Is My 2025 Solar Charger Malfunctioning?

Sorry. Another post from myself without a response from anyone else:

The one thing that is most useful about the ‘charge percentage’ way of measuring the gains from the solar panel is that the ‘charge percentage’ can be seen without turning the car on (on the iPhone app). I think the other measurements must have the car powered on. That is one of the main reasons I wish the ‘charge percentage’ matches the others.

 

Yes, that to me is the most discouraging piece of the puzzle: The percent of charge remaining on the car and the percentage remaining charge on my iPhone app are the same. Yesterday, charging from 6AM to 3PM (when I leave work for home) I see an increase of 3% on both my iPhone and the car. The message on the leaf screen says I received a 2.3 miles of charge from solar power since the car was last turned on. Driving home, the 3% of additional charge is gone in like 1/2 mile (back to what it said when I arrived at work).

I did get remarkably good driving efficiency on the way home, going 20.8 miles while using only 40% of my charge (. So it does seem like I got more than I normally would out of the car on the way home. That may be the wind, though.

As I stated earlier, I did enjoy the ride. I don’t know what to believe, though, as far as solar charging was concerned. I sure dissipated the 2.3 miles earlier than I would expected.

 

That makes no sense. 3/40 = 0.075 = 7.5 %. That is not what it told me. For that it would have needed to go from 61% to 68% which it did not do.

You are right though in that the amount of power it uses initially is more than later on. But 2.3 miles gone in 1/2 mile? That seems a bit excessive. I’ve noticed that the electric mode is more efficient after you have driven a little ways but it’s not like warming up a gas engine.

 

It is very incorrect for it to tell me 2.3 miles (you came up with 1.6 miles, that was never reported to me) with only a 3% of total 100% charge. That implies I would get 2.3 x (100/3) =76.667 miles on a full charge. Not happening!

Also, I’m not driving on a motor speed way I’m going 30 mph without the air conditioning on.

 

No. It is several percentage points. Why is this so hard to understand?

I get 4.5 miles/kW-hr minimum. Thus a full charge on a (new) battery should be 10kW-hr worth 45 miles for 100% charge. I get 3% change in the charge percentage. That is only 0.03 x 45 =1.35 miles while the car tells me 2.5 miles gained. That is nearly double! (Nearly 3% off).

Im tired of arguing (but I’m still enjoying my car). I’m sticking to my original request. I want someone that actually owns one of these units to look at the charge percentage gained and also quote the miles gained as reported by the car. I want to know if mine is any different than theirs.

If I had to guess, I’d say it’s probably due to inefficiency of the solar voltage boost regulator that cranks the solar panel voltage to much higher EV battery’s voltage. Toyota may just measure power out of the solar panel (before the boost not counting what the boost regulator wasted). I’d be fine with that if a few other people said they see exactly what I’m seeing (simply verifying my car is no different than other people’s cars).

I still would have bought the car if I only got 1.5 miles for a full days worth of solar energy. I just wait to know why there is such a big discrepancy.

 

In about a week I will be parking my car in the open sky for 10 full days (at the airport). My charge will most likely be 40% remaining to start out with). I will eager await to daily see how much more charge has been added to my car. This will be a better test than anything I currently have data for. If I get the 3% (of 100%) I’m seeing daily and get it for roughly 10 days, that be 30% and I could make it home from the airport without charging at the airport (and not turn on the gas engine). Getting 2.6 miles per day to produce close to 26 miles (what the car will probably report) would be even better (60%). I will be thrilled my car is capable of either outcome.