This is a demonstration of how to charge a 2012 Chevrolet Volt with the high
voltage charger, we've got the charge port here on the side of the car in front
of the driver's door there's a button on the key fob
there
that will open the charge port.
And as you can see
close here there are three large wires in two small wires. The two small wires
are called pilot wires and that's for communication between the charger and the
vehicle. The three large wires are for charging, we'll use two of those for 110
volt charging and three of them for 240 volt or 208 volt is the supports either
208 or 240 you want to keep moisture out of there so so it doesn't create any
short circuits and triggers from trouble codes we've had that happen once the
door to the charger charge port is it's got a nice cover on it and will prevent
garbage from getting inside the charger that plugs into that. As I said there's
a 110 volt charger that comes in the trunk of the car. There's a about a
$500 240 volt charger that you can get that only works with the Chevy Volt that
I have at home. And then there's a more universal charger right here from SPX
Corporation. And the website is right there. Evie s e.spx.com and this comes
with a three prong 208 or 240 volt 30 amp connector and this is closer to
$1,000. And the advantage of this charger is that it would work with not just
the volt, but other vehicles that support the J 1772 charge connector which is
this one right here. So, this is going to plug into the vehicle you can see this
the two pilot lines for communication and the three big wires for charging. If
we look at the label on this, get it focused here.
There we go.
Electric rating 240 volts AC 30 amps use only with SAE J 1772, which is a
standard compliant inlet. So the Society of Automotive Engineers has the
standard called the J 1772. And General Motors and Toyota and the Nissan LEAF,
the Ford Focus the Toyota rav4. Electric Vehicles all use this as their AC
charger. Now the Nissan LEAF has a DC charge port also but this is AC that's
going to connect here. On the handle there's a button for a lock release. I
noticed the I think it was the Toyota Prius actually had a hole where you could
put a padlock through it to lock it into place. But this is just going to come
in and just plug straight in to the vehicle. It'll communicate with the vehicle
we've got an orange light on the dash there. The horn honks and light turns
green, indicating that it's charging, it's like a charge light on a cell phone.
As long as that light is on solid, we have gotten or we've got a charge going
on. As soon as it starts to blink green, then the charge is complete. And the
OnStar system through the antenna here on the back of the car. We'll send a
email and or text message to whatever accounts and cell phones you've got set up
to let you know It served. If somebody comes along and unplugs this, nothing
will happen as long as your doors are unlocked. But if your doors are locked,
let me come over and lock the door. There's a button on the outside here and
just push and it locks the doors. So I don't have to get the key fobs out. But
now if I can unplug this, and the horn will start honking takes it a minute to
realize what's happened but it'll start honking. And then if you plug it back
in, it'll stop honking. It'll also send a text message to the
phone
to alert you that battery power has been interrupted. And of course it's not
doing it at the moment. Normally it happens by now I may not have done it in the
correct sequence. But anyway, if somebody unplugged it, it would it would
normally alert you to that or if the power to the charger goes out. It was it
will alert you to that also. Now this has a pretty long cord. It's like a 1212
foot cord that goes to the charger
itself. And oh, I did get a text message that it didn't start honking but your
2012 Chevrolet Volt is not charging due to an interruption. Please check your
vehicle so I got a text message but it didn't start honking.
Anyway the advantage once again to this charger that's twice as much money is
that it'll work with any vehicle up to 30 amps for charging were the the one
that's only $500 through SPX is just for the volt which is a 15 amp charger. So
even though the charge connector is the same, the 1772 those communication
wires, those two little pilot wires, when you plug that charger in the charger
communicates with the vehicle and asks what vehicle are you and what what is the
charge amperage and, and so on. So it figures out what the vehicle is and
automatically
tunes the
charge current and voltage for the right amount to charge the vehicle. Now
currently Walt Walgreens throughout the United States, I noticed Walgreens
around here and take a look where you live. They a lot of Walgreens have
installed these, they're called These are called level two chargers. So the 240
volt chargers, like this are level two chargers except they're outside they're
on a pole in their parking lot. And a level two chargers the 240 volt. The level
one charger is that 110 volt like is in the trunk of this thing. And they've
installed 4700 of these throughout the country which great thinking and
congratulations to Walgreens for that. Because now when I am out and around and
I need to go to a store to get something, I go to Walgreens and I plug in while
I'm there. And since it's a level two charger and a fast charger, if I'm in
there 1520 minutes, I can get some additional battery range out of that. And at
least here in Utah there is no charge for it. And even if there was a charge at
9.7 cents per kilowatt hour. If you only were in there in the store long enough
to charge one kilowatt hour, what are they going to do to charge you 10 cents.
Of course they need to make up the cost of the charger but there's some federal
tax credits for installing the chargers. But I think it's a great gimmick to get
people in with electric vehicles to Walgreens. Because honestly I would have
never really never normally gone to a Walgreens but now I do. So congratulations
to them. That adds 4700 charge points throughout the country. And then there are
other charge ports by setup by cities and fleets and in other places around
also. So this has been a discussion and demonstration of the charging of high
voltage charging of a 2012 Chevrolet Volt