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smbunn

Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2015
Messages
10
The NZ new car has a 10 amp plug charging lead. There is no 32 amp option nor the CHAdeMO option which most other countries have fitted. So the flap on the electric port is huge, but covers only the little 10 amp point.. There is a blanking plate screwed where the CHAdeMO would normally be.

First question: Could I plug a J1772 32 amp cable directly into the four pin connector? Or does this require something special? There are charging leads that follow this spec in new Zealand e.g. http://www.trademe.co.nz/building-renovation/electrical-lighting/other/auction-954490973.htm


Second question : Is the CHAdeMO hardware hidden behind the blanking plate and could it be retrofitted? There are plans to roll-out CHAdeMO charging stations all across New Zealand.

Why would Mitsubishi not include this?

Simon
 
Still waiting for an answer on the CHADemo port but can report that the J1772 will charge at 15 amps, not the full 32 amps supported in the UK. Drops charging time to around 4.5 hours from 6.5 hours. You will need a separate 15 amp socket installed in your garage. Given that I charge overnight using the fractionally cheaper power from 11:00 pm till 7:00 am I am not going to see any benefit so will not pay the hundreds if not thousands to have an electrician run a new 15 amp power connection to the garage.

When will we see real competition in NZ for cheaper night rates, Genesis are only dropping from 18.97 to 15.59 cents per kWh. So about 33 cents cheaper to charge the vehicle at night, big deal. Spot rates at night are closer to 3 cents a kWh so a huge profit maker for the power companies.
 
gwatpe said:
I am not sure how to to take the decision for MMC to not supply a fast charge port on the AUS shipped PHEV. Perhaps MMC were removing the problems occurring with possible impatient drivers here in AUS.

We do have a fast charge point close to where I live so there must have been some other reason why we don't have the connector suplied in our PHEVs.

I believe that the omission of the fast charge socket from our vehicles is a direct admission of a fault with it. Not to mention this could lead to bad press with sales implications. Better to just not supply it, than deal with potential problems when drivers may use it.

"Fail Safe" mode. Don't need to completely immobilize the car for this. Should be just a timeout, to allow connections to be removed, before a local reset of the systems to restore operation, like holding the power button for a set time. The normal checks done by the PHEV computer would still protect the car if a fault still existed. The fact that all that seems to have been done to fix the problem is to connect a service tool and clear some codes points to a bug in the PHEV firmware, that still needs to be fixed.

Also found this in the thread about fast charger problems in the UK. Seems that maybe the removal of the fast charging option is deliberate as Mitsubishi have a problem with fast charging which they are unwilling to resolve.
 
smbunn said:
Still waiting for an answer on the CHADemo port but can report that the J1772 will charge at 15 amps, not the full 32 amps supported in the UK. Drops charging time to around 4.5 hours from 6.5 hours. You will need a separate 15 amp socket installed in your garage. Given that I charge overnight using the fractionally cheaper power from 11:00 pm till 7:00 am I am not going to see any benefit so will not pay the hundreds if not thousands to have an electrician run a new 15 amp power connection to the garage.

When will we see real competition in NZ for cheaper night rates, Genesis are only dropping from 18.97 to 15.59 cents per kWh. So about 33 cents cheaper to charge the vehicle at night, big deal. Spot rates at night are closer to 3 cents a kWh so a huge profit maker for the power companies.

We can get 32A chargers installed in the UK, but that does not mean the car will charge at 32A. It still only charges at a max of 15A. Some people opt for a 32A charger to ensure that they can "future proof" the installation.
 
The removal may well be for legal/guarantee reasons. I have always found it strange that Mitsubishi provided a ChaDeMo socket, yet warned in the manual not to use it regularly for battery life reasons.
 
jaapv said:
The removal may well be for legal/guarantee reasons. I have always found it strange that Mitsubishi provided a ChaDeMo socket, yet warned in the manual not to use it regularly for battery life reasons.

Hi Jaapv

From memory our manual states that if fast charging, the car should be charged normally once every 2 weeks. I presume that this is to ensure battery levelling takes place occasionally, as fast charging only gives 80% unless you do it twice! or charge above a certain level! when it then goes to 95%.
 
Vector have announced the first of many free public fast charging points in Auckland. However of course Mitsubishi have crippled the NZ and AUS versions of the Outlander by removing the fast charging port. How do we get them to reverse this decision?
 
Had a long discussion with Mitsubishi NZ. They wont say why they disabled CHaDemo, only that this is a factory install and cannot be retrofitted. Seems like a rubbish response to me given that it really is just the big cables to the battery. I assume it comes down to whether or not the negotiation protocol is enabled for CHaDemo, and given that this is built into all cars except NZ and Aus I would suspect that it is. Now we just have to find someone prepared to remove the connector and cables from a crashed car in Japan and ship it to us to install.

Would anyone take the risk to install and try this on their vehicle, with Mitsubishi specifically waving all responsibility....thought so.
 
Does anyone know if it's possible to make the 2016 PHEV accept a greater charge than 16amps on AC? Seems like an awful waste of potential charging at only 16amps, especially as I have a 40 amp charger available.
 
Quite impossble without ChaDeMo, I fear.
Nor would it be an option to retrofit. One would lose the guaranty and possibly invalidate the official type-approval (depending on NZ law - in Europe one would)
 
They might be worried about battery life. They do warn against frequent use of fast chargers in the manual for cars where ChaDeMo is fitted. -probably for guaranty wiggle room-
Another consideration might be that 16 A is a common max fuse value for household systems in quite a few countries.
Actually I uprated the circuit of my home 16A charging box to 25A to keep that ring open for other appliances.
 
Here's the thing, according to my Juicebox Pro 40 my 2016 PHEV is only taking charge at 14.5amps. The manual states 16amps though.

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That sounds about right. The charging is not straight through, but controlled by the car software. 16A is a maximum rating, there is even a pause halfway where it takes nothing.
 
Something else I've found out is after about 30 mins of charging it drops down to only 1 or 2 amps for a few mins, almost 10 gone so far. So I unplugged it and plugged in again and boom, straight back up to 14.5 amps. So what is the car software doing during the charging phase? I will track exactly what it does for a whole charge and perhaps stick a timer on there to avoid the trickle charge sections. Just can't figure out why they won't let the car charge up faster.
 
I feel confident that Mitsu programmed these pauses for a reason. For instance balancing the battery cells and re-calibrating the system. It is unwise to override the programming.
Li-Ion batteries are sensitive to charging procedures. You might lose battery life and capacity that way.
 
My PHEV has been recorded, suspending the recharging for a short period, before resuming and fully recharging. About 10 mins max, in 4-5 hours is not troubling me.
 
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