My pax often ask me how fast clarity can be charged. Usually I tell them “couple hours”. Technically it is not true and you can fully charge her in about 30 minutes. Here is how: When I slow down with 4 chevrons I gain extra 100 meters every couple seconds. That means if I tow my clarity behind another car, full charge will take about half an hour. Or if someone has nothing else to do, they can build a stand in their garage that will rotate one of the front wheels with the same result. (Yes, tons of time for idiotic thoughts while driving )
I have yet to see evidence which suggests that Uber/taxi drivers are the best experts on any subject.
I may have to find a route for this. I am not able to go to four chevrons when I am going more than 55 MPH, so I would not feel comfortable on an interstate... (your comments were in KM, so this may not be obvious to you: You Canada?) Are you a high-mileage driver? How often are you able to charge your car (from a land-line)? I am over 220,000 miles, and I totalled the car twice. I don't think I will make it through another State safety inspection, so I may be trying a few experiments before I lose the Clarity.
I am at 180,000 km now. Charging usually twice a day, overnight and when I come home for lunch. I wish lunch-time charging could be shorter, and building (in my mind) a rig to lift one front wheel in the air and make it rotate using some electric motor. Unfortunately Ontario (Canada) is quite flat, so I can't test the theory using a long 30 mins downhill run, starting with empty battery.
I drive too much, so my mind goes to the same places as yours... A full charge takes about 12 kwh. Doing that in 30 minutes would require an average of 24 kwh per hour. That works out to a 32 HP motor, to turn the wheel. (assuming 100% conversion, thermodynamics will require it to be a larger motor). At 220V house current, that would require at least 110 amps to run the motor. That would be an expensive installation. Anything over 40 amp circuit is very rare in residential. The Clarity supports charging at 30 amps: it is designed for the maximum 'reasonable' residential installation. Most electric motors around the house are 1 HP or less, compared to the 32 HP required in this thought experiment. How are your gasoline and electric prices? Is gasoline comparatively expensive enough to justify working this out?
I did a coast charging test coming down off Pike's Peak a while back. https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/topic?url=https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/pikes-peak-adventure.14699/ In 19 miles with an elevation drop of ~6600 feet, I went from (IIRC) 4 bars from empty to 2 bars from full. I wasn't on 4 chevrons all the way down, played the paddles to maintain my speed with occasional brake pedal regen. So you could charge it to full towing it, but that would be a manifestly wasteful way to charge. Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
