[Spin]

We left yesterday on a planned 450 mile road trip from LI to my son's house near Pittsburg, PA. As this is the first EV we ever owned, I had range anxiety before we left. We charged to 100% and set off for the EA station in Bloomsburg, PA. We arrived with a 15% charge remaining and initiated charging. After a few minutes, I noticed we were only charging at 50kW. We have charged many times at other EA stations on LI and always start charging at 125kW. After about 20 minutes, a message came up on the charging screen that said " this function is unavailable". I could tell from the EA app and the Car-Net app that we were still charging so we just let it charge. After about an hour and 15 minutes, charging stopped at 80%, which I had set before we lost the screen. We set off for Bedford, PA. We had no speedometer and no mileage GOM on the small screen. The charging screen still said "this function is unavailable". The Car-Net app still showed state of charge and mileage remaining. I had a speedometer app on my phone that we used. Odometer on the status screen was also blank. We arrived at Bedford and initiated charging. It started charging at 127kW and ramped down from there. We charged to 80% and set off for my son's house. We still did not have speedo or GOM. We arrived safely, still with the same issues. I tried turning the car off, locking, then unlocking, getting in and securing seatbelt, restarting the car, but the same issues were there. It was getting late so I didn't want to start disconnecting the battery and doing a reset so we left it for the morning. This morning I went out, got in the car and all issues were gone. Everything seems to be normal. To say the least, this is the most interesting car I've ever owned.

 

[Huey52]

"Interesting" is kind considering. But glad that it actually charged AOK, despite the nebulous readouts, and you made it safe and sound.

A 1-1/4 hour "layover" I guess isn't so bad as always good to take a break on a long road trip.

Thanks for the report and enjoy the family long weekend (hopefully the weather much better in western PA than eastern NY).

btw: there were updates to both the EA and Car-Net Apps recently. Related?

 

[PaulD]

By shutting down the car and letting it sit for awhile you effectively reset the computer. Kind of like when you unplug a TV that is acting up for 10 or 15 minutes.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I think my mother called my apartment at school "interesting." Or maybe it was "charming." Either way, same effect. Wow, I wish you good luck on the trip back home. This caught my interest as the Bloomsburg charger is one of my choices on my trip from the DC area to upstate NY. It's about 25 miles off the main road, Rt 15 that I take, but not too bad. And it's a bit of a charger desert going through PA there. I don't have my ID yet, but decided to drive the route suggested by ABRP a few weeks ago to see how it would go. Not too bad, about 200 miles from home. And the last part of the trip was through slower roads which should help with range. But not much to do there at the EA charger as you now know. You can only spend so much time browsing the shelves at Sheetz.

I wonder what happened? I guess it could be a combination of a funky charger sending some bad data to the car and the car software unable to deal with it. But losing critical readouts on the car is not cool at all.

I would normally make fun of people doing this, but as part of my EV research I've been watching a lot of road trip youtube videos, mostly Kyle's Out of Spec Motoring channel. Although his charging adventure usually work well, there are many times when the charging speed is too low or the charger just shuts down. He will usually get things working by switching charging stalls a few times, but sometimes things just don't go well. And this is on the supposedly rock solid plug 'n charge Tesla supercharger network. He recently did a video about one of Tesla's new V3 superchargers at Las Vegas, which he couldn't get to work at all.

Do you expect to stop at Bloomsburg on the way back? I guess there are not too many other choices in the area. In any case, fair winds and following seas, I guess that will work for EV's too...

 

[Spin]

I will stop at Bloomsburg on the way back, but I will try a different charger. The chargers at Bloomsburg are different from the ones I've used on LI. The chargers at Bloomsburg have the plug holders on front of the cabinets. The ones on LI have them on the side. Bedford also has them on the side.

 

[Spin]

We left this morning and stopped again at the Bedford EA charger. Car would not charge at several chargers I tried so I had to call. After several tries at resetting the charger and my app we were able to charge. Max charging rate was 103 kW. We decided to avoid the Bloomsburg charger this trip and stopped at Allentown, PA instead. Charger started right away but the max rate was only 97 kW. We had one issue that popped up on the way to Allentown (see photo) but this too corrected itself when we left Allentown.

 

[PaulD]

We left this morning and stopped again at the Bedford EA charger. Car would not charge at several chargers I tried so I had to call. After several tries at resetting the charger and my app we were able to charge. Max charging rate was 103 kW. We decided to avoid the Bloomsburg charger this trip and stopped at Allentown, PA instead. Charger started right away but the max rate was only 97 kW. We had one issue that popped up on the way to Allentown (see photo) but this too corrected itself when we left Allentown.
View attachment 3761

What was your battery SOC when you began charging at these 2 different chargers ?

 

[Andy at Ross-Tech.com]

@Spin which charger(s) in Bedford did you try? A couple weeks ago I plugged into the CCS/CHAdeMO and had sub optimal results. Here’s my notes: “Charger 4 started quickly (full 125kW at 8%) but tapered off far too fast (77kW at 22%) so I unplugged and connected to charger 3 which provided a much faster charge, more consistent with the ID.4’s curve. “

 

[Spin]

What was your battery SOC when you began charging at these 2 different chargers ?

15 % at Bedford and 19% at Allentown

 

[Spin]

@Spin which charger(s) in Bedford did you try? A couple weeks ago I plugged into the CCS/CHAdeMO and had sub optimal results. Here’s my notes: “Charger 4 started quickly (full 125kW at 8%) but tapered off far too fast (77kW at 22%) so I unplugged and connected to charger 3 which provided a much faster charge, more consistent with the ID.4’s curve. “

I first tried #1, then went to #3. I charged at #1 last Friday and it was fine. Started at 127kW

 

[Spin]

 

[thomas_y3]

We left yesterday on a planned 450 mile road trip from LI to my son's house near Pittsburg, PA. As this is the first EV we ever owned, I had range anxiety before we left. We charged to 100% and set off for the EA station in Bloomsburg, PA. We arrived with a 15% charge remaining and initiated charging. After a few minutes, I noticed we were only charging at 50kW. We have charged many times at other EA stations on LI and always start charging at 125kW. After about 20 minutes, a message came up on the charging screen that said " this function is unavailable". I could tell from the EA app and the Car-Net app that we were still charging so we just let it charge. After about an hour and 15 minutes, charging stopped at 80%, which I had set before we lost the screen. We set off for Bedford, PA. We had no speedometer and no mileage GOM on the small screen. The charging screen still said "this function is unavailable". The Car-Net app still showed state of charge and mileage remaining. I had a speedometer app on my phone that we used. Odometer on the status screen was also blank. We arrived at Bedford and initiated charging. It started charging at 127kW and ramped down from there. We charged to 80% and set off for my son's house. We still did not have speedo or GOM. We arrived safely, still with the same issues. I tried turning the car off, locking, then unlocking, getting in and securing seatbelt, restarting the car, but the same issues were there. It was getting late so I didn't want to start disconnecting the battery and doing a reset so we left it for the morning. This morning I went out, got in the car and all issues were gone. Everything seems to be normal. To say the least, this is the most interesting car I've ever owned. View attachment 3716

Glad you made it ok. Perhaps it was executing an OTA update?

 

[gorj]

We left this morning and stopped again at the Bedford EA charger. Car would not charge at several chargers I tried so I had to call. After several tries at resetting the charger and my app we were able to charge. Max charging rate was 103 kW. We decided to avoid the Bloomsburg charger this trip and stopped at Allentown, PA instead. Charger started right away but the max rate was only 97 kW. We had one issue that popped up on the way to Allentown (see photo) but this too corrected itself when we left Allentown.
View attachment 3761

I had the same message pop up on a recent long trip. It went away when restarting, but came on again in about 75 miles. Went off when stopped and never came on again. I experienced similar issues with EA on a long trip. Very inconsistent. Twice I had to move to a different charger.

 

[Andy at Ross-Tech.com]

The EA giveth and taketh away. I have plotted out all of my DCFC so far and the results are inconsistent to say the least:

Sheet #	Date	Location	Ambient *F	Start Batt *C	End Batt *C	Begin SoC	End SoC	Minutes	Kyle's peak	Peak kW	Total kWh	Cost	Notes
210322-01	3/22/21	EA at KoP	66	17.5	17.5	47%	48%	1	100	87	1	$0.00	Charger stopped on its own
210322-02	3/22/21	EA at KoP	66	17.5	30	48%	90%	39	100	58	33	$0.00
210329-01	3/29/21	EA Allentown	54	18.5	30	24%	100%	64	125	94	59	$10.00	Deposit
210403-01	4/3/21	EA at KoP	55	17	22	47%	67%	18	100	56	15	$0.00	I switched to next charger voluntarily
210403-02	4/3/21	EA at KoP	55	22	24.5	67%	80%	12	70	51	9	$0.00
210411-01	4/11/21	EVgo Conshy	61	17.5	19	72%	80%	10	65	44	6.9	$3.00	$0.43
210424-01	4/24/21	EA at KoP	72	23	41	10%	90%	46	125	125	64	$0.00
210516-01	5/16/21	EA at Bedford	51	25	33.5	8%	32%	14	125	127	20	$0.00	I switched to next charger voluntarily
210516-02	5/16/21	EA at Bedford	54	???	???	33%	98%	50	120	116	52	$0.00	Did not log, oops
210516-03	5/16/21	EA at Carlisle	71	???	???	68%	81%	14	65	54	11	$0.00	Did not log, oops
210516-04	5/16/21	EA at Pottstown	73	28	33.5	45%	85%	30	105	81	32	$0.00
210529-01	5/29/21	EA Plymouth Mtg	51	11	14	72%	87%	32	65	35	15	$0.00	CCS/CHAdeMo pump
210531-01	5/31/21	EA Cherry Hill	79	22	27.5	61%	79%	18	75	55	15	$0.00	CCS/CHAdeMo pump

 

[Spin]

The 2 charging sites we use here on LI always start at about 125kW when we are below 20% SOC. I was very surprised at the inconsistent charging we encountered on this trip. It makes me rethink using this car for road trips, especially since I have other vehicles available.

 

[gorj]

The 2 charging sites we use here on LI always start at about 125kW when we are below 20% SOC. I was very surprised at the inconsistent charging we encountered on this trip. It makes me rethink using this car for road trips, especially since I have other vehicles available.

I have addressed these inconstant issues with both VW of America and EA. Have not received a reply from either. As a retired person I am not ever in a hurry, but I can not imagine having some kids in a car when it takes longer than normal to charge. On a long trip I have learned to charge only enough to get me to the next charge station with about 30 miles left when I get there. That way it does not take so long to charge.

 

[Spin]

I have addressed these inconstant issues with both VW of America and EA. Have not received a reply from either. As a retired person I am not ever in a hurry, but I can not imagine having some kids in a car when it takes longer than normal to charge. On a long trip I have learned to charge only enough to get me to the next charge station with about 30 miles left when I get there. That way it does not take so long to charge.

As a retired person myself, I sometimes am in a hurry. Like last Friday when I wanted to see my Grandchildren before their bedtime. I didn't make it because it took me almost twice as long to charge at Bloomsburg. The result is that I will use another vehicle when I make this trip again. I found this vehicle inconvenient to use on a weekend getaway like this. I am glad we had this experience because I know what to expect when I drive this car to Florida this winter. I will leave it there to use when we are there and drive it back in the spring. I usually make that trip in 2 days, and I think I will still be able to do that, but I will be prepared to spend a second night in a hotel if I run into charging issues.

The car is in the shop today to check the issues we had on the trip. I will post the result later.

 

[gorj]

As a retired person myself, I sometimes am in a hurry. Like last Friday when I wanted to see my Grandchildren before their bedtime. I didn't make it because it took me almost twice as long to charge at Bloomsburg. The result is that I will use another vehicle when I make this trip again. I found this vehicle inconvenient to use on a weekend getaway like this. I am glad we had this experience because I know what to expect when I drive this car to Florida this winter. I will leave it there to use when we are there and drive it back in the spring. I usually make that trip in 2 days, and I think I will still be able to do that, but I will be prepared to spend a second night in a hotel if I run into charging issues.

The car is in the shop today to check the issues we had on the trip. I will post the result later.

For me, the charging issues have been the only short coming of owning the ID4. Other than that it has been the best vehicle I have owned. I was fully expecting to spend 30-35 minutes to charge when I am on a trip. But 40 to 60 minutes is a bummer. When charging at my local EA I usually only need a hundred miles or so charge because I charge when I go shopping once or twice a week, so the time makes no difference. I have learned to pace my shopping to be back to the ID4 just about the time it is finished charging. But EA and VW really need to work on this charging issue. I would also like to see them building more stations with solar. They could do it by putting roofs over the stations with solar panels in them!

 

[Spin]

The car is in the shop today to check the issues we had on the trip. I will post the result later.

They found nothing. No codes, everything working normally. I showed them the pictures and they shrugged their shoulders. They said to bring it to them when there is an issue. I'm very surprised there was no record of this anywhere in the car. I had no speedometer, no GOM, no odometer, and no charging screen for 300 miles. The center screen said "Warnings and information not available. Drive with greater care!" It seems to me that there should be a record of this on the computer. The "Black box" records speed, g forces, etc. during an accident so why wouldn't there be a record of this as well?

 

[Huey52]

The ID.4 is my retired around town errand & fairly local grandkids visitation vehicle and it's already exceeded my expectations in that regard. Especially on frequent home center runs. But then I mostly L2 charge at home.
Given these valued experiences of members I will not likely use it for road trips, at least not until VW & EA improve the overall charging environment. I have confidence that will come, especially as EV's of all brands increase.
But again for my current 99-44/100% daily needs I'm really enjoying the ID.4.