When I got my vehicle (Limited AWD) in November, with temps in the 50s and 60s, I was getting 190-200 miles out of a full charge. When the temp dropped into the 30s, I was only getting 160-170 miles. Last week, with temps in the teens, I got less than 140 miles. Charging time has also been very slow on both Level 2 and Level 3 chargers. I have been plugged in at home on my Level 2 for just over an hour and a half and went from 24% to 33% (6 kWh added - about 15 miles of driving). With the electricity price in CT going from 24 cents per kWh to 36 cents per kWh on Jan 1st, it will be much more expensive to drive than a gas powered hybrid. It is great looking, very comfortable and I love driving it, but it has been a disappointment so far.
Your range is certainly troubling. Is that <140miles from 100% to 0%? Mix of city and highway driving..?
My utility company has an "EV" rate plan that will reduce the kWh price by roughly 20% if charging during non-peak hours; perhaps yours does as well? 36 cents per kWh sounds absolutely extreme! Those are Hawaii prices! With your 140 miles of range, $0.36/kWh electric costs, and relative to current gasoline prices, my back of the napkin math tells me that that would be akin getting like 18 mpg in a gas car as far as cost is concerned.
Can you also elaborate in regards to your charging speeds? What is your experience with DC fast charging? Are you approaching the 100 kWh charging rate that the vehicle is supposedly capable of? This is already a less than ideal number as it is (as compared with its competitors), but as long as it really is capable of that speed, it should be sufficient for folks who don't need to fast charge regularly. If it's not even approaching that speed, however, this would be bad. Was the charging speed for you also bad back in November, before the temperatures really dropped?
If I recall correctly, the official specs indicated that one should be able to charge the AWD model to 80% in about 35 minutes...and the math on that works out if the vehicle indeed charges at 100 kWh and has a ~72 kWh battery. I'm almost certain that I had seen the 35 minute figure in the original BZ4X literature at some point, but now I cannot seem to find it online—does anyone have a download of the original BZ4X brochures, etc.? I know that in the fine print it had advised that charging time would increase at temperatures below freezing.
The only official DC charging time spec that I can find now is the estimate for the FWD version with 150 kW charging rate—23 minutes, 0-80%. Unless there's something critical that Toyota's not telling us about the AWD model's battery, if the FWD model can charge in 23 minutes at 150 kWh, then the AWD's 100 kWh charging should indeed be capable of a 35 minute charge.
With the battery pre-heated, is yours even approaching the 35 minute figure..?
