How much have you changed your normal routes because of access to chargers?

[SpaceEVDriver]

I have a regular, 7-8 hour route between northern Arizona and the Los Angeles area. I drive it several times a year at a minimum and up to more than once a month depending on work. As I'm waiting for my Mustang to be built, I'm looking at the A Better Route Planner app and evaluating route options. For various unreasonable reasons, I avoid stopping in Needles unless absolutely necessary.

With my ICE vehicle, I could almost always avoid stopping in Needles. However, the ABRP app insists that I want to charge there for nearly an hour if I stay on the I-40 route. It does offer completely different routes that look to cost nearly the same amount of time, but that don't stop in Needles. I'm evaluating those routes and whether I believe other considerations will allow me to use them.

At the moment, it does look like my past regular route will become obsolete because of the sparsity of chargers along I-40. I wonder if others are choosing slightly different paths to/from some of their regular destinations because of charger availability? If so, I also wonder how much this might change the landscape of long-distance travel over the next five to ten years, or--more likely--we'll just see a bunch more chargers go into various stations?

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[RickMachE]

Now I've learned that there is a place called Needles, California.

Yes, many people have to adapt their routes due to the availability of high speed chargers. That's just a fact of life today.

Needles has an Electrify America charging station, with 4 chargers. Kingman, Arizona also has an EA center.

The reason why it's pushing you to Needles is because there's over 200 miles between Kingman and Barstow (206 per GoogleMaps). That's pushing it on range - but is very doable.

The issues are as follows:

- ABRP doesn't know that with updates the Mach-E can charge at decent speed to 90%.
- You haven't told EA that you're ok arriving in Barstow with lower than 20% charge.

To go 210 miles starting at 90% of 91kWh (81.9kWh), you need to get 2.56 miles per kWh. Not a problem if you don't drive 85 and blast the AC. Totally doable.

The bill just passed puts $7.5B into the charging network. 5 years from now things will be very different.

 

[RickMachE]

You can change all that in the ABRP defaults.

Once you get some mileage under your belt, you'll see how many miles per kWh you're getting. Then, you can do simple math and see if there is an issue. Worse case, you slow down for the last hour of the drive if needed, but you'll see right in the display (using the Ford Nav) how much range you will have left once you arrive.

 

[RickMachE]

We've driven almost 5,000 highway miles. When going from Massachusetts to Michigan, we took the upper route (NY Thruway) home. We drove from Waterloo NY to Erie, PA (back then we could only charge to 80%), which is 191 miles. We arrived in Erie with 3% battery left. So, with 90% battery we'd have 13% left.

ABRP and the Ford Nav suggested multiple other places to stop, all involving getting on and off the Thruway, which is a hassle and costs a bit more. Because at that point we had over 4,000 highway miles, I felt confident that we'd be fine. The car threw up all sorts of warnings, and even suggested we slow down. I did have my wife slow to 55 for the last 10 miles, and in hindsight I would have maybe stopped elsewhere, but what's the fun in that?

Also had that going to Massachusetts. Went from Albany, NY to Auburn, MA. Should have charged more at Albany, but it costs almost 3x the price, so I stopped at 55% thinking I was fine. We arrived in Auburn with 5%.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Now I've learned that there is a place called Needles, California.

Yes, many people have to adapt their routes due to the availability of high speed chargers. That's just a fact of life today.

Needles has an Electrify America charging station, with 4 chargers. Kingman, Arizona also has an EA center.

The reason why it's pushing you to Needles is because there's over 200 miles between Kingman and Barstow. That's pushing it on range - but is very doable.

The issues are as follows:

- ABRP doesn't know that with updates the Mach-E can charge at decent speed to 90%.
- You haven't told EA that you're ok arriving in Barstow with lower than 20% charge.

To go 210 miles starting at 90% of 91kWh (81.9kWh), you need to get 2.56 miles per kWh. Not a problem if you don't drive 85 and blast the AC. Totally doable.

Thanks!

I basically always stop in Kingman for food, snacks, or fuel, so stopping there is fine and has always been part of the plan. I will probably do the trip up to Laughlin instead of through Needles at least once with my ICE to check out the charging stations there and in Baker. I don't mind the approximate detour. It will be good to see something different.

I am still fiddling with the ABRP app and it's got some quirks that I hope won't annoy me once I've started using it for real trips.

Regardless, I'm interested in how EVs might change the reality of which towns and stops start becoming more popular. Obviously the number of EVs on the road right now is too small to have an impact, but I wonder if cities and businesses are thinking ahead to the time when the EV impact is significant.

 

[RickMachE]

You'll want to checkout the stations in PlugShare, because people rate their experience. Some stations are nightmares, others are great. And your planned stop could be out of service an hour before you get there.

 

[GuliblGuy]

Now I've learned that there is a place called Needles, California.

Of course there is, haven't you ever listened to Never been to Spain??

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

You'll want to checkout the stations in PlugShare, because people rate their experience. Some stations are nightmares, others are great. And your planned stop could be out of service an hour before you get there.

Yeah, it seems like I need a pile of apps to get access to all the information I want.

 

[veronicablack]

Now I've learned that there is a place called Needles, California.

Yup this post has just made me extremely interested in Needles, CA. Best tourism advertisement ever!

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Yup this post has just made me extremely interested in Needles, CA. Best tourism advertisement ever!

If you're ever heading to the southwest, there are much better places to visit than Needles, CA.

 

[DevSecOps]

My 2 cents ...

For work commutes like this, which I have a lot of, ICE is the only way to go. In the summer I would be able to make a weekly commute that I have, 3 hours each way, with a single charge. That makes it more tolerable, but still unpleasant because I have to spend an hour at a Walmart in the worst part of a city that has terrible crime. In the winter months I have to charge 3 times instead of 1 and this adds many hours to the already 6 hour commute.

IMO it's not so much of an infrastructure issue as it is an issue of time. I value those 3 hours that I'm saving with ICE especially when it's a 12 hour day to begin with (6 on the road, 6 working). Making that 12 hour day into a 15 hour day was not fun the 1, and only, time I attempted it.

If you don't mind the extra few hours you'll take on that commute, then routing changes shouldn't matter much anyway. When I drive from Sacramento to LA in the MME I take 99, with ICE I take I5. The difference is the availability of chargers and the speed limit. I hate going slower on 99, but anything under 90mph on I5 will get you ran over and going 90mph sucks down the juice! My availability fear on I5 is that if there's a broken charge station there might not be another for 50 miles and you'll be screwed.

 

[tesla2mme]

If you're ever heading to the southwest, there are much better places to visit than Needles, CA.

Like Disneyland

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Like Disneyland

And The Grand Canyon. And so many places in between.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

My 2 cents ...

For work commutes like this, which I have a lot of, ICE is the only way to go. In the summer I would be able to make a weekly commute that I have, 3 hours each way, with a single charge. That makes it more tolerable, but still unpleasant because I have to spend an hour at a Walmart in the worst part of a city that has terrible crime. In the winter months I have to charge 3 times instead of 1 and this adds many hours to the already 6 hour commute.

IMO it's not so much of an infrastructure issue as it is an issue of time. I value those 3 hours that I'm saving with ICE especially when it's a 12 hour day to begin with (6 on the road, 6 working). Making that 12 hour day into a 15 hour day was not fun the 1, and only, time I attempted it.

If you don't mind the extra few hours you'll take on that commute, then routing changes shouldn't matter much anyway. When I drive from Sacramento to LA in the MME I take 99, with ICE I take I5. The difference is the availability of chargers and the speed limit. I hate going slower on 99, but anything under 90mph on I5 will get you ran over and going 90mph sucks down the juice! My availability fear on I5 is that if there's a broken charge station there might not be another for 50 miles and you'll be screwed.

For me, it's an 8-hour drive there, a 5-day stay, and an 8-hour drive home. I prefer to stop, get out, stretch, etc., after no more than about 2 to 2.5 hours of driving, so there won't be much more additional time on the road for me with an EV. Or at least I don't expect there to be. Maybe an extra 30-90 minutes each way.

 

[DevSecOps]

For me, it's an 8-hour drive there, a 5-day stay, and an 8-hour drive home. I prefer to stop, get out, stretch, etc., after no more than about 2 to 2.5 hours of driving, so there won't be much more additional time on the road for me with an EV. Or at least I don't expect there to be. Maybe an extra 30-90 minutes each way.

Yeah when I go to Vail, CO in the winter from Sacramento I do it all in one shot with stops only for gas. We have different approaches for sure. I'm a don't stop till ya get there kinda guy.

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