Winter Road Trips in SR AWD

[dah]

Have an upcoming trip from Michigan to NYC at the end of the month, and am trying to figure out if taking an SR AWD in winter weather is a viable path or not.

The trip is effectively I-80 all the way through Ohio and Pennsylvania; overall seems like there is good coverage almost exclusively through Sheetz (and I'm willing to drop my Wawa allegiance), but it seems like there's a hole of fast chargers around Youngstown since the Sheetz is closed where I might need to stretch 140 miles. Otherwise looks like there's a path of roughly 120 miles between chargers.

Doable trip or something I should reach for an ICE at this time of year? I typically drive the 70mph speed limit with BlueCruise, so it's certainly a more relaxing trip if I can take the Mach-E.

ABRP is missing a charger in Emleton, but the path it gives assumes an average consumption of 2.49mi/kwh, which seems roughly correct given the weather will be around 0F average. I'm usually fine in the vehicle with the heat set to 60F.

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[Billyk24]

This might be a stupid question but have you done this trip before and are aware of the significant changes with the terrain when driving across Pennsylvania compared to the flat Ohio I-80 section?

 

[dah]

This might be a stupid question but have you done this trip before and are aware of the significant changes with the terrain when driving across Pennsylvania compared to the flat Ohio I-80 section?

Not a stupid question at all. Probably done it a dozen times in various ICE cars, just never an EV. The "Highest Point on I-80 East of the Mississippi" sign remains one of my favorite hilarious road signs.

It looks like the EA stations through PA are roughly 90mi apart, which seems okay for 10-80% segments short of a significant cold snap, but it does seem tough to really nail down the right efficiency numbers to use as a reference here (hence me posting).

 

[dtbaker61]

I'd say very doable... but would suggest staying a little longer at the stations and charging to 95% before any leg over 100 mi.

 

[hybrid2bev]

Have an upcoming trip from Michigan to NYC at the end of the month, and am trying to figure out if taking an SR AWD in winter weather is a viable path or not.

The trip is effectively I-80 all the way through Ohio and Pennsylvania; overall seems like there is good coverage almost exclusively through Sheetz (and I'm willing to drop my Wawa allegiance), but it seems like there's a hole of fast chargers around Youngstown since the Sheetz is closed where I might need to stretch 140 miles. Otherwise looks like there's a path of roughly 120 miles between chargers.

Doable trip or something I should reach for an ICE at this time of year? I typically drive the 70mph speed limit with BlueCruise, so it's certainly a more relaxing trip if I can take the Mach-E.

ABRP is missing a charger in Emleton, but the path it gives assumes an average consumption of 2.49mi/kwh, which seems roughly correct given the weather will be around 0F average. I'm usually fine in the vehicle with the heat set to 60F.

Make sure your weather settings in ABRP match what you expect for the trip. Add in some headwinds to be safe.

If ABRP says that you can make the trip then your next step should be to review PlugShare for all of the DC chargers along the route. Review them in PlugShare now, review again just before you leave, review your next stop on the route while charging.

 

[GreaseMonkey]

I would take ABRP efficiency estimates with a grain. 2.5 m/kWh is ambitious in winter weather at 70 mph. It might be prudent to have a plan B of staying at a hotel with level 2 during the 140 mile stretch just to be on the safe side.
The above reflects my apprehension about a trip I’m taking next week, despite having extended range and a total trip of 140 miles. I’m planning on a quick stop half way if my efficiency drops below 2.2.

 

[Mach-Lee]

FYI you can click the X by a charger in the route plan to skip it. I'd recommend you do that for the Sheetz charger. You'll have to compensate by making more stops, but you're not going to be able to go more than about 125 miles between chargers.

This is what I got after excluding Sheetz:

 

[dah]

FYI you can click the X by a charger in the route plan to skip it. I'd recommend you do that for the Sheetz charger. You'll have to compensate by making more stops, but you're not going to be able to go more than about 125 miles between chargers.

This is what I got after excluding Sheetz:

Yeah I've been making adjustments with Plugshare manually since whatever Plugshare data source they publish that ABRP and the Ford trip planner uses hasn't picked it up yet. Been meaning to dig into the data sources there a bit.

120mi splits puts this at a 2.49kWh/mi average assuming staying strictly between 10 and 80%, which seems slightly aggressive but perhaps also not too hard to achieve with some smart DCFC preconditioning.

 

[thekat03]

Yeah, Youngstown, Ohio, is unfortunately very limited for chargers. I tend to do Maine to northeast Ohio, Youngstown area, and just did it in my MME CR1, but also my husband's Volvo C40, which has a more limited range at 226 miles per EPA. We were a bit nervous looking at mapping through PA, and even in an ICE, we always did the NY Thruway (I-90), so I know that way to NYC should be doable, even for a SR MME, and in winter. For charging in the Youngstown area, there is a 50 kW DCFC in Warren, Ohio, at the Sims Nissan dealership that is accessible to the public. Not ideal since it's a ways off of I-80, but that's the nearest that I know worked a month ago at least. It's just behind the entrance to the service area. Good luck!

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

This is what I got after excluding Sheetz:

I'm feeling kinda triggered here ?

 

[dah]

Yeah, Youngstown, Ohio, is unfortunately very limited for chargers. I tend to do Maine to northeast Ohio, Youngstown area, and just did it in my MME CR1, but also my husband's Volvo C40, which has a more limited range at 226 miles per EPA. We were a bit nervous looking at mapping through PA, and even in an ICE, we always did the NY Thruway (I-90), so I know that way to NYC should be doable, even for a SR MME, and in winter. For charging in the Youngstown area, there is a 50 kW DCFC in Warren, Ohio, at the Sims Nissan dealership that is accessible to the public. Not ideal since it's a ways off of I-80, but that's the nearest that I know worked a month ago at least. It's just behind the entrance to the service area. Good luck!

Part of me wanted to go I-90 just to play around with the Tesla stations along that route, but it's just a little too far out of the way.

I recall seeing that Warren charger but it seems to have disappeared from Plugshare now.

 

[AngryMan]

If all else fails and you're desperate there are RV hookups that should allow your mobile charger to get you some much needed voltage.
That Sheetz that's closed was a lifeline to me . Now just hoping the warm weather allows me to get a round trip in

 

[AngryMan]

If they were smart enough to just put in Tesla Magic Docks this last July instead of proprietary Teslas Id have applauded and USED them . Now I drive by the empty stalls and get angry

 

[Billyk24]

If all else fails and you're desperate there are RV hookups that should allow your mobile charger to get you some much needed voltage.
That Sheetz that's closed was a lifeline to me . Now just hoping the warm weather allows me to get a round trip in

Sheetz is remodeling and should/could reopen Feb/March.

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