My wife has been driving the new Mini SE for her commute. We have had it only for 2 weeks. She's been good about backing it into the driveway and plugging it in when she gets home. She and I have never talked about public chargers really, or commercial fast charging. She went to the mall after work today and proudly told me that she used the EV parking spots right next to the entrance and plugged the car in for some free charge while they shopped! She even noticed that it got very little actual charge while she was plugged in! Whoo hoo! Next step will be getting her the Chargepoint app (and/or others) on her phone so she can find emergency juice if needed. Rob
Before we acquired our MINI Cooper SE, I was always too politically correct to plug our Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid into the free EVSEs in our town's parking structures and lots. Then after our SE finally arrived, we were already cocooning at home due to the pandemic, so we had stopped going downtown. Finally, after getting our booster shots, we dared to enter a restaurant this month. To my delight, there was an available EVSE in front of the very first parking spot of the parking structure closest to the restaurant. To my surprise, the EVSE was the same commercial 48-Amp model ClipperCreek EVSE I have at home (I love the loud, solid THUNK the main relay makes when I plug in). Ironically, the next-door EVSE was being used to charge a Jeep PHEV I didn't even know existed (I since have learned this Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe PHEV's 14 kWh battery can move this 2.5-ton Jeep a full 25 miles down the road and Jeep says it's the most popular PHEV being sold in the US). [sarcastic text]I refrained from leaving a nasty note on the windshield about how PHEVs should leave EVSEs for the even more ecologically conscious (and more needy) BEV drivers. I doubt a Jeep driver could be persuaded to feel guilty.[/sarcastic text]
It is definitely a challenge to use a public charger for the first time...I'm looking forward to finding all the free chargers in my area! My experience is that the public charging, even if it's free, is more worthwhile when your battery is somewhere in the middle of its capacity. Plug in, lock your car if you're alone, do a quick errand and come back! My car went from 55% full to 62% full in about 15-20 minutes. It wasn't many kWh, but for me, it was about figuring out how to use it!
One thing that makes it easier to use a public charger is having the car set to charge immediately with no departure times set. @Teddydogno1, I know you got the smart version of the Grizzl-e whereas I bought the classic version because I figured I didn't need to being able to set delayed charging in both the car and the EVSE. Unfortunately, the car sometimes outsmarts me when I'm trying to set delayed charging and so I might buy the smart Grizzl-e upgrade when it's available (reportedly in January) depending on the cost. Seems like it would be easiest to just leave the car set to charge immediately and launch the EVSE app on the rare times when I want to charge at home outside the low-rate hours. That way I can plug in at home and on the road without having to think about the SE's charge settings.
We do not have time-based rates. Just about 12.4 cents any time, so I have it set to charge immediately. We are also somewhat prone to going out again in the evening so it is nice to have it topped of already when we do. Not that those evening trips are any longer than a few miles. But still. I do have a 6:45 AM departure time set so it will warm up for my wife before her drive. Rob
Yeah, I have my car set to low cost charging during the week, and I have to remember to change it to immediate if I go to a public charger. It is nice the SE brings up the charging menu when you turn it off. Ooh, I hadn't heard about that. Definitely interested as well, even though I'm very happy with my "dumb" Grizzl-e.
What you wrote about having a departure time set even with the car set to charge immediately made me doubt something that I implied in my post: that having a departure time set could cause a delay in charging when the car is set to charge immediately. In hindsight, I suspect I was wrong about that. I was at a free public charger and changed the SE's setting to charge immediately and it still wouldn't charge. Then I disabled the departure time (or times, I don't recall) and it worked. It doesn't make sense to me that it wouldn't charge when it was set to charge immediately, so it may have just been user error--something I was doing wrong that had nothing to do with the departure time. So I don't know whether departure time can actually cause a delay in charging when the car is set to charge immediately (as suggested by my post), but it seemed that way to me that one time.
My wife would not have known what to do if it hadn't started charging when she plugged it in. She did notice that the light went green. There was no problem in our case of having charging set to Immediate and only having a Departure Time set. Same when she parked at home the few times since I set the departure. No problem with it not charging immediately. Rob
As I recall, the ‘smart’ Griz needs a neutral wire, but the ‘dumb’ Griz does not. Is that correct? Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
My dumb Grizzl-e has a 14-50 connector which has 4 prongs: line (black), line (red), neutral, and ground. I don't know if it actually needs the neutral but it has it in the plug and it wouldn't be a great idea to install the outlet without a neutral attached...
There is actually more societal benefit to letting the Jeep charge than charging the SE in most cases. You probably wouldn’t have needed the charge. So you are offsetting low cost and low impact off-peak energy (from overnight charging) with higher cost, higher environmental impact on-peak energy. By contrast the Jeep probably is offsetting some gas (likely at 20mpg or less) with electricity which is always cleaner. Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
I hardwired my Grizzl-E Classic following the instructions in the manual: two lines and a ground, no neutral. I just looked online at the manual for the Grizzl-E Smart and the hardwire instructions are the same: Line 1, Line 2, and Ground. So I should be able to just swap out the PCBA if the upgrade price isn't too high. (Upgrade will be a PCBA replacement if it's the same as what was initially offered to customers who had bought units prior to when Smart version was available.)
I have the Smart, but haven't set up the WiFi or any smart features yet. They say they will soon support more public/standard charging info services. rob
Our town has decided to dump the free ClipperCreek EVSEs installed in its parking facilities over the past 10 years. Fee-based ChargePoint EVSEs will replace the free ClipperCreek EVSEs to "help incentivize turnover at EV spots." It's sad but not surprising that free charging (in choice parking locations, too) was too good to last forever.
First public 50kW DC fast charging for my SE today. Completely free too thanks to ChargePlace Scotland. Plugged in at 12:30 with 25% remaining, currently sitting in the car at 13:03 at 90%. “Free” motoring is awesome especially in the Cooper SE! Ignore the seemingly poor parking. There was a car in the space next to me when I got here.
Nice! I posted on New Years Day that I had done my first public Fast DC Charging, too. Almost 2 months into ownership. The Mini had only received the "public juice" twice in that time (my wife's session from this thread and then at E.A. on Jan 1). Rob
Here in Oz, a lot of the Universities run free DC charging. They do so to analyse/test charging. It helps that we have one of the lowest uptakes of EVs in the known universe. The Uni is solar powered with a massive solar farm, so it costs them zip. I don't know if it is good or bad, but I have never paid for charging (except at home and even then I have solar) in over 15 months....
