Just bought an E Tron

[David NZ]

Hi, It just traded in my Audi A3 2.0T Quattro which I had for 9 years and loved, and bought an immaculate 2017 A3 E tron from Japan 43,000km. Work is only 4km away so thats the plan. 😀
I charge at night when we have 2 hours free power, using 8amp charger which works fine. But I’ve read 16amp “is better for the car”, is this correct and why? Thanks, David

 

[SirChargesAlot]

Hi David, congrats on the new car! I'm no expert but I believe the quicker the charge rate, the more damaging to the battery it can be over time. I am currently charging using 110v outlet and the original charger the car came with and I'm a happy camper. If I know I'm not going anywhere for a day or two, I'll even enable the option to run the charge at half the rate.

Battery management is actually a complicated topic, you can't leave the battery below a certain charge level for too long or it'll suffer, you also can't leave the battery over a certain charge level for too long or it'll suffer as well. The idea is to keep it at ~50% charge when idle and charge it up to 100% before departure.

The departure scheduling settings in MMI combined with the Audi charger will bring your battery up to a healthy charge then stop and resume once it gets closer to your scheduled departure time. It's quite a confusing system if you don't know what it's doing and a lot of people actually consider it broken since there is very little literature. You'll even find people saying the charging issues started after a dealership visit, my humble opinion is that Audi released a software update after they had to recall a bunch of batteries and replace a bunch of batteries under warranty to reduce the failure rates.

I know this is probably more information that you wanted, but I got to rambling a bit. Congrats again, enjoy it!

 

[David NZ]

Hi David, congrats on the new car! I'm no expert but I believe the quicker the charge rate, the more damaging to the battery it can be over time. I am currently charging using 110v outlet and the original charger the car came with and I'm a happy camper. If I know I'm not going anywhere for a day or two, I'll even enable the option to run the charge at half the rate.

Battery management is actually a complicated topic, you can't leave the battery below a certain charge level for too long or it'll suffer, you also can't leave the battery over a certain charge level for too long or it'll suffer as well. The idea is to keep it at ~50% charge when idle and charge it up to 100% before departure.

The departure scheduling settings in MMI combined with the Audi charger will bring your battery up to a healthy charge then stop and resume once it gets closer to your scheduled departure time. It's quite a confusing system if you don't know what it's doing and a lot of people actually consider it broken since there is very little literature. You'll even find people saying the charging issues started after a dealership visit, my humble opinion is that Audi released a software update after they had to recall a bunch of batteries and replace a bunch of batteries under warranty to reduce the failure rates.

I know this is probably more information that you wanted, but I got to rambling a bit. Congrats again, enjoy it!

Thank you for you informative reply and yes I thought slow was good.
Cheers David

 

[David NZ]

Thank you for you informative reply and yes I thought slow was good.
Cheers David

Ps. We are 230v in NZ, and unsure if that makes any difference from UK.

 

[David NZ]

Hi,
I purchased an as new Japanese import A3 E tron 2016 with 43km (26k miles) on the clock from a dealer in NZ.
Anyway dealer replaced EV battery with second hand one, as was not what they had advertised. Would only indicate 18km (11 miles) and half full on gauge and tested at 40% residual.
My new battery shows 44km (27 miles) with a full gauge and I can do 37km (23 miles) actual without AC or heater on, in our 14degC (52 deg F) NZ temperature.
appreciate your comments on wether that’s ok.
Thank you
David

 

[LegacEtron]

Hi,
I purchased an as new Japanese import A3 E tron 2016 with 43km (26k miles) on the clock from a dealer in NZ.
Anyway dealer replaced EV battery with second hand one, as was not what they had advertised. Would only indicate 18km (11 miles) and half full on gauge and tested at 40% residual.
My new battery shows 44km (27 miles) with a full gauge and I can do 37km (23 miles) actual without AC or heater on, in our 14degC (52 deg F) NZ temperature.
appreciate your comments on wether that’s ok.
Thank you
David

That’s slightly better than what I get with the recently warranty-replaced battery in my 2017. If it ever cools down to 14C here I might get the same…

 

[bruuster]

I get 22 actual miles on a full charge after replacement battery. That's about the best you can expect.

 

[David NZ]

Thank you. As is a second hand battery I think I should be happy. 😀
Thanks for your replies. 🙏

 

[dlinkA3]

Hi David, congrats on the new car! I'm no expert but I believe the quicker the charge rate, the more damaging to the battery it can be over time. I am currently charging using 110v outlet and the original charger the car came with and I'm a happy camper. If I know I'm not going anywhere for a day or two, I'll even enable the option to run the charge at half the rate.

Battery management is actually a complicated topic, you can't leave the battery below a certain charge level for too long or it'll suffer, you also can't leave the battery over a certain charge level for too long or it'll suffer as well. The idea is to keep it at ~50% charge when idle and charge it up to 100% before departure.

The departure scheduling settings in MMI combined with the Audi charger will bring your battery up to a healthy charge then stop and resume once it gets closer to your scheduled departure time. It's quite a confusing system if you don't know what it's doing and a lot of people actually consider it broken since there is very little literature. You'll even find people saying the charging issues started after a dealership visit, my humble opinion is that Audi released a software update after they had to recall a bunch of batteries and replace a bunch of batteries under warranty to reduce the failure rates.

I know this is probably more information that you wanted, but I got to rambling a bit. Congrats again, enjoy it!

Charging at level 2 at 16amps, 230-240V, is not damaging to your battery pack at all. 8 amps is not better. DC fast charging is what can damage lithium battery packs if it is done too often at too high a charge rate above 80% state of charge. There are Teslas with over 600K km on their odometers, which have used DC fast charging more than half the time, and they are doing fine. You can easily connect a 32amp EVSE to your Audi A3 Sportback e-tron, but it can only use 16amps. No damage.