Charging curve logs post 2.1.52

[Shane_SLC]

Hello forum friends!

With the most recent software update Lucid made changes for battery temperature management as well as preconditioning at low battery levels and I wanted to see how this affected the charging curve. I've gathered a little bit of data that I wanted to share with everyone. Before I do, I just want to note some disclaimers and limitations. Also note this will be a lengthy post and will be split up across multiple entries.

• Data was recorded by hand or transcribed from video, so there may be some minor errors in my dataset. Often charging power would fluctuate within SoC levels, and I did my best to used the kW reading that seemed most stable at each level.
• The original idea was to charge different cars under the same conditions to eliminate as many variables as possible, but unfortunately that ended up not happening as planned. There may be some discrepancies introduced due to charging on different stations on different days. Obviously, Lucid can and has collected better data under better conditions.
• While I feel the data is fairly representative, there are many variables that affect charging speed. I tried to limit variables as much as possible, but there's no guarantees that the chargers themselves were working at 100%, and you'll see that one of them definitely was not.
• This is all just for fun! The point of this comparison is not to question why a Touring charges slower than a Grand Touring, or to complain to Lucid about the charging curve. It's simply to attempt to see what the changes Lucid has made look like in a read-world scenario. I trust Lucid to find the right balance of charging speeds/curve versus battery longevity.

 

[Shane_SLC]

Link to the comparison data:

2.1.52 Charging Comparison

2.1.52 GT vs. Touring Comparison EVgo 2/15,EA 2/18 Volund's Grand Touring,Shane_SLC's Touring Location: West Valley City, UT EVgo,Location: Salt Lake City, UT EA Time: 7:31 PM MST,Time: 2:29 AM MST Temperature: 42 F,Temperature: 40 F Peak Amps:,308,Preconditioning:,45 minutes+ Starting Voltage:,827

docs.google.com

Old data for those interested:

Charging Curve Analysis 11/17/23 - 11/19/23

2.1.52 GT vs. Touring Comparison EVgo 2/15,EA 2/18 Volund's Grand Touring,Shane_SLC's Touring Location: West Valley City, UT EVgo,Location: Salt Lake City, UT EA Time: 7:31 PM MST,Time: 2:29 AM MST Temperature: 42 F,Temperature: 40 F Peak Amps:,308,Preconditioning:,45 minutes+ Starting Voltage:,827

docs.google.com

The original plan was to test a Touring and Grand Touring under the same conditions to see how the charging curves of the two compare and to see how noticeable the changes made in 2.1.52 are. @Volund in their Grand Touring and I in my Touring coordinated to charge back-to-back at our nearest local EVgo station on the same charger in hopes of eliminating variables as much as possible. We started with the GT by preconditioning the battery for at least 20-30 minutes and beginning charging at 5% SoC. Unfortunately, we immediately noticed an issue with the charging session.

As you'll see below the GT only peaked at around 257 kW, which is not as high as it should be. EVgo provides additional charging data and we noted that the peak amperage provided by the charger was just above 300, when it should be somewhere around 350-400. My best guess is the charger was not providing full power for some reason. Luckily, speeds seemed to look more normal starting at about 10%, so we decided the data was still worth collecting. Once the GT completed charging at 80% SoC we hopped into my Touring and began preconditioning and set a timer for 30 minutes. Temperatures were in the low 40's at this point, so we wanted to give the car enough time to precondition sufficiently. Unfortunately another driver pulled into the charger we were planning to use while we were waiting, so we decided to try one of the other 350 kW units.

Sadly, all of the other chargers either would not work at all or were even more limited in speed than the first charger. At this point I just had to wait it out while waiting for the original charger to free up again. Once I was finally able to plug in I was unfortunately treating to the same amperage limit as before, and my charging speeds peaked at a measly 198 kW. Defeated, I decided to give up on the attempt for the night and went home. I decided to try the local Electrify America station a few days later in the middle of the night to hopefully avoid load-sharing with another car.

This charging session was much more successful, and my charging speed peaked at 272 kW! This is the highest I've seen in my car in over 6 months. I had preconditioned for over 45 minutes before plugging in, and it appeared that the charger was delivering full power. I would have like to have both cars tested together, but I felt this was better than nothing. I've pasted the charging curve chart for both cars below. I'll leave it up to GT owners to see how it compares to their own, but it looks like the GT and Touring have similar curves with the GT having higher speeds due to the higher pack voltage.

 

[Shane_SLC]

I also wanted to compare how this new charging curve log compared to data I've collected previously, and you'll see that chart below. Unfortunately the old data was mostly collected in 5% increments and the new in 1% increments, but you can still hopefully see how they compare. Aside from the increased peak speeds at low battery levels it seems pretty comparable, although the new curve is slightly higher than the old curve starting at about 35%. There was not a significant change in total charging duration, but it's nice to see at least some slight improvements!

If you made it this far, thank you very much for reading! I know these comparisons aren't very interesting for most, and that they're of very limited practical use. I just find it really interesting to see how the changes look in a real-world scenario, and I like to know what my car is capable of given the right conditions. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts and experiences since 2.1.52. I'm planning on doing another test at a different EVgo station later this week, and if I find anything interesting I'll make note of it in this thread. Special thanks to @Volund for providing their car and their time. All the best!

 

[Shane_SLC]

Just wanted to note that I tested the EVgo station again this morning on a different charger and was still seeing the amperage limit, so I'm guessing there is a site-wide current limitation. There were no other chargers being used at the time. Still a usable station that is very nice to have, but not great for charging tests.

 

[momo3605]

I've noticed even with your ideal preconditioned testing, you're consistently getting lower high SOC performance and not hitting 100kw at 60% like myself and @Cosmo Cruz were able to do on a cold battery in my touring. Wonder what the difference could be...

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

I love that folk are posting data, in whatever form.

I have made my peace with the charging curve.

Having a home charger is the way ... or getting your local community to accept what's here.

 

[Shane_SLC]

I've noticed even with your ideal preconditioned testing, you're consistently getting lower high SOC performance and not hitting 100kw at 60% like myself and @Cosmo Cruz were able to do on a cold battery in my touring. Wonder what the difference could be...

My guess would be that starting with a cold battery would "flatten" the curve, meaning your speeds at low SoC goes down and your speeds at a higher SoC goes up. With a slower starting speed I would think you'd be less thermally limited later in the curve, and thus potentially see a slightly higher speed. But could be degradation, outside temperature, or any number of other things!

 

[borski]

It’s so difficult because it’s so charger dependent. I was at one 350 with my wife’s Ioniq 5, pulling a solid 73kW. Miserable.

I moved literally to the next one over after some dude left, and pulled 274kW.

 

[Shane_SLC]

It’s so difficult because it’s so charger dependent. I was at one 350 with my wife’s Ioniq 5, pulling a solid 73kW. Miserable.

I moved literally to the next one over after some dude left, and pulled 274kW.

Yeah, it's a complete crapshoot a lot of the time. I'm hoping as charging infrastructure evolves there will be more transparancy on when specific units are functioning poorly without having to use another app like Plugshare and hoping someone has reported it. Or, of course, the CPOs could improve the uptime and reliability of what's already in the ground.

 

[kort6776]

all this data is interesting but I have rarely ever gotten decent charge speeds at EA so for me it is all irrelevant.

 

[Daniel2022AT]

Very cool data. Thank you for the time and effort doing this analysis. I have not charged with 2.1.52 but I have experienced pretty good charging recently with the newer EA chargers. e.g. Touring starting at about 250 kW and averaging 160 kW for the initial 15 minutes. That’s pretty good for road trip purposes.

 

[segbrk]

I was going to share a Touring charging curve today, but captured this absolutely unhelpful data instead. 31-80%, 25 minutes of preconditioning, 350kW EA charger, but yeah... maxed out just over 80 kW. To be clear, this is not normal. I hadn't used this station before.

 

[momo3605]

I was going to share a Touring charging curve today, but captured this absolutely unhelpful data instead. 31-80%, 25 minutes of preconditioning, 350kW EA charger, but yeah... maxed out just over 80 kW. To be clear, this is not normal. I hadn't used this station before.
View attachment 18684

Almost 40 minutes for 30-80% yikes! That definitely seems like a bad charger. I’ve seen better rates on a completely cold battery tbh

 

[Rogue]

We are on a road trip. The car did not get down to the usual single digits because we were unsure of charger on arrival. EA station worked for the first time in 6-9 months as advertised.

On the way back, I will see if we get closer to single digits for test. No charts.

Highlights. At 14% and ~50F°, car had full precondition from automatic road trip feature start. We started at 250kwh and rapidly rose up to 300-310kwh (within 30 seconds). This held give or take until about 25-28% with only minor decrements 10-15kwh. We charged a total of 53% in 20 minutes (massage seat timer) ending around 160kwh. Fairly linear decline from the low 20's mark.

That is one of our fastest charging stops. 53% * 1.2 = 64-65 kWh in 20 minutes, so this was an average of 192+kWh over the session.

I'll record the next one when in single digits and not closing my eyes for a quick nap with periodic peaks.

 

[Volund]

I've had some of the best speeds when I've been on a road trip and the battery is already warm and I didn't even precondition, just popped next to a random EA along the way and charged.
This was back in November of 2023 though

 

[chris]

geez. I have yet to see above 212 peak on an EA fast charger. I have not yet tried EVGO and the only other fast charger I've used so far was in Dubuque, Iowa last Thursday which only had a max of 100kW but at least was only 20 cents per Kw (so that was nice!)

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

geez. I have yet to see above 212 peak on an EA fast charger. I have not yet tried EVGO and the only other fast charger I've used so far was in Dubuque, Iowa last Thursday which only had a max of 100kW but at least was only 20 cents per Kw (so that was nice!)

212 kW

That's pretty good = you should be happy.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

This is kinda fun on a meta scale. Like, we are debating gasoline / gas pumps; time it takes to re-fueling; and lines at the re-fueling stations.

"Oh, I go to the Independent on Rt. 22. 29.9 cents/gallon of regular leaded."
" Yeah, but how many gpm do they pump? I hear their gas pumps are slow or don't work at all..."
"But my VW bug only holds 9 gallons...what's your Electra 225: 30, 40 gallons?!"

Waiting for a fill-up. Things have changed, but they are the same.

 

[chris]

^ That kinda looks like the 1st 'fake' political gas crisis of the 70s my parents told me about-- where you could only buy gas on odd or even days depending on if your plate was odd or even numbered.. lol

 

[TomFish]

A week ago I charged my Dream Edition with S/W v2.1.52 at a 350 kW EA station and got close to 300 kW (19 mile/min) while at around 10%-15% SOC.
The temperature was probably in the 50’s and I preconditioned the battery during the prior 20 minutes of my drive. In the 31 minutes I was connected it delivered 83.6 kWh (I didn’t record the drop in kW rate).
I was really impressed how quickly it charged while I went into the Walmart in Newport News, VA for something to eat on a break from my long trip.

I did have to try two other chargers before finding one that would connect with my Lucid.

As a side note, a Hummer EV SUV Edition One that I had pre-ordered arrived at the local Tysons GMC dealership. After a 3 year wait, we had just purchased a Land Rover Defender for my wife and I wasn’t going to get the Hummer. It was pretty fun to test drive though - not as big as you read in comments. The rear-wheel steering makes it easy to drive, but you do have to pay attention to squeeze into parking spots.
I’m reminded of the Hummer EV and its horrible electric efficiency. Somewhere I saw somebody trying to charge one from a 110v outlet and the Hummer screen said it was going to take nearly a week to fully charge!
That makes you appreciate the great efficiency of the Lucid!