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Level 2 charge tips

4K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  andythemeZ 
#1 ·
I am a new Kiro PHEV owner. Having owned the car for only three days, and 1000 miles away from home, I have not had a chance to "plug in" until today.

First, although I think the UVO eco app is pretty awesome, its list of charge locations is woefully inadequate. I don't think "out of date" is applicable since there are charge locations that have been here over five years that are not on the app. Although I don't have much experience with other apps, I have found the PlugShare app to be pretty useful since it helped me find a free Level 2 public charge station just 2 miles from where I was this morning. If anyone has other apps to recommend, please let us know!

Second, the location I was at had two free L2 chargers with the J1772 plug that the Niro and almost every other vehicle uses in the US. Since I was the only one there, I grabbed one and plugged in my Niro for the first time! Since the Niro can only charge at 3.3 KW, I would have been there for 2 hours and 35 minutes for a full charge. I wasn't keeping track to determine the time to 80%, but I was certainly glad to be in my PHEV hybrid Niro and not a Tesla.

So, after talking to my wife who had stayed back at our motorcoach, I decided I had enough fun charging and went to remove the J1772 plug and it would not release! Kia roadside assistance was no help but they would send someone out. I knew from reading the manual that there was a button on the lower dash to push to lock in the connector, but I had not pushed that button. Since I was desperate, I pushed it on and off to no avail. I had texted my wife who did a search and recommended I push the Unlock button on the Kia remote two times. Although I did not remember reading anything about this, I tried it and it worked! Something to keep in mind!

-Bob
 
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#2 ·
Wow that's a great share for other PHEV newbies...I'm not one of them since range anxiety is a real thing for me, though more in a pure EV config. But I'm lurking all your posts since when my new '18 Touring lease runs thru my 3 year commitment. I'm hoping Kia will have a Niro with twice the Plugin mileage range, then I'd be in.
 
#3 ·
If you didn’t have that button to the bottom left of the steering wheel that’s a plug logo with Auto on it turned on, then yes you can only remove the charging cord by unlocking all your doors on the car. That’s to prevent people from stealing your personal cord. In public, make sure it’s left on “Auto” orange lit up, that automatically unlocks the cord when the car hits 100% charge, so people who pull up next to you while you’re at work or dinner or whatever can take and use it.

I wish the Niro supported the full 6.6kwh charging of those level two units, it’d make fully charging take about the same time as a big grocery shopping.

Speaking of which, I think the Kia app only lists the chargers that are ChargePoint (free) or EVPass (expensive) branded. And therefore the results are similar to the ChargePoint apps one.

But for instance I found a General Electric one not listed at a local grocery store Price Chopper.

Thanks for mentioning that app and if anybody has other Indy or third party finder apps to recommend please do.
 
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