BMW i3 charging woes

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mjt

mjt

mjt

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Hi,

Posting here on the off-chance someone might be able to help..

I have a wallbox, which should be max 11kw charging. My Q7 charges at 7.5kw as this is the maximum. However, my i3 refuses to charge any quicker than 3.6kw
BMW replaced the EME and say that it is now fixed. I have confirmed charging speeds of over 4kw on a public charger, along with speeds of above 30kw on a CCS charger since the replacement.

The wallbox company have "updated" and "reset" my wallbox remotely a few times, and I have cut the power to the wallbox a few times as well in the hope of "restarting" it. However, the i3 still refuses to charge any quicker than 3.5/3.6kw
The wallbox company are "looking into it" but I'm beginning to get annoyed as the ****** range in winter (<60 miles) combined with a slow charge speed is really beginning to grate. (mainly because I have to walk 15 minutes to my wallbox as the house is being renovated).

Anyway, any ideas, because I'm stumped. Thanks!
 
Have you tried doing it in warmer weather? I don't know much about it but I saw a video the other day where they found different models would start charging at or even limit charging to different, in some cases quite low, levels in colder weather in some cases even when it was still in the teens of C.

EDIT: Though from the first search result I could find it suggests the i3 will still charge at 16+KW/h down to 0C.
 
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yes - pre-warming before charging is the obvious thought, if you put in on charge at home, after a drive, how does that pan out .. but, I guess you have tried that, the best case scenario.

otherwise isn't an boost convertor/rectifier(->400V) employed when you charge at home on 240V AC, versus DC ccs charging, so does that module have issues
 
Has the i3 ever charged above 3.6kW on this charger?

I'm guessing your charger must be 3 phase, 16A per phase if it's 11kW. It's possible your i3 only has a single phase onboard charger so it'll never be able to charge at 32A/7kW on it...
 
A few things to check - cable? Or is it tethered? Some cables are 16A only (3.6kw).

11kw home charger would be very unusual. As others have said - is this 16A 3 phase?

Also what age i3? Some of the earlier ones (pre 2016?) didn’t have 3 phase from memory (but could be wrong on this) this would then be limited to 7kw on a 32A or 16A on a 11kw 3 phase. Which stacks up to what you’ve described.

Try and find a 22kw 3 phase charger to test the car and cable.
 
mattyg said:
Its not the same but our X5 45e had to be told in a menu that it could charge at higher Amps
Click to expand...
My wife has a 2017 i3 and this is exactly what we had to do. We had to go into a menu and set the charging rate at "maximum" before it would charge at the full 7kW from our charger.
 
Lots of useful info here, thanks.
Matthew.M said:
A few things to check - cable? Or is it tethered? Some cables are 16A only (3.6kw).

11kw home charger would be very unusual. As others have said - is this 16A 3 phase?

Also what age i3? Some of the earlier ones (pre 2016?) didn’t have 3 phase from memory (but could be wrong on this) this would then be limited to 7kw on a 32A or 16A on a 11kw 3 phase. Which stacks up to what you’ve described.

Try and find a 22kw 3 phase charger to test the car and cable.
Click to expand...
I have 3 phase (3x400V)
However:
The car has charged at 11kw at my former place of work (before the EME needed replacing).
It charged at 30kw on a CCS last week.
The cable is tethered. My Q7 charges at 7.5kw.
 
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Jonnycoupe said:
Which wallbox? As in Wallbox Pulsar or something else?
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Alfen Eve Single.
3x400V+N, 32A

It's capable of 22kw but the installer said he's limited it to 11kw otherwise it would trip the fuses. Can't remember exactly why though, I don't really understand much of this, shamefully.

The fact the Audi charges at 7.5kw leads me to believe it's the car, but the car will charge quicker elsewhere, so I'm rather confused.
 
could be a software issue In the communication between this model of the charger and this model of car - either the charger company nor car manufacturer may be able to resolve without having your exact combination on hand to diagnose

I'm so glad my car doesn't refuse the petrol I try to put in it ;)

Your best bet to confirm this would possibly be to try and find someone else who has the same charger and go charge your car there and see what happens or find someone who has the same car as you and ask them to come charge at your charger and see what happens
 
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This is similar to my wife's car and I've traced it back to the cable which will only take 4.5 kwh on the home zappi charger but full capacity at work on the 3 phase. Believed to be a German Market cable which is limited on single phase supplies to this amount.
 
SoliD said:
This is similar to my wife's car and I've traced it back to the cable which will only take 4.5 kwh on the home zappi charger but full capacity at work on the 3 phase. Believed to be a German Market cable which is limited on single phase supplies to this amount.
Click to expand...
I called BMW Customer Services and the lady said it could be the cable. I thought that might be the case, but then why is it charging at 7.5 on the other car?
Will certainly contact the wallbox people and ask about the cable as it seems a logical reason.
 
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Pretty much explained here I think, i3 three phase, so will get 3.6 on a single phase 16a, q7 single phase s will get the full monty.

evcables.com

BMW i3 Charging Cable

Discover EV Cables BMW i3 Charging Cable. Our BMW i3 EV charging cables can be made to size, come with free delivery & a two year warranty. Buy Now!
evcables.com evcables.com

It has the note

Important Note About 11kW Cables: 11kW cables (3 Phase, 16A) are not usually ideal as a general charging cable in the UK. This is due to the fact that most EVSE (Charge points) in the UK are single-phase only. This would cause your 11kW cable to charge at 1 phase, 16A which is a 3.6kW charge rate, the slowest you can get! Most users would benefit more from a 7.2kW charging cable or the heavier 22kW charging cable.

Our EV charging cables are backward compatible. They will automatically switch between 32 and 16 amps. So you can purchase more amps and phases for use on others cars / future-proofing and it’ll still work on your current car. Any cable lower than your cars maximum supported charging, will limit the change rate to the cable capacity.
Click to expand...

If you have 3 phase evse and are only getting 3.6 perhaps you are using a single phase type 2 cable, you might be able to tell looking in it and seeing how many cables are wired (pinout on wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_2_connector )
 
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Grim5 said:
could be a software issue In the communication between this model of the charger and this model of car - either the charger company nor car manufacturer may be able to resolve without having your exact combination on hand to diagnose

I'm so glad my car doesn't refuse the petrol I try to put in it ;)

Your best bet to confirm this would possibly be to try and find someone else who has the same charger and go charge your car there and see what happens or find someone who has the same car as you and ask them to come charge at your charger and see what happens
Click to expand...
E10 checking in
 
mjt said:
I called BMW Customer Services and the lady said it could be the cable. I thought that might be the case, but then why is it charging at 7.5 on the other car?
Click to expand...

Probably because your Q7 can make use of the 3 phase power to get more than 16A and the i3 can't?

If the charger is tethered it won't be the cable that's the limiting factor.
 
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