Hopefull LA trip

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dampbread

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Oct 2, 2015
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I hope this is the right forum, but anyways I recently just got a 2012 I-miev es "as in yesterday" and i think i ran into a horrible problem. I live in Bakersfield, CA and i was hoping to be making a trip to LA soon and it seems like the only charging stations on the way are level 2 chargers. Thats awesome that theirs atleast those, but everywhere ive read online says that it usually takes several hrs for it to charge that way. And im guessing the charger I got with the vehicle is the standard issue one and that takes forever to charge. I guess what im asking how do people manage to travel extended distances without spending hrs at a time charging and recharging?

~Also side note, how do you change the standard charger from 8 amps to 12? Im crazy lost.

Thanks in advance
P.S. this is my first car ever! Yea!
 
Welcome to the forum!! . . . . and congratulations that you chose an EV as your first car ever! :mrgreen:

The 'charger' is built into the car - It can use just about any voltage from 90 up to 250 volts. You can plug into any L2 charging station and it will charge as fast as the built in charger can do it - A full recharge from empty in about 5 hours. The EVSE cord which comes with the car is a 'smart cable' which communicates with the charger in the car to tell it how much charge voltage/current is available, so the car's charger doesn't overtax the outlet you're charging from. You probably won't need to use that anywhere except at home. Public charging stations have their own EVSE attached to their cords

As it's supplied from Panasonic, the stock EVSE is limited to 8 amps and 120 volts - A full recharge from empty will take about 24 hours if this is what you use. You can send that unit into the folks at EVSE Upgrade and for about $300 they will modify it so it can use either 120 or 240 volts and 12 amps instead of the 8 amps it's limited to as supplied. 240 at 12 amps will cut your 24 hour recharge down to about 5.5 or 6 hours

Most people doing longer trips are using DCQC - Direct Current Quick Charging. You get an 80% recharge in as little as 20 minutes or so

Some cars came equipped for fast charging, some did not. If you have a little lever down beside the drivers seat which opens the little round door on the drivers side, then you have a car equipped with quick charge capability - If not, you don't. If you bought he car with the idea of taking longer trips with it and you didn't buy one which is DCQC equipped, then yes, you probably did make a mistake. You cannot easily retrofit DCQC into a car which don't come with it from the factory

Don
 
Welcome.

Like you, the i-MiEV was the first car I've ever purchased. I agree with what Don has said.

It looks like it would take two stops to charge between Bakersfield and LA, each probably about 4 hours. Once you get close to LA, there are a number of quick chargers to choose from. The quick chargers will give you 80% charge in about 20 minutes, but you can unplug and plug back in once it stops and most will take you to near full charge. That will take an additional 40 minutes, so 1 hour total for a full charge from a quick charger.

For reference, here is the release handle Don was talking about.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6neioun1cuuv70b/Quick_Charge_Handle.jpg?dl=0

If a 10 hour trip one-way is too unappealing, you could rent a vehicle from a site like http://relayrides.com.
 
It looks like a hard trip, on Plugshare. Down the 5, the one charging station in Lebec, under closer scrutiny, is "Panorama Towing Service", cost -- $25 an hour! You're probably better off detouring through Lancaster, where there's a choice of stations including a CHAdeMO, but it makes the whole trip that much longer.
 
Sadly, L2 is still sort of the standard. long trips are possible, but slowly.
Of course, that is part of the adventure ...the challenge.
Careful planning will get you pretty much anywhere...but slowly.
Plugshare is your friend.
 
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