School me (us) on smart chargers

[metroshot]

I live in South Texas. We have not had any problems charging any of the vehicles (one at home and five or more at work). One person in Phoenix making a claim does not mean there is a widespread problem charging vehicles in hot climates.

Correct, I am in an always hot climate (Southern Calif) and I charge the PHEV every day outside.
When it's too hot outside, the battery fans spin up and keeps the EV battery cool.
Never had an issue charging outside.

Even when it rains (very rare), there has never been an issue with charging or connecting/disconnecting = very safe.

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[Sdctcher]

I did a 700 mile road trip in a Model X a few years ago. Owner is retired and road trips a lot. We stopped for coffee or food every 2.5 hours and he just charged however long we needed for our stop, not what the car needed. By the end of the day we were 20 miles from home but the car said we had 2 miles of range... just drove slower on the highway and made it (guessing there's some reserve like in an ICE car). I only had 110v outlets at the time so we charged it up overnight and got a measly couple more miles of range, but it was enough to drive it to a fast charger in town.

I had a 220v receptacle installed in the garage after that. Thanks for all the info on this thread. Just bought another dumpy house and looking into all the utility rebates available now.

I do not want to come off as preaching or overly obsessive but one can increase electric range by smarter driving (as you did those last few miles to home). I won't list them here but there are many.

Some of early adopters became competitive. Of course, back then (2004) most of us were limited to the Prius and Escape Hybrids. I did have the pleasure of communicating with Felix Kramer of CalCars (Palo Alto, CA) who was trying to build the first Prius PHEV conversion.

Along the way I was able to extend battery-only range on an empty gas tank (Escape) at a rally in Griffith Park (in LA, CA) over a hilly course to nearly 20 miles. Anticipating stops ahead by coasting with regenerative braking and slow starting from a dead stop can add a huge amount of range.

Every EV or Hybrid has a constant 'sweet spot' speed where range can be maximized. Extending EV range does take effort and patience but when you are down to that last 5% one has no choice. I once drove my hybrid from Denver to the Escape Plant in Kansas City (I was invited for a personal tour) on a 12 gallon tank, a distance of over 600 miles, and averaged over 50 mpg. A competitor and friend from Co. later beat that record.

I look forward to my Lightning next year and the fun I can have in pushing its range limits.

 

[shutterbug]

Correct, I am in an always hot climate (Southern Calif) and I charge the PHEV every day outside.
When it's too hot outside, the battery fans spin up and keeps the EV battery cool.
Never had an issue charging outside.

I don't want this taken as an attack, but I think it's adorable how folks on South California (Death Valley excepted) or South Texas think their climates are super hot. When I had my PHEV (C-Max), I had several instances where the car flat-out refused to charge at a public ChargePoint Charger. The ambient temperature was 115, so it was understandable considering that it was much higher in direct sunlight and C-Max battery cooling was non-existent.

Most home chargers are rated to a max 122 degrees for operations. Some are better than others, but do expect some issues when the mercury reaches for the top.

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