I just bought a Jeep Wrangler 4xe. I picked it up and then immediately took my daughter to college in it. this included two 3 hour drives.
I like the Jeep a lot. Much more than I would have expected. The way this works is that you get ~ 25 miles on the electric motor and then use gas. It has a computer that decides when to use either motor depending upon acceleration and start/stop driving. Since it uses the electricity until it is down to zero, you actually get better mileage in city driving than the highway (where the battery goes to zero pretty quickly and you are full gas). It has a way to do hybrid, gas or electric. Several reviews wondered why you'd do gas only and now I know. When you are doing 70 mpg, it just drains the battery and you get little benefit. You are better off using gas only and conserving the electricity for when you arrive at your destination and are doing start/stop again.
My biggest beef so far is using the charging stations. At home, it takes about 14 hours to go from zero to full using a 110 outlet (J1772 adapter, level one) and 2.4 hours with 220 or level 2. Level 1 is fine because it charges up overnight fully. I probably won't install 220 in my garage or get the $500 level two charger. My beef is with the chargers in public places. The way it works is that you park, plug it in, and using an app, pay to use the charger (just a couple of dollars). The problem is I paid for three different places and none of them worked. It may have been me. Maybe I didn't do something on the Jeep correctly. But I highly suspect these outlets get beat up and aren't maintained. Of course, you don't know until you've paid the money. Two just didn't work and the other's J1772 connector didn't snap into place (meaning, something was broken).
Anybody else have an experience to share or an idea of what went wrong for me?
I like the Jeep a lot. Much more than I would have expected. The way this works is that you get ~ 25 miles on the electric motor and then use gas. It has a computer that decides when to use either motor depending upon acceleration and start/stop driving. Since it uses the electricity until it is down to zero, you actually get better mileage in city driving than the highway (where the battery goes to zero pretty quickly and you are full gas). It has a way to do hybrid, gas or electric. Several reviews wondered why you'd do gas only and now I know. When you are doing 70 mpg, it just drains the battery and you get little benefit. You are better off using gas only and conserving the electricity for when you arrive at your destination and are doing start/stop again.
My biggest beef so far is using the charging stations. At home, it takes about 14 hours to go from zero to full using a 110 outlet (J1772 adapter, level one) and 2.4 hours with 220 or level 2. Level 1 is fine because it charges up overnight fully. I probably won't install 220 in my garage or get the $500 level two charger. My beef is with the chargers in public places. The way it works is that you park, plug it in, and using an app, pay to use the charger (just a couple of dollars). The problem is I paid for three different places and none of them worked. It may have been me. Maybe I didn't do something on the Jeep correctly. But I highly suspect these outlets get beat up and aren't maintained. Of course, you don't know until you've paid the money. Two just didn't work and the other's J1772 connector didn't snap into place (meaning, something was broken).
Anybody else have an experience to share or an idea of what went wrong for me?
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