All, New to the forum and also a brand new owner of Clarity PHEV Toruing, the last unit in my Maryland area. This is also our first "clean" vehicle. I've done 207 miles (commute is 45 mi. RT) so far and have plugged it in our 120v outlet 3x already. This is perhaps a dumb question but does it have to be plugged in every night to get 100% charge the following day? Just wondering what would the effect be of plugging it in daily to the battery (I guess thinking of the battery like cellphones have). Would appreciate any insight and recommendation. Thank you.
Welcome! You’ve come to the right place for info and insights. And you’ve bought a great car! There are quite a threads on here about charging strategies that you can find with a search. My opinion is the battery takes good care of itself and I just plug it in every time I pull into the garage. I love having my own refueling station at home and I’m pretty much always at 100% charge when starting out.
Hello and welcome. Yes plugging in everyday and leaving it plugged in are both no problem. How long you need to leave it plugged in to reach 100% charge depends on two things: charge rate and time. Level 1 (120v) charge cords that came with the car needs about 12 hrs to charge from empty while a level II (240v) charger (EVSE) can take as little as about 2 hrs from empty. Leaving it plugged in overnight has another benefit: you can schedule at interior temperature setting for the morning drive with the app. NOTE: the supply ability of a level 1 charger can't keep up with heavy heating use so there will be some reduction in EV range but this is much better than pre-conditioning the interior while unplugged, using the FOB's auto-start feature (which is neat too!), and having to rely on the HV battery to heat/cool the car because the EV range reduction will be much greater. The biggest neg of leaving a vehicle plugged in is a possible voltage surge from a very, very close lightning strike.
Cars have very expensive batteries that are generally warrantied for a decade. It has a much better charging system than a stupid smart phone; the car battery is not going to get hurt by leaving it plugged in.
