How many prime owners have invested in a L2 Charging station at home?

My battery is at %100 after climate prep. But I think it drops faster once you start driving than it does when you don't.

 

Yap, that's the key point. If you have a busy life requiring a mutiple charges in a single day, yes L2 benefits. While that's true for some, for me with a simpler lifestyle, I go out once a day to work and back for weekdays and to play for weekends. I rarely need to take my car out more than once a day. Thus for me, economically L2 EVSE is never a good investment.

Yap, same for me. I don't use the climate-prep. I tried using it during the first winter when I can most appreciate the pre-warming function but turned out it does nothing in our climate when the temp in winter morning is often below 14F. I have never had a problem with my L1 completing the charge except for maybe a few times when we had power outages during the night. The point of the manual is that with the use of those functions "charging may not complete by the departure time". This chance is probably higher with L1 than L2.

 

Here's a summary of today's driving, all on L1 charging.

7 am - 29 mile run on EV from overnight charge with climate prep selected. Start at 100%, end at 5%. Plug into wall for charge now.

12:30-ish pm Errands starting with 82% charge, ending at 32%. Back on charger at about 1:45 pm.

4:45 pm Out to dinner. Start at 97% charge, home at 5% charge. Back on charger with timer for 8 am tomorrow.

Total 64.8 miles, all on EV, all on L1. Lots of A/C use and highway driving on EV today.

 

As a long-time owner of a Nissan LEAF, this has been debated over on that forum. The initial LEAF batteries suffered severe degradation, so people were extremely concerned about the maximum protection for the battery. It was found that high heat combined with near 100% charge degraded the battery much quicker than just one or the other. What people determined was that the slow charge actually resulted in the greater time close to 100% charge, so the quicker 240V charge was better. And the LEAF batteries could take 480V Quick Charge too, which also didn't hurt those batteries, with the warning that multiple Quick Charges heated the battery, thus increasing the degradation.

What has only been mentioned once by Salamander King is the increased efficiency of L2 vs. L1, but I'm not sure with the Prime. With the LEAF it was fairly significant, as it needed about 300 watts during charging, so charging at 1.4kw or so was fairly inefficient, 78% efficient vs. 88% efficient on L2. I actually could have gotten by on the L1, but the decreased charging efficiency would bother me too much. And just for reference, back when I installed the L2, it was $900 just for the EVSE unit, but I had $0 extra cost for the electrician because when I built the home I had the 240V outlet installed in the garage. I installed it on the back wall of the garage, as the LEAF charges in the front. Now it is upsetting because the Prime plugs in at the back, so the car has to be backed into the garage, which isn't optimum.

 

I've been plugging in that way for years now. It works great... because my wife also has a Prime. Backing up gives us maximum room between the cars, for both driver's doors.

I really like diving out of the garage, rather than backing into the road. So, it's really a toss of pluses & minuses.

 

In my case, I have our L2 (hardwired, 25’ cord) installed in the cold storage under the porch, and stowed in a storage bin just beside, so it reaches either of the two park spots in the driveway. However, as mentioned above, whoever parks in the spot closer to the street only had one directional option to park to charge (reverse in for the Prius, or nose-in for the Leaf). The reverse applies if parking in the garage, but there is a 110v outlet I can easily plug use with the PiP if needed. (As a side note, the wife never reverses in, as she hates reverse parking :-/).

I originally thought that reversing into the garage would be a PIA since I never did it before needing to consider charging requirements, but it is in fact quite easy, with the backup cameras and mirrors (not to mention the 360 camera on the Leaf SL).

 

I thought so too. With the Prime, it made it easy. I also put a line of tape on the garage floor and line up the middle line in the back up camera to the tape. When you find the right place to stop, put a piece of tape perpendicular to let you know when to stop. It takes a little trial and error to get the right placement. I don't even use mirrors to back in any more.

 

Not a bad idea, but I just have parking mat I use, which makes it easy to align the depth. Also just happens to work with both cars, both in forward and reverse.

Not sure if the URL will work, but will post an example below:

AccuPark Parking Mat | Princess Auto

 

I need to back in. My garage ceiling is so low that if I drive in, I'll hit the hatch on the garage door when I open the hatch. I also use tape lines on the floor. Makes it easy to put the car right where I want it.

 

It all depends on the circumstances. My street is easy to pull onto in the AM, but a real beach to back into the driveway during the PM rush hour. I would have to do a banzai run to back the PiP in. The ports on the LF fenders now make it much easier.

 

Tennis ball hanging from a string was used before back up cameras.

 

That's what I use now.

 

When I used to park the Vettes in the garage, I used a safety cone with a flag in it.

 

I have a caribiner hanging from a fishing line. Click when it touches the windshield, stop the car. Coincidentally, the same length of line works for both my Prime and our Outback; both can park in the same spot with the same stop point and clearance to the overhead door.

 

I use a 4x4 on the garage floor for both the Prime and the RAV4. Never pull in to far and damage the car. or have the back door to the garage hit the car.

 

The downside is that you have a 4x4 on the floor when you want to do work in the garage.

 

I've been using one of these for years...

 

Now this is interesting.

Picture it, brand new Prius Prime, first time coming home, so it is pulled straight into the garage as usual. We get out, and I open the hatchback before putting the garage door back down. I've done that countless times with the 2006 Prius, so I don't even think of it.

Apparently, in the intervening years, the hatchback has gotten bigger. So I had released the hatchback, and it went up, and up, and UP. It finally stopped, either just touching or just a fraction of an inch from the garage door brace! Shut the hatchback and looked, and not a mark, so extremely fortunate.

 

When we brought home our brand new PIP in 2012, pulled into the garage, opened the hatch, and wife hit the garage door closer button on the wall. The metal J bracket left a 1/4" scratch on the dead center of the lip of the spoiler, which I believe was plastic. Didn't happen again.

 

Yup! Had the same problem with the PiP. The spoiler was already scratched when I got it, but then I did what you did, @pineprius, and took out a big divot. Never drove straight in again. And there's no way I'd EVER do that with the Prime and that expensive looking taillight assembly where there used to be just cheap plastic.