[hilld]

As the title says, my new car with around 500 miles and a week of life is already in the shop as it left me stranded on a 300 mile trip. The car will not DC FC and trying to do a longer road trip on Level 2 only is not really realistic (if you have to actually get there in a reasonable time). So I am stranded 300 miles from home in a Enterprise loaner car. The car has been at the local dealership since Friday and VW had them do some logging while trying to charge. So today they tell the tech to replace the actual charging connector, the part is a week out. The service advisor is not sure that will actually fix the issue, he suspects a module or so. I guess we shall wait and see to what is going to actually fix the issue.

Has anyone run into this issue yet? If so, how long did it take to get the parts? Is VW doing any sort of compensation for this (car out of service during the first week of ownership). I don't have any payments as I paid cash for the car.

Hoping to get the car back soon, as the Mazda CX-5 rental is a piece of junk. I miss my ID.4 already.

 

[hilld]

One thing I forgot to mention is that the tech thinks that the replacement of the socket is similar to the e-Golf, meaning a bunch of the rear suspension needs to be dropped, about a 8-9 hour job. Seems strange to me, but what do I know. Hopefully the car will be tight like a new one and not rattle due to a bunch of fasteners having been removed and reinstalled.

 

[eb2143]

Some more details on the circumstances would be helpful I think. What fast charging stations did you try, what messages did the car and charger give you?

 

[hilld]

I tried 2 different locations, 6 chargers total. Spent 45 mins on the phone with EA for troubleshooting, they rebooted one of the charges (it runs Linux) and the result was all the same. Initiate charging, then errors out. Tried both gens of the EA chargers. Level 2 works just fine. DCFC is what is broken.

The white chargers (new style) were at Walmart in Lacey, WA. The glowing green ones (older style) were at Three Rivers Mall in Kelso, WA. All EA locations.

Here is a link to a google album that shows various errors. It did charge for 8 minutes at 84kW before all the trouble started.

10 new items by Derek Hill

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[Tinman]

Wow, this sucks. Sorry this happened to you.

Does the dealer have a DCFC? (Mine has a 24 kW ChargePoint) Seems like they kind of need one to do any more than just throw a part at the car and send you on your way, whenever that happens.

 

[hilld]

Dealer does NOT have DCFC, instead the tech drives over to the local Walmart where they have one and uses it there. He starts logging, then plugs into the charger, then sends the logs to the VW mothership for analysis. This is what happened on Friday. I could spy on him/her when carnet notified me that charging had started.

Today is when they updated me on the parts order. Now the waiting game starts.

 

[TLEanon]

I tried 2 different locations, 6 chargers total. Spent 45 mins on the phone with EA for troubleshooting, they rebooted one of the charges (it runs Linux) and the result was all the same. Initiate charging, then errors out. Tried both gens of the EA chargers. Level 2 works just fine. DCFC is what is broken.

The white chargers (new style) were at Walmart in Lacey, WA. The glowing green ones (older style) were at Three Rivers Mall in Kelso, WA. All EA locations.

Here is a link to a google album that shows various errors. It did charge for 8 minutes at 84kW before all the trouble started.

10 new items by Derek Hill

photos.app.goo.gl

Sounds like we were like ships passing through the night. After charging at the Walmart in Lacey on Friday I got a crazy error in my car and the service dept (in Vancouver) asked me to bring it in. I politely declined and after power cycling the car the error went away. On the way back I charged in Kelso after having issues in Federal Way.

After today I'm not gonna lie, I'm feeling a small amount of buyer's remorse. I drove from Portland to Medford and ended up having to charge for 90 minutes in Grants Pass in the 104 degree heat because the charger was only spitting out 30kwh.

 

[hilld]

Sounds like we were like ships passing through the night. After charging at the Walmart in Lacey on Friday I got a crazy error in my car and the service dept (in Vancouver) asked me to bring it in. I politely declined and after power cycling the car the error went away. On the way back I charged in Kelso after having issues in Federal Way.

After today I'm not gonna lie, I'm feeling a small amount of buyer's remorse. I drove from Portland to Medford and ended up having to charge for 90 minutes in Grants Pass in the 104 degree heat because the charger was only spitting out 30kwh.

That is kinda funny (ok not really, but you have to have a sense of humor). My car is actually sitting at Dick Hannah VW in Vancouver waiting for the part. The car lives in Friday Harbor, so I will have to drive their rental car back home. The advisor told me that they might have somebody bring my car back to me after the repairs.....we shall see.

I hope they had a place that thad ice cream while your car charged.

 

[TLEanon]

That is kinda funny (ok not really, but you have to have a sense of humor). My car is actually sitting at Dick Hannah VW in Vancouver waiting for the part. The car lives in Friday Harbor, so I will have to drive their rental car back home. The advisor told me that they might have somebody bring my car back to me after the repairs.....we shall see.

I hope they had a place that thad ice cream while your car charged.

Oh snap I think they told me about your car when I called them. That's where I bought mine from. Small world! Unfortunately they don't seem to know much about them yet. I guess that's a good thing if they haven't run into a bunch of issues? I will be bringing mine in when I get back from Medford.

 

[VW TECHNICIAN]

What you experience from EA is not the fault of ID4..... It is not just you but anyone with EV at early stages of Fast DC charging development will have to learn to be patient or send the letter to the US president and let him know how you feel about US network.
Over time you will learn to appreciate more EV benefits than issues that follow all of people who are getting in the EV world.

 

[TLEanon]

What you experience from EA is not the fault of ID4..... It is not just you but anyone with EV at early stages of Fast DC charging development will have to learn to be patient or send the letter to the US president and let him know how you feel about US network.
Over time you will learn to appreciate more EV benefits than issues that follow all of people who are getting in the EV world.

Ok great what's the point of belittling us? Some of us have jobs where we actually have to be places at a certain time and it's really not great to be stranded with no other options. I was sold the car along with EA, I should not have to charge elsewhere. Either they should build more stations so encountering a bad one isn't such a huge issue or they should actually make sure their stations are working properly. At the station in Grants Pass I was told the parts are "on order". Why are these parts not stocked? "Just in time" supply chain logistics is not appropriate for this sort of service. These stations should not be offline for weeks at a time, it's completely unacceptable.

 

[hilld]

What you experience from EA is not the fault of ID4..... It is not just you but anyone with EV at early stages of Fast DC charging development will have to learn to be patient or send the letter to the US president and let him know how you feel about US network.
Over time you will learn to appreciate more EV benefits than issues that follow all of people who are getting in the EV world.

Really, that is the stance you are taking.......

VW sold the car with a 3 year free charging agreement with EA. Maybe VW should have vetted EA better or been more actively involved in testing this stuff. But in my case, since VW is now saying to replace the charging socket, are you sure you want to fall on your sword and blame EA instead of VW that built the car.

I fully realize that you as a tech had zero involvement in the development and building of the car. I used to be a tech for VW/Audi in Germany and for several Ford/Chrysler dealerships in the US, but that was over 25 years ago.

We all are aware of the various software bugs the car has, so the car certainly is not fully baked and I can live without a functioning radio, but I cannot live with a car that won't charge and get me to my destination in a reasonable amount of time. Level 2 charing on a road trip is not what I should have to endure, that is NOT what I purchased this car for.

 

[VW TECHNICIAN]

Really, that is the stance you are taking.......

VW sold the car with a 3 year free charging agreement with EA. Maybe VW should have vetted EA better or been more actively involved in testing this stuff. But in my case, since VW is now saying to replace the charging socket, are you sure you want to fall on your sword and blame EA instead of VW that built the car.

I fully realize that you as a tech had zero involvement in the development and building of the car. I used to be a tech for VW/Audi in Germany and for several Ford/Chrysler dealerships in the US, but that was over 25 years ago.

We all are aware of the various software bugs the car has, so the car certainly is not fully baked and I can live without a functioning radio, but I cannot live with a car that won't charge and get me to my destination in a reasonable amount of time. Level 2 charing on a road trip is not what I should have to endure, that is NOT what I purchased this car for.

My apologies if my statement have you feel bad.
This was not my intention...i do agree with you on this.....but we are living in place where still many things are not mandated or controlled for sourcing parts from outside of USA....and so many variations in quality of mentioned parts are giving night mare to EV makers..

 

[JimmyVW]

There have been reports on the German forums that some ID.4 cars have been built with a 50KW charging limit.
I thought it was only for some European cars, but if it charges with only 50KW, even when nearly empty, it might be you are one of those lucky few.
apparently it needs a reflash of the BMS to fix.

 

[hilld]

I hope that is not the case, but that would still allow the car to charge, even though slower, rather than refuse to charge.

 

[VW TECHNICIAN]

There have been reports on the German forums that some ID.4 cars have been built with a 50KW charging limit.
I thought it was only for some European cars, but if it charges with only 50KW, even when nearly empty, it might be you are one of those lucky few.
apparently it needs a reflash of the BMS to fix.

Depending on battery pack size...
82 kWh is for now 125 kWh...you can research it.
Smaller sizes will have lower max speeds at Fast DC charger.

 

[JimmyVW]

I hope that is not the case, but that would still allow the car to charge, even though slower, rather than refuse to charge.

Exacty, no charge at all is a totally different issue.

 

[JimmyVW]

Depending on battery pack size...
82 kWh is for now 125 kWh...you can research it.
Smaller sizes will have lower max speeds at Fast DC charger.

This was an issue regarding 77KWH ID.4, released with a 50KWH lock.

 

[MBE]

I’ve got a deposit down for both the ID.4 and Model Y. Both supposedly coming in October. Obviously the ID.4 is a better deal, unless it doesn’t work. Reliability is worth not getting the tax credit. Or maybe better to wait a year until the bugs are ironed out on the ID.4.

 

[hilld]

I agree, a reliable car is the most important consideration. I am hoping that the socket replacement will take care of the issue. The biggest gripe of course is the time it takes to get a part and if the part ordered doesn't solve the problem, add another 10 days for the next part. That alone puts the car into lemon law territory as far as number of days out of service. I really like the car, but I also like not being stranded.