[smartinsanfrancisco]

I hope you all don't mind that I'm inundating your message board with questions. This is my first time buying any kind of car so I want to make sure I'm making the right decision.

The window sticker for the 2015 smart car I'm looking at says, "Lithium Ion Traction Battery w/3.3 kW Onboard Charger 12 Hrs Charge Time @ 110/120V and 8 Hrs Charge Time @ 220/240V" I've read that smart cars have a 4 hour charge time elsewhere, so I find this a bit confusing. I don't see how these charge times would be practical for anyone. Is this because it's an older model? This might be the hitch in my plans, given that I'm going to be doing 100% of my charging at public charging stations.

 

[lebikerboy]

The 453 charges at 7.2 kW which means it will fully charge in less than three hours using 220V.

 

[jzchen]

Digging through the manual it says for maximum charge speed at 240V a 20A circuit is required. Per electrical code that would be 80% so 16A which would equate to 3.84kW. A 3.3kW charge rate is within that. Practically speaking kind of on the slow side. Usually charging stations charge by the kW, not time, although parking fee may be by time there in SF. The older versions are definitely niche vehicles.

Thinking about it 8 hours is equivalent to an adult's good night sleep so I guess if your residence provides parking and you could charge at work you wouldn't need the full 8 hours at home. (I noticed they don't recommend charging when battery has 80%+ charge and also not to go below 20%)....

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[Yinzer]

I hope you all don't mind that I'm inundating your message board with questions. This is my first time buying any kind of car so I want to make sure I'm making the right decision.

The window sticker for the 2015 smart car I'm looking at says, "Lithium Ion Traction Battery w/3.3 kW Onboard Charger 12 Hrs Charge Time @ 110/120V and 8 Hrs Charge Time @ 220/240V" I've read that smart cars have a 4 hour charge time elsewhere, so I find this a bit confusing. I don't see how these charge times would be practical for anyone. Is this because it's an older model? This might be the hitch in my plans, given that I'm going to be doing 100% of my charging at public charging stations.

My 451 charges from 5% to 100% in about 6 hours using level 2 charging (like commercial charging stations provide). But in practice, you are rarely charging the car from such a depleted state, so a typical charge is about 3.5 hours for me. But even if it did take 8 hours that is still perfectly practical becasue you are doing it overnight or while at work. The impractical part is not the charging time but that you cannot charge at home.

I recall that you live in the central city and relied before the pandemic on public transit - Does SF require masks and are the buses/trams/BART run at reduced capacity? Where I live masks are mandatory and buses only allow 1/3 capacity - i,e only 15 people per std. bus. I (64 years old) have generally felt safe riding - although I might leapfrog seats to stay away from those riders going "nose commando" with their masks.