[JoeReal]

I am charging at the charging stations installed by the State Of California on many of public places such as in the parking lots of their many buildings.

I am the only one charging on the bay of 8 charging stations. These are 208V stations with 30 Amperes per plug.

I noticed that my Volt was charging very slowly to my dismay, and so I looked at the station monitor at the rate the current is flowing, it is only flowing at 8.1 A out of the 30 A available. The limiting factor is the Volt. So at 8.1A and 208 Volts, the Volt is only sucking juice at 1.68 kW instead of GM's rated 3.6 kW!

I have 9.7 kWh already loaded with about 5 kWh more to go, so am not really near full. What's causing my Volt not to charge at the maximum of 3.6 kW or 17.3 A from a 208 V station?

Here's the picture showing 8.1 A charging from a 30 A charging station and I have already used 9.7 kWh with still about at least 5 kWh to go.

 

[Tomt]

It looks like it thinks it is charging at 120 volts...

 

[edk-austin]

Volt will limit itself to 16A on gen2, so at 208VAC, 3.3KW is the limit, but, yes, this is odd.
Do you charge at the correct rate on other L2s?
Does the time to complete estimate also seem 2x what it should be?
Does Volt say it is 220-240VAC?
Almost like the car thinks it's an L1.

 

[Qinsp]

I would contact the EVSE provider and let them know.

But 208 will not charge as fast. I have 208 at work, and it takes about 30-40 minutes longer for a full charge than at home. But that is not your issue. The amps should say ~16. Volts would make the kW rate drop, but the amps is a programmed value.

Your car talks to the EVSE and asks it what it can do. It sounds like they got the programming wrong and stuck it at the base 8 amps that 120v defaults to, not the 16a that the L2 /240-208 defaults to.

 

[rcuz]

Do you have a Level 2 charger at home? If so, does your Volt do a full charge in 4.5 hours? Have you noticed this at other public chargers?

Sometimes when a charging station is shared it charges at a reduced rate for the multiple vehicles that are plugged in. Or maybe there is a problem with the station itself.

But yeah, that is really slow.

Best,
Rick

 

[JoeReal]

Thank you all. I am suspecting that there could be a problem in that group of public charging stations, that their programming must have some bugs when talking to the Gen 2 Volt.

In other public charging stations, I can get full charge in 4.5 - 6 hours depending on the number of other cars charging (when alone, I charge at 4.5 hours, when lot is loaded, it takes 6 hours). At home, I am charging at 4 hrs and 15 minutes. I got 240V and 50A available, and I modded the receptacle so OEM EVSE can get to 240 V connection.

 

[bro1999]

208V public charging stations will NOT charge at 3.6 kW. They might not even charge at 3.3. I never see more than 3.1 kW at a public station with 208V wiring.

 

[JoeReal]

208V public charging stations will NOT charge at 3.6 kW. They might not even charge at 3.3. I never see more than 3.1 kW at a public station with 208V wiring.

There is at least a couple of public charging station that charges at 3.3 kW. Guess what? They were installed by Tesla for general public use. It has the Tesla name written on the box but it is not a supercharging station, just installed or donated by Tesla.

 

[bro1999]

There is at least a couple of public charging station that charges at 3.3 kW. Guess what? They were installed by Tesla for general public use. It has the Tesla name written on the box but it is not a supercharging station, just installed or donated by Tesla.

There are public stations installed at commercial locations that charge at a true 240V. But they are the exception.

 

[linkim]

I am charging at the charging stations installed by the State Of California on many of public places such as in the parking lots of their many buildings.

I am the only one charging on the bay of 8 charging stations. These are 208V stations with 30 Amperes per plug.

I noticed that my Volt was charging very slowly to my dismay, and so I looked at the station monitor at the rate the current is flowing, it is only flowing at 8.1 A out of the 30 A available. The limiting factor is the Volt. So at 8.1A and 208 Volts, the Volt is only sucking juice at 1.68 kW instead of GM's rated 3.6 kW!

I have 9.7 kWh already loaded with about 5 kWh more to go, so am not really near full. What's causing my Volt not to charge at the maximum of 3.6 kW or 17.3 A from a 208 V station?

Here's the picture showing 8.1 A charging from a 30 A charging station and I have already used 9.7 kWh with still about at least 5 kWh to go.

Where is this location with 8 charging bays. Sounds like a Target site.

 

[solar_dave]

It is whatever the car and the charging station negotiates with each other. If the Volt or the charging station sees it can only go at less than that is what it gets.

 

[JoeReal]

Where is this location with 8 charging bays. Sounds like a Target site.

One is in State Capitol Parking Garage Lot 14, it has 8 charging plugs
and another one where I get a problem is in California State Department in Sun Center Dr, Rancho Cordova, they have 4 charging plugs.

 

[JoeReal]

It is whatever the car and the charging station negotiates with each other. If the Volt or the charging station sees it can only go at less than that is what it gets.

As Trump would have said, the Gen 2 Volt is a poor negotiator, to be always on the safe side.

 

[Neromanceres]

I actually wonder if this is a 208V station with really high voltage drop. So high of a drop the Volt thinks it's charging at 120V and is limiting the charge current to 8 amps as per the 120V settings?

Possibly a poor connection causing high voltage drop?

If you get the chance to charge here again set the 120V charge rate to 12A and see what happens.

 

[JoeReal]

I actually wonder if this is a 208V station with really high voltage drop. So high of a drop the Volt thinks it's charging at 120V and is limiting the charge current to 8 amps as per the 120V settings?

Possibly a poor connection causing high voltage drop?

If you get the chance to charge here again set the 120V charge rate to 12A and see what happens.

I actually set it to 12A before plugging in and the message is that this setting is only valid for a portable charging cord.

It could be due to improper construction of the particular charging station.

 

[bro1999]

I actually set it to 12A before plugging in and the message is that this setting is only valid for a portable charging cord.

It could be due to improper construction of the particular charging station.

Yeah, if the electricity feed is crappy, it may actually charge at 200v or less!

 

[sparty]

It's not a crappy feed it's 3 phase service that is found in commercial structures instead of residential single (split phase) 240V service.... Interesting.. I would assume the Volt recognizes this as 3 phase service and backs it down, not sure it incorrectly detects it as a large voltage drop of single phase 240V, that wouldn't make sense IMO.

Looks like an old thread on this: http://gm-volt.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-82146.html

 

[bro1999]

Here are the numbers for my '17 charging at home on a Clipper Creek LCS-25.

 

[canehdian]

How many other spots were in use?
It might be a set of 'smart' self proportioning EVSEs

e.g. a group of 8 on a single 80A circuit
Equally shared 8A each (@80% load)
And when someone finishes charging the available amps can be allocated to other units as required.
I know these have been proposed, but not sure if there actually are some out there in public.

 

[rhodomel]

How many other spots were in use?
It might be a set of 'smart' self proportioning EVSEs

e.g. a group of 8 on a single 80A circuit
Equally shared 8A each (@80% load)
And when someone finishes charging the available amps can be allocated to other units as required.
I know these have been proposed, but not sure if there actually are some out there in public.

The OP stated that he was the only one charging. The picture shows 30 A available and only 8.1 A is being used by the OP's Volt.

Yes, I also encountered what you have stated about balancing loads. It is even more than that, the public charging stations are required by our city to throttle back the charging during peak power demands especially during the summer months, and charging from the public stations become unreliable. They are the first to be shutdown or lowered power supply.