Problems with certain L3 CCS chargers

[Solandri]

When I charge my 2016 e-Golf SEL at a L3 charger. I've encountered three possible outcomes.

• Charges normally at ~40 kW. The regular Chargepoint L3 chargers fall into this category.
• Charges, but at about 20-25 kW. I've encountered this with EVGo chargers and some "private" Chargepoint chargers (e.g. the ones at Cal State Fullerton). I've learned to just live with this, as it doesn't make that big a difference with the e-Golf's smaller battery capacity.
• Acts like it will charge, but does not. The one Shell Recharge L3 charger I've tried. (Their L2 charger in the next stall works fine.)

The Shell Recharge L3 charger is at a nearby Amazon Fresh, and is free (as in beer). So obviously that's a big incentive for me to figure out if there's a way around this problem. I activate the station using their app, plug in, press the button on my e-Golf for an immediate charge. And it sits there with a yellow light. The Shell app switches over to the charging screen. But the light on the car stays yellow, and no charging occurs. After about a minute, the app ends the charging session with zero power delivered.

I've tried doing everything in a variety of different orders (plug in first, then app; app, then plug in; etc) without success. I'm assuming the handshake between the charger and my e-Golf is failing or taking too long, until it hits a timeout which ends the session. I've encountered similar problems at some EVGo chargers, but the next charger over works.

So does anyone have any suggestions I can try? Is this an e-Golf problem? A charging station problem?.

 

[f1geek]

In my 2017 e-Golf unless the battery pack is hot from a long drive at highway speeds in the summer for a second DCFC stop, I always see a peak of ~39 to 40 kW. If I've been driving at ambient temps near 100 F and have performed one DCFC already, by the time I stop for a second DCFC, the peak drops to ~28 to 30 kW. I suspect at a third stop I could expect ~20 kW. I have never done three DCFCs in a row in this car.

In general I stay away from EVgo, Shell Recharge, and even Chargepoint, because I find their support useless and have been burned by them in the past. EA used to be bad but it has improved dramatically in the past year so I pretty much exclusively use EA and get consistent charging experiences - full speed and charge on the first try.