Standard Prius Prime Charger (G9060-47130) supporting 240V

Just to clarify lest someone new get the wrong idea:
There are only two generations of plug-in Prii. Gen1 is PiP. Gen 2 is Prime.
But you are right about the "brick" being different.

 

Thanks for the correction Jerry - we wouldn't want anyone here getting confused lol
Beside I was absent the day they switched the Plugin Forums to all Prime and a single Gen1 PiP forum.

 

LOL!! Good point.

Yeah, I did a double-take on that. I'm used to it now.

 

Thanks for info! An DIY NEMA 15-40 to NEMA 6-15 adaptor cable is the way go.

 

I can confirm that my Toyota provided charging cable will work at 240V with a homemade adapter. I used a NEMA 5-20 socket and a dryer cord. Costs about $20 from Amazon.

The first display is when I plug it into 120V. The second is after unplugging it then plugging into the adapter and plugging into 240V. The third is 1 hour after charging.

 

So it took about 2 hours and 30 to fully charge the Prime with the modified Toyota cable. With my 16A EVSE, it takes about 2 hours so I'm guessing the modified Toyota cable is charging at 12A.

If you were planning to buy an EVSE to charge faster, you can save money by adding an adapter to your existing EVSE.

Below are the images at 1:30 and 2:00.

 

Thanks for the update. This is great. I plan to make a DIY adapter as soon as I get some time on my hand.

 

Nice.

For what it's worth, I've had my 16A EVSE do it in about 2.5 hours as well. The Toyota one may very well do 16A, we just need to find someone that can measure it.

 

I’m confused. My Toyota Prime L1 charger takes a little over 5 hours to charge my depleted battery (~6.3kwh). I thought it was 16amps at 120v. My Charge Point L2 charger that is on a 32amps at 240v circuit takes about 2 hours for a full charge. How does the dryer setup on a 16amp circuit at 240v on the Toyota L1 charger, charge as fast as the 32amp 240v L2 Charge Point charger? Please excuse my ignorance on this topic.

 

While you have a 240 32 amp L2 charger, the Prime maxes out at 16 Amps at 240v. Your charger might do all 32 Amps with some other car.

(There is some hint the 120 v L1 charger can't do 16 Amps when misused as a 240v charger. It may be 12 Amps, which is still faster than 120v)

 

"Dryer" setups aren't 16A circuits, the circuit itself is usually at least 30A. BUT: Most of us have an EVSE that is 240V @ 16A, plugged into a circuit that is capable of 30+ amps. Anything more is overkill and makes no difference. (Plus costs more)

The only real unknown here is how many amps the Toyota-supplied EVSE puts out when connected to a 240V circuit using a homebrew adapter.

The 12A rumor isn't really based off of any actual knowledge of the unit, and may be a waste of time to investigate. Frankly, I think it's a 16A unit. But it's all opinions and rumor at this point.

 

You are correct, my EVSE is actually 20A running off a 30 Amp dryer outlet. I mentioned 16A because of the limitations of the Prime.

I was reading the Chevy Spark EV forum and their charging limitations is 3,300 Watts (3.3 kW) as well. I'm not an EE so someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

240V X 13.75A = 3300 W
6300 W / 3300 W = 1.91 hours
240V X 12A = 2880 W
6300 W / 2880 W = 2.19 hours
120V X 12A = 1440 W
6600 W / 1440 W = 4.58 hours

These are the theoretical charging speed, but people have shown it tapers off at the end and there's also efficiency loss as well that will add to the charging time. So the Prime's 16A limitation is wrong, it should be 13.75A according to the math.

 

I plugged my Toyota EVSE to a Kill-A-Watt meter and plugged it into a 120V outlet. It measured 116V and 11.39 A = 1321 W so the actual is about 100 W less than theoretical. It took a total of 6.48 kWh.

 

All Lion batteries charged with higher current initially and reduce the current later on. So charge time is a little longer than what you calculated.

 

@triggerhappy007 does it matter which one of the two hot lines coming from NEMA 14-30 plug (male) connect to the shorter blade socket (female) on NEMA 5-20 originally intended for HOT (for normal 120 volt application) while the other hot line connects to the T shaped blade socket (female) on NEMA 5-20 originally intended for Neutral (for normal 120 volt application)?

 

It should not matter as long as ground goes to ground and neutral from the 14-30 is not used.

 

Tested this on a Pacifica PHEV and it says it's charging at 240V.

 

Just bought a 2018 Prius Prime Premium a week ago and was looking forward to the possibility of using 220v here at home for a faster charge. I guess I better adjust my thinking on that. I will however change out the 15amp breaker to a 20amp and switch the standard receptacle for a GFCI receptacle. It's already tripped the breaker twice now.

 

I can confirm the Prius Prime stock EVSE works at 240v as a level 2 EVSE.
I made a short adapter from the dryer socket in my garage. NEMA 14-30P ("P" for plug, male end) to NEMA 5-20R ("R" for receptacle, female end).
Parts from Amazon:
NEMA 14-30P: Legrand - Pass & Seymour 3867CC5 Angle Plug Three Pole Four Wire 30-Amp/50-Amp 125-volt/250-volt
NEMA 5-20R: Leviton 5369-C 20 Amp, 125 Volt, Connector, Industrial Grade, Straight Blade, Grounding, Black-White
Used a 3x12AWG cable

The EVSE functioned correctly without any issue.
Prius displayed charge time was cut by half when charging at 240v.

 

Do you also own (or have you driven) a Pacifica ("it's a plug-in but it's not called a plug-in") Hybrid? It would be great to hear a review from you