Adventures with 🐶 Bob (Atlanta-New Orleans-Houston)

[cyeung]

This was the longest EV road trip I have taken. Most people know I am very enthusiastic about EVs, know quite a bit, and had a plan in mind; but I was nevertheless a bit nervous. Here are the stats with full transparency:

• 852 miles traveled. BlueCruise drove for most of the trip.
• 265.2 kilowatt-hours used. That is the same amount of energy as 8 gallons of gas!
• 7 charging stops for a total of 2 hours and 24 minutes. That is about 21 minutes per stop. (Note: I like to stop every 2-3 hours for a bathroom break and to give my dog a bit of time outside the car.)
• $95.56 spent. That is 11.2 cents per mile. GasBuddy shows the average for a gallon of gas is $2.41 in Texas, so that comes out to 21 miles per gallon.
• 1 diversion due to a full charging station or charge port that was not working.

While at the full charging station, I came across a person also taking his first EV road trip in a Ford F-150 Lightning. He was running low on charge. He found a Tesla charging station to divert to; and I followed him to make sure he was successful in getting a charge and know how to unplug before heading on my way. I wish I pulled up A Better Route Planner on my laptop and gave him a list of places to stop.

Bob is my second golden retriever. I am fulfilling a promise I made to myself to take my dog on as many road trips as possible. While the direct route to Houston would have been through Slidell and Hammond on the way to Baton Rouge, I went ahead and made an overnight stop in New Orleans, going ahead and booking that bougie hotel near the French Quarter! He enjoyed every bit of it, especially the part when we came across many young adults from Alabama, mostly girls, who just fell in love with him at first sight! Of course I had to stop and let them all pet him!

I would be remiss if I did not include any pics! I am now on a mission to take a pic of Bob at every charging stop and posting it onto PlugShare!

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[Tampamike]

Do you have to a shot every time someone says “Hi Bob?”

Cute dog!

 

[cyeung]

Do you have to a shot every time someone says “Hi Bob?”

Cute dog!

It depends ... but I definitely have to do a shot at every charging station.

 

[HuntingPudel]

Hi Bob! Those are the kind of pictures that should get posted. Most two-legged don’t know good content.

 

[cswebster]

This was the longest EV road trip I have taken. Most people know I am very enthusiastic about EVs, know quite a bit, and had a plan in mind; but I was nevertheless a bit nervous. Here are the stats with full transparency:

• 852 miles traveled. BlueCruise drove for most of the trip.
• 265.2 kilowatt-hours used. That is the same amount of energy as 8 gallons of gas!
• 7 charging stops for a total of 2 hours and 24 minutes. That is about 21 minutes per stop. (Note: I like to stop every 2-3 hours for a bathroom break and to give my dog a bit of time outside the car.)
• $95.56 spent. That is 11.2 cents per mile.
• 1 diversion due to a full charging station or charge port that was not working.

While at the full charging station, I came across a person also taking his first EV road trip in a Ford F-150 Lightning. He was running low on charge. He found a Tesla charging station to divert to; and I followed him to make sure he was successful in getting a charge and know how to unplug before heading on my way. I wish I pulled up A Better Route Planner on my laptop and gave him a list of places to stop.

Bob is my second golden retriever. I am fulfilling a promise I made to myself to take my dog on as many road trips as possible. While the direct route to Houston would have been through Slidell and Hammond on the way to Baton Rouge, I went ahead and made an overnight stop in New Orleans, going ahead and booking that bougie hotel near the French Quarter! He enjoyed every bit of it, especially the part when we came across many young adults from Alabama, mostly girls, who just fell in love with him at first sight! Of course I had to stop and let them all pet him!

I would be remiss if I did not include any pics! I am now on a mission to take a pic of Bob at every charging stop and posting it onto PlugShare!

A lovely story! Thanks for sharing that. I saved the story and will bring up those stats every time I get crap from my firehouse buddies about driving an EV!

 

[cyeung]

A lovely story! Thanks for sharing that. I saved the story and will bring up those stats every time I get crap from my firehouse buddies about driving an EV!

Glad you like it! I will make another follow-on post for the trip back. I read somewhere that truckers usually go 2-4 hours between driving breaks. Maybe offer that as a point of reference. If someone can go for longer than that, then I usually just say that is impressive.

 

[cswebster]

Glad you like it! I will make another follow-on post for the trip back. I read somewhere that truckers usually go 2-4 hours between driving breaks. Maybe offer that as a point of reference. If someone can go for longer than that, then I usually just say that is impressive.

Yeah, I’ve done a long haul (7 hours) a couple of times from Northern NJ to the tip of VT, and usually it’s a two stop strategy in the Mach-E (quite do-able). In my Grand Highlander hybrid it’s a one stop for fuel and bio, in the Mach-E a two stop is just as easy, although it takes a bit longer. But the journey is the reward!

 

[dan_meh]

All I can think about is Asleep at the Wheel’s tribute album to Bob Willis. It’s called “Ride with Bob.”

I grew up on music called we called Western swing / it don’t matter who’s in Austin, Bob Wills is still the king.

 

[cheerioboy26]

Great report, and pics! Good luck on your return. From a technical perspective, I especially liked the comparison that you only "used" the equivalent of 8 gallons of gas for 850 miles. I know that gasoline holds a lot more energy, but hadn't thought about it from that perspective.

 

[scout]

Luna, our pup--------------is our copilot on every trip!

 

[cyeung]

Luna, our pup--------------is our copilot on every trip!

Bob says you must pay the dog tax.

 

[cyeung]

All right, everybody! It has been about a week since I've gotten back to Atlanta. During my Atlanta to Houston trip, I charged up to 80% at each charging stop no matter what ABRP or the built-in navigation said. This time, I planned to roll into a charging station with 20% battery and charge up to whatever the car tells me, plus a bit more for additional buffer.

• 815 miles traveled. BlueCruise once again drove for most of the trip.
• 246 kilowatt-hours used. That is the same amount of energy as 7.3 gallons of gas!
• 7 charging stops for a total of 2 hours. That is about 17 minutes per stop. There were two things that made the charging stops a bit longer. First, I made the obligatory Buc-ee's stop and charged there, even though my battery was at more than 90%. I also encountered two Electrify America stations that did not deliver full capability; and I had to move to a different stall.
• $70.65 spent. That is 9 cents per mile. GasBuddy shows the average for a gallon of gas is $2.74 in Cobb County, GA, so that comes out to 30.4 miles per gallon.
• No diversions.

The built-in map predicted my arrival state of charge within +/- 3%. Since the biggest barrier to EV adoption is range anxiety, I find that it does not help when the navigation solutions plan for arriving to a charging station with 10% state of charge. I would much prefer planning to roll in with at least 20% state of charge to allow for diversion and account for how the guess-o-meter tends to be a bit wonky at low states of charge and cold weather.

And now, some photos for your enjoyment:

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