EVGo Quick/DC charging problems on eGolf

[JoulesThief]

Tried DC fast charging at the EVGo station at the outlet stores in Gilroy. No joy on either charger. They were both BTC Chargers and both would not get past communicating to vehicle. They had the firmware mentioned above with the home screen call out for the eGolf as well. Called NRG and they did their darnedest to help but, nothing worked. Barely made it home to my L2 charger and by barely I mean with an estimated 5 miles remaining.

I have in the past charged with no problems at their Tracy charger which is the older model. So it seems like BTC still has some work to do or there's a incantation I'm not doing right to get it to work.

I've got a 2015 eGolf I took delivery of a year ago and it's never been to the deal since. Maybe I should ask about software updates?

I've used one only 1x, the Evesco version, or something like that. Very basic routine. Open up their app, load the asset # of the machine in, send it over your smart phone, screen says OK to plug in, plug the SAE combo plug in, and away it went, charging just fine. Understand it's a different unit, probably getting it to say OK on the interactive screen or app before you plug in might be worth a try, if you are out there again next time.

Otherwise, perfectly happy with Level 2 240V and 30 amps at home give me the full 7.2kwh charge rate, when I can get it. Or 208V commercial at 30 amps for most level 2 public chargers.

 

[miimura]

Tried DC fast charging at the EVGo station at the outlet stores in Gilroy. No joy on either charger. They were both BTC Chargers and both would not get past communicating to vehicle. They had the firmware mentioned above with the home screen call out for the eGolf as well. Called NRG and they did their darnedest to help but, nothing worked. Barely made it home to my L2 charger and by barely I mean with an estimated 5 miles remaining.

I have in the past charged with no problems at their Tracy charger which is the older model. So it seems like BTC still has some work to do or there's a incantation I'm not doing right to get it to work.

I've got a 2015 eGolf I took delivery of a year ago and it's never been to the deal since. Maybe I should ask about software updates?

Maybe asking VW about service bulletins for fast charging would be smart. If the BTC chargers in Gilroy have the message about the e-Golf on the screen, they really should work. I'm not saying that it can't be the chargers, because clearly it can, but it might be your car.

 

[Damon]

Hi! I had a similar problem. I called EVgo technical support and I was told the charger won't charge the vehicle if any doors are open. While I was trying to charge my wife was changing our daughters diaper in the trunk so the hatch door was open. Tomorrow I'll be in Ventura County and will be using a Level three to get home. We shall see what happens.

 

[SJCyclist]

Hi everyone, I just picked up a new 2015 e-Golf 2 weeks ago from my local dealer in south jersey. I was able to fast charge at numerous DC stations aroubd without issue until this past Saturday.

I used a DC fast charge station without issue Saturday morning, then on my way back I stopped and started getting time out messages and the charger wouldn't function. I've since tried 3 other ststions and get the same error - communication errors like this:


https://youtu.be/QC5wo4hOn94

I have used these ststions before....now they don't work. 2 are chargepoint and 2 are EVGO.

What could possibly be going on?? Why would it work before but not now???

My dealer seems confused and their head tech was not confidence inspiring.....

 

[JoulesThief]

Hi everyone, I just picked up a new 2015 e-Golf 2 weeks ago from my local dealer in south jersey. I was able to fast charge at numerous DC stations aroubd without issue until this past Saturday.

I used a DC fast charge station without issue Saturday morning, then on my way back I stopped and started getting time out messages and the charger wouldn't function. I've since tried 3 other ststions and get the same error - communication errors like this:


https://youtu.be/QC5wo4hOn94

I have used these ststions before....now they don't work. 2 are chargepoint and 2 are EVGO.

What could possibly be going on?? Why would it work before but not now???

My dealer seems confused and their head tech was not confidence inspiring.....

Read your owners manual. VW recommends regular level 2 charging, and that DC fast charging should not be done back to back recharges, it should be recharged with AC level 2 or level 1 recharge, every other recharge, and that DC fast charging should be used "sparingly".

 

[SJCyclist]

Hi everyone, I just picked up a new 2015 e-Golf 2 weeks ago from my local dealer in south jersey. I was able to fast charge at numerous DC stations aroubd without issue until this past Saturday.

I used a DC fast charge station without issue Saturday morning, then on my way back I stopped and started getting time out messages and the charger wouldn't function. I've since tried 3 other ststions and get the same error - communication errors like this:


https://youtu.be/QC5wo4hOn94

I have used these ststions before....now they don't work. 2 are chargepoint and 2 are EVGO.

What could possibly be going on?? Why would it work before but not now???

My dealer seems confused and their head tech was not confidence inspiring.....

Read your owners manual. VW recommends regular level 2 charging, and that DC fast charging should not be done back to back recharges, it should be recharged with AC level 2 or level 1 recharge, every other recharge, and that DC fast charging should be used "sparingly".

I know that. I have read the mannual. I have followed it's guidelines. The manual is vague and there is NO way to track exactly what "sparingly" means. It's poorly written and VW should include sole kind of way to track this in the cars system for owners.

ANYWAY....I ran my vag com and it looks like there are multiple broken systems in my car so the dealer has their hands full in replacing those.

 

[f1geek]

I just used a BMW 24 kW DC station this weekend and had trouble getting the charge to initiate. Unfortunately, I can't remember if any doors were open when I initially tried. The message I got from the station was something like "waiting for car to initiate session" while nothing was happening. The lock on the CCS handle did not engage so I was able to pull it out of the vehicle inlet without pressing the unlock button on the key fob. I have not seen this problem before on my car (I did have issues with one of the BTC stations in Gilroy, but got the other BTC station to work). Finally after a minute or two of pressing the upper charge button to the left of the inlet port, I pulled the CCS handle out of the car, made sure all the doors were closed and then locked the car (with the charge port cover open). I plugged in the CCS handle and it began to charge! I then unlocked the car so I could sit down and it continued to charge just fine. I got a peak rate of about 21 kW (the best the e-Golf can manage at 62 amps, the max current this station will supply) and let the car charge for about 35 minutes.

I really doubt that VW has some internal software that prevents multiple DC charge sessions in a back to back fashion, but who knows - they like to be sneaky with software. It's too bad the e-Golf doesn't have a temperature indicator like the Leaf so drivers know more about the battery state.

All of those errors are interesting. Good luck!

 

[audiphile]

The following may or may not be related to the topic at hand, and may hopefully help someone.

Two different e-Golfs failed to charge at Woodcliff lake BMW location in NJ. Lights goes green for a second or so, then back to yellow, then red.

Called Chargepoint and was informed that there is a TSB issued by VW that may fix this issue: TB2047631

The TSB seems to describe the exact issue experienced by me and my friend. We both have 2017 eGolfs.

I will have the dealer flash newer software onto my car and report back

 

[dustboy]

Wish I'd seen this thread sooner, I might have avoided the stress following the failure of the BTC DCFC at the Chowchilla, CA Savemart. It also appears that even after 2 years having recognized the firmware problem, some stations still have not been updated.

It would be nice if any of the charger apps allowed you to filter by brand of charger. So far I've had no problems with ABB stations.

 

[miimura]

Wish I'd seen this thread sooner, I might have avoided the stress following the failure of the BTC DCFC at the Chowchilla, CA Savemart. It also appears that even after 2 years having recognized the firmware problem, some stations still have not been updated.

It would be nice if any of the charger apps allowed you to filter by brand of charger. So far I've had no problems with ABB stations.

In addition to the possibility that the BTC chargers may be incompatible with the e-Golf if they don't have updated firmware, they are mostly limited to 100 amps while the ABB and ChargePoint 50kW chargers can deliver 125 amps. So, if you are arriving at a EVgo site with a low battery, you can get more energy into the battery for your money on an ABB charger. If you look at the pictures on Plugshare for any given site, you can easily tell which type is installed.