I’ve had a 2024 EV6 GT-Line AWD, and I’m using an Emporia charger hard-wired on a 60A circuit.
For the last few weeks, when I start charging, it begins at the expected 11.6kW, but then drops down to 7.6kW due to ‘AC adapter temperature’.
Does anyone know what could be causing this? I’m pretty sure it’s not the charger because my other car, an EV9, charges at a constant 11.6kW from the same charger.
It’s probably the car. Before, the charging would just stop completely, but with Kia’s update, now it just slows down. Some folks have cleaned the charging pins and said it helped lower the temperature a bit, but I haven’t seen a real fix for this yet.
Might be part of the software update for those ICCU issues. Kia probably did it to prevent the unit from overheating and melting. I heard they slowed down level 2 chargers as a workaround. Just my guess though.
@Imani
When they did the ICCU recall, my car didn’t get a replacement because it showed no error codes.
But after my 2-year service, I told them about my AC charging throttling down from 7.2kW to 6.6kW, and showed the service tech the charging data from the night before. They decided to replace the ICCU, even though it wasn’t flagged during the recall. I think Kia’s recall instructions include a note that owners must report AC charging issues before they’ll replace the unit.
How do we push Kia to really fix this? Should we get a class action lawyer involved? I know it’s not a huge issue for most, but we’re getting less than what was promised or advertised.
ETA: The 2022 model year has a lot of reports of this happening. Why hasn’t this been fixed by 2024? Is it still a problem in the 2025 models too?
@diallo
Kia never said it was a guaranteed minimum charge rate, only that 11.6kW was the maximum possible. Every car manufacturer does this since charging rates depend on a lot of factors, not just the charger. For example, if you charge using 230 volts, it generates less heat than higher current setups. I haven’t heard of any overheating issues in places where 230V charging is standard.
@Kenneth
That sounds like a bit of an excuse, but thanks for offering another perspective.
I’ve got a 50A charger, and it always charges at 11.4kW with no slowdown at all. Never had any issues like that.
abidemi said:
I’ve got a 50A charger, and it always charges at 11.4kW with no slowdown at all. Never had any issues like that.
Yeah, my charger works perfectly on our EV9 too with no drop in speed.
This is expected behavior. It’s thermal throttling to stop the charge port and ICCU from overheating. All EVs do this, to some extent. If you stick to charging at 7kW, it shouldn’t throttle at all.
The overheating of charge ports and ICCUs contributed to some of the early ICCU failures in the EV6. But honestly, for most people, a 7kW charge rate at home is plenty. 11kW is nice but not essential unless you’re charging from 20% to 100% every night. I just plug mine into a 7kW charger once a week, and that’s enough for my 300 miles a week.
The charge port overheats. When it hits 226°F, the new Kia update automatically slows the charging speed but keeps it going. Before, the charging would just stop, and you’d have to restart the session. Some people set their chargers to 40A or lower to avoid the problem. I think Kia knows this, but instead of recalling the affected parts, they decided to fix it with a software update that slows down charging.