Lexus RZ chronicals-by my wife

[cyure]

Lexus RZ450e road trip!

A few days ago I decided an overnight road trip in the Lexus RZ 450e was overdue and I also thought surprising @JAlynn with it would be fun! Since I’ve continued to only use trickle charging at home since my vehicle’s longest roundtrip to date hasn’t exceeded 150 miles and I have a short commute to work, I felt the need to get in some practice trying out both a Tesla Supercharger and a Chargepoint charger since charging stops will be required on this trip.

The first test was a Tesla Supercharger. No adapter was required and the integration to the Lexus App took care of payment via the Lexus Wallet . Since this was meant to be practice, I only connected to the charger for 8 minutes and increased the charge level from 68% to 80%. I then went to a Chargepoint station, connecting for the same time period but only increased the charge by 1%. This station required an adapter. This exercise helped me feel a little more confident with pulling into a charging station if nothing else.

While the RZ has a navigation system, Apple Maps is recommended by Lexus for navigation as it integrates with the battery level of the vehicle. I admit that I do have some range anxiety due to holiday traffic and record temperatures in the northeast driving down the range due to using the A/C.

I mapped out our route and it recommended a Tesla Supercharging station about 3-½ hours into the trip which also conveniently worked for a quick dinner. We started the trip with a charge of 99% and Apple Maps advised that we would end at 26%. When we reached the charging stop, our remaining charge was better than expected at 31%.Overall miles per Kwh were 3.6 for the first leg of the trip. After failing at connecting to the first charger, another spot opened up and we were able to connect after repositioning the charger a couple of times as it didn’t seem to have a good fit but finally found the sweet spot. The vehicle’s charge went from 31% to 92% in about 25 minutes which was just enough time to order and eat subs.


We finished up the remaining 60 miles taking the charge from 92% to 66%. After a night in Kingston, NY, we’ll finish up the trip early tomorrow in Hudson, NY.

My only real regret of the trip thus far is not having the courage to go to a Supercharger location further into the route with better food options which would have only used another 16% of the battery and left us with approximately 15% remaining before charging. Did I mention I have range anxiety? LOL

We also learned that our hotel that said it has a charger-does not. Fortunately we have plenty of charge but would have been nice to top off a bit more, especially if it had been free.

Apple Maps seems to work well, but does anyone else have apps they would recommend? And will they integrate in any way with vehicles battery range?

So exciting to hear about your first big trip! I’m so glad it went so well.

 

[Logan]

Lexus RZ450e road trip!

A few days ago I decided an overnight road trip in the Lexus RZ 450e was overdue and I also thought surprising @JAlynn with it would be fun! Since I’ve continued to only use trickle charging at home since my vehicle’s longest roundtrip to date hasn’t exceeded 150 miles and I have a short commute to work, I felt the need to get in some practice trying out both a Tesla Supercharger and a Chargepoint charger since charging stops will be required on this trip.

The first test was a Tesla Supercharger. No adapter was required and the integration to the Lexus App took care of payment via the Lexus Wallet . Since this was meant to be practice, I only connected to the charger for 8 minutes and increased the charge level from 68% to 80%. I then went to a Chargepoint station, connecting for the same time period but only increased the charge by 1%. This station required an adapter. This exercise helped me feel a little more confident with pulling into a charging station if nothing else.

While the RZ has a navigation system, Apple Maps is recommended by Lexus for navigation as it integrates with the battery level of the vehicle. I admit that I do have some range anxiety due to holiday traffic and record temperatures in the northeast driving down the range due to using the A/C.

I mapped out our route and it recommended a Tesla Supercharging station about 3-½ hours into the trip which also conveniently worked for a quick dinner. We started the trip with a charge of 99% and Apple Maps advised that we would end at 26%. When we reached the charging stop, our remaining charge was better than expected at 31%.Overall miles per Kwh were 3.6 for the first leg of the trip. After failing at connecting to the first charger, another spot opened up and we were able to connect after repositioning the charger a couple of times as it didn’t seem to have a good fit but finally found the sweet spot. The vehicle’s charge went from 31% to 92% in about 25 minutes which was just enough time to order and eat subs.


We finished up the remaining 60 miles taking the charge from 92% to 66%. After a night in Kingston, NY, we’ll finish up the trip early tomorrow in Hudson, NY.

My only real regret of the trip thus far is not having the courage to go to a Supercharger location further into the route with better food options which would have only used another 16% of the battery and left us with approximately 15% remaining before charging. Did I mention I have range anxiety? LOL

We also learned that our hotel that said it has a charger-does not. Fortunately we have plenty of charge but would have been nice to top off a bit more, especially if it had been free.

Apple Maps seems to work well, but does anyone else have apps they would recommend? And will they integrate in any way with vehicles battery range?

Excellent!

Having just a few weeks ago done my first ever charging away from home, I can totally relate with many of these feelings.

I think it’s a great idea for anyone who is doing a road trip to do a test charge at a fast charger (preferably the network(s) you’ll be using), just to make sure everything works correctly.

How many miles was the trip? How many miles of EPA range does the vehicle have? Curious what you got vs what you “expected”.

3.6 miles per kWh is excellent for a road trip. Was it highway driving, or more mixed?

Apple Maps is what I usually use for navigation. However on our vehicle we can’t get the battery information right in the maps. So I either have to use the built in navigation system from the car, or find charging stations separately/on my own. And on my road trip one direction I used ABRP manually from each stop (pre-planning my next stop), and in the other direction I used the built in navigation system.

ABRP can do what you are wanting, but requires a Bluetooth OBD2 scanner, and a subscription to ABRP. I didn’t want to futz with that. If I were you I’d just keep using the Apple Maps. But that might just be a “me” thing .

Safe travels back!

 

[J Alynn]

So exciting to hear about your first big trip! I’m so glad it went so well.

Thanks. She’s still loving the EV for sure

 

[Scout_Lookout]

Lexus RZ450e road trip!

A few days ago I decided an overnight road trip in the Lexus RZ 450e was overdue and I also thought surprising @JAlynn with it would be fun! Since I’ve continued to only use trickle charging at home since my vehicle’s longest roundtrip to date hasn’t exceeded 150 miles and I have a short commute to work, I felt the need to get in some practice trying out both a Tesla Supercharger and a Chargepoint charger since charging stops will be required on this trip.

The first test was a Tesla Supercharger. No adapter was required and the integration to the Lexus App took care of payment via the Lexus Wallet . Since this was meant to be practice, I only connected to the charger for 8 minutes and increased the charge level from 68% to 80%. I then went to a Chargepoint station, connecting for the same time period but only increased the charge by 1%. This station required an adapter. This exercise helped me feel a little more confident with pulling into a charging station if nothing else.

While the RZ has a navigation system, Apple Maps is recommended by Lexus for navigation as it integrates with the battery level of the vehicle. I admit that I do have some range anxiety due to holiday traffic and record temperatures in the northeast driving down the range due to using the A/C.

I mapped out our route and it recommended a Tesla Supercharging station about 3-½ hours into the trip which also conveniently worked for a quick dinner. We started the trip with a charge of 99% and Apple Maps advised that we would end at 26%. When we reached the charging stop, our remaining charge was better than expected at 31%.Overall miles per Kwh were 3.6 for the first leg of the trip. After failing at connecting to the first charger, another spot opened up and we were able to connect after repositioning the charger a couple of times as it didn’t seem to have a good fit but finally found the sweet spot. The vehicle’s charge went from 31% to 92% in about 25 minutes which was just enough time to order and eat subs.


We finished up the remaining 60 miles taking the charge from 92% to 66%. After a night in Kingston, NY, we’ll finish up the trip early tomorrow in Hudson, NY.

My only real regret of the trip thus far is not having the courage to go to a Supercharger location further into the route with better food options which would have only used another 16% of the battery and left us with approximately 15% remaining before charging. Did I mention I have range anxiety? LOL

We also learned that our hotel that said it has a charger-does not. Fortunately we have plenty of charge but would have been nice to top off a bit more, especially if it had been free.

Apple Maps seems to work well, but does anyone else have apps they would recommend? And will they integrate in any way with vehicles battery range?

Great job on successfully navigating the EV road trip! Charge anxiety will become less and less the more you road trip. Don't stress, 15% is plenty! Now if you're sitting at 15% and the arrival is 1% maybe dont risk it for the biscuit then lol!

 

[J Alynn]

I’m adding an observation as we are on our return trip charging session. The Lexus plug port is right behind the front wheel on passenger side. We had to basically curb out today on an angle in a wider end space to just (and I mean JUST) reach the port. In fact the doors cover is sitting on the charger cord which over time may create an issue. So has me thinking-the scouts on rear will drivers will be more than clear BUT @Jamie@ScoutMotors have you guys tested backing a scout traveler into a Tesla charger with the spare tire carrier? I suspect the tire is gonna need swung open to back in which concerns me. Most of my charging will be at home so not truly worried and kinda thing EREV might be my new direction in which case on a long trip I could just gas and go. I’ll be CERY curious if tire carrier will clear the charger base-hope SM is thinking about this

 

[J Alynn]

Excellent!

Having just a few weeks ago done my first ever charging away from home, I can totally relate with many of these feelings.

I think it’s a great idea for anyone who is doing a road trip to do a test charge at a fast charger (preferably the network(s) you’ll be using), just to make sure everything works correctly.

How many miles was the trip? How many miles of EPA range does the vehicle have? Curious what you got vs what you “expected”.

3.6 miles per kWh is excellent for a road trip. Was it highway driving, or more mixed?

Apple Maps is what I usually use for navigation. However on our vehicle we can’t get the battery information right in the maps. So I either have to use the built in navigation system from the car, or find charging stations separately/on my own. And on my road trip one direction I used ABRP manually from each stop (pre-planning my next stop), and in the other direction I used the built in navigation system.

ABRP can do what you are wanting, but requires a Bluetooth OBD2 scanner, and a subscription to ABRP. I didn’t want to futz with that. If I were you I’d just keep using the Apple Maps. But that might just be a “me” thing .

Safe travels back!

The trip was about 230 miles but once we got into upper NY area there were limited fast chargers and most were level 2’s. We did learn 5 miles from Hudson was a brand new T-charger with 6 units and perhaps with more comfort we could have made it there with no problem but didn’t want to chance it. There were (2) level 2 chargers in Hudson in a municipal courthouse lot so we did park and charge there for the 2-1/2 hours we were at the Scout event. At 100% before we left home with A/C it projected approx 275 miles, no A/C pushed out to about 312.
We had about 1/2 the trip running 40-60mph and the NJ/NY highways were more like 70-80mph so all in all it maintained a good range vs the KWh. Around home with shorter commutes, being summer and no gunning it I can average around 5-5.2 KWh’s. Our lowest rate was 2.7KWh when we were running closer to 80mph. After our Angry orchard tour the app showed 2 stops to get home but mileage wasn’t equating so we stopped at a T charger (see @jalynn ‘s comments about that experience) we charged from approximately 48% to 82% which took about 20 minutes-we took a 2 minute walk to a Wendy’s, potty break and grabbed a Coke. Sat for 5-6 minutes and we were on our way again. With the % at 82 my math showed we would get whole way home and guessed at about 24% remaining. We took a slightly longer, slower route home down through the Poconos, hit a brutal thunderstorm followed by a dinner stop-HE got hungry and didn’t want to wait another 45 minutes. We got home with 31% remaining so in hindsight we overcharged at last stop but that is the fun of learning about driving an EV.
First long trip was a success and range anxiety is already reducing so have faith to all of you new/soon to be EV owners. I’m a worrier and a planner but this trip has given me a lot of EV confidence.

 

[cyure]

The trip was about 230 miles but once we got into upper NY area there were limited fast chargers and most were level 2’s. We did learn 5 miles from Hudson was a brand new T-charger with 6 units and perhaps with more comfort we could have made it there with no problem but didn’t want to chance it. There were (2) level 2 chargers in Hudson in a municipal courthouse lot so we did park and charge there for the 2-1/2 hours we were at the Scout event. At 100% before we left home with A/C it projected approx 275 miles, no A/C pushed out to about 312.
We had about 1/2 the trip running 40-60mph and the NJ/NY highways were more like 70-80mph so all in all it maintained a good range vs the KWh. Around home with shorter commutes, being summer and no gunning it I can average around 5-5.2 KWh’s. Our lowest rate was 2.7KWh when we were running closer to 80mph. After our Angry orchard tour the app showed 2 stops to get home but mileage wasn’t equating so we stopped at a T charger (see @jalynn ‘s comments about that experience) we charged from approximately 48% to 82% which took about 20 minutes-we took a 2 minute walk to a Wendy’s, potty break and grabbed a Coke. Sat for 5-6 minutes and we were on our way again. With the % at 82 my math showed we would get whole way home and guessed at about 24% remaining. We took a slightly longer, slower route home down through the Poconos, hit a brutal thunderstorm followed by a dinner stop-HE got hungry and didn’t want to wait another 45 minutes. We got home with 31% remaining so in hindsight we overcharged at last stop but that is the fun of learning about driving an EV.
First long trip was a success and range anxiety is already reducing so have faith to all of you new/soon to be EV owners. I’m a worrier and a planner but this trip has given me a lot of EV confidence.

This fellow worrier/planner thanks you.

 

[J Alynn]

This fellow worrier/planner thanks you.

I will pass it along

 

[J Alynn]

Road shotgun today while my wife chauffeured me in the RZ. 1-hour each way and managed 5.3 m/kwh. Just over 3 months in and averaging 4.3 m/kwh. Winter will certainly cause some adjustments to that but for now my wife is very pleased. Also realized today how nice the oversized electrochromatic pano roof is. Still prefer it clear but it was nice

 

[J Alynn]

Dead 12V battery……….

We’re approaching 4 months of Lexus RZ 450e ownership. Still love the vehicle but If you’ve read my previous posts, i had another issue with the 12V battery draining. I called Lexus Roadside Assistance and they dispatched AAA to jumpstart the 12V battery. AAA advised that the battery had a bad cell. I was able to drop the vehicle at the Lexus dealer the same day so they could test the 12V battery. They eventually came to the same conclusion as AAA and agreed to swap out the 12V battery (the vehicle has less than 4,000 miles!). And I ended up with a loaner for the inconvenience as they wanted to plug it in overnight and double check diagnostics in the morning.

The service advisor really couldn’t pinpoint whether it was a bad OEM battery, the result of sulfating due to the previous discharge, or other factors. He did state though that they’ve had people purchase EV’s that do a very limited amount of driving and they’ve been experiencing this issue. One low mileage driver had it happen 4 times and never mentioned it to the dealer until they brought their vehicle in for another issue.

Although I’m still happy with the purchase, I wish I had more knowledge initially as to how long the vehicle actually needs to charge the 12V battery so I did more research this weekend. At least 20 minutes in “ready” mode seems to be the minimum amount of time the vehicle needs to charge the 12V battery. My commute is only three miles and takes 10 minutes at most on a bad day so this could be a contributing factor. I also haven’t been charging everyday unless i have a longer trip planned because there’s plenty of range with a short commute.

My new plan is to plug in the vehicle daily but limit the charge to 80% as this will ensure that the 12V battery is getting recharged from the traction battery. If I’m not planning to drive the vehicle on a given day, I also plan to start the vehicle in “ready” mode to make sure that I hit the minimum 20 minutes needed to recharge the 12V. We have continued to keep key fobs in the Faraday box so I don’t think that’s a concern at this point.

12V battery drainage seems to be a recurring issue for many EV manufacturers based on my research.

How is Scout planning to address this issue? Are they aware of these situations and will endeavors be made to prevent this or at a minimum will there be clear info in the users guide to educate new EV owners? Items like this are hard to understand as a new EV owner and having clear messaging would go a long way.

 

[cyure]

Dead 12V battery……….

We’re approaching 4 months of Lexus RZ 450e ownership. Still love the vehicle but If you’ve read my previous posts, i had another issue with the 12V battery draining. I called Lexus Roadside Assistance and they dispatched AAA to jumpstart the 12V battery. AAA advised that the battery had a bad cell. I was able to drop the vehicle at the Lexus dealer the same day so they could test the 12V battery. They eventually came to the same conclusion as AAA and agreed to swap out the 12V battery (the vehicle has less than 4,000 miles!). And I ended up with a loaner for the inconvenience as they wanted to plug it in overnight and double check diagnostics in the morning.

The service advisor really couldn’t pinpoint whether it was a bad OEM battery, the result of sulfating due to the previous discharge, or other factors. He did state though that they’ve had people purchase EV’s that do a very limited amount of driving and they’ve been experiencing this issue. One low mileage driver had it happen 4 times and never mentioned it to the dealer until they brought their vehicle in for another issue.

Although I’m still happy with the purchase, I wish I had more knowledge initially as to how long the vehicle actually needs to charge the 12V battery so I did more research this weekend. At least 20 minutes in “ready” mode seems to be the minimum amount of time the vehicle needs to charge the 12V battery. My commute is only three miles and takes 10 minutes at most on a bad day so this could be a contributing factor. I also haven’t been charging everyday unless i have a longer trip planned because there’s plenty of range with a short commute.

My new plan is to plug in the vehicle daily but limit the charge to 80% as this will ensure that the 12V battery is getting recharged from the traction battery. If I’m not planning to drive the vehicle on a given day, I also plan to start the vehicle in “ready” mode to make sure that I hit the minimum 20 minutes needed to recharge the 12V. We have continued to keep key fobs in the Faraday box so I don’t think that’s a concern at this point.

12V battery drainage seems to be a recurring issue for many EV manufacturers based on my research.

How is Scout planning to address this issue? Are they aware of these situations and will endeavors be made to prevent this or at a minimum will there be clear info in the users guide to educate new EV owners? Items like this are hard to understand as a new EV owner and having clear messaging would go a long way.

Well this is disappointing.

 

[J Alynn]

Well this is disappointing.

Things we learn with new technology. Ironically she still loves the vehicle

 

[cyure]

Things we learn with new technology. Ironically she still loves the vehicle

I’m so glad to hear that.

 

[oldgeeksguide]

Dead 12V battery……….

We’re approaching 4 months of Lexus RZ 450e ownership. Still love the vehicle but If you’ve read my previous posts, i had another issue with the 12V battery draining. I called Lexus Roadside Assistance and they dispatched AAA to jumpstart the 12V battery. AAA advised that the battery had a bad cell. I was able to drop the vehicle at the Lexus dealer the same day so they could test the 12V battery. They eventually came to the same conclusion as AAA and agreed to swap out the 12V battery (the vehicle has less than 4,000 miles!). And I ended up with a loaner for the inconvenience as they wanted to plug it in overnight and double check diagnostics in the morning.

The service advisor really couldn’t pinpoint whether it was a bad OEM battery, the result of sulfating due to the previous discharge, or other factors. He did state though that they’ve had people purchase EV’s that do a very limited amount of driving and they’ve been experiencing this issue. One low mileage driver had it happen 4 times and never mentioned it to the dealer until they brought their vehicle in for another issue.

Although I’m still happy with the purchase, I wish I had more knowledge initially as to how long the vehicle actually needs to charge the 12V battery so I did more research this weekend. At least 20 minutes in “ready” mode seems to be the minimum amount of time the vehicle needs to charge the 12V battery. My commute is only three miles and takes 10 minutes at most on a bad day so this could be a contributing factor. I also haven’t been charging everyday unless i have a longer trip planned because there’s plenty of range with a short commute.

My new plan is to plug in the vehicle daily but limit the charge to 80% as this will ensure that the 12V battery is getting recharged from the traction battery. If I’m not planning to drive the vehicle on a given day, I also plan to start the vehicle in “ready” mode to make sure that I hit the minimum 20 minutes needed to recharge the 12V. We have continued to keep key fobs in the Faraday box so I don’t think that’s a concern at this point.

12V battery drainage seems to be a recurring issue for many EV manufacturers based on my research.

How is Scout planning to address this issue? Are they aware of these situations and will endeavors be made to prevent this or at a minimum will there be clear info in the users guide to educate new EV owners? Items like this are hard to understand as a new EV owner and having clear messaging would go a long way.

I’m a bit mystified by this. Several automakers seem to have this problem. I mean, how hard can it be to keep the 12v battery charged?

 

[J Alynn]

I’m a bit mystified by this. Several automakers seem to have this problem. I mean, how hard can it be to keep the 12v battery charged?

You are correct-it’s not just Lexus, my wife has done a lot of research the last few days. The issue is needing that 20 minutes of ready state to charge the 12v or a nightly plug in charging to 80% so that it feeds to the 12v and keeps it charged. The other thing we realized today is while we bought a Faraday box over a month ago the damn keycard has been in my wallet which is within 15 feet of car. So now that is in the box but that served as our back up if ever out and we lose the key.
The other ironic component is Lexus service tech reminded her that the primary Lexus demographic is older drivers who don’t travel as much so that creates another issue

 

[J Alynn]

My wife really wanted to bring this up especially as newbies to EV and hoping SM figures it out or at least makes it a priority. Sounds like Lexus has a lot of issues, or perhaps a bad batch of 12v’s since ours had a bad cell, which we also learned can be caused by the constant draining of the 12v’s

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

We haven't had a 12v battery go bad since we moved to all electric. We leave our vehicles on their plugs and subscribe to the ABC (Always Be Charging) philosophy.

We both work from home and often don't start either vehicle for several days at a time.

A solution may be for you to always plug in and to set a daily departure time for 20 to 30 minutes before leaving for work.