[md.]

I had a thought today while reading about others who have picked up their EVs recently. Since regenerative braking won't work with the battery at 100%, the dealer is actually doing you a disservice if they charge it all the way to 100% -- unless, of course, you need a full charge to get home! Seems that an educated dealer would probably aim for 80-90% but ask if you need a full charge.

Same thing with test drives, where if they have the battery full, the driver won't get to experience the regen braking. Now, I don't know how many dealers will actually fully charge their demo car, but it wouldn't hurt to mention that if you're planning to go for a test drive.

 

[CTValleySubaruGuy]

Well, yes, but as soon as you turn on the car and start using the climate control system, some charge is coming off of the battery. Likewise, driving just a few miles down the road. It takes a lot more electricity to get that heavy vehicle moving than you're going to recapture with regenerative braking, so this really isn't much of an issue.

That said, it's better for the battery if you DON'T charge it all the way to 100%, so I would hope they're stopping at around 90-95%.

 

[bobleon39540]

Well, yes, but as soon as you turn on the car and start using the climate control system, some charge is coming off of the battery. Likewise, driving just a few miles down the road. It takes a lot more electricity to get that heavy vehicle moving than you're going to recapture with regenerative braking, so this really isn't much of an issue.

That said, it's better for the battery if you DON'T charge it all the way to 100%, so I would hope they're stopping at around 90-95%.

Some charge is coming off of which battery by using the climate control system?

 

[JayEM]

The traction battery.

 

[md.]

Well, yes, but as soon as you turn on the car and start using the climate control system, some charge is coming off of the battery. Likewise, driving just a few miles down the road. It takes a lot more electricity to get that heavy vehicle moving than you're going to recapture with regenerative braking, so this really isn't much of an issue.

That said, it's better for the battery if you DON'T charge it all the way to 100%, so I would hope they're stopping at around 90-95%.

My dealer finally got their demo vehicle in and I was able to take it for a test drive yesterday. It looked like it was charged up to about 85-90% or so. (Can't tell because there's no number on the display.) I was able to use the paddle shifters to test different regen amounts and those seemed to work OK. However, when I tested S-Pedal, it never worked fully, even toward the end of my test drive.

When I had the vehicle in S-Pedal, it would usually start out with regen braking, but it would always cut out and tell me that it couldn't use regen and that I would have to use the mechanical brakes to stop. That was very unsettling because it just stopped braking and reverted back to coasting. Not once did it bring me down to a crawl. (FYI, I am aware the S-Pedal and any of the other regen settings won't bring you to a complete stop.) For example, I'd be driving at 40mph and S-Pedal would take me down to about 30mph and then give up. And then, S-Pedal would be disabled.

I don't know if this was due to the battery being too full, but it certainly didn't seem right. Has anyone else had a chance to play with S-Pedal and regen?

 

[sreidvt]

I had a thought today while reading about others who have picked up their EVs recently. Since regenerative braking won't work with the battery at 100%, the dealer is actually doing you a disservice if they charge it all the way to 100% -- unless, of course, you need a full charge to get home! Seems that an educated dealer would probably aim for 80-90% but ask if you need a full charge.

Same thing with test drives, where if they have the battery full, the driver won't get to experience the regen braking. Now, I don't know how many dealers will actually fully charge their demo car, but it wouldn't hurt to mention that if you're planning to go for a test drive.

I made the same point, for the same reason, to the dealer where I did a test drive. Leaving the car at 70- 80% might be a good idea.

 

[JayEM]

I made the same point, for the same reason, to the dealer where I did a test drive. Leaving the car at 70- 80% might be a good idea.

Our tester on Wednesday was at about 65-70% (again, no display on the IP), so no regen issues. Given the number of EVs for sale at our dealership (Solterra, Mach E, Lightning) vs the number of chargers on site, I suspect their Solterra will seldom if ever be close to 100%.

Yeah, they need to install more chargers. And use them!

 

[DougK]

Charged our Solterra for the first time last night and then my wife was frustrated when she drove it this morning because the s-pedal would not engage ("temporarily unavailable, see owners manual" or something like that.)

I will have to check on the charging limit setting (probably defaults to "Full") and experiment with what level will allow reliable s-pedal use. It may also depend on outside temperature, which at the moment is near freezing, though the garage where the charging occurs is not that cold.

 

[JayEM]

Charged our Solterra for the first time last night and then my wife was frustrated when she drove it this morning because the s-pedal would not engage ("temporarily unavailable, see owners manual" or something like that.)

I will have to check on the charging limit setting (probably defaults to "Full") and experiment with what level will allow reliable s-pedal use. It may also depend on outside temperature, which at the moment is near freezing, though the garage where the charging occurs is not that cold.

Check section 9.2, Customization, approx. p 571, of the owner's manual.

 

[md.]

Charged our Solterra for the first time last night and then my wife was frustrated when she drove it this morning because the s-pedal would not engage ("temporarily unavailable, see owners manual" or something like that.)

I will have to check on the charging limit setting (probably defaults to "Full") and experiment with what level will allow reliable s-pedal use. It may also depend on outside temperature, which at the moment is near freezing, though the garage where the charging occurs is not that cold.

It wouldn't surprise me if regen availability depended on outside (or, maybe traction battery) temperature, as conservative as Toyota has been with this vehicle. I can't vouch for this, but there are some on Facebook who believe that Toyota moves the "zero" State of Charge up (leaving more of a buffer at the bottom of the battery) as the temperature falls. If that's true, that might be part of the reason they don't give percentages -- or even tickmarks (as far as I remember).

 

[DougK]

I just set the charging limit to 90% and will charge again in a few days, Will update on if that is low enough to enable s-pedal, or if I need to drop to 80%.

 

[JayEM]

I just set the charging limit to 90% and will charge again in a few days, Will update on if that is low enough to enable s-pedal, or if I need to drop to 80%.

Unless you frequently need the extra miles between 80 and 90%, you might want to set your limit to 80% (so-called "conventional wisdom"). You will obviously need to recharge more often, but if you're doing mostly local trips, that should be fine most of the time.

That said, I'm looking forward to having an EV where I can finally set that limit! Right now if I want to stop at 80% I have to unplug when it gets to 80%.

 

[sreidvt]

Unless you frequently need the extra miles between 80 and 90%, you might want to set your limit to 80% (so-called "conventional wisdom"). You will obviously need to recharge more often, but if you're doing mostly local trips, that should be fine most of the time.

That said, I'm looking forward to having an EV where I can finally set that limit! Right now if I want to stop at 80% I have to unplug when it gets to 80%.

Exactly. Being able to set that limit in the car itself makes life much easier.