Why doesn't a Prime or other 110V charge EV not have ONLY a normal 110V inlet plug as best option?

NOTE TO EVERYONE BUT SLEAZE:
Don't follow the advice of this guy.
He's making things up and is full of it. ​

I can't imagine how boring your life is if you actually asked that question of more than one electrician. If that's true that you used a wire spool that way, it should have resulted in your house burning down or the lights were awful dim. That's about 18 amps, and takes a pretty hefty conductor for a 100 foot cable.

 

The standard was developed before the Prime in order to have a safe, universal AC charging standard for all plug in cars to use. Toyota or somebody could develop their own charging system, but just means spending money to fix something that works, and already has suppliers making parts for.

Yeah, Tesla has their own system. There wasn't a DC standard that was fast enough for them, and they opted to have one plug on the car for AC and DC charging. CHAdeMO was the only other DC standard at the time, and it had its own separate receptacle on the car. Tesla did make their system compatible with J1772, and provide an adapter with the cars.

Upon introduction, higher trim Prius Primes had a locking something that wasn't available to the base. I don't recall if that something was the plug receptacle itself, or the receptacle lid.

You'll have the issue I posted earlier, where the EVSE can't 'see' what type of cord has been plugged into the car. One of the safety things the EVSE is doing is monitoring the temperature of itself, the cable, and both plugs. It can't do that with some generic extension cable. Then Old Bear points out that the EVSE doesn't energize the cable until it establishes a connection to the car, and the car asks for electricity. With the EVSE in the car, whatever cable you use will be live as soon has it's plugged into the wall, and remain so after charging.

There is also the consideration of how to handle Level 2 charging if the EVSE is built into the car. To save costs, a PHEV along the lines of a Prius Prime's range may only get a Level 1 EVSE standard.

Those have an electrical system similar to a golf cart's; 48 volts max. Which is below the requirement for additional safety systems that even a non-plug hybrid has. They will also spend much of the charge time pulling less amperage than a plug in car will.

 

You can learn all about car charging here. There are four modes. Mode 1—directly plugged in to the wall—is the least safe. The cord that comes with the Prius Prime is Mode 2. Commercial EVSEs are Mode 3. DC charging is Mode 4.

Charging station - Wikipedia

 

Plug a cable into a live receptacle, and that cable becomes live; that is energized.

Plug the EVSE that came with the Prime into the receptacle, and it becomes live from the wall to the box in the cable. The cable from that box to the car is not live. Not even when plugged into the car. There is a dedicated use computer in that cable box. When plugged into the car, the first thing it does is establish a connection to the car's computer, and ensure the connections are good. That's why the cable has two additional wires in it.

When the car says it is ready to charge, whether now or later on a timer, the EVSE computer turns on power to the car, and that cable becomes live. When the car says its done charging, power to that cable is turned off. During charging the EVSE monitors temperature along its length, from wall to car, and will shut things down if it gets too hot.

With the EVSE is the car, the extension cable used for charging stays live the entire time it is plugged into the wall. A job site approved cable doesn't have a way to let the EVSE to monitor its temperature. If that outlet you thought was good actually isn't, and it and the cable plug start overheating, the EVSE will continue drawing power until a fire starts.

 

This is mostly users helping users, not a crowd sourced fantasy site. I am putting you on ignore so I don't confuse you with someone actually wanting help.

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the horse died back on the first page and now it's a bloody pulp and still getting beaten. "Don't confuse me with the facts. I've already made up my mind." I just hope he doesn't actually try to implement his extra battery plan and get someone hurt or killed.

 

the good thing about doing mods in your mind is that they are easy, and always work out well.

keep up the good work!

 

Fair enough, but how did you plan to have enough juice in the traction battery for 8 hours of engine off HVAC without using wall charging? By driving in charge mode?

 

IMHO, best to let this thread die in peace.

 

In the U.S., all charging stations use either J1772 or Tesla connectors, although I have seen some charging stations that have standard 125V outlets (in a locked box that is unlocked by activating the station) where you can plug in your EVSE.

You can also use an app on an NFC-capable smartphone to activate a Chargepoint station.

Or if all else fails, Chagepoint has an 800 number printed on the station that you can call to talk to a human to activate the station.

 

tere aren't enough primes to make it worthwhile for an aftermarket co.

but another easy mod for the intrepid dreamer...

 

Roof mounted solar arrays and additional storage capacity did not seem as viable as oversized fender mounted pinwheels, scavenging wind power... the faster you go the more power generated. Simply brilliant... I only hope those inept designers at Toyota don't rip me off!



My other suggestion is to use over-sized wheels/tires in the back and tiny wheels in front so as to constantly be going downhill (another brilliant idea).

Sigh... put a fork in it already!

 

The HVAC compressor uses the big traction battery (both for cooling and heat pump heating). The HVAC fan runs on the 12V battery.

Nothing flows from the 12V battery to the traction battery. The other way, yes, to charge the 12V battery.

 

Amazon.com: Fits Toyota Prius Prime. The Amazing EVDOUBLER is a Low Cost Upgrade Adapter, Just Plug it in, Charges Fast Like a Level 2 Electric Vehicle Car EVSE Charger. Needs NEMA 14-30/50 Outlet: Automotive

 

very nice, but a member here sells one for half the price