Highest amperage one can charge at?

[Tee2]

Since there's such a huge variety of charge options out there from the ridiculous supplied charge cord with its tiny amperage rating all the way up to units costing thousands that can deliver up to 90 amps, I was wondering what one can safely charge the Rav4 EV up to? I thought 40 amps was the highest but I'm seeing ads from Clipper Creek claiming I can charge at even higher amperages for my Rav. Is it really just a question of how much one wants to spend on a charger vs performance?

Thanks

 

[TonyWilliams]

40 amps maximum (200 - 250 volts), lowering to 36 amps at 277 volts (10kW max).

20 amps maximum at 100 - 135 volts.

Just to clarify, there's absolutely no problem plugging into an 80 amp rated Clipper Creek. But the car will never charge at more than 40 amps.

If you would like to charge faster, we hope to have our JdeMO available to allow 48kW charging with public CHAdeMO stations.

 

[Tee2]

Thanks Tony. That's the info I needed to know.

 

[Dsinned]

The interesting thing about the JuiceBox, with LCD display, is that while charging, current can be monitored in near real time.

The current displayed is referenced to whatever current limit has been set by the user (shown in parentheses on the LCD). The accuracy of the current reading is certainly not 100%, but has been improved in the latest version (V8.9) of JB hardware and software as announced by EMW a few weeks ago.

http://www.emotorwerks.com/JuiceBox_Public/8.9/V8.9_announcement.txt

Check out the following EXCELLENT video of the Juicebox Premium with WiFi Remote, and notice the current monitor seems a little higher than the setpoint. This is true of the output power on the display as well. Reading as much of 43A and 10.5kW can be observed in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRKIpf2Wx_c

The accuracy of the current limiter built in to the car's onboard charger (40A) is not likely to be 100% either. Another factor is the AC voltage applied to the J1772 charging port and IR losses through the all the AC wiring end to end from the EVSE to the onboard charger.

The accuracy of AC Voltage monitoring in the latest JB has also been improved, so I wonder if the charging current and power output as shown in this video would now be closer to 40A and 9.6kW?

 

[ChrisMtn]

It would be nice if someone made a hack for the Rav4 EV that allowed us to see on the data screen what the car is actually taking in. Like the Tesla does.
Would be very handy for public chargers that seem to offer different level of power at different rates.
Why is the answer to all EV problems Tesla?

 

[fooljoe]

It would be nice if someone made a hack for the Rav4 EV that allowed us to see on the data screen what the car is actually taking in.

You can use RavCharge to see your rate of charge. Just perform a status update after at least ~10 minutes of charging (the longer the better) and the rate will be displayed in both kW (after charging losses) and miles per hour (based on the GOM.)

 

[Dsinned]

It would be nice if someone made a hack for the Rav4 EV that allowed us to see on the data screen what the car is actually taking in.

You can use RavCharge to see your rate of charge. Just perform a status update after at least ~10 minutes of charging (the longer the better) and the rate will be displayed in both kW (after charging losses) and miles per hour (based on the GOM.)

Hmmm . . . I'll have to look at that next time and see how closely my JB correlates to the car (RAVCHARGE).

Here's a thought, a JB keeps track of the cumulative energy (kWh) consumed by all charges and displays this kind of information on its LCD. Last time I looked, I was up to a total of 220kWh (by alternately charging both my RAV4 and VOLT). Do you think RAVCHARGE could keep track of same (for RAV4), so those of us with solar can more easily figure out how many $$$ have been saved on electricity?

 

[DevinL]

It would be nice if someone made a hack for the Rav4 EV that allowed us to see on the data screen what the car is actually taking in.

You can use RavCharge to see your rate of charge. Just perform a status update after at least ~10 minutes of charging (the longer the better) and the rate will be displayed in both kW (after charging losses) and miles per hour (based on the GOM.)

Hmmm . . . I'll have to look at that next time and see how closely my JB correlates to the car (RAVCHARGE).

Here's a thought, a JB keeps track of the cumulative energy (kWh) consumed by all charges and displays this kind of information on its LCD. Last time I looked, I was up to a total of 220kWh (by alternately charging both my RAV4 and VOLT). Do you think RAVCHARGE could keep track of same (for RAV4), so those of us with solar can more easily figure out how many $$$ have been saved on electricity?

Joe can speak more authoritatively, but I don't believe this would be particularly accurate since Ravcharge "pulls" from Toyota on user request, rather than gets data "pushed" from Toyota when the car sends it. Ravcharge would have to pull from Toyota every few minutes for every account to do this, and that would quickly attract the attention of Toyota, who, let's face it, would just block Ravcharge altogether.

Also, what your EVSE pulls from the wall (and calculates accordingly) is still more useful in determining electricity consumption on a cost basis. Whether the charger/car uses 100% of the electricity it draws doesn't matter since you always "pay" (or in your case, generate) for 100%.

 

[TonyWilliams]

You can get these all day long on eBay, etc, for $20: