Can I charge my iMiEV from our Outlander PHEV?

[cdysthe]

Hi,

In an emergency, can I charge my iMiEV from our Outlander PHEV?

 

[MickeyS70]

Absolutely, see below

In this topic Post subject: Re: Single LEV50-cell wanted for our Citroen C-Zero PostPosted: 25 Aug 2015, 20:06, Martin, (me68) wrote :
My wife towed me at home with the Golf - C-Zero was on at this Trip in gear selection D, right foot standby at the breakpedal. At a speed of round 50km/h this results in 11kW recuperation power - it was easy to handle.
My findings: a towline should stay in each EV - it's the universal charging equipment!
Martin

 

[cdysthe]

Absolutely, see below

In this topic Post subject: Re: Single LEV50-cell wanted for our Citroen C-Zero PostPosted: 25 Aug 2015, 20:06, Martin, (me68) wrote :
My wife towed me at home with the Golf - C-Zero was on at this Trip in gear selection D, right foot standby at the breakpedal. At a speed of round 50km/h this results in 11kW recuperation power - it was easy to handle.
My findings: a towline should stay in each EV - it's the universal charging equipment!
Martin

Thank you for that! That emergency was actually happening yesterday. My son was picking up his sister from school and didn't check charge. We had a power outage overnight so it only had a couple of bars left. He ran those down and parked making sure he had room for the PHEV next to him. I drove down and we charged from the PHEV until we could get it home. Took a couple of hours though. We still love our little iMiev, and the PHEV of course! A perfect car combo for us!

 

[JoeS]

...I drove down and we charged from the PHEV until we could get it home. Took a couple of hours though...

Glad it all worked out. Um, how exactly did you charge the i-MiEV? Does the Outlander have a 120vac outlet?

I was going to suggest a convoluted scheme of hooking up a 1000W inverter to the PHEV's12v battery and dialing down the i-MiEV EVSE to only pull 5A, or else using a Setec CHAdeMO --> 240vac inverter, but whatever you did was far less convoluted or expensive.

 

[cdysthe]

...I drove down and we charged from the PHEV until we could get it home. Took a couple of hours though...

Glad it all worked out. Um, how exactly did you charge the i-MiEV? Does the Outlander have a 120vac outlet?

I was going to suggest a convoluted scheme of hooking up a 1000W inverter to the PHEV's12v battery and dialing down the i-MiEV EVSE to only pull 5A, or else using a Setec CHAdeMO --> 240vac inverter, but whatever you did was far less convoluted or expensive.

The 120v outlet on the Outlander PHEV has been our life savior twice. First time this winter when power to our house was our for three days. We pulled an extension chord from the Outlander into the house and kept freezer, fridge, a little heat and light going. Our neighbors came over to see this miracle. Second time was charging the iMiEV. The two cars use the same charger so we used the spare in the Outlander plugged into the 120v outlet and charged hooked up the iMiEV. We also use it every time we go camping. Very useful! I do not think people really understand how unique that is. Recently Ford launched the Lightning truck and use the 120v outlet as a unique new feature. Mitsubishi have had that outlet for many years.

 

[JoeS]

cdysthe, thank you for the explanation. I had not realized that the Outlander had this inverter built into it.

Nowadays, Ford and Hyundai/Kia marketing is making a big deal of their ability to use the vehicles' traction battery to provide ac power through their own inverters - Ford's is built-in whereas the Hyundai/Kia is a plug-in into the CCS1 port.

Another failure of Mitsubishi marketing and their product development group's inactivity as our i-MiEV CHAdeMO has always been capable of two-way power (unlike the Nissan Leaf which only got it in 2013). The i-MiEV had a simple CHAdeMO->120vac plug-in inverter that was extensively used after the Fukushima earthquake. We have a link to this inverter here somewhere, but we couldn't buy it.

We can do the same using this rather expensive gadget (watch out for US customs fees!):
https://www.setec-power.com/product/vehicle-to-home-v2h-6kw/

Edit: 12v-->120vac inverters are nothing new. I designed and built one as a school project sixty years ago (still have it), and remember using it to run a tape recorder playing bagpipe music at a campground while partying a 2am...until the battery died (in those days no big deal to push-start a car). Over the years I've used this capability, as cdysthe did, for backup power whenever the grid went down.

 

[cdysthe]

cdysthe, thank you for the explanation. I had not realized that the Outlander had this inverter built into it.

Nowadays, Ford and Hyundai/Kia marketing is making a big deal of their ability to use the vehicles' traction battery to provide ac power through their own inverters - Ford's is built-in whereas the Hyundai/Kia is a plug-in into the CCS1 port.

Another failure of Mitsubishi marketing and their product development group's inactivity as our i-MiEV CHAdeMO has always been capable of two-way power (unlike the Nissan Leaf which only got it in 2013). The i-MiEV had a simple CHAdeMO->120vac plug-in inverter that was extensively used after the Fukushima earthquake. We have a link to this inverter here somewhere, but we couldn't buy it.

We can do the same using this rather expensive gadget (watch out for US customs fees!):
https://www.setec-power.com/product/vehicle-to-home-v2h-6kw/

Edit: 12v-->120vac inverters are nothing new. I designed and built one as a school project sixty years ago (still have it), and remember using it to run a tape recorder playing bagpipe music at a campground while partying a 2am...until the battery died (in those days no big deal to push-start a car). Over the years I've used this capability, as cdysthe did, for backup power whenever the grid went down.

It's only the Outlander PHEV that has this for obvious reasons. When I use it it first empties the battery and then the engine starts running. The car is literally just a generator.