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Dsinned

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 6, 2012
Messages
1,213
Location
San Jose, CA
I provided the following feedback today to this owrer satisfaction survey on a general question regarding the RAV4 EV's "Battery":

Not the traction motor BATTERY itself, but the RAV4 EV's onboard scheduler for delayed departure charging the battery. This does not work reliably. The accuracy of a scheduled recharge completion time does not meet my expectations. This affects all RAV4 EVs, not just mine. The charging scheduler simply does not function reliably.

Problem Severity (Please select one). Not At All Serious 1 2 3 4 5 Extremely Serious: 5
 
I don't bother to set the schedule in my Rav4 EV because my Blink charger lets me set the schedule in the unit. Even if I plug in the Rav4 EV during the day, the Blink won't start charging anything 'til 8:30 p.m.

However, if I ever get that survey, I'll make sure to note the same complaint, because it really should work.

The other problem I have with the Rav4 EV is when both my iPhone 5 and my wife's iPhone 5 is in the car at the same time. Screws everything up because the car apparently can't decide which phone is primary. (We both drive the Rav4 EV, so we each have a separate, independent Entune account linked to the car.)
 
Stop the fresh air/recirculate button from being overridden.

Currently, almost any button you touch for the HVAC will override your selection of recirculate and put the car in fresh air mode. This pushes cold air into the cabin on a cold day and exhaust from the "smokers" on any day. When the system is off, it forces you into fresh air mode and ignores your recirculate preference.

I would put this at a 4 on the scale.
 
I got a callback today from Toyota and spent about 30 minutes on the phone "explaining" in detail this problem. The person I talked to seemed to understand, and promised to "get back to me" in a few days. I think this usually means, nothing much is really going to happen, but I guess they have to say something to make you think they are working on the problem. I'm almost at the point where I will find a way just to live with the problem. If I "schedule" on weekends it really doesn't matter much if it adheres to the schedule or not. On weekends PG&E's Winter rates are lowest except between 5 to 9pm. I have found that scheduling charge completion at 9am works fairly well to circumvent an unexpected charge at the higher rate, plus allows plenty of time for the seemingly random, post-charge cell balancing operation of ~30 minutes at a lower charging rate of about 600 watts.

Fortunately, I only have to recharge about once a week, so a scheduled completion on Saturday mornings by 9am seems to be an effective workaround.

I just had a 3.5kW solar system installed on my roof, so missing "the window" probably has less of an impact. If I have to charge in the daytime on a week day, at least now, the effective electric consumption rate I pay to PG&E will be far less, if anything at all. :mrgreen:
 
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