Featured ECO Charging Built into Toyota and Lexus Apps as Part of Remote Connect

What a convenient idea from the 10th rank corporate climate denier who shares their top 10 listing with the biggest corporations in the Fossil Fool industry... I mean who cares if Toyota refuses to build cars that don't depend on fossil fuels, as long as they have a cool app for the tiny number of electric cars that they do build, that's good enough, right?

 

LOL . . . .
thinking in the same vein - somewhat. it's likely many if not most don't give a hoot about cO2 when they buy a car. Price? Power? Range? Efficiency? Comfort? Utility? Handling? Resale?
Example. We had over 8K after AC converted PV solar. Back in they day it was $30K after incentives. (paid for itself in 6 years as we bought VERY little gas in the decade we had the home. PV industry says we can get that much extra when we sell. B.S. !!!
The home sold in 2021 for what it was ... the very best schools in the state ... and lake frontage ... south OC SoCal. No one's going to pay a penny more for it. Most don't care they can get cheep electricity ... unless exactly all other factors are identical. But a car? with an app?

.

 

I was appalled when I saw this on another forum ... it might have been an Internet advertisement. Regardless of source, my first thought "What a SCAM!"

It feeds the false narrative that we are all Bambi loving, leaf looking, dummy goodies who can be scammed by such nonsense.

As I've frequently shared, "I am Yankee Greenback Dollar bill green." My BEVs and before them, Prius were much cheaper to operate than any ICE including diesels, Not stinking of car exhaust is a byproduct, not a primary purchasing decision. As for man-made global warming, that is handled by replacing combustion energy production with renewable and nuclear.

This 'App' is a sad joke revealing more about the ignorance of the anti-EV crowd.

Bob Wilson

 

No problem but in the future ‘Tesla Tweaker’ would be more accurate.

Perhaps more credit than merited, I figured anyone who cared would already know. Of course there is the built in EU version:

Wet two fingers and if feeling s breeze, the wind turbines are working. If you can see them, the solar cells are working. The American version has half the parts but the same physics.

Bob Wilson

 

It's nice to see that they are improving and updating the app. I can now see the charging history on my phone. The charge details give me the charge level in percent SOC before and after charging. It has the start and end time (to the second) of the charge. It shows the energy used to charge the battery (to the nearest watt hour).

Last night the charging started at 5 minutes after midnight and charged for 37 minutes, 27 seconds. It used .882kWh to charge the battery from 86% SOC to 100% SOC. Due to TOU metering combined with PG&E's punitive pricing I was rewarded with a bill of only 24 cents per kWh of electricity. In this case that meant 21.16 cents to top off 14% of the battery.

And yes, the app noted that I charged during the recommended time interval and used a green leaf as a grown up version of the gold star that teachers used to encourage first graders to behave. But long ago I set my car to charge during the "non prime" time periods. That only precludes late afternoon and evening, if I want the cheapest available rate.

 

That's cute, but totally in error. Wind turbines only work properly when the wind speed is high enough but not too high. They are seldom designed for gentle breezes. Solar cells lose effectiveness and even shut down when they are in partial shadow. This can be worked around but it can be expensive.

But the graphic is cute, and so is the simplistic saying that goes with it.

 

The app is crap.
Also not useful for "entry" level Primes. And not free.
We have solar and when we don't need the car in the morning, I just wait to plug in or schedule (via the car b/c the app won't do $hit) to start when the sun is out.
If you want a L2 setup that does this, and have a compatible smart electric meter, you can use the Emporia Energy Vue Utility Connect Monitor and their L2 charger to charge when you have excess solar. Or set all kinds of other schedules. Kinda how the vehicle app should work, free, from the factory - you know useful.

We did sign up for New Clean Assist Program Allows Carbon Free Charging for Toyota Plug In Owners in California - Toyota USA Newsroom just to make Toyota buy some RECs, also. No idea if it is working or not.

Final bit of rant: I agree that the reason to own a hybrid or PHEV or cheap BEV is low cost of ownership that comes along with driving an efficient vehicle. The Prius Prime goes further on 1 kwh of battery that almost all EVs and does that while dragging around an ICE. Consumers think EV and efficiency are a given, but they are not, and you can spend more $ per mile driving your new BEV that an efficient ICE. But 99% of consumers don't think this way and just complain about "inflation" and how expensive cost of living is (with their new $700 phone and $75/month cell plan)
/rant