So this happened yesterday - picked up my wife's new vehicle.
2023 Wrangler Rubicon Unlimited 4xe. Custom ordered for us - first time ordering a car. Super fun process, took about 8 weeks from deposit to delivery.
Leather, cold weather package, safety and advanced safety, towing package.
Firecracker red, black interior, black roof, red fenders, and BFGs laces out as God intended.
Drove it to brunch and then home, exhausting about all of the 20 mile range on battery
Spent the rest of the day running a 40 amp outlet to the garage to charge it faster. Charges in 2 hours vs 12.
Interested to hear your thoughts on it after you have a bit more drive time under your belt. They seem like a good commuter fun solution.
This is intended to be my wife's commuting vehicle and our fun vehicle. Her commute is 8 miles each way, all city, so this should typically do the whole commute on battery.
The reason for a Rubicon vs the Sahara or High Altitude model was twofold. Firstly, the wife wanted the big wheels and tires. Well sure you can put that on a regular Jeep, but they don't look as good. Second, this will be a pavement princess, driven by a tiny woman, no smoking, no kids, no pets, super low miles - she did 50k in 6 years with her last car. Gotta figure a top shelf Jeep kept in top shelf condition will bring a premium at trade-in time. My buddy who we got this from said that based on current and historical market conditions, Rubicons maintain their price delta over lesser models throughout the years of ownership. Will that be the case? Who knows.
Drove to Ikea, charged up for a buck (43 minutes), drove to Aldi, and back home. Didn't use the gas engine at all.
All on battery, cost me $1.00 plus the half-charge I need to put back in the batteries since I came home with half a charge. 15 miles give or take including some freeway. Ran both heated seats, heated steering wheel, and regular heat (all resistance heating) which I am sure does not do great for the battery life. If a guy figures gas at $4 a gallon, I am about 1:3 the cost of operation of a gas engine.
Neat. For those not familiar, what's the deal? How much power on electric, does the electric motor still drive both axles?
For those wondering about the powertrain layout, the blue stuff is PHEV specific:
There's some 'mild' hybrid accessory stuff on the engine, the transmission is a torque converter auto with an electric motor where a flex plate would be. So the electric power gets routed through the transmission, transfer case, etc
Thanks for the inquiries. Got questioned a bit at Ikea yesterday "I didnt even know Jeep made a hybrid". They definitely fly under the radar.
To answer a few questions and provide a few more comments:
Big boy charger installed last night. Now we can charge in 2 hours vs 12.
Can not speak highly enough of this unit so far. Selectable charge amperage (which means you dont need overkill wiring for vehicles that dont charge at 40A - Wrangler charges at 32A, needs a 40A outlet) aluminum case, aluminum mounts, real heavy plug with molded in reliefs.) Super simple "dumb" charger with no app. Didn't want an app. Just want to plug in and go. Made in Canada eh so thats a plus!
Also praise be to running wiring in conduit. Good job, past me!
So, from the 32 amp figure you gave, it charge at ~7kW?
That's nice relative to my X5 PHEV, which has a big enough battery for a nominal 50 electric miles, but doesn't charge at more than 3.5 kw. As a result, it takes the better part of 6 hours to charge from depleted.
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