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hourtinschnuppe asked

EV charging station lacks power while charging

Hello. My charging station only provides 900W when charging my Volkswagen ID Buzz. However, I have set the limit to 32A and my electric meter connected to the station can supply the necessary power. The vehicle does not have any power limitation for charging and accepts full fast charges. I don't have the opportunity to test with another electric vehicle at the moment. I don't understand this low power. Can you help me, please?


Bonjour. Ma station de charge ne fournit que 900W lors de la charge de mon Volkswagen ID Buzz. Pourtant j'ai bien réglé la limite à 32A et mon compteur électrique auquel est relié la borne est capable de fournir la puissance nécessaire. Le véhicule n'a pas de limitation de puissance de charge et accepte les charges rapides complètes. Je n'ai pas l'occasion de tester avec un autre véhicule électrique pour l'instant. Je ne comprends pas cette faible puissance. Pouvez-vous m'aider svp ?

ev charging station
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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

Hi, are you sure the vehicle can charge with 32A, I see some specs where it says it is limited at16A

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hourtinschnuppe avatar image
hourtinschnuppe answered ·

Thank you for your respond. I have to check for the spec but even if the vehicule is limited to 16A, the EV charging station should provide more than max 900W I think...


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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

The EVCS is not controlling the power in any way, it's just telling the vehicle what is the available current. Between grid and can, it's just one contactor.
So if the car is not charging with more and the EVCS is configured for 32A, check the on the cable what is the maximum current supported. Also, based on temperature, and SOC, vehicles are limiting the charging power.

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hourtinschnuppe answered ·

Hi! I just went to a charging station at a local store to test my cable. The station provide a charge at 10kwh with my cable. The vehicule and the cable seems ok I don't know what I should check now?


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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

But the vehicle can charge with max 11, why 10? I told you reasons why above. Most probably, the vehicle is limiting the charging power base on temperature, SOC etc.
Try with a different vehicle, capable of doing 22kW, and you should see different values.
And where do you see that value measured ? Is it on the vehicle screen ? If yes, that, normal, that's the current going into the battery. The rest, up to 11kW, is probably consumed by the car for cooling the battery, the car interior, all the electronic etc.

If you can provide more details, maybe I or we can give you more answers.

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hourtinschnuppe avatar image hourtinschnuppe Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

The charging station at local store display between 10 kwh and 12 kwh during the charge. The vehicule show the same on his screen. At my home the remaining time until 80% of charge was 23h. At the store it was 1h30. I can't find an other electric car for now.

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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ hourtinschnuppe commented ·

So at home is charging with 9kW and the vehicle is saying 23 hours and at store was charging with 10kW, and it was saying 1h 30 min? Something is wrong with the math somewhere.
But again, the power is not regulated in any way by the EVCS, if you open it, you will see, there is only one big 3P contactor that can be open or closed.
Another reason for slow charging can be voltage drop on AC lines. But that not something the EVCS is controlling, these protections are inside the vehicle.

I'm just giving you ideas what to check, it is hard to say for sure. Is the charging station part of a Victron system? Can it be accessed remotely?

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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) answered ·

Can you show me a print screen of the main webpage of the EVCS while charging?

I asked you before, is the system accessible remotely?

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hourtinschnuppe avatar image
hourtinschnuppe answered ·

Victron4.JPGVictron1.JPGVictron2.JPGVictron3.JPG

The problem is solved. A friend bring me some help. In the settings, EV charger position was "Inverter AC out". Now with "Inverter AC in" it works.

Thank you for your help and reactivity.


victron1.jpg (61.9 KiB)
victron2.jpg (39.3 KiB)
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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image
Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) answered ·

The position ac in/out should affect the output power, but I'm glad the issue was solved somehow :)

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hourtinschnuppe answered ·

Hi! It doesn't work anymore... Settings are still the same but charging is at max 0.90 kW. It works fine last time for a charge. But today I have the same problem as before.

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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

I asked you several times to tell me how I can access it remotely or to share a picture of the main webpage

Sorry, but I can't help you if you don't cooperate.

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hourtinschnuppe avatar image hourtinschnuppe Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·
The picture of the main page are above. I have only a local access for now.
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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ hourtinschnuppe commented ·
Ok, can you share a picture from now? Showing that it is charging with 0.9kW?

That power is not even possible to configured from the EVCS, minimum current is 6A, on single phase that's approx 1.3kW, on 3P should be around 4kW

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hourtinschnuppe answered ·

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14TQ8-sBIvrWyfnEASiTFd0BU6w-B3Oeo/view?usp=sharing

I have issues sending the picture on the forum since a few days. I try with Chrome and Edge in jpeg, gif and pnj and I alway get this message : "parsing response failed". I try with a Google Drive link...

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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

Yes, it's an issue with the community platform, we are preparing migrating to a new one.
I see that it is charging with low power, I have no Idea why. I can suggest trying with a different cable, asking a friend with a different EV to test your charger. Let's try to narrow down the possible reasons.
What do you see on the screen of the car while charging? On mine, I can see the available current (16A) and the current that the vehicle is using (10A)
Take a look here:
https://www.dropbox.com/t/oCidgsJhuQv1e2YB

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hourtinschnuppe answered ·

Yesterday, I went to Volkswagen. We tried the cable on two other charging stations, and the fast charging worked fine. I haven't been able to find another EV to test my charging station yet. While charging on the Victron station, the ID. Buzz displayed 0.9 kW with 40 hours remaining to full charge. I can't take a picture of the display today because the vehicle is already fully charged.

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