New Owner in Phoenix

[ZoNiE]

Hi Folks.

New guy here. I just took delivery of a 2013 with 73K miles on it from Carvana on saturday. I have 7 days to decide if I want to keep it or not. I don't know if there are any other Rav4 EV's in Phoenix or not. It is very clean, has new tires, and seems to run and drive very well. So far, I'm pretty happy with it.

Warranty considerations.
It is a lot of miles for an EV, but still has about 2 years and 27K on the factory battery warranty.
I did take the Carvana 2 year 100K warranty which says it covers the EV electronics. I will go to a local Toyota dealer to see if they will even consider selling me the Platinum service contract, but not hopeful. Carvana will let me cancel theirs if I do that. Will they run the service history for me? I hope so. Ford dealers will do that.

I plugged it into a Blink yesterday for 1.5 hrs at the mall and it added a lot of miles to the GOM, so yeah, 40A is the way to go.
I have now fully charged the battery on the 110V (Took forever) as I do not have a 240V charger yet.

GOM Reset
This morning it was at 94miles on the GOM but asking for another hour of charge even though it said charging complete. I plugged it in for another hour and it said the same, so I now have disconnected the 12V battery to reset the GOM per the Tony Test. I did have it on extended charge mode.

Unfortunately, it is cold (47*) and rainy here in Phoenix today, so the temps are not where I'd like to do this at but we'll see what I get.

Already, it has at least the 94 mile range, which isn't perfect but works for my drive to work and back for a couple of days.
I figure if it needs a battery in a year or so, it is the same cost as buying a car with half the miles on the battery now, and I will have longer battery life that way.

The car was pretty cheap. I think it is a better deal than a used Leaf, and definitely a better deal than a new one at less than half the price. It is also a sort of litmus test for us to see if we can live with an EV, as my wife wants a Model 3 when her current ICE lease is up in a couple of years. I do still have my ICE pickup.

 

[davewill]

The GOM won't tell you much right now, as it's dependent on the driving pattern the car has been experiencing. The Tony test should tell the tale as far as battery degradation goes. Check on the coverage limits on the warranty you purchased. Some repairs can get pretty expensive and it would be a shame if one motor replacement exceeded the coverage limit. In your shoes, I would be most interested in whether the motor has ever been replaced, and if so, how recently. If it's gone 73K miles without needing one, that's good. If it's been replaced recently, that's also good as the more recent replacements seem to be holding up as they should.

The batteries seem to hold up pretty well, so I wouldn't expect you need a new battery in a couple of years.

 

[ZoNiE]

Kinda what My thought process is too. Thanks for the insight.
I logged the car into Toyota service online. The previous owner took it in for the 5K checkups regularly until about 40K, when I presume the lease was up. Second owner only took it in for some tire pressure checks and a 12V battery replacement. Supposedly needed a jump start.
LOL Jumpstarting an EV.

Only thing I can see that was replaced was some sort of pad on the back seat and the battery.

Unless this only shows non-repairs, It looks like everything is original...

 

[miimura]

Before you are out of the 7 day period, go through the Top Ten List here:
http://www.myrav4ev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1589

Unfortunately, the Tony Test will not give you an accurate result at such a low temperature.

 

[asavage]

. . . a 12V battery replacement. Supposedly needed a jump start. LOL Jumpstarting an EV.

Don't laugh, it's a thing.

The 12v battery gets hit hard on the RAV4EV and has a short life (esp. the OEM battery; perhaps not so much on the replacement, depending on the type & quality of the replacement). If the 12v battery gets bad enough, you can't light up the DC-DC converter, and the car won't "start". It's happened to a number of posters.

When it comes to the RAV4EV's auxiliary battery: change early, change often. A low aux battery can cause a MIL that can has to be reset.

 

[ZoNiE]

This car rocks!
I drove all the way home from work in the carpool lane. No Stress!
How hot should the heat blow? Anyone ever stuck a thermometer in a vent?
This one does not blow that hot, but not sure if it is a problem or not. Seems to warm the car just fine.

 

[eplantz]

How hot should the heat blow? Anyone ever stuck a thermometer in a vent?
This one does not blow that hot, but not sure if it is a problem or not. Seems to warm the car just fine.

i live in Chicago and mine gets too hot at times. do you have ECO set to Hi, Lo or normal?? it makes a big difference on heat produced.

Gene

 

[hokiematt]

Welcome to the club!

There are two heaters for the cabin: a PTC array in the blower assembly that runs off of 12V, and a high voltage heater that heats coolant that is run through a traditional heater core. The PTC heaters are pretty reliable, but their lower wattage gives air that is lukewarm rather than hot. The HV heater takes a little longer to heat the coolant, but should provide truly hot air; to fully feel the effect, make sure the HVAC is on the 'Normal' setting, and set the temp to HI. If that doesn't give you hot air after a few minutes, you may have a burned out HV heater, which is becoming a common failure on these cars as they age.

If you're looking for a 240V EVSE, note that Electric Motor Werks is currently having a sale on ebay on their refurbished Juicebox 40 Pro's, $389 shipped; these units offer full 10 kW charging for the Rav, and WiFi connectivity lets you monitor and control charging. I've been a happy end-user for several years now.

 

[ZoNiE]

It did heat up on the next drive. I Like the fact it has the PTC array, the "little" heater, to tide you over until the big one heats up. All cars should have this. I think our Lexus NX does, in fact.

It is interesting that it doesn't use the heat pump to heat the car or battery heat, or does it?

I really like this car.

So about the refurbished Electric Motor Werks chargers, why are they refurbished? What fails? I bought a Mustart (Chinese) portable one since we intend to tow dolly the car behind our motorhome and charge it at campgrounds, and I figured a portable 40A charger was the best idea. it is a new one, not refurbished.

 

[hokiematt]

Disappointingly, the air conditioning in the Rav is setup for cooling only, no heatpump operation. There is a chiller assembly that can siphon cooling from the AC to cool the battery pack, and a separate battery coolant heater warms the pack when needed. Presumably someone from Tesla and/or Toyota decided the additional cost and complexity of a heatpump was not justified for whatever improvements in efficiency might be gained.

I do not know the details of the refurbished Juiceboxes, the ad only refers to light cosmetic issues; perhaps they are customer returns? I've had zero issues with mine, and find that they are constructed extremely robustly, unlike a lot of the imported EVSE's. As far as I know, the Juicebox is the only EVSE that is weather-tight/waterproof. Most of the imported EVSE's are also only 32 A, whereas the Juicebox is 40 A (although not really an issue if you're charging overnight). The Juicebox is portable: you fasten a bracket to the wall to hold the unit for home use, but it slides up and out to take with you.

 

[TonyWilliams]

The cabin heater has failed. This is a common failure. We can repair it in San Diego county, California.

Our very first product was the portable JESLA charge cable, designed specifically for the unique 40 amp / 9.6kW requirements of Toyota RAV4 EV. We still sell it:

https://shop.quickchargepower.com/JESLA-is-THE-40-amp-J1772-portable-charging-solution-JESLA.htm

JESLA uses interchangeable plugs designed by Tesla, so that you can plug in almost anywhere (including RV parks). We have many other charging options for the RAV4, too.

If you have any specific issues with the car, please call us at Quick Charge Power at:

Thanks,

Tony Williams
Quick Charge Power LLC
1780-104 La Costa Meadows Drive
San Marcos, California 92078 USA
sales (((@))) QuickChargePower.com
http://www.QuickChargePower.com
Twitter: QCPower
1-844-EV-PARTS
1-844-387-2787
1-760-798-0342 Office
Hours M-F, 9-5 Pacific Time