In a way it is...I'm on the 110 for a bit until my charger challenges are worked out. It was a similar 110 deal when I had the MiniE, that lasted a few months - however this wait will only be a few days. Why the wait...nothing serious, there is an opportunity to get a brand spanking new charger for free with low install cost and that is what I'm waiting for, otherwise I stick with my upgraded Clipper Creek box.
No matter, so glad to have the car and I'm happy to report that the ActiveE on the 110 had no issues unlike the MiniE which get popping a breaker. The ActiveE appears to be a huge improvement for basic 110 charging.
(I unwrapped this little beauty right away and
began to let the ActiveE sip on the 110)
Chris:
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments and enthusiasm! I'm glad you are using the 120V outlet to charge your Active E. The E828 service manual distributed on the Active E Facebook page mentions that it takes 24 hours for a full charge of the Active E's battery using the 110 V AC line. Did you find that it took that long?
Hi Larry, I would say 24 is fairly accurate. The MiniE took over 30hrs at times but the ActiveE seems faster (smaller bat pack) and is stable on the 110, I've had no issues. I find that if I'm at around 50% I can get a full charge in about 12hrs, I try not to go below 50% only for the sake of time as I need the car in the AM. There is a time to full charge indicator on the eDrive screen and it is conservative, for example it may say 12hrs when it is really 10.
ReplyDeleteCharging on the 110 can be fast or slow for the following reasons; if it is cold out, by me 30s at night, it takes longer to charge and interestingly enough the pre-conditioning does not seem to work. According to the manual you need a certain amount of juice coming to the car while plugged in and the 110v may not be enough - at least for me. I can activate the pre-conditioning but nothing seems to happen, it shows the blinking fan on the climate screen for about 5 mins but nothing else changes. Another slow up is when I have lots of stuff on in my house, this is probably because I'm sure my outlet is not on a dedicated line to my panel.
Bottom line, you absolutely need a 240v EVSE for your ActiveE to get the most out of this car - I'll have mine set up soon and I can't wait.
BTW - the car will say 100% after charging but when you unplug it drops to 98%...I've tried plugging back in to see if it would charge again, no dice. This could be a software glitch or something else...it has been mentioned by a few ActiveE bloggers even on 240V EVSE
One more thing, make sure all 4 LEDs light up in sequence, if only two you are at half charge speed, press the orange button to adjust.
Enjoy the 'glide' of your ActiveE ;)