Prius Prime Plus in my hands

What does DRCC stand for?

 

Dynamic Radar Cruise Control

#1 in Easley,SC

 

is there normal mode, or has that been deleted?

 

So, it appears the Prime behaves differently. You would need to drive a Gen 4 for comparison to be sure.

 

Try a resume from 30 under and record the time it takes to get back to the setpoint in each mode.

 

Did I imagine this, our have I read somewhere that with Chademo in Japan they can get power OUT of the Prime traction batteries as well as put it in?

 

correct. pretty sweet in a power outage. it has nothing to do with chademo though, they had power out with the pip as well. we got bupkis.

 

Wow! Is that any good to us in the Uk? Will we in rye UK or any other country have Chademo on our Prime, and does the car have to have a special spec to work that way, that we might not get?

 

do not know, you might get it. isn't the prime being introduced there now?

then again, didn't the bard say, 'kill all the lawyers'?

 

Yes v v soon. But not all documention available yet.

 

If you are referring to CHAdeMO DC fast charging then no, it will not be offered in Europe to my knowledge.
If you are referring to AC power output (limited to 1.5kW I think) then no again

 

Owner's manuals can be found here:
Toyota Europe
Only one inlet in the car, and it is "Type 2" (Mennekes) not "Type 1" (J1772) that the PiP had.
It would be nice (at the dealer) to get both cables:
1. Mode 2 EVSE for charging from a household socket it is 10A (EVSE limited) so takes ~3 hours from empty to full and require 12-13A circuit line.
2. A Mode 3 cable for using public charging stations (as not all of them have cables) or a Mode 3 charging point installed at home. The on-board charger is rated at 16A so if the station can supply this (all of them should) then it takes ~2 hours.

 

I've actually supported a client that had an on-site fuel station... but it was an R&D facility for a major automaker, so they needed road-legal (taxed) gasoline on-site anyway. And, they charged employees and contractors more for it than the gas stations 10 miles down the road, so it was no incentive, it was purely a "grab half a gallon or so, so you can make it into town" situation. (And one time, I didn't do so, and then ran out of gas...)

In colder climates, providing L1 charging actually does benefit gasser and diesel owners in winter, if the employer provides it in the form of 120 volt outlets, rather than EVSEs - block heaters eliminate the warm-up penalty, and provide cabin heat more quickly.

 

Work-place charging makes way too much sense -- that is why it is not being implemented.

Well, peevishness aside, L2 charging does not have to be expensive. I paid to have it installed it at home for a total cost of $800 but the larger cost for parking lots is bringing the electricity to the EVSE and building a safe island for the equipment. That cost is independent of L1 or L2

 

However, let's say you've got 100 amp, 240 volt service to the parking lot.

Doing 7.2 kW L2, that 100 amp 240 volt service can provide charging to three parking spaces at full load - 30 amps at 240 volts per space. Granted, Chargepoint's stuff can balance load between EVSEs, and de-rate when there's too much load, but still, that costs more in EVSEs.

Doing L1, you can provide twelve 15 amp 120 volt circuits, for only the cost of sticking poles with cheap 15 amp outlets and lockboxes (so you can lock your EVSE in). And, the maintenance is far lower - if an outlet fails, you buy a cheap GFCI receptacle, not a whole EVSE.

 

I follow the arithmetic, but the final answer is going to be a heterogenous L1/L2 build to service the variety of charging needs that crop up in daily life. My point was that the major costs incurred by the owner of the lot are not from choosing L2 over L1 as the author of the paper Bob references implies. I actually wondered if he was confusing L2 with L3.

The smart-grid aspect is really interesting, but I think it would run into a legal quagmire for now.

 

Intersting paper. I didn't have time to read every word of it, but I think I got the gist of it. I use level 1 at work and it's perfect. Very few unexpected trips, so I set the timer to finish about an hour before I go home. But at home I often have unplanned departures. So I'm giving serious thought to an L2 at home so I can at least give it a little juice before I go.

I can also L1 at church if I can get to the right parking spot in our shared parking lot.

I did take note of the author's comment that L2 isn't all that good for battery life. I had not seen that mentioned before.