Maryland to Florida, 1600 miles in an ER RWD Premium: A Series

• Leg 1: Home to EA Rocky Mount NC, 252 mi, 3.3 mi/kWh (!)
• Charge 1: 16%→80% in 39 min
• Leg 2: Rocky Mount to EA Florence SC, 179 mi, 2.8 mi/kWh. GPS goes wild!
• Charge 2a: 11% → 49% in 25 min (interrupted by newbie who used the wrong plug)
• Charge 2b: 49% → 80% in 19 min
• Leg 3: Florence to Fairfield Inn Port Wentworth GA, 163 mi, 2.8 mi/kWh
• Charge 3a (Enmarket ChargePoint): 15% → 80% in 64 min (hotel charger ICE’d!)
• Charge 3b (Hotel Level 2): 80% → 100% in 4.5 hrs (charger not ICE’d when I got back!)

rfrommd said:

Taking my Mach-E to Florida was something I’ve been waiting to do ever since I got the car. But despite reading about successful trips in this forum, I was a little worried, since it’s my first time with an EV and chargers aren’t nearly as plentiful in the coastal South as they are in the Northeast. Turned out, at least for the trip down, there was nothing to worry about. You have to plan a little bit, and be sure you have backup options, but road tripping the I-95 corridor very is doable if you don’t need to do it Cannonball-run style.

Part 1: The first day, almost according to plan

TL;DR and numbers:

• Leg 1: Home to EA Rocky Mount NC, 252 mi, 3.3 mi/kWh (!)
• Charge 1: 16%→80% in 39 min
• Leg 2: Rocky Mount to EA Florence SC, 179 mi, 2.8 mi/kWh. GPS goes wild!
• Charge 2a: 11% → 49% in 25 min (interrupted by newbie who used the wrong plug)
• Charge 2b: 49% → 80% in 19 min
• Leg 3: Florence to Fairfield Inn Port Wentworth GA, 163 mi, 2.8 mi/kWh
• Charge 3a (Enmarket ChargePoint): 15% → 80% in 64 min (hotel charger ICE’d!)
• Charge 3b (Hotel Level 2): 80% → 100% in 4.5 hrs (charger not ICE’d when I got back!)

I have studied PlugShare and know where all the chargers along I-95 are. And I’ve have plugged various trip plans into ABRP and the FordPass app many, many times over the last few months. So I was ready for this. I’d decided that we’d stop for dinner in Florence, where I knew of a vegetarian-friendly option for my two vegetarians within walking distance of the EA charger there. We’d stop for the night near Savannah, at a hotel with a level 2 charger, and a nearby DC charger in case the L2 was not available. I was pretty confident of getting from Florence to Savannah with 80% charge, so I let the car pick the other charge stops, just to see if it could be relied upon.

Here’s how the trip started:

Me: Hey Ford, navigate to Pizza Mio in Florence, SC
Car: Please select from these pizza places near you in Maryland
Me: Hey Ford, navigate to Walmart in Florence, SC
Car: Please select from these Walmart locations near you in Maryland
Me: (Sigh) Hey Ford, navigate to Florence, South Carolina
Car: Please obey traffic laws, etc. etc.

The Ford nav search leaves much to be desired.

It chose 1 charging stop at Rocky Mount NC, which was about 250 miles away. I thought that would be somewhat of a stretch, especially because it wanted me to go around Richmond on I-295 (longer + faster), and the temperature wasn’t going to get above 60 degrees for the entire trip. But the GOM said it was doable with a decent size buffer (I forget the exact number), and I could always bail out at the Emporia EA or two other newer-model ChargePoint options between there and Rocky Mount. So off we went.

Almost 5 hours later, after some horrendous traffic near Fredericksburg VA and a long lunch stop outside Richmond, we pull in to the Sheetz near Rocky Mount with 16% and 40ish miles on the GOM, and the car reporting 3.3 mi/kWh efficiency. Pretty impressive for not-that-warm weather, although there was no more than 100 ft of elevation change in either direction, and I kept the ACC/BlueCruise set to under 75.

The car thought we only needed to charge to 66% or so for the 180 miles to Florence, but I did not want to cut it that close. Thanks to indecision on snack choices, nobody noticed the 40ish minute wait to charge up to 80%. So far so good. We left with an 80ish mile GOM buffer. And even through a on-off cycle, the Ford nav remembered where we were going, which pleasantly surprised me.

On the 2nd leg, efficiency was noticeably lower (2.7/2.8), which meant that 80 mile buffer kept getting smaller and smaller as time went on. That was probably due to lack of slowdowns on this leg, and possibly some crosswind, and possibly lower temperatures as the sun got lower in the sky. But since 2.7 translates to about a 190 mile range with 80% battery, I thought we’d be fine.

About 60 miles from Florence, I tried to set a precise destination again:

Me: Hey Ford, navigate to Walmart in Florence South Carolina
Car: Please choose from these Walmart locations that are definitely not in Florence
Me: (Sigh) Honey, could you look up the address for the Walmart in Florence on your phone?
Wife: There are two of them, one on North Beltline Drive and one on Irby Street
Me: North Beltline Drive, I think that’s the one with the charger.
Wife: It is, I see the charger on the map
Me: Hey Ford, navigate to 230 North Beltline Drive in Florence South Carolina
Car: Please obey traffic laws, etc, etc
Me: Oh thank goodness.

After a quick bathroom stop about 30 miles from Florence, the GPS went haywire. It had us about 1000 feet to the east of where we actually were, and got worse as we went along. That had happened to me once before, and it went back to normal the next time I turned on the car, so I decided to wing it to the Florence EA. (I knew how to get there thanks to all that prior planning!) We made it with 11% and 28 GOM miles (and the efficiency since that bathroom stop went all the way down to 2.3), leading to my first-ever low battery warning:

Pulling into Florence, we saw another Mach-E:

And then we went to get pizza!

Halfway through dinner, I decided to check the FordPass app, just to see how things were going. And wouldn’t you know it, there was a notification that charging has stopped. So I went over to the charger to check things out. There was a Bolt parked next to me, whose driver sheepishly told me that he might have accidentally disconnected me. He had taken the 2nd cable from the station I was using, and plugged it in to his car. He thought the station he was parked in front of was broken, since he plugged it in and nothing happened (it does say “Plug in first” after all ...). After I plugged my car back in and made sure it was charging again, I walked him through the EA app and got him started (his station was working just fine). He had just gotten his Bolt (it was a used ‘17 with a new battery pack), and I think it was his first time at a fast charger. It’s a little sad to think about where he would have ended up if I weren’t there to help him – and it looks like EA has a little bit of work to do in the UX department.

But, since it’s an easy mistake to make, here’s a PSA: the 2nd cable on an EA station is there so that you can reach a charging port on either side of your vehicle; it’s not a 2nd “pump” like at a gas station!

Based on my prior misadventures with voice navigation, I told the car nav the exact location of the hotel in Savannah, and it plotted a course with no drama, and no additional charge stops. It also had our position correct. And despite the significantly lower efficiency from the last leg, it still optimistically predicted a 100 mile buffer. As you’d expect, that started evaporating pretty quickly. The efficiency stayed pretty constant at 2.8, so between that and the mostly flat terrain of the SC Pee Dee and Low Country, there wasn’t much to worry about range wise.

Our hotel had two ClipperCreek chargers; when we arrived, one was occupied by a Model X, and the other by … an ICE Mustang. Oh the irony! I suppose I could have complained to the front desk, but after 12 hours on the road, I wasn’t in the mood for drama when I had a perfectly acceptable Plan B. So we unloaded the car, and I set off by myself for the Enmarket gas/convenience next door.

This charger was a slower ChargePoint, so I was stuck for a while. I occupied my time by combing through the car looking for my wife’s missing key fob, which was possibly misplaced by a child who used it to get into the car back in Florence. She was convinced it was still in the car, since she was able to open the liftgate while I was checking in to the hotel. But looking in between the seats, under the seats, all the door pockets turned up nothing. I eventually got a text saying “I found it, it fell into a backpack”. (Whew, no need to try PaaK ...)

And then I noticed an ICE Mustang peel out onto the main road. Hmm … I wondered.

The rest of the time I spent fielding questions about the car from a nice couple in an F-150 who were filling up. The woman was interested in buying one, and I might have sold her on it but for the near impossibility of getting one right now. After they went on their merry way, the car got to 80% and I was ready to go. I went back to the hotel and found that the ICE Mustang had vacated the charger spot! I plugged in and went to bed, a successful day in the books.

More to come in this thread as I write it up ...

Click to expand...

rfrommd said:

Taking my Mach-E to Florida was something I’ve been waiting to do ever since I got the car. But despite reading about successful trips in this forum, I was a little worried, since it’s my first time with an EV and chargers aren’t nearly as plentiful in the coastal South as they are in the Northeast. Turned out, at least for the trip down, there was nothing to worry about. You have to plan a little bit, and be sure you have backup options, but road tripping the I-95 corridor very is doable if you don’t need to do it Cannonball-run style.

Part 1: The first day, almost according to plan

TL;DR and numbers:

• Leg 1: Home to EA Rocky Mount NC, 252 mi, 3.3 mi/kWh (!)
• Charge 1: 16%→80% in 39 min
• Leg 2: Rocky Mount to EA Florence SC, 179 mi, 2.8 mi/kWh. GPS goes wild!
• Charge 2a: 11% → 49% in 25 min (interrupted by newbie who used the wrong plug)
• Charge 2b: 49% → 80% in 19 min
• Leg 3: Florence to Fairfield Inn Port Wentworth GA, 163 mi, 2.8 mi/kWh
• Charge 3a (Enmarket ChargePoint): 15% → 80% in 64 min (hotel charger ICE’d!)
• Charge 3b (Hotel Level 2): 80% → 100% in 4.5 hrs (charger not ICE’d when I got back!)

I have studied PlugShare and know where all the chargers along I-95 are. And I’ve have plugged various trip plans into ABRP and the FordPass app many, many times over the last few months. So I was ready for this. I’d decided that we’d stop for dinner in Florence, where I knew of a vegetarian-friendly option for my two vegetarians within walking distance of the EA charger there. We’d stop for the night near Savannah, at a hotel with a level 2 charger, and a nearby DC charger in case the L2 was not available. I was pretty confident of getting from Florence to Savannah with 80% charge, so I let the car pick the other charge stops, just to see if it could be relied upon.

Here’s how the trip started:

Me: Hey Ford, navigate to Pizza Mio in Florence, SC
Car: Please select from these pizza places near you in Maryland
Me: Hey Ford, navigate to Walmart in Florence, SC
Car: Please select from these Walmart locations near you in Maryland
Me: (Sigh) Hey Ford, navigate to Florence, South Carolina
Car: Please obey traffic laws, etc. etc.

The Ford nav search leaves much to be desired.

It chose 1 charging stop at Rocky Mount NC, which was about 250 miles away. I thought that would be somewhat of a stretch, especially because it wanted me to go around Richmond on I-295 (longer + faster), and the temperature wasn’t going to get above 60 degrees for the entire trip. But the GOM said it was doable with a decent size buffer (I forget the exact number), and I could always bail out at the Emporia EA or two other newer-model ChargePoint options between there and Rocky Mount. So off we went.

Almost 5 hours later, after some horrendous traffic near Fredericksburg VA and a long lunch stop outside Richmond, we pull in to the Sheetz near Rocky Mount with 16% and 40ish miles on the GOM, and the car reporting 3.3 mi/kWh efficiency. Pretty impressive for not-that-warm weather, although there was no more than 100 ft of elevation change in either direction, and I kept the ACC/BlueCruise set to under 75.

The car thought we only needed to charge to 66% or so for the 180 miles to Florence, but I did not want to cut it that close. Thanks to indecision on snack choices, nobody noticed the 40ish minute wait to charge up to 80%. So far so good. We left with an 80ish mile GOM buffer. And even through a on-off cycle, the Ford nav remembered where we were going, which pleasantly surprised me.

On the 2nd leg, efficiency was noticeably lower (2.7/2.8), which meant that 80 mile buffer kept getting smaller and smaller as time went on. That was probably due to lack of slowdowns on this leg, and possibly some crosswind, and possibly lower temperatures as the sun got lower in the sky. But since 2.7 translates to about a 190 mile range with 80% battery, I thought we’d be fine.

About 60 miles from Florence, I tried to set a precise destination again:

Me: Hey Ford, navigate to Walmart in Florence South Carolina
Car: Please choose from these Walmart locations that are definitely not in Florence
Me: (Sigh) Honey, could you look up the address for the Walmart in Florence on your phone?
Wife: There are two of them, one on North Beltline Drive and one on Irby Street
Me: North Beltline Drive, I think that’s the one with the charger.
Wife: It is, I see the charger on the map
Me: Hey Ford, navigate to 230 North Beltline Drive in Florence South Carolina
Car: Please obey traffic laws, etc, etc
Me: Oh thank goodness.

After a quick bathroom stop about 30 miles from Florence, the GPS went haywire. It had us about 1000 feet to the east of where we actually were, and got worse as we went along. That had happened to me once before, and it went back to normal the next time I turned on the car, so I decided to wing it to the Florence EA. (I knew how to get there thanks to all that prior planning!) We made it with 11% and 28 GOM miles (and the efficiency since that bathroom stop went all the way down to 2.3), leading to my first-ever low battery warning:

Pulling into Florence, we saw another Mach-E:

And then we went to get pizza!

Halfway through dinner, I decided to check the FordPass app, just to see how things were going. And wouldn’t you know it, there was a notification that charging has stopped. So I went over to the charger to check things out. There was a Bolt parked next to me, whose driver sheepishly told me that he might have accidentally disconnected me. He had taken the 2nd cable from the station I was using, and plugged it in to his car. He thought the station he was parked in front of was broken, since he plugged it in and nothing happened (it does say “Plug in first” after all ...). After I plugged my car back in and made sure it was charging again, I walked him through the EA app and got him started (his station was working just fine). He had just gotten his Bolt (it was a used ‘17 with a new battery pack), and I think it was his first time at a fast charger. It’s a little sad to think about where he would have ended up if I weren’t there to help him – and it looks like EA has a little bit of work to do in the UX department.

But, since it’s an easy mistake to make, here’s a PSA: the 2nd cable on an EA station is there so that you can reach a charging port on either side of your vehicle; it’s not a 2nd “pump” like at a gas station!

Based on my prior misadventures with voice navigation, I told the car nav the exact location of the hotel in Savannah, and it plotted a course with no drama, and no additional charge stops. It also had our position correct. And despite the significantly lower efficiency from the last leg, it still optimistically predicted a 100 mile buffer. As you’d expect, that started evaporating pretty quickly. The efficiency stayed pretty constant at 2.8, so between that and the mostly flat terrain of the SC Pee Dee and Low Country, there wasn’t much to worry about range wise.

Our hotel had two ClipperCreek chargers; when we arrived, one was occupied by a Model X, and the other by … an ICE Mustang. Oh the irony! I suppose I could have complained to the front desk, but after 12 hours on the road, I wasn’t in the mood for drama when I had a perfectly acceptable Plan B. So we unloaded the car, and I set off by myself for the Enmarket gas/convenience next door.

This charger was a slower ChargePoint, so I was stuck for a while. I occupied my time by combing through the car looking for my wife’s missing key fob, which was possibly misplaced by a child who used it to get into the car back in Florence. She was convinced it was still in the car, since she was able to open the liftgate while I was checking in to the hotel. But looking in between the seats, under the seats, all the door pockets turned up nothing. I eventually got a text saying “I found it, it fell into a backpack”. (Whew, no need to try PaaK ...)

And then I noticed an ICE Mustang peel out onto the main road. Hmm … I wondered.

The rest of the time I spent fielding questions about the car from a nice couple in an F-150 who were filling up. The woman was interested in buying one, and I might have sold her on it but for the near impossibility of getting one right now. After they went on their merry way, the car got to 80% and I was ready to go. I went back to the hotel and found that the ICE Mustang had vacated the charger spot! I plugged in and went to bed, a successful day in the books.

More to come in this thread as I write it up ...

Click to expand...

rfrommd said:

Taking my Mach-E to Florida was something I’ve been waiting to do ever since I got the car. But despite reading about successful trips in this forum, I was a little worried, since it’s my first time with an EV and chargers aren’t nearly as plentiful in the coastal South as they are in the Northeast. Turned out, at least for the trip down, there was nothing to worry about. You have to plan a little bit, and be sure you have backup options, but road tripping the I-95 corridor very is doable if you don’t need to do it Cannonball-run style.

Part 1: The first day, almost according to plan

TL;DR and numbers:

• Leg 1: Home to EA Rocky Mount NC, 252 mi, 3.3 mi/kWh (!)
• Charge 1: 16%→80% in 39 min
• Leg 2: Rocky Mount to EA Florence SC, 179 mi, 2.8 mi/kWh. GPS goes wild!
• Charge 2a: 11% → 49% in 25 min (interrupted by newbie who used the wrong plug)
• Charge 2b: 49% → 80% in 19 min
• Leg 3: Florence to Fairfield Inn Port Wentworth GA, 163 mi, 2.8 mi/kWh
• Charge 3a (Enmarket ChargePoint): 15% → 80% in 64 min (hotel charger ICE’d!)
• Charge 3b (Hotel Level 2): 80% → 100% in 4.5 hrs (charger not ICE’d when I got back!)

I have studied PlugShare and know where all the chargers along I-95 are. And I’ve have plugged various trip plans into ABRP and the FordPass app many, many times over the last few months. So I was ready for this. I’d decided that we’d stop for dinner in Florence, where I knew of a vegetarian-friendly option for my two vegetarians within walking distance of the EA charger there. We’d stop for the night near Savannah, at a hotel with a level 2 charger, and a nearby DC charger in case the L2 was not available. I was pretty confident of getting from Florence to Savannah with 80% charge, so I let the car pick the other charge stops, just to see if it could be relied upon.

Here’s how the trip started:

Me: Hey Ford, navigate to Pizza Mio in Florence, SC
Car: Please select from these pizza places near you in Maryland
Me: Hey Ford, navigate to Walmart in Florence, SC
Car: Please select from these Walmart locations near you in Maryland
Me: (Sigh) Hey Ford, navigate to Florence, South Carolina
Car: Please obey traffic laws, etc. etc.

The Ford nav search leaves much to be desired.

It chose 1 charging stop at Rocky Mount NC, which was about 250 miles away. I thought that would be somewhat of a stretch, especially because it wanted me to go around Richmond on I-295 (longer + faster), and the temperature wasn’t going to get above 60 degrees for the entire trip. But the GOM said it was doable with a decent size buffer (I forget the exact number), and I could always bail out at the Emporia EA or two other newer-model ChargePoint options between there and Rocky Mount. So off we went.

Almost 5 hours later, after some horrendous traffic near Fredericksburg VA and a long lunch stop outside Richmond, we pull in to the Sheetz near Rocky Mount with 16% and 40ish miles on the GOM, and the car reporting 3.3 mi/kWh efficiency. Pretty impressive for not-that-warm weather, although there was no more than 100 ft of elevation change in either direction, and I kept the ACC/BlueCruise set to under 75.

The car thought we only needed to charge to 66% or so for the 180 miles to Florence, but I did not want to cut it that close. Thanks to indecision on snack choices, nobody noticed the 40ish minute wait to charge up to 80%. So far so good. We left with an 80ish mile GOM buffer. And even through a on-off cycle, the Ford nav remembered where we were going, which pleasantly surprised me.

On the 2nd leg, efficiency was noticeably lower (2.7/2.8), which meant that 80 mile buffer kept getting smaller and smaller as time went on. That was probably due to lack of slowdowns on this leg, and possibly some crosswind, and possibly lower temperatures as the sun got lower in the sky. But since 2.7 translates to about a 190 mile range with 80% battery, I thought we’d be fine.

About 60 miles from Florence, I tried to set a precise destination again:

Me: Hey Ford, navigate to Walmart in Florence South Carolina
Car: Please choose from these Walmart locations that are definitely not in Florence
Me: (Sigh) Honey, could you look up the address for the Walmart in Florence on your phone?
Wife: There are two of them, one on North Beltline Drive and one on Irby Street
Me: North Beltline Drive, I think that’s the one with the charger.
Wife: It is, I see the charger on the map
Me: Hey Ford, navigate to 230 North Beltline Drive in Florence South Carolina
Car: Please obey traffic laws, etc, etc
Me: Oh thank goodness.

After a quick bathroom stop about 30 miles from Florence, the GPS went haywire. It had us about 1000 feet to the east of where we actually were, and got worse as we went along. That had happened to me once before, and it went back to normal the next time I turned on the car, so I decided to wing it to the Florence EA. (I knew how to get there thanks to all that prior planning!) We made it with 11% and 28 GOM miles (and the efficiency since that bathroom stop went all the way down to 2.3), leading to my first-ever low battery warning:

Pulling into Florence, we saw another Mach-E:

And then we went to get pizza!

Halfway through dinner, I decided to check the FordPass app, just to see how things were going. And wouldn’t you know it, there was a notification that charging has stopped. So I went over to the charger to check things out. There was a Bolt parked next to me, whose driver sheepishly told me that he might have accidentally disconnected me. He had taken the 2nd cable from the station I was using, and plugged it in to his car. He thought the station he was parked in front of was broken, since he plugged it in and nothing happened (it does say “Plug in first” after all ...). After I plugged my car back in and made sure it was charging again, I walked him through the EA app and got him started (his station was working just fine). He had just gotten his Bolt (it was a used ‘17 with a new battery pack), and I think it was his first time at a fast charger. It’s a little sad to think about where he would have ended up if I weren’t there to help him – and it looks like EA has a little bit of work to do in the UX department.

But, since it’s an easy mistake to make, here’s a PSA: the 2nd cable on an EA station is there so that you can reach a charging port on either side of your vehicle; it’s not a 2nd “pump” like at a gas station!

Based on my prior misadventures with voice navigation, I told the car nav the exact location of the hotel in Savannah, and it plotted a course with no drama, and no additional charge stops. It also had our position correct. And despite the significantly lower efficiency from the last leg, it still optimistically predicted a 100 mile buffer. As you’d expect, that started evaporating pretty quickly. The efficiency stayed pretty constant at 2.8, so between that and the mostly flat terrain of the SC Pee Dee and Low Country, there wasn’t much to worry about range wise.

Our hotel had two ClipperCreek chargers; when we arrived, one was occupied by a Model X, and the other by … an ICE Mustang. Oh the irony! I suppose I could have complained to the front desk, but after 12 hours on the road, I wasn’t in the mood for drama when I had a perfectly acceptable Plan B. So we unloaded the car, and I set off by myself for the Enmarket gas/convenience next door.

This charger was a slower ChargePoint, so I was stuck for a while. I occupied my time by combing through the car looking for my wife’s missing key fob, which was possibly misplaced by a child who used it to get into the car back in Florence. She was convinced it was still in the car, since she was able to open the liftgate while I was checking in to the hotel. But looking in between the seats, under the seats, all the door pockets turned up nothing. I eventually got a text saying “I found it, it fell into a backpack”. (Whew, no need to try PaaK ...)

And then I noticed an ICE Mustang peel out onto the main road. Hmm … I wondered.

The rest of the time I spent fielding questions about the car from a nice couple in an F-150 who were filling up. The woman was interested in buying one, and I might have sold her on it but for the near impossibility of getting one right now. After they went on their merry way, the car got to 80% and I was ready to go. I went back to the hotel and found that the ICE Mustang had vacated the charger spot! I plugged in and went to bed, a successful day in the books.

More to come in this thread as I write it up ...

Click to expand...

JohnnyForensic said:

ChargePoint chargers don’t help the situation you found yourself in as they DO split charge to two different cars when plugged in, but as EA chargers don’t, it’s totally confusing to new EV drivers and even seasoned ones.

Click to expand...

rfrommd said:

Leg 1: Home to EA Rocky Mount NC, 252 mi, 3.3 mi/kWh (!)

Click to expand...

rcechinel said:

"I always like going South, somehow it feels like going downhill."

Click to expand...

TonyaE said:

@rcechinel I don’t know if this is a compliment or insult

Click to expand...

ridgebackpilot said:

I'll have to remember that, thanks. To be fair, though, Tesla Superchargers "split" charge as well. They slow down dramatically if the station is full, due to the overall demand for power. When I charge my Model 3, I try and find Supercharger stations that are nearly empty to take full advantage of the charge speed they can deliver.

Click to expand...

JohnnyForensic said:

Great story! I’m about to take mine from VA to Northern OH, so these stories that don’t end with “Stop Safely Now” make me feel better about doing it.

Click to expand...

• Leg 1: Port Wentworth to EA Ormond Beach FL, 219 mi, 3.0 mi/kWh
• Charge 1: 23% → 80% in 36 min
• Leg 2: Ormond Beach FL to Disney World + Driving around Disney: 106mi, 3.7 mi/kWh
• Charge 2 (Animal Kingdom ChargePoint): 47%→100% in 9 hours

rfrommd said:

Part 2: The Short Day + Driving Around Disney

• Leg 1: Port Wentworth to EA Ormond Beach FL, 219 mi, 3.0 mi/kWh
• Charge 1: 23% → 80% in 36 min
• Leg 2: Ormond Beach FL to Disney World + Driving around Disney: 106mi, 3.7 mi/kWh
• Charge 2 (Animal Kingdom ChargePoint): 47%→100% in 9 hours

The next day we started with a 100% battery and an optimistic GOM at 300 miles, and a much shorter trip (if you believed the GOM alone, we could have made it to Disney without stopping). But the nav wanted us to stop in Ormond Beach FL, about 70 miles from our destination. We’d get there right around lunchtime, which would be perfect.

I got a little braver around BlueCruise on the second day. My previous attempts in using it were a little nerve-wracking, as the car and I tend to disagree where the center of the lane is – I always feel like I’m too far to the right, especially when there’s another car next to me. So I turned it on when I was cruising in the right lane, and I let it do its thing, without trying to “correct” it. Over time, I was more comfortable with it, although I found myself doing more of the steering when I was in the center or left lanes.

Efficiency wasn’t quite as good as the first leg yesterday, but considering there were no real slowdowns, getting over 200 miles at mostly 75 mph is pretty good! (Warmer weather FTW.) After securing some drive-thru lunch, we arrive at the Ormond Beach Walmart parking lot to find … a lot of EVs. I pulled in to the last open spot, right next to a red California Route 1. There was also a Kia EV6, a Bolt, and two Ioniq 5’s. I talked to some of the other drivers, and we compared notes on our EV experiences. We were so busy talking I forgot to take pictures, and hardly noticed the time charging.

After starting up the car again, I noticed that the navigation lost our destination. But oh look, Google has our destination all queued up in Android Auto, like they’ve been reading my email or something. Since we had more than enough electrons to get to Disney, I just used Google Maps the rest of the way.

Since I made my Disney reservations a little late (only 2 months in advance), I didn’t have much choice in which resort to stay in; the two with on-site L2 chargers were booked solid. So the next best option for charging would be the theme parks, although according to PlugShare, those could fill up pretty quick. If that didn’t work out, my backup was to use an EVGo DC charger at an outlet mall a few hours away. While we had plenty of charge, I wanted to leave Disney with at least 80% so I could L1 charge at the next stop (my mother’s place in the Villages), and start the trip home with as close to 100% as possible.

Here’s the secret code for accessing the chargers at the Disney Theme Parks: after you get through the toll booth, there will be a point where there’s a split for the Preferred Parking, and a couple of cast members. Pull up to them and ask if there are EV chargers available. They will call ahead and find out if there are any available; if there are, they’ll direct you to them. There weren’t any available when we arrived at Epcot … after I parked with the commoners, I found out that two of the four spots were taken up by Pacifica PHEVs; I tried very hard not to be annoyed. The next day when we went to Animal Kingdom, however, there was one available. It’s a ChargePoint, so I activated it with the FordPass app. Nine hours later, it was charged up to 100%, although at 30 cents per kWh, it was pretty expensive for L2. (For comparison, EA charges 31 cents per kWh for fast charging on their Pass+ plan.) But then again, everything at Disney is expensive.

More to come in this thread as I write it up ...

Click to expand...