Soon-to-be i-Miev owner needs some advice

[MikeMcA]

Hello everyone,

I just joined your forum after reading it voraciously for about a week. I submitted an offer on a 2012 i-Miev SE with 16,000 miles on it and it was accepted by the private party owner. It's a beautiful car that looks like it just rolled off a showroom floor. I am supposed to pick up the car on Saturday and drive it 162 miles to my house.
And now I'm realizing how little I know about charging an i-Miev, and feeling a bit overwhelmed.
Before I make big errors, I hope to pick the brains of the experienced drivers I've seen posting on here. But please try to explain things to me in simple terms because I am, well, electricity challenged.
The car comes with a charging connector that the seller said can connect to Level 1 and Level 2 charging systems. It also has the DC Fast Charge port for charging at EVConnect or ChargePoint stations.

I am really at a loss, however, as to whether I need to upgrade the electric service in my garage, and exactly what I might need.
My garage has one wall socket that is a two-prong. The seller told me that if I use a 3 prong power strip with an adapter on its three prong plug, I will be OK for Level 1 charging. That is how she said she has charged the i-Miev.
I’ve talked to a contractor with an electrical engineering background who is willing to run a dedicated 240Volt line into my garage. But I am not sure if I need to purchase a Level 2 docking station or just have him connect it to a dryer type outlet? Also, what are the Amp limits for charging the i-Miev from a 220V line? If I need to purchase something, can you knowledgable folks recommend anything?

I am also facing the more immediate challenge of getting the car 162 miles to my house after I buy it on Saturday.
I've downloaded the plugshare app and started to plot my route. The path with the most access to charging stations is the New York State Thruway, a highway that crosses Upstate New York. So I'm planning to drive it about 50 mph in the right lane and ignore the dirty looks I'll get.
Depending on the battery's capacity, I hope to stop 3 or 4 times for charges. My planned legs are 35 miles to a free J-1772 Level 2 charging station in a casino parking lot, 56 miles to a EV Connect CHAdeMO DC Fast Charger at a thruway travel plaza, and 59 miles to a free EV Connect CHAdeMO DC Fast Charger at a thruway welcome center. If the car loses capacity quicker, I’ll have some backup locations identified in advance. It could be a long day.
Am I correct in believing my i-Miev will connect to both J-1772 chargers and CHAdeMO fast chargers?

What else do I need to know?

 

[sheinr4143]

Hi MikeMcA,

I would suggest a new plan to cover your planned route in an I-Miev: hire a car transport service! Seriously. The range at Thruway speeds is going to drop like sand through an hourglass. Even if you were to span the 50+ mile gaps and arrive at at a level 3 charger, you will only take on 80% of the maximum capacity of your battery which is unknown since you are just acquiring the car!

This is a great car when you respect its limitations. Do yourself a favor by not exposing yourself and your new car during your honeymoon to a such a perilous journey!

Best . . . sheinr4143

 

[MikeMcA]

Sheinr4143,

Thank you for the advice. I am rethinking my plan for driving the car home... either adding extra stops for charging at shorter distances, taking non Thruway roads, or paying a car transport service. I sure don't want to run out of juice on my first trip. That would be too embarrassing.

 

[kiev]

i second the advice to have it towed since it is a new style of driving and its winter with possible snow and ice to contend, unless you have an excess amount of free time available to sit and wait at the Level 2 stations (likely 3 to 4 hours) and you are quite up for an adventure that might take 2 or more days.

i bought a car and had it transported to within 40 miles of home, but i almost didn't make it home as the pack was dropping fast. Made it home with less than 1 bar blinking. i learned really quickly to slow down to make it, running at about 40 mph and coasting whenever possible.

If you decide to try it, then look up a good flat tow service and have their number in your phone in case the range is not as good as expected and you run out with no charge station nearby. Level 1 charging on 120vac might take 8 to 12 hours. Using the heater will cut your range in a big way too.

 

[MikeMcA]

Kiev,

Thank you for the advice. I was able to arrange a car transport service for the 162-mile maiden voyage to my house. Given the weather forecast of rain turning to snow, and temperatures dipping to the 20s, I think that is the best option. Otherwise I was looking at a 15 or 16 hour trip, getting home at 5 a.m., and that's if everything went perfect.

Can anyone help me out on my other question? As I mentioned, I'm not well versed in electricity.

I am at a loss as to whether I need to upgrade the electric service in my garage, and exactly what I might need. My garage has one wall socket that is a two-prong. The seller told me that if I use a 3 prong power strip with an adapter on its three prong plug, I will be OK for Level 1 charging. That is how she said she has charged the i-Miev.

I’ve talked to a contractor with an electrical engineering background who is willing to run a dedicated 240Volt line into my garage. But I am not sure if I need to purchase a Level 2 docking station or just have him connect it to a dryer type outlet, and the Level 1/2 connector the car comes with to hook it up. Also, what are the Amp limits for charging the i-Miev from a 220V line?

If I need to purchase something, can you knowledgable folks recommend anything?

 

[kiev]

i've never tried using a 2-prong adapter to charge with a Level 1 120vac EVSE unit.

My first thought was that it might not work since it is missing the earth ground wire, but if she has been charging that way--well i can't explain or argue with success...

From what i have seen there is a Ground fault current interruption circuit as well as a Ground detection circuit in the EVSE units that would prevent charging if a separate safety earth ground is missing.

A separate ground can be run from the breaker box to create the necessary outlet depending upon whether the EVSE with your car can run on either 120 or 240vac.

A typical 120vac outlet is rated for 15 Amps and the EVSE will limit the current to about 8 or 12 Amps.

The max current with 240vac is about 14 Amps, so an outlet would need to be rated for 20.

 

[veimi]

For what it is worth I have charged my car using only the 120V AC supply. It does not work without a 3rd wire ground connection.

Electricity in my city is cheapest at night and on weekends. I get about 6km increase per hour of charge so fully charging from empty would take about 16 hours. There is another factor however. Leaving the car on charge beyond this time starts balancing the cells and from what I've read a full charge using 120V AC could take up to 22 hours.

 

[JoeS]

MikeMcA, welcome to the forum and congratulations on your purchase!

First things first - presumably the 2012 SE has a navigation screen built into the car - in which case it does have CHAdeMO. You can check how it was originally equipped by putting in the VIN into this link (replace the VIN with yours).
https://www.mitsubishicars.com/rs/file/monroney?vin=JA3215H16CU018997

Your car has only 16,000 miles on it, which is laudable; however, unless it has been measured, the state of the battery is unknown in this ten-year-old car. Whereas when new the i-MiEV could easily achieve its EPA rating of 62 miles, the effective range of your car is simply unknown, but is probably still more than sufficient for all your local driving. Initially, I would not attempt any full-charge trip of more than 40 miles, especially in winter.

(Deleted a belated long writeup on travel as I see you made the wise decision to have the car transported home)

The charging station (EVSE) that comes with your car is said to work with both 120 vac and 240vac. If it is a Mitsubishi EVSE then it has probably been modified (by EVSEupgrade.com - now defunct) to work on both, which is very nice. Do you know what the brand and name/part number are of the EVSE you are getting?

On the question of charging at home:

1) 120vac (Level 1) should work fine for you initially - I know i-MiEV (and Tesla) owners who have been using Level 1 exclusively for years; however, it does need to be a properly grounded three-prong outlet as the Mitsubishi EVSE will not work because it performs a ground-fault check. Your two-prong outlet in the garage sounds pretty old - is it polarized and is the larger of the two terminals tied to ground and what is the size of the circuit breaker or fuse? As a side note, in desperation a polarized two-prong-to three prong adapter can be made to work if the pigtail is properly wired by someone who knows what they are doing, but it can be dangerous if not done properly and made foolproof.

2) 240vac: before you start thinking about spending money, do you have a dryer outlet in the garage?

To answer your question, an unmodified Mitsubishi EVSE allows the car to draw 8A on 120vac; however, a modified Mitsubishi EVSE allows up to 12A, which is the maximum allowable charging current on a conventional home 15A 120vac circuit. On 240vac the current draw by the car is 13A.

Note that in practice you will almost never run the car battery down to empty and will also rarely charge it up fully (for the sake of the battery), so an overnight Level 1 charge will usually be sufficient for your daily needs. Once you get the car we can discuss all that.

Enough food for thought and probably more than you wanted to know.

Good luck in getting your i-MiEV home!

 

[MikeMcA]

JoeS,

Thank you for all the info. I used that link you supplied and yes, the i-Miev had the premium package option when it was sold in 2012, and that did include the quick charge port. I believe the EVSE I am getting was made by Mitsubishi because it had a Mitsubishi tag on it. I saw the EVSE when I bought the car, but didn't get a part number. The seller told me she has used the EVSE primarily for Level 1 charging in her garage, but occasionally at a nearby Level 2 charging station.

As for home charging, English is the seller's second language and she was having trouble communicating exactly how she charged the i-Miev using a two-prong outlet. I gathered it involved a power strip. But it's possible I misunderstood her.

The two-prong outlet in my garage is likely very old. The house was built in 1836, and the garage added around 1920. I had a new circuit breaker box installed after we bought the house 5 years ago. There is no dryer outlet in the garage, but there is an old dedicated line that ran from the basement into the garage, then outside, before connecting to a dryer type outlet in my dining room to power an air conditioner. We don't use the air conditioner.

I am considering having a new 240V line installed by my contractor because I don't trust the old wiring on that existing dedicated line that runs through the garage. But I don't know if I need to connect the 240V to a dryer type outlet in the garage or if I need a docking station.

 

[JoeS]

MikeMcA,

It would indeed be best to run a new conduit/wire into the garage and if you're going through the trouble of doing that then if possible install a 50A circuit with a NEMA 14-50 outlet to accommodate any future BEVs with higher power draw than our i-MiEV. Be sure to locate the outlet close to the right-rear of the car (mindful whichever way you park, e.g., backing in or going forward).

When you get the car and can see the EVSE we can then talk about an appropriate adapter if indeed this EVSE had been modified; otherwise, you might need to purchase a Level 2 EVSE.

Normally, if the seller said she went somewhere to charge Level 2, it would have been at a conventional J1772 charging station and the Mitsu EVSE would not have been used.

 

[TobyGadd]

Since others have already answered your questions, all I can add is: CONGRATULATIONS. The i-Miev is a wonderfully odd duckling of a car. I've been driving mine for about 4 years now, and I absolutely love it for commuting and running errands.

I mostly charge at home, with a dedicated L2 charger (Clipper Creek), but I initially used the L1 charger that came with the car. It's slow, but it does work, especially if you're not running the battery down too low every day. The L2 charger is really nice, and adds some future-proofing for when I buy my next EV. I have never actually used the quick-charging feature.

 

[MikeMcA]

TobyGadd,

Thank you for the note. It is exciting and a wee bit scary. I can't wait to learn first-hand about driving an electric car. And once I get used to the car and the weather gets warmer, I'm planning to use it to commute to work daily. It will be nice driving past the gas station without ever stopping.

 

[Don]

I believe the EVSE I am getting was made by Mitsubishi because it had a Mitsubishi tag on it. I saw the EVSE when I bought the car, but didn't get a part number. The seller told me she has used the EVSE primarily for Level 1 charging in her garage, but occasionally at a nearby Level 2 charging station.

This sounds like the stock Panasonic EVSE, which is only capable of 8 amps on 120 volts - Very slow. Many of us had this EVSE 'upgraded' so that it can do 12 amps on 120 volts *or* 12 amps on 240 volts, but I kinda doubt that's been done to the one you're getting, because she says she has recharged using L2 at a nearby Level 2 Charging Station which means she wasn't using the stock EVSE

If your EVSE has been modified, it will have an unusual plug on it which requires an adapter pigtail to plug it into any standard outlet. If you don't see the unusual plug, it's just an 8 amp EVSE

Many people use these cars everyday and never use L2, 240 volt charging - They get by fine on 120 volt, L1. But, you do need a 3 prong grounded outlet in your garage and it would be very nice if that outlet wasn't powering anything else, so you could use it's full power. To do that, you need another EVSE which can do either 12 or 16 amps on 120 volts. If the circuit breaker on your garage outlet is a 20 amp, you can use 80% of that, or 16 amps, which will recharge you twice as fast as the EVSE that came with the car, so if that's important, buy an L1 EVSE rated for 16 amps. If your house is older and your outlet has a 15 amp circuit breaker, all you can use is 80% of that, or 12 amps, so most any L1 EVSE (other than the one that came with the car) can do 12 amps

I suspect you can get by just fine without rewiring your garage for 240 volts, but that's always an option. 240 volts at 12 amps will come close to maxxing out the charger built into the car and would recharge you at 3 times the rate of your stock Panasonic EVSE

BTW - I agree with your decision to ship the car. You'll never know for sure, but that may very well be the smartest thing you'll ever do with this car. A long distance trip in the snow and rain with a new EV driver at the helm could spell disaster in so many ways and even if everything went well, it might have made it an overnight trip :lol:

 

[Godabitibi]

I just did something similar 2 days ago. I bought mine about 100 miles from home. I had planned my trip with stops at fast chargers and thought it could be done. I did it but wouldn't do it again. Not the best way to learn. Weather was not too nice. Charges took longer than expected. Almost ran out of power once. It took me at least 3 times the regular driving time. The i-miev is a short distance commuter.

Seriously rent a U haul car hauler trailer.

Today after a full slow charge at home I drove it for about 25 miles. Around 32F outside heater to the MAX. Wipers on and rear defrost. Driving in slush. It went perfectly and came back home with spare miles. That is what I bought it for and I'm happy.

But no more long distance! The car was not built for that.

 

[Don]

It can be done - We had a member here who drove his iMiEV down Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica . . . . and then he turned around and drove it back home. Took a long time and he did it a few years back when there were far fewer charge stations than there are today. Not for the faint of heart, to say the least

 

[MikeMcA]

Two days after I had my 2012 I-Miev delivered to my house, I left for a long-planned and much-needed vacation. I've driven the I-Miev a few times to the grocery store, but I'm just now getting back to figuring out what electrical improvements I need in my garage and what EVSE equipment I need to purchase. The EVSE that came with the I-Miev is the standard 8 amp EVSE. I have a contractor who can install a 50 amp circuit, run a new 240V line from it into my garage and also replace the old two-prong 120V outlet that is in the garage with a grounded three-prong. But I gather I will need to purchase a new Level 2 EVSE to do faster charging at home.
Can anyone recommend what Level 2 EVSE equipment I should buy and give me a rough idea of pricing?
Thank you in advance for all of your advice.

 

[JoeS]

MikeMcA, first off, since you only have a two-prong (ungrounded) 120vac outlet, by all means have the NEMA 14-50 outlet installed in your garage.

Think long and hard as to whether you will be going in forward or backing into the garage, and then locate the outlet in the vicinity of the right rear of the car. If you go in forward the outlet location will make it convenient to plug in an electric car from outside the garage, and nestling the car up against the right wall will give you room to open the driver's door and have a passageway to the left of the car. We do it both ways in my two-car garage, as I prefer to back in on the left side of the other i-MiEV.

After you have an outlet installed you can simply get an adapter and just use the 8A EVSE that came with your car for a few weeks/months/years while you sleep. For example, this is cheaper than building you own adapter:
https://www.amazon.com/Southwire-9042SW8801-Outlet-Range-Adapter/dp/B07CJ246JP/ref=sr_1_31

After that, you can decide whether you want to buy an inexpensive ($200) 240vac 16A EVSE or buy a more-expensive (~$330) 32A (or even 40A) EVSE for your more-powerful future electric car. Another consideration is to get an EVSE that will work on either 240vac or 120vac and have adjustable current as some old houses can't even handle 120vac 12A if you are on the road and use a variety of outlets. If you want to get fancy with WiFi control and other bells and whistles, just poke around the Internet, Amazon, eBay, etc. The basic EVSE is a very simple device, but if you're concerned you can get one that's UL (or equivalent) approved. I'm personally partial to Clipper Creek products, but they were just bought out and I don't know what their present pricing structure is. Edit: Many 16A charging stations come with a NEMA 6-20 or L6-20 plugs, but you can then simply get, for example, a 14-50P to 6-20R adapter on Amazon or EVSEAdapters.com. Ooh, just found this $171 EVSE, but it's not UL-listed:
https://www.amazon.com/astoneves-Switchable-Electric-Standard-100-250V/dp/B0928VF2CM/ref=sr_1_15

 

[TobyGadd]

Can anyone recommend what Level 2 equipment I should buy and give me a rough idea of pricing?

With so many great options out there, you'll probably receive many solid recommendations.

I bought a Clipper Creek HCS-D40P deal-headed charger. I wanted to be able to charge 2 electric cars at the same time, with as little wiring as possible. I like that it will increase the power if you're only charging one car at a time as well, which is nice when charging larger cars. It does charge both of my i-Mievs at the maximum rate at same time. There are less expensive options out there, but I'm happy with my choice.

https://store.clippercreek.com/featured/dual-ev-charging-station-nema-6-50-plug

 

[MikeMcA]

Thank you all for the info. I'm doing some shopping online to find the EVSE that seems just right for now and the future.

 

[wmcbrine]

Having gone through a couple of more expensive EVSEs, I've abandoned the idea of future-proofing and am currently using a cheap ($200) 16amp Duosida, which is more than enough to charge the i-MiEV at its full Level 2 capacity.

If I get an EV with a higher charge rate, I can always just bundle the Duosida with the i-MiEV.