To those interested, I just began a road trip in my EV

Left phoenix at 7-8pm yesterday. Almost to san fran. As of 10:30 this next morning. Heading up the coast to washington, then across to indiana and DC.

If anyone wants to meet up and nerd out about retro stuff hit me up. Odwilly and I are planning a meetup. 😀

I wish. I'm saving money for a trip. Besides, I have to replace the damn gas cap on my car again.

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-06-29, 17:33:

To those interested, I just began a road trip in my EV

Left phoenix at 7-8pm yesterday. Almost to san fran. As of 10:30 this next morning. Heading up the coast to washington, then across to indiana and DC.

If anyone wants to meet up and nerd out about retro stuff hit me up. Odwilly and I are planning a meetup. 😀

Do you drive a non-Tesla EV?

Do you follow Zac & Jesse's Know You Know channel on YouTube? Recently they had an episode in which they shared their experiences from a roadtrip with a Rivian, and apparently the state of non-Tesla fast charging infrastructure in North America is absolutely dreadful.

Do you occur with that assessment?

Anyway, I've been thinking about going on an EV roadtrip across the Sunbelt, if possible even in a non-Tesla EV, to see how well that would go these days. So have a fun and safe trip, and please share your experiences! I'm very curious to read them. 🙂

I'd be interested in EV road trip experiences too, kind of a real world experience. we know they're fine for average home to home shorter trips but interested in what happens when relying on infrastructure

digger wrote on 2022-06-30, 10:05:

Do you drive a non-Tesla EV? […]
Show full quote

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-06-29, 17:33:

To those interested, I just began a road trip in my EV

Left phoenix at 7-8pm yesterday. Almost to san fran. As of 10:30 this next morning. Heading up the coast to washington, then across to indiana and DC.

If anyone wants to meet up and nerd out about retro stuff hit me up. Odwilly and I are planning a meetup. 😀

Do you drive a non-Tesla EV?

Do you follow Zac & Jesse's Know You Know channel on YouTube? Recently they had an episode in which they shared their experiences from a roadtrip with a Rivian, and apparently the state of non-Tesla fast charging infrastructure in North America is absolutely dreadful.

Do you occur with that assessment?

Anyway, I've been thinking about going on an EV roadtrip across the Sunbelt, if possible even in a non-Tesla EV, to see how well that would go these days. So have a fun and safe trip, and please share your experiences! I'm very curious to read them. 🙂

I use exclusively electrify america. And as soon as I stopped using the others my experience became better.

So far I have used them exclusively on this trip. My only issue this trip was poor cell signal to start the charge (with my account) cc would have worked at higher rate, but i just drove to the next charger 80 miles away instead.

We made good time to the point I mentioned in last post.

We are slowing down the pace now that we are in unfamiliar territory but that has nothing to do with the EV we are visiting with old friends, exploring, and going to the beach!

I’ve done a few aero mods to my EV which to answer the question, is not a tesla. It is a 2018 bolt premier anyway, it has fast ev01+ wheels, and a rear hitch mounted trunk which actually unproved aero by 0.5 miles per kwh.

All in all we are only using about 50% of our range on average between stops. This is giving a nice buffer to hit the next stop if there is a issue with a charger, and also avoiding 80% plus is actually saving a lot of time. The last 20% is slow charge.

We sometimes actually want a slow charge though because when you get tired you want a safe place to park and nap. The quick chargers are too fast for a good nap so we hit up a l2 charger the other night and went to sleep. No one messes with a charging EV 😀 no tow trucks, security etc. perk!

We are at the northern cali border now. Had we red eyed it and not explored/stopped we could have been in Seattle by now.

Cost is working out to about 1/3 the cost of gas.

At most homes in my area it’s like 1/6th the cost.

At mine it’s free cause of solar. But obv I can’t take the solar with me.

If I need to push it I can get about 300 mile range but we are seeing stations every 75 miles or closer.

They are actually closer than that, but like I said we are only using electrify america.

gerry wrote on 2022-06-30, 11:15:

I'd be interested in EV road trip experiences too, kind of a real world experience. we know they're fine for average home to home shorter trips but interested in what happens when relying on infrastructure

Excellent way yo phrase the question. Hopefully I answered.

Later on I may be testing out non california routes. Those may vary. Arizona is EV friendly also.

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-07-01, 04:46:

All in all we are only using about 50% of our range on average between stops. This is giving a nice buffer to hit the next stop if there is a issue with a charger, and also avoiding 80% plus is actually saving a lot of time. The last 20% is slow charge.

this sounds like a good strategy for EVs

I appreciate your sharing of experiences 😀

gerry wrote on 2022-07-01, 07:12:

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-07-01, 04:46:

All in all we are only using about 50% of our range on average between stops. This is giving a nice buffer to hit the next stop if there is a issue with a charger, and also avoiding 80% plus is actually saving a lot of time. The last 20% is slow charge.

this sounds like a good strategy for EVs

I appreciate your sharing of experiences 😀

Using 50% still of course means passing at least one charger. Sometimes 3. If in town, even more. So we aren’t hopping from one charger trying to make it to the next, we are actually choosing them as we go along the route based on charge level. Usually if less than half we stop. And these are just one brand of charger. There are many others along the route also.

The charge gague has 20 bars on it, the lowest we have gotten so far was 4 and that was after skipping a charger and driving 80 miles because we didn’t have singal to make our account work. We would have had to use a credit card with higher rate for the power. This has been the only issue so far and like I said we could have still used the charger, but skipped it to save a few bucks, and just went to the next one 80 miles away.

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-07-01, 04:46:

All in all we are only using about 50% of our range on average between stops. This is giving a nice buffer to hit the next stop if there is a issue with a charger, and also avoiding 80% plus is actually saving a lot of time. The last 20% is slow charge.

That's a good habit. It's also better for the battery life if you keep your charges limited to 80% (and not too depleted either, so ideally, say, 10 or 20% at minimum).

Later on I may be testing out non california routes. Those may vary. Arizona is EV friendly also.

Nice! The route I had in mind myself for a US EV roadtrip would take me from Southern California to the Texas Gulf Coast and then back through a somewhat more northern route. So that should take me through Arizona as well. I have relatives on both ends of that route.

But my first next EV roadtrip will be a European one, from Amsterdam to Copenhagen and back. Also to visit relatives. A coworker graciously agreed to lend me his Volkswagen ID.4 for that trip. Looking forward to it. 🙂

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-07-01, 04:46:

a rear hitch mounted trunk which actually unproved aero by 0.5 miles per kwh.

I'm interested to hear more about that. In my area, I'd have to make sure my license plate was relocated to the back of it so it was legible and lit at night still. Do you have a solution for that, or are you driving somewhere where only 1 plate is required?

Indeed, the batteries like middle charge levels for sure. But battery life span (in the EV) is much better these days. After the EV these can be used for stationary storage for decades. And later on, recycled.

Many EVs you buy today new, it can probably be expected you will be able to use that battery above 500k miles later. Some estimations show that tesla’s new battery might be rolling over 2million miles if the cars themselves make it that long. The battery tech has come a really long way in a short time.

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-07-01, 16:42:

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-07-01, 04:46:

a rear hitch mounted trunk which actually unproved aero by 0.5 miles per kwh.

I'm interested to hear more about that. In my area, I'd have to make sure my license plate was relocated to the back of it so it was legible and lit at night still. Do you have a solution for that, or are you driving somewhere where only 1 plate is required?

the trunk has all that. Even brake lights and a plate light.

https://anchor.fm/ruth-szanto/episodes/Solar- … harging-e1klpju

We’ve been recording a few podcasts about EV myths, later on we will do some solar ones.

Great. So is the make/model of it a closely guarded secret orrrrr??? 🤣

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-07-01, 17:11:

Great. So is the make/model of it a closely guarded secret orrrrr??? 🤣

Oh the trunk? Um… lemme see..

https://store.waldoch.com/products/stowaway-s … AiABEgI8BPD_BwE

It’s a stowaway

I got mine used. The price new is insane.

Thanks muchly. Ah yeah, that's about twice what I was expecting... guess that's why I started thinking $125 hitch platform and $30 rubbermaid tote last time I looked into them. Will have to keep an eye on local classifieds for one turning up. We are doing long trips in the Versa Note, shaped a lot like the Bolt and with 5 up the luggage space was a problem last time. If it gives extra mpg from filling the vaccuum behind the tailgate on that also, would be very useful.

Hmm rough spitball if it does the same on a gasser, with 9 kw/h to the litre, but only a third of that getting to the wheels vs large percentage of electric kW/h and I use 5 or 6 litres per hundred k, and get 0.8k extra on of around 6 KW/h out of it, that's around 1km/litre better or around 2.5 US mpg... maybe.

Update: it finally happened. I had to wait on a charger. Well, I’m choosing to actually,

I ran across two electrify america stations in a row like 50 miles apart that only have a few working stalls. This happened soon as I entered washington state. I hit up the first one to grab some juice to push on through to seattle but only two of the stations of 6 worked and were occupied.

I actually have 50 mile range still even after deciding to skip that charger and driving to the next one. So I could go for the next one (the third now) but it is from another company. I will just wait in line for the working one. Rather than risk what I may find on the third one.

It seems that washington chargers aren’t being maintained well. Based on my small sample size anyway. As soon as I crossed the border this happened twice 🤣. Otherwise it’s been a really uneventful trip. We’ve been doing lots of side quests. Played around in Portland all this morning. Yesterday we saw trinidad cali. And a few other things. All cool new stuff.

In any case, after all this I’m nowhere close to being actually stranded. Just inconvenienced. And this is actually only the second time I’ve ever had to wait on a charger like this. Like I said, if you are smart with your stops you can not only save time charging but build in plenty of buffer to deal with any issues.

Perk though, electrify america has this charger set up for free charges. So, woohoo!

Update. Made it to Seattle all the way from the free charger not far from the state line.

Still have 50% charge left.

Went to a charger at a bank of america to plug in and walk around and explore, they wanted parking fees. So we drove on to the next one, this one is occupied and the only open one is broken. But we still have half charge.

Thinking about hitting up the space needle then crusing out of town and hitting up another charger later. The charger experience in washington has been a stark contrast to az,or, ca. But we are nowhere near having a problem. Just inconvenienced.

According to my CC the trip has cost about 120$ from phx to Seattle through LA

Had one free charger, and the first one was free on solar. Remainder 1/2 charge.

My EV has 168k miles on it, and I’m noticing that it’s time for shocks.

As far as maintence, since I’ve owned it this is what I have had to do to it:

I upgraded the 12v to lifepo4, resurfaced the axle nuts, replaced the tires, refilled the washer fluid, and now shocks at almost 200k miles.

So, very little maintenance. Virtually none compared to a gas car. I may let the shocks stay as they are for a while though. As they aren’t a critical item.

Edit: hours later,

We swung by the space needle, looked at it, it was neat, didn’t go inside though.

Drove around seattle a bit and checked stuff out.

Gonna go say hi to Odwilly now! :pa

We drove onto the ferry and went across the bay. Neat experience.

On the other side now. Drove idk 30-40 more miles and hit up the third attempt at charging. Finally one that doesn’t make you pay to park or doesn’t work/all working ones occupied.

This one has one and a hapf stalls down out of 4 so plenty of spaces. Charging started fine. Made it here with probably 40% charge remaining. So nowhere close to an issue.

The next leg of my trip will take me through probably the most difficult area in the usa for a EV to travel.

The middle north west.

During this time I am expecting to have to do something that I don’t normally have to do, use level 2 stations. But I don’t think I’ll need to use very many of them. And bonus, (they are often free) this is because there is a section where electrify america hasn’t yet completed a route of stations. There are level 3 stations in the area from other companies but not in the right places to avoid using level 2 stations.

Here is a few pics of the situation.

It’s worth noting that tesla has a very nice set of stations through this area and a tesla owner wouldn’t be having this issue.

Just swapped my old Subaru Forester (petrol, 2 litre, non-turbo) for a slightly less old Volvo XC70 (2.4 diesel, 185hp). Volvo is unsurprisingly much less agile (Subaru turns on a sixpence, has bags of grip), but more comfortable, much more powerful, gets better mpg, and has better fittings (that rear view mirror for one) though it is more like driving a boat.

By the way Sphere478, are you already familiar with A Better Route Planner?

It's a GPS navigation/routing app, but what sets this one apart, is that it takes necessary stops at suitable (fast) chargers into account when calculating optimal routes. You can specify your vehicle brand and model, and you can also specify the State of Charge of your battery at the beginning of the trip. In my experience, it works quite well, and it's a must-have for planning longer EV routes.

digger wrote on 2022-07-03, 12:11:

By the way Sphere478, are you already familiar with A Better Route Planner?

It's a GPS navigation/routing app, but what sets this one apart, is that it takes necessary stops at suitable (fast) chargers into account when calculating optimal routes. You can specify your vehicle brand and model, and you can also specify the State of Charge of your battery at the beginning of the trip. In my experience, it works quite well, and it's a must-have for planning longer EV routes.

I have it, but don’t use it much because last I looked it wouldn’t let me specify by charger brand.

I just kinda do it manually.

The trip has kinda been care free until washington. We just drive along until about 50% soc and then just drop by the next charger on the electrify america app.

I’ve actually been researching the trip through the middle northwest. Tesla was supposed to open up the super charger network to non tesla EVs but apparently that hasn’t happened yet. Bummer, because like I said they have a dcfc route through there.

I’ll make it, and this is really the only area left in the usa like this so for most people this particular part of the route is like traveling into The EV past.

Also remember, my EV is 5+ years old. There are longer range and faster charging EVs now. We have been checking them out at the chargers.

Btw, met up with ODwilly yesterday! We nerded out about computers for a few hours. He even hooked me up with some retro parts! Thanks ODwilly!

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-07-03, 14:18:

Tesla was supposed to open up the super charger network to non tesla EVs but apparently that hasn’t happened yet. Bummer, because like I said they have a dcfc route through there.

You wonder if that may have been a contingency thing to stop the shareholders asking "why are you spending so much money on this network, what if you don't sell enough cars?" So fallback was to open it up.

So what 19th century motorists used to do before there were gas stations was to go to the pharmacy and buy a can of spirits of petroleum... Yeah nah, that ain't gonna work for you. 🤣