in the US is ±5%. 252v is right at the edge of what's permissible for 240v service, and if that's what you're getting at the EVSE it might be slightly higher at the meter. You should check with your electric utility and tell them to check for an overvoltage. If it's too high, they're required to fix it.

 

[Snake52]

The voltage tolerance in the US is ±5%. 252v is right at the edge of what's permissible for 240v service, and if that's what you're getting at the EVSE it might be slightly higher at the meter. You should check with your electric utility and tell them to check for an overvoltage. If it's too high, they're required to fix it.

That is the same threshold I found while searching through the local utility specifications, so thank you for providing confirmation that I didn't misunderstand.

I actually saw 254V at the outlet yesterday, which would seem to be out of tolerance, so I will give them a call today.

I left the level 2 charger plugged in to the EV6 last night, and it looks like it did successfully charge from 60-100% over the course of about 5 hours.
That said, I got a total of 58 "Charging Interrupted" notifications, but apparently the EV6 will self-restart the charging process an infinite number of times?

At least I managed to get a full battery for the moment.

 

[Snake52]

A technician from the local utility came by last night and checked the voltage at the meter, which read 248V at the time.
He confirmed that up to 252V was acceptable, and brief spikes above that could happen.

While he was on site with his test meter measuring voltage, I tried the L2 charger again. Exact same results, the car would not draw power for more than 10 or 15 seconds at a time.

Still waiting on my wall mounted Juicebox 40, once I have a chance to test that out I will provide an update again.

 

[Snake52]

As an update to my last post, I finally got my Juicebox 40 and mounted it on the wall, plugged in to a 50A 14-50P outlet on a 50A breaker.
Charging works correctly, pulling 39.6A at 242V consistently for the past week.
No conclusion as to why it works with the Juicebox and not with the portable Level 2 charger that I was using before, but I'm not about to start looking for problems as long as it is working correctly now.

 

[ag5bpilot]

As an update to my last post, I finally got my Juicebox 40 and mounted it on the wall, plugged in to a 50A 14-50P outlet on a 50A breaker.
Charging works correctly, pulling 39.6A at 242V consistently for the past week.
No conclusion as to why it works with the Juicebox and not with the portable Level 2 charger that I was using before, but I'm not about to start looking for problems as long as it is working correctly now.

Your portable EVSE might be the part that's overly sensitive to over-voltage. Although the EVSE doesn't really do anything other than connect the car to the AC and signal the car as to the maximum current it's allowed to draw, most decent EVSEs have several sensors for the incoming AC and cut the power if anything is out of range, in order to protect the car. The portable may be just a bit more sensitive than the Juicebox.

Glad to hear it's all working now.

 

[Thinker33]

Has anyone have trouble charging the battery overnight. I never get pass 275 miles per charge though I have the GT line that’s supposed to get me 310 miles for 100% battery charged. I have the sett to charge at a 100%. Not 80%. Kid dealership kept my car for 6 weeks doing all kinds of testing to finally tell me at the end the battery is designed to only charge at 80%. Funny thing is I was able to charge the car at my friends before I bought the new home charger that Kia uses at the dealership and got 310 on 90% battery.
they were never able to get it charge to 310 at dealership while doing diagnostics on it and came around saying… well, it;’s designed to charge only to 80%. If they knew that, why did it take them 6 weeks to tell me? Why was I able to charge it at 310 before? Why when I bought the car they didn’t tell me that? They said it’s 310 per charge whe nI paid for it. The window sticker specs say 310, not 275, which is what I am getting.
I feel like they sold me an empty promise And payed for for a car that does not deliver the mileage.

 

[ag5bpilot]

There's probably nothing wrong with your car.

The range number is a GUESS by the car's computer, based on a lot of different factors. Don't fret over it.

The important thing is the state of charge number (SOC). If it's charging to 100% (or whatever you have set it to charge to), then everything is working correctly.

Range on an EV is... complicated. Not bad; just complicated. It takes a little bit of getting used to.

The range that the car displays (and, in truth, what most EVs display) is based on your recent driving and the ambient temperature. It's not a crystal ball and can't predict how you're going to drive the car in the future. It's just an estimate.

Speed is the most important factor in determining range. The faster you go, the less efficient the car is because drag increases exponentially as speed increases. If you're doing mostly highway driving, you'll get somewhat less than "rated" EPA range because the EPA test cycle is a mix of highway and city driving. If you're doing all local stop and go driving at 30 MPH, you can do much better than the EPA range.

Outside temperature also contributes to efficiency, and hence range. The denser the air, the greater the air resistance, especially at highway speeds. Expect to get MUCH better range in the summer than in the winter. That's physics, and effects every car, but it's most noticeable in an EV because they're so efficient that overcoming air resistance is where most of your power goes, especially at high speeds.

Wind will also affect range. A 10 mph headwind vs a 10 mph tailwind changes your airspeed by 20 mph. That changes the air resistance, the power needed to overcome that drag, and the range. At highway speeds, that could be a 20% difference.

Rain and snow need more power to push through, and lower your range. So will snow on the ground.

This is all normal. For all cars. But it's more noticeable on an EV.

Range only really matters on a trip. When you're on the highway, the GOM (Guess-O-Meter) will settle down and show you a fairly accurate range estimate based on how you're actually driving in the current conditions. That's when it's important, as it tells you if you will make it to your charging stop. If not, either stop someplace closer, or slow down. Going a little slower makes a big difference in how far you can go.

 

[JRSNoVa]

You don't charge to any number of miles. You charge to a percentage of the battery capacity (number 4 below). Then the car estimates how far you can go on that level of stored electricity based on previous driving (number 2).

If you haven't yet, pay attention to number 10 at the bottom center. To get the full rated range, you'll have to average about 4 miles/kWh.

As PP said, there are several factors that affect range. Now that the weather has warmed up, the most likely reason for lower than rated range is driving style.

 

[5796]

This is topic has been discussed in many other posts here. When you finish charging, check the EV motif on the instrument cluster. It will show you the battery charge level. When I charge my EV6 fully, it shows a range of about 270 miles, but the EV menu item shows 97%-99% charge on the battery. The miles displayed incorporates many factors including your previous driving style, and does not reflect the actual charge level.

 

[accelerus]

drive slower/more efficiently, the guess-o-meter will adjust and show you what you want to see.

It's the same as a range meter in a regular gas car, do 75-80mph on the highway all day and you will get crap range. Drive in the snow or rain and your range meter will reflect that. Got a 20mph headwind? you are going to go less miles on a charge and the computer knows this (again, applies to electric OR gas)

Let me guess -- first ever EV?

 

[shroudnight]

Having a weird issue this week where my Kia Access app notifies me that charging failed and then sends a follow-up email with "Charge Interrupted". It seems to happen when the car gets above 80% starting at 58-60% charging at 11.5Khw which I think is related more to time rather than percentage. The plug-in end and ChargePoint HomeFlex felt warm to the touch when it happened so I called ChargePoint.. They reported seeing some "soft reboots" when I gave them timestamps so it feels very charger related and they're investigating further, but I can't help to have some paranoia that its the car.

I also noticed that if I remove and re-add the charger to my account, the first couple charges are at 11.39/11.4Khw and subsequent day charges are at 11.1/2/3 so that feels weird to me as well.

The car itself charges fine (granted not to 100%) at work on a 5.8Khw ChargePoint but just feels weird.

Anyone seen anything like this before and have any thoughts to calm my paranoia?

 

[alansh42]

I assume ChargePoint walked you through the EVSE setup: Since you're getting the full 11.5kW speed, it needs to be hardwired on a circuit with a 60 amp breaker. If the circuit is a lower amperage, the amperage setting on the ChargePoint needs to be lowered.

 

[shroudnight]

I assume ChargePoint walked you through the EVSE setup: Since you're getting the full 11.5kW speed, it needs to be hardwired on a circuit with a 60 amp breaker. If the circuit is a lower amperage, the amperage setting on the ChargePoint needs to be lowered.

Yes - what I forgot to mention was this issue only started having Monday and I've had it hardwired on a 60A breaker and working for almost 2 months now. My issue is that the car has suddenly started reporting charging interrupted and I can't figure out if its the car or the EVSE.

 

[audaibnjad]

I also noticed that if I remove and re-add the charger to my account, the first couple charges are at 11.39/11.4Khw and subsequent day charges are at 11.1/2/3 so that feels weird to me as well.

The charge rate is set by amps, not by watts.

The car supports 48 amp charging. If you have a perfect utility service with no voltage loss, you'll get about 240v.
240 * 48 --> 11,520w (11.5kw).

It's common for voltage to sag a little during the day. Say it goes down to 230v:
230 * 48 --> 11,040w (11.0kw).


I have PG&E for an electric company. They have rules which say they'll keep the voltage between 228v and 252v under normal conditions -- and even let it drop to 220v in emergencies (say to help prevent a blackout).

To sum up: it's expected that you'll see the kw meter change.


(Edit to add: heat also increases wire resistance, which can drop the voltage. But to really notice this effect with relatively short wires, the wires need to get hot enough where they will burn you upon contact. If it's "warm to the touch" then you're fine.
But that said, maybe something inside the box is getting really hot. That could cause glitches in the hardware, which could cause the issues you're seeing. But who knows what's actually happening? )

 

[shroudnight]

The charge rate is set by amps, not by watts.

The car supports 48 amp charging. If you have a perfect utility service with no voltage loss, you'll get about 240v.
240 * 48 --> 11,520w (11.5kw).

It's common for voltage to sag a little during the day. Say it goes down to 230v:
230 * 48 --> 11,040w (11.0kw).


I have PG&E for an electric company. They have rules which say they'll keep the voltage between 228v and 252v under normal conditions -- and even let it drop to 220v in emergencies (say to help prevent a blackout).

To sum up: it's expected that you'll see the kw meter change.


(Edit to add: heat also increases wire resistance, which can drop the voltage. But to really notice this effect with relatively short wires, the wires need to get hot enough where they will burn you upon contact. If it's "warm to the touch" then you're fine.
But that said, maybe something inside the box is getting really hot. That could cause glitches in the hardware, which could cause the issues you're seeing. But who knows what's actually happening? )

Yeah that explanation makes complete sense, thanks! It seems like this is happening when the charger is running on 48A and doesn’t seem to happen on 40A. Seems like the EV can’t handle charging at 48A or the EVSE can’t handle putting it out.

 

[alansh42]

Someone else mentioned that their house voltage was at 252v, right at the 5% tolerance for 240v. He was having the same "charging interrupted".

 

[Electric Blade]

Problem is: I plug the ev6 in while it's on and it says dc charging failed on screen even though its on a level 1 outlet. It charges fine if i flick the car on then off or use app. While off if i plug it in it says charging failed outloud and doesn't charge endless activated on app or turn on then off.

I am using a tesla mobile charger its on a level 1 outlet with a adapter tesla to j1772 that i see lots of other ev owners use on youtube. Is it the adapter or car? any recalls, any solutions i already tried limiting power draw to medium did
not fix. Should I return adapter even though its still can charge it with app and turning it on then off. Or is it the cars problem should it be taken into the dealer?

 

[shroudnight]

Someone else mentioned that their house voltage was at 252v, right at the 5% tolerance for 240v. He was having the same "charging interrupted".

I thought about that too, but why did it work for almost 2 months without issue? Maybe the power company pushes more voltage in the summer due to increased energy use and it’s just enough to throw off the EV?