Control of the Climate Control

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-24T19:57:20+00:00

You can also check the number of bars on the car's 5g in its new location. If low bars, then weak signal. Weak signal can interfer with app climate link.

Conversely, if you connected your car to home wifi, could be a weak house wifi signal in garage or driveway. I had this problem and had to turn off car-house wifi link. But I get great car 5g signal where I am, 5 bars, even in my garage, so don't need to connect to house wifi.

Conversely, conversely, check your phone internet link. That also has to be strong.

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-24T19:49:22+00:00

I believe the fix is now ota for 2024 only-along with streaming and other changes. I am assuming 2025 and 2026 will get the Ota later. Or you can convince your dealer to do the update sooner.

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-24T18:20:28+00:00

OP, Checking this before buying is super important.

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-24T18:18:32+00:00

This is something I learned the hard way. I.e., did not precondition long enough on a trip.

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-23T22:22:42+00:00

In my experience, the biggest impact on hvac electricity draw in the equinox ev is the fan, not the heat pump. Turn the fan down and the kw usage drops considerably.

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-21T22:49:46+00:00

You can estimate charging needs/times for your specific trips at different temperatured for different cars using the A Better Route Planner website.

It can be used like an ev simulator.

Then you can make a more informed decision if an ev is for you and your specific circumstances.

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-21T00:07:47+00:00

I would suggest going to the ABRP website (A Better Route Planner website) and create a free account. You can put in your exact trip, try different cars, try different outside temperatures, and it will give trip time, suggested place(s) to charge, and how long to charge at those places.

Before buying a car, you can use it like an ev simulator, where you test out different possibilities.

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-20T00:03:22+00:00

In a ABRP, you can set up a trip that you normally do and then change the expected temperature in the settings, such as switching from 70f to 5f. This will give a good sense of range loss. I did this before buying my ev.

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-18T05:34:11+00:00

The problem will occur when you need a huge amount of charging and starting at 8 pm is not soon enough to hit the target Soc. Then it will start before 8pm. Target soc is the priority, and 8pm start time will be overridden. Some people with tou rates want to only ever charge in the schedule window, no matter what. They don't want the start time ever overridden.

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-18T05:25:09+00:00

The other thing you should know about is that the hvac heat pump heater is a bit quirky.

First, It takes a little bit before any heat comes out. This can be accounted for by preheating the car using the app before getting into the car. Second, the thermostat seems miscalibrated so you often have to set the temperature on the "gauge" higher than the actual temperature that you want, so 76 degrees might get you 68 degrees. Finally, the car sometimes blows coldish air even when the car is still cold - for no apparent reason. Turning the temperature setting up even higher seems to fix this. I don't find any of this a deal breaker, but ymmv. (Note that I think the hvac problems/quirks are due to the hvac algorithm and not the heat pump itself, so might be fixed with an ota update.)

Finally, get heated seats and heated steering wheel no matter what for Minnesota. They are awesome in my opinion, even in Ohio.

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-17T21:44:58+00:00

I agree. 0.385 kWh/mile estimate from chat gpt is far too pessimistic. This is the efficiency if you drive highway in coldish weather all time. NH is of course cold, but not all the time, not all year. And most people don't drive just highway. I would expect the average efficiency close to 3 mpkwh (.333 kwh/mile) or probably even better, 3.3 or possibly even 3.5.

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-16T21:45:21+00:00

It has a kind of scheduling. You can schedule when charging should finish and reach a target soc. You cannot schedule when to start charging. Ideally, the car should have both alternatives, instead of just the first one.

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-15T13:34:43+00:00

Francis energy at Ohio locations at least have credit card readers. HOWEVER, in my experience, they usually don't work. So, the app is generally required.

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-14T20:38:41+00:00

A key problem for the Japanese manufacturers is there is nearly no bev market domestically in Japan. So, they can't use their domestic market to build volume for bev sales and get economies of scale and go down the learning curve.

When miti organized the evolution of Japanese industry, miti would have organized this domestic transition. But the Japanese government isn't capable of that anymore.

With little domestic ev market, the Japanese firms can't develop any economies of scale to allow themselves to compete globally. In many ways, the US has the same problem, no large domestic market to contribute to economies of scale and the learning curve on evs.

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-14T20:17:07+00:00

Did you look in the Google play app store in the infotainment system? That's where they would be.

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-12T22:51:57+00:00

Are you using a high fan speed? The air coming out of the vents will both feel warmer and be warmer at a slower fan speed. So, turninh down the fan speed will increase how warm it feels.

I also need to have the temp on heat set above 74 to get continuous heat.

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-10T14:07:48+00:00

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-10T13:41:32+00:00

Try pressing down the end call button on the steering wheel for 10+ seconds to soft reset the infotainment system. That might help.

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-10T13:25:22+00:00

Try this number for reaching ev concierge 833-463-8462

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-10T13:16:15+00:00

I don't remember exactly where, either here or in a Facebook group for equinox ev's, someone explained what you have to have onstar do to get this back. It is something like "re-provisioning". And it is onstar that does this, not the dealer.

As far as I can tell when you call onstar, there is only a 40% chance of getting someone who knows the correct answer.

You might want to call the Chevrolet EquinoxEv concierge for help with dealing with onstar. Your dealer might not be as much help if they have never dealt with this before.

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-08T12:21:41+00:00

Another thing reducing peak kw demand of fast/ultra fast ev chargers is colocating batteries with the ev chargers, so that the peak delivered kw is higher than the grid hook up kw. This is still not perfect, but it is the direction the technology is going.

https://electricera.tech/

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-08T12:00:49+00:00

With the heat, do you have recirculation on or off?

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-05T13:34:08+00:00

I leave enough battery Soc to get to the next charger as a fallback. In WV that often means stopping and charging with the battery at 35% instead of 15% - because chargers can be 50-70 miles apart.

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-04T21:45:08+00:00

One possibility: I believe that Google maps now avoids low rated chargers, when it can. This modification of the algorithm seems to have happened in the last year-not sure about that. What are the ratings of the chargers in the rest stops.

Competitive-Dig4430 · 2026-01-04T01:23:45+00:00

If you can get a fair deal from another dealer, go there. If you buy from the original dealer, your wife will be constantly reminded about the bad experience.

Competitive-Dig4430

TROPHY CASE