[Intrakota]

29th June 2020 and we collected our brand new E-Up, yes it is the latest version with extended range and 7KW fast / 40KW Rapid charging nad everything is lovely, very efficient and goes for ever returning 7.2miles/KWh but then I drive it like a baby carriage.

So why am I rejecting the vehicle on Thursday 9th July - because of slow charging.

It’s supposed to be charging at 7.2KWh but it’s charging at 3KW, we took it to a rapid charger to see what it did there, hmmmmm 20KWh, we arrived with 66 miles range plugged in and it quoted 2 hours 05 minutes to charge. After giving us 8KW the charger cut out, BPCM restarted it for us and said not to worry about the 90 minute charge limit as they had restarted the charger it would not apply.

We then drove to Tesco and plugged in to find that the 4 7KW sockets each gave us 3KW, we then went home to try our own charger, 3KW - NOT HAPPY AT ALL.

Contacted the dealer to advise of an issue, spent all day Thursday 4th July at the dealer while they tried to investigate, the Master Tech sent a technical report to VW - NO REPLY as yet.
Yes I am aware the charge rate can be adjusted in the e-manager which very cleverly says “Maximum” and not 16 or 32Amp.

Oh and another thing Car-Net or We-don’t-connect, trying to enter the mileage in miles or km when you only get one opportunity every 24 hours or 1440 minutes as the Germans like to put it is a joke.

So, has anyone else had the same or a similar problem and if so what experiences have you had. We have had 2 e-Golf and this is our 3rd E-Up, we currently have the latest renditions of both models.

Regards Boyz and Girlz.

 

[Tooks]

So, seems like it’s confirmed that UK spec e-Ups on a single phase charge post only pull 3.7kw.

Does this mean it would pull 22kw on a 3 phase AC post?

As for the rapid charging only hitting 20kw, I don’t think that’s unusual for the first few rapid charges on a brand new car. The most it will pull is 40kw I believe, same as the e-Golf.

Personally, I wouldn’t find it an issue charging at 3.7kw at home, that’s 9-10 hours from near empty, but you shouldn’t have been led to believe it would be 7.2kw, if indeed you were.

Looks like the cars onboard charging setup has been optimised for the EU, which I guess isn’t a surprise.

 

[Tooks]

Oh, re We Connect, I needed a bit of help from Germany to get it setup in my e-Golf, but it worked and has been pretty reliable since then, despite the server outages that seem to be a frequent occurrence.

After the initial novelty of using the App, I set my timers in the car now anyway, like I used to with my GTE.

 

[Intrakota]

When we collected our e-Golf from Portsmouth September 2018 the lazy dealer didn’t bother to charge it much at all considering how far we had to travel home so we took it to a Instavolt rapid charger a few miles away, it charged at full rate within 45 mins and away we went. We arrived near home with 18 miles remaining, rapid charged again within 45 mins and went home, never had a problem charging at home with our 7KW charger and the e-Golf.

 

[Neilew]

Personally, I wouldn’t find it an issue charging at 3.7kw at home, that’s 9-10 hours from near empty, but you shouldn’t have been led to believe it would be 7.2kw, if indeed you were.

On tariffs like Octopus Go you would only get half your charging at the lower tariff. For me that's a good enough reason to return to the dealer and get it fixed. If it can't be I too would reject it. It's not fit for purpose.

@Intrakota hopefully you will get it fixed.

 

[Intrakota]

And how many homes in the uk have a 3phase supply as standard - not many, that would make it a specialist vehicle for commercial use and not a family city car as billed. At least it comes with a 32amp cable in the boot and we are also lucky enough to have bought a 32 amp 3phase cable when the supplier couldn’t supply the single phase cable we originally ordered.

Makes me wonder what the charging arrangement will be this on this ID3 1st I’m about to sign for, maybe that’s going to be 3KW at home and 7KW on a 3phase supply too.

 

[electricdriver]

So, seems like it’s confirmed that UK spec e-Ups on a single phase charge post only pull 3.7kw.

Does this mean it would pull 22kw on a 3 phase AC post?

As for the rapid charging only hitting 20kw, I don’t think that’s unusual for the first few rapid charges on a brand new car. The most it will pull is 40kw I believe, same as the e-Golf.

Personally, I wouldn’t find it an issue charging at 3.7kw at home, that’s 9-10 hours from near empty, but you shouldn’t have been led to believe it would be 7.2kw, if indeed you were.

Looks like the cars onboard charging setup has been optimised for the EU, which I guess isn’t a surprise.

More likely 11kW on a 3-phase post - if a single phase charger in the car is 3.7kW then the three together will give 11kW.

 

[Tooks]

That’s a good point, I forget not everybody has a single tariff and try to charge in the Octopus window.

I guess they’ve compromised some things to hit the price point, the single phase charging being one of them.

 

[Tooks]

And how many homes in the uk have a 3phase supply as standard - not many, that would make it a specialist vehicle for commercial use and not a family city car as billed. At least it comes with a 32amp cable in the boot and we are also lucky enough to have bought a 32 amp 3phase cable when the supplier couldn’t supply the single phase cable we originally ordered.

Makes me wonder what the charging arrangement will be this on this ID3 1st I’m about to sign for, maybe that’s going to be 3KW at home and 7KW on a 3phase supply too.

Not many UK homes have 3 phase, you’re correct.

I’m surprised none of the UK reviews have mentioned this limitation, or maybe they didn’t try slow charging.

Tim on here hasn’t mentioned it either, seems it would be something immediately noticeable. I wonder if the early UK cars had a different setup?

It wouldn’t be a good move to downgrade the ID3 charging setup versus the e-Golf, but stranger things have happened.

 

[mikeselectricstuff]

Have you checked that your charge cable is 32A ? - they have a resistor inside to tell the charger the cable capacity - a 7kW charger only charging at 3kW would be an indication of a 16A cable. The cable usually has a rating printed along the length.

 

[dk6780]

The VW UK website says

But if you get closer to 6 hours of shut eye then a wall-mounted box is a quicker option to get your car fully charged by the time you wake.

6 hours is 7kW charging.

But I wouldn't trust the website:

It all boils down to the voltage (kW) and the current (Amps)

Really? Have I been using the wrong units all of these years?

 

[dk6780]

 

[Edd Beesley]

Have you checked that your charge cable is 32A ? - they have a resistor inside to tell the charger the cable capacity - a 7kW charger only charging at 3kW would be an indication of a 16A cable. The cable usually has a rating printed along the length.

Also my first thought.

 

[Intrakota]

Our 2 previous E-Up models had the thinner yellow cable for type 2 charging, it was 16amp and charged at 3.6KWh, so did our first e-Golf. Our new e-Golf has the thicker black cable with white plugs rated and charging at 32Amp or 7.2KWh.
The cable supplied with the E-Up V3 is slightly thicker again than the e-Golf cable, all black with 2 black plugs it is clearly marked 32Amp for all to see.

When the MasterTech emailed to the Technical Dept at M.K. if this was a known common query wouldn’t they have responded quickly with a stock answer, which now leads me to think it’s now been passed on to Germany for the official response.

 

[E7EV]

Our 2 previous E-Up models had the thinner yellow cable for type 2 charging, it was 16amp and charged at 3.6KWh, so did our first e-Golf. Our new e-Golf has the thicker black cable with white plugs rated and charging at 32Amp or 7.2KWh.
The cable supplied with the E-Up V3 is slightly thicker again than the e-Golf cable, all black with 2 black plugs it is clearly marked 32Amp for all to see.

When the MasterTech emailed to the Technical Dept at M.K. if this was a known common query wouldn’t they have responded quickly with a stock answer, which now leads me to think it’s now been passed on to Germany for the official response.

Have you tried charging the e-Up with the e-Golf’s cable and vice versa?

 

[Intrakota]

Good idea, will do but the E-Up is currently working, can’t do till around 23:15. Our 32Amp 3phase cable is the one we normal use on both cars, it’s 10mtrs and usually resides at home.

 

[Intrakota]

Ok job done, no difference between charging times of all 3 32amp cables, the one supplied with the car is rated at 480v that’s the only noticeable difference, that and it being slightly thicker and shorter than the others.

 

[zapdos]

It's pretty funny it spends the whole day in the dealer and they still can't figure out it's just the spec of the car.

https://ev-database.uk/car/1189/Volkswagen-e-Up#charge-table

Single phase limit of 3.6kW, 7.2kW only achievable on 3 phase, which while not common in the UK is fairly standard in Germany.

 

[Kong]

The new e-up had bad charging time than old one... the battery is duble, but chrging time is triple... Is like this all over... The on board charging is only 3.6 on AC, on DC is 90 min for a full charge... Is definitly not for very long trips...

 

[Greybeard]

Go to the specific VW forum for more:

New e-up! charging speed

All the reviews and information that I've found about the e-up! (and the Skoda/Seat versions) say that it can charge to 80% in 4 hours from a home (fast) charger. This assumes a 7.2kWh charging speed. However, the detailed specifications for both the e-up! and Citigo say that it comes with a...

www.speakev.com