Beware: reduced charging speeds if frequently fast charging

[2BD1]

I own a 2024 Lucid Air Pure and have been primarily using Electrify America fast chargers since Lucid offers free charging. Recently, I noticed my charging speed never exceeds 80 kW, even at high-power EA stations.

I took it to Lucid of Roswell, GA, and they told me the car is working as designed and that frequent fast charging reduces charging speeds to protect the battery. They also recommended only charging at home for the next 30-60 days to see if my charging speeds return to normal.

Frustrated with this response, I checked the owners manual and found no mention of frequent fast charging causing a reduction in speed. It does provide general battery health guidance, such as preconditioning and recommended charge limits, but nothing explicitly stating that regular fast charging would throttle back speeds.

If others are experiencing this, it raises a serious question. Is Lucid limiting charging speeds without disclosure, and if so, why offer free EA charging if the battery cannot handle consistent high-speed charging?

Has anyone else noticed this issue?

 

[segbrk]

I could absolutely be mistaken, but that unfortunately sounds like a case of some Lucid rep not knowing what they're talking about. I don't have any better answers for you, but I do know that some here have been charging exclusively at EA for the 2+ years they've had their cars. I did every week for the first 6 months I had mine, until I got a home charger installed. Never saw any reduction in speeds like that. I'd try to find someone else at your service center to ask.

 

[thyname]

Nothing to do with Lucid. It’s EA. How do I know? My wife has the Hyundai Ioniq 5 with free EA charging for the past 18 months.

 

[2BD1]

Thanks for the response. I had a similar suspicion but didn’t press further since they said Lucid’s engineering team reviewed the data logs and reached that conclusion after having the car for a week. Based on what you’re saying, i’ll definitely bring the subject back up with Lucid!

 

[Buffalo Bob]

I own a 2024 Lucid Air Pure and have been primarily using Electrify America fast chargers since Lucid offers free charging. Recently, I noticed my charging speed never exceeds 80 kW, even at high-power EA stations.

I took it to Lucid of Roswell, GA, and they told me the car is working as designed and that frequent fast charging reduces charging speeds to protect the battery. They also recommended only charging at home for the next 30-60 days to see if my charging speeds return to normal.

Frustrated with this response, I checked the owners manual and found no mention of frequent fast charging causing a reduction in speed. It does provide general battery health guidance, such as preconditioning and recommended charge limits, but nothing explicitly stating that regular fast charging would throttle back speeds.

If others are experiencing this, it raises a serious question. Is Lucid limiting charging speeds without disclosure, and if so, why offer free EA charging if the battery cannot handle consistent high-speed charging?

Has anyone else noticed this issue?

I don't think the information you've been given is correct. I have a '23 Pure AWD. Over the course of 12 months and 13.5k miles, I have charged almost exclusively with EA, and have noticed no such degradation. Bear in mind that I typically charge to 82% (gets me home five miles away at 80%), always precondition, and I split my time between two cities in such a manner that it's always good charging conditions. With that practice, my Lucid API report shows one of the highest battery health reports I've seen posted on the forum (97.4%).

I suppose that if I was always charging to a really high SOC, and the car's battery health indicators started taking a big hit, some protective element of the software design might dial things back. It's certainly possible, but you should be advised if that is happening... just like EA does when they are limiting the power delivered.

 

[2BD1]

I’m not sure if that’s the case for me. Before dropping the car off, I reached out to EA while it was charging, and they confirmed the slow speed was due to my car requesting it, not the station’s capability. Plus, the Lucid loaner (GT) I received had no trouble hitting the advertised charging speeds at the same EA station, also for free.

Lucid claims my car is limiting charging speeds to “protect the battery” due to how frequently I fast charge. With that said, I’ll try a non-EA station for my next charge and see if it makes a difference. Will report back.

 

[Buffalo Bob]

Lucid claims my car is limiting charging speeds to “protect the battery” due to how frequently I fast charge. With that said, I’ll try a non-EA station for my next charge and see if it makes a difference. Will report back.

If the car is limiting the rate, I doubt that it would matter which vendor you are using. What % SOC do you typically charge to? Also, check out your battery health with the Lucid API (testmycode.cc).

 

[2BD1]

Thanks for the response. I had a similar suspicion but didn’t press further since they said Lucid’s engineering team reviewed the data logs and reached that conclusion after having the car for a week. Based on what you’re saying, i’ll definitely bring the subject back up with Lucid!

@segbrk

 

[2BD1]

I’m not sure if that’s the case for me. Before dropping the car off, I reached out to EA while it was charging, and they confirmed the slow speed was due to my car requesting it, not the station’s capability. Plus, the Lucid loaner (GT) I received had no trouble hitting the advertised charging speeds at the same EA station, also for free.

Lucid claims my car is limiting charging speeds to “protect the battery” due to how frequently I fast charge. With that said, I’ll try a non-EA station for my next charge and see if it makes a difference. Will report back.

@thyname

 

[timpossible]

I have a '23 Pure and have exclusively charged through EA's fast charger 3x a week for the past 9months. I don't see the degradations that you're seeing.

 

[2BD1]

If the car is limiting the rate, I doubt that it would matter which vendor you are using. What % SOC do you typically charge to? Also, check out your battery health with the Lucid API.

80% majority of the time and 95-100% maybe 3x total.

 

[2BD1]

80% majority of the time and 95-100% maybe 3x total.

Lucid api? How do I get access to that information? All I was provided was this from Lucid:

 

[AirQuality]

I also own a '23 Pure AWD (basically a Touring as far as charging is concerned) that has been exclusively fast charged on EA for the past 10 months, typically once every 4-5 days, with about 40 min of preconditioning on most occasions. Typical charging has been 20-85%. I have never seen this kind of reduction in speeds to 80 kW. If anything, with the 2.6.0 update, I've been seeing some very impressive initial charging speeds of right up to 250 kW for the and then dropping into the 150 kW or so range as has been mentioned in various charge curve threads. Could it be that the 2024 Pure (which is different in many ways than the '23 Pure AWD) has some differences in how the BMS handles fast charging?

 

[2BD1]

According to testmycode.cc my battery’s health is 94.9%. Not sure if that’s good/bad tbh. Picked up the car new about 8 months ago. Currently has 6.5k miles on it.

 

[nothingemotional]

I own a 2024 Lucid Air Pure and have been primarily using Electrify America fast chargers since Lucid offers free charging. Recently, I noticed my charging speed never exceeds 80 kW, even at high-power EA stations.

I took it to Lucid of Roswell, GA, and they told me the car is working as designed and that frequent fast charging reduces charging speeds to protect the battery. They also recommended only charging at home for the next 30-60 days to see if my charging speeds return to normal.

Frustrated with this response, I checked the owners manual and found no mention of frequent fast charging causing a reduction in speed. It does provide general battery health guidance, such as preconditioning and recommended charge limits, but nothing explicitly stating that regular fast charging would throttle back speeds.

If others are experiencing this, it raises a serious question. Is Lucid limiting charging speeds without disclosure, and if so, why offer free EA charging if the battery cannot handle consistent high-speed charging?

Has anyone else noticed this issue?

24 pure here. I'm glad I'm not the only one that has experienced this. Yes I was told exactly the same thing from my service center. Apparently if dc fast charging on a consistent basis, which is what I was doing since delivery for about 4 months at only EA, my speeds were reduced to 87~kwh. Didn't matter which EA charger, ambient temps, along with ample preconditioning. The car will limit the charging speeds as it software controlled to protect the longevity and health of the battery according to the service representative. I was not enthused to hear of this and for about a month I didn't fast charge and the speeds seem to have returned within normal range.

 

[LucidSpeed]

24 pure here. I'm glad I'm not the only one that has experienced this. Yes I was told exactly the same thing from my service center. Apparently if dc fast charging on a consistent basis, which is what I was doing since delivery for about 4 months at only EA, my speeds were reduced to 87~kwh. Didn't matter which EA charger, ambient temps, along with ample preconditioning. The car will limit the charging speeds as it software controlled to protect the longevity and health of the battery according to the service representative. I was not enthused to hear of this and for about a month I didn't fast charge and the speeds seem to have returned within normal range.

I have a 2024 Pure with the exact same issue. The last couple charging sessions it hasn't exceeded 45kwh. I was about to contact the service center when I saw this post. After a month of home charing are you seeing fast charging rates between 100-250kwh? It will be about a month before my home charger is installed. I the mean time I hope EA doesn't get much slower.

 

[nothingemotional]

I have a 2024 Pure with the exact same issue. The last couple charging sessions it hasn't exceeded 45kwh. I was about to contact the service center when I saw this post. After a month of home charing are you seeing fast charging rates between 100-250kwh? It will be about a month before my home charger is installed. I the mean time I hope EA doesn't get much slower.

Yes the rates have returned to what I was getting before the limiting software kicked in. Although, I've never experienced speeds sustaining above 200kwh. They've always hovered between 150-170 with low soc and preconditioning.

I've only experienced 45kwh speeds when I'm at a high soc. When it was being limited, I was at a constant 70 to high 80s with low soc.

 

[BS8899]

Yes the rates have returned to what I was getting before the limiting software kicked in. Although, I've never experienced speeds sustaining above 200kwh. They've always hovered between 150-170 with low soc and preconditioning.

I've only experienced 45kwh speeds when I'm at a high soc. When it was being limited, I was at a constant 70 to high 80s with low soc.

I think you meant 200kW, not 200kWh. The Pure has a lower ceiling of charging Wattage than the AGT, correct? I thought it is 225 or 250 kW.

That said, according to @Adnillien, all the Airs use the same battery pack. The differences is in the number of packs. With fewer kWh batteries in the Pure/Touring, the charge RATE should be the same (same as the AGT) as long as there is enough voltage to sustain the charge. Isn't that correct? Are there other limiting factors that affect the CHARGE RATE?

 

[CWedge411]

I could absolutely be mistaken, but that unfortunately sounds like a case of some Lucid rep not knowing what they're talking about. I don't have any better answers for you, but I do know that some here have been charging exclusively at EA for the 2+ years they've had their cars. I did every week for the first 6 months I had mine, until I got a home charger installed. Never saw any reduction in speeds like that. I'd try to find someone else at your service center to ask.

No Kyle, Connor from out of spec. Confirmed, this is the case.

 

[CWedge411]

Kyle Connor from out of spec confirmed that this is. In fact, the case you have to level 2 charge every once in a while. To reset the counter, it is also the same on the BMW. I7, he noted this on the i90 surge video.