1500 mile round trip from north AZ to central CA ... finally NACS charging!

[SpaceEVDriver]

Great writeup, but stories like this are the exact reason I decided to get a 3 year lease on an ICE vehicle for my longer road trips. The MME is my baby, my daily driver, the vehicle I take everywhere around the area where it won't require more than 1 DCFC, but I think for the next couple years these types of experiences will be norm for EV until things finally get settled. For me it's not necessarily the charger issues as much as it is the extra time added to a trip for charging during a long road trip. But that's just me.

To be clear: This is an exception for my travels.

We have 37,500 miles on the car, more than half are road trips (my definition is more than 500 miles round trip). Very rarely have I experienced issues with DCFC charging.

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[RKinWA]

To be clear: This is an exception for my travels.

We have 37,500 miles on the car, more than half are road trips (my definition is more than 500 miles round trip). Very rarely have I experienced issues with DCFC charging.

Like I said, time is my issue. Charging stops can add a lot of time, especially if you have to wait, and time is not something I have a lot of.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

…and this folks is why our BEV’s are fun commuters and 2nd cars and an ICE (even a rented one! ) rule for roadtrips.

No fuss, no muss, no headaches, and much shorter traveling time.

Meh. I far prefer road trips in our EVs. So much so that we just traded in our last ICE for a Lightning. No more ever going to a gas station. It's fantastic. I've had far more issues with ICE vehicles than with my EVs. I'll never go back to ICE--not even for rental cars.

 

[dbsb3233]

It was surprising and thus frustrating and angering. If I was my younger, dumber self, I might have been more confrontational, but it wasn't worth it. The station was busy and there was a line, but I've never unplugged a vehicle even when there are many cars in line. Nor have I called the tow truck on brand-T cars that are parked in charging spots without even being plugged in. Most of my "ICEd" charger experiences have been brand-T cars sitting in the spot not plugged in.

That happened to us once at an EA station in Cedar City UT. #4 had a Rivian on it, #2 and #3 were broken, so we had to use #1 (that had the CHAdeMO plug too). Plugged in and started like normal, went into Walmart. 10 minutes later the phone beeps saying it stopped. Walked out and there's a Leaf that unplugged us and started using the CHAdeMO. My partner got there first and already yelled at the guy. Hard to tell for sure, but I think he actually thought both cords would work. He was on the phone with EA trying to get it to work when partner got there (he was just pulling out when I got there).

Could have also been one of those cases where he saw #2 and #3 open and got pissed that someone was typing up the only CHAdeMO. That's why it's bad to assume when showing up later (like when a Bolt is using a 350). Never know what the situation was when they arrived.

 

[DesignMatters]

Meh. I far prefer road trips in our EVs. So much so that we just traded in our last ICE for a Lightning. No more ever going to a gas station. It's fantastic. I've had far more issues with ICE vehicles than with my EVs. I'll never go back to ICE--not even for rental cars.

Why do you prefer road trips in an EV?

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Like I said, time is my issue. Charging stops can add a lot of time, especially if you have to wait, and time is not something I have a lot of.

That's fine, to each their own.

I don't find road tripping time to be that much different in the EVs vs previous ICEs. I can't stand driving for more than 2.5 hours at a time without a decent, 15-30 minute, or longer, break. We've always planned our trips with this in mind, and have always spent at least 10% more time on the road than any mapping service has predicted, and usually more. For us things have rarely gone wrong with our EV driving and I have many more ICE failure stories per mile driven than EV failure stories per mile driven.

 

[RKinWA]

That's fine, to each their own.

I don't find road tripping time to be that much different in the EVs vs previous ICEs. I can't stand driving for more than 2.5 hours at a time without a decent, 15-30 minute, or longer, break. We've always planned our trips with this in mind, and have always spent at least 10% more time on the road than any mapping service has predicted, and usually more. For us things have rarely gone wrong with our EV driving and I have many more ICE failure stories per mile driven than EV failure stories per mile driven.

In fairness I haven't actually attempted a long roadtrip in my MME yet, but just based on ABRP planning my upcoming trip from Seattle to Phoenix, I know I don't want to lose the days charging that I could be spending exploring Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon. Plus a local battery level scare made me very weary of ending up stranded. Guess I'm not 100% ready for a full EV life yet. ?

 

[dbsb3233]

My experience with EA is about 95% success rate, with hundreds of DC charging experiences.

I've only taken the Mustang to AZ, NM, TX, OK, CA, and NV, so I can't speak for experiences elsewhere.

I will say some EA stations' reliability has collapsed in the past 18 months. In particular, the Kingman EA station used to be always reliable and now is regularly busy and regularly has one or more down or dramatically slowed. I had hoped the NACS chargers in Kingman would provide a solution to the 4-port EA station, but I think instead we're going to skip Kingman for most of our trips until EA adds some more reliable chargers or the Rivian network opens up.

Similarly, the Barstow EA charging station is often very busy, so it's nice there are a pile of NACS chargers just down the road. I've also used the ~60 kW chargers at a couple of different places in Barstow. The 60 kW chargers are great when I need to nap after a long day of work in Pasadena and I'm staring down four or five more hours of driving before getting home.

Safe travels! Sounds like a fantastic trip!

Very similar to us. 200+ EA charges now. Most are the same frequent routes CO-UT-NV. But occasionally NM-AZ-CA too. Then one 4000 mi trip last year thru KS-OK-TX-LA-MS-TN-AR-MO. Few issues overall, and mostly minor where there was.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Why do you prefer road trips in an EV?

Oh, gosh, so many reasons:

• I can get a charge overnight at hotels (usually, this was the very first trip we didn't get an overnight charge). I've always hated having to spend the evening getting gas (I just want to get to sleep) or the morning (I just want to get on the road). I have no problem paying for this charge, but it's often gratis with the hotel room.
• Similarly, we can charge at RV campsites. Usually provided as part of the cost of the campsite.
• I don't have to stop at busy gas stations. The last several times we've road tripped in an ICE, we've had to skip several gas stations because they were overflowing with people in line. We do tend to road trip during holiday weekends, so this has something to do with it. The EV charging stations have started becoming busy too, so this advantage is starting to fade, but it's still there most of the time.
• I don't have to breathe gasoline fumes.
• It's generally cheaper for us to travel using EV vs ICE, though this would be different if we had a high-mpg car like a Prius Prime.
• There's a lot less maintenance of our EVs than we had to do with the ICEs, though this is less about road tripping, it adds to the free time I have available.
• I can charge at home both before and after the trip, which saves at least two trips to the gas station, which saves me plenty of time.
• Overall, even when I experience these rare longer charge times, I've spent a lot less time refueling my EVs than I have refueling ICEs for the same number of miles driven.
• I could go on and on...

 

[DesignMatters]

That's fine, to each their own.

I don't find road tripping time to be that much different in the EVs vs previous ICEs. I can't stand driving for more than 2.5 hours at a time without a decent, 15-30 minute, or longer, break. We've always planned our trips with this in mind, and have always spent at least 10% more time on the road than any mapping service has predicted, and usually more. For us things have rarely gone wrong with our EV driving and I have many more ICE failure stories per mile driven than EV failure stories per mile driven.

Stopping every 150 miles or so..may want to see a urologist about that!

Each to their own, tons of leisure time/retired/like to poke along an EV may be OK for road trips, however for most consumers it definitely is not as the hwy miles are best quickly put behind one and max time at destination is the key with 0 worries about range or "will the chargers even be working". In some parts of the country they still putt along in horse and buggies too -- fun I guess if time and hassles don't matter. ICE is simply more worry free and convenient on a long trip. That said, love tearing up the around town/commute in the BEV.

 

[dbsb3233]

Why do you prefer road trips in an EV?

For us, the MME is just nicer. Quieter, more comfortable, better tech features, big screen for nav, one-touch cruise control, more fun to drive with regen, immediate torque, and power to burn when needing to pass on a 2-lane road.

And cheaper to fuel. DCFC is pretty close to the same price as gas on a per-mile basis, but a significant share of the miles are either dirt cheap (the initial home charge) or free (hotels).

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

In fairness I haven't actually attempted a long roadtrip in my MME yet, but just based on ABRP planning my upcoming trip from Seattle to Phoenix, I know I don't want to lose the days charging that I could be spending exploring Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon. Plus a local battery level scare made me very weary of ending up stranded. Guess I'm not 100% ready for a full EV life yet. ?

In my experience, ABRP is extremely conservative and is not reliable for multi-day trips. For example, it does not account for things like charging at a hotel or campsite. I think its default settings are poorly considered and every time I run it I change things to reflect the reality of the specific trip. Usually I use about 10-15% less energy per leg than ABRP predicts, unless weather is especially problematic.

BUT, I don't recommend anyone take a long road trip without getting some experience first. Our first day trip was a 250 mile round trip to the Grand Canyon. We didn't charge. It was totally fine.
Our second trip was an 1100 mile round tip to the LA area and we learned a lot on that first real road trip.

I don't want to say road tripping with an EV is perfect, but it's nowhere near as bad as the mythology says.

We're happily all-EV and will never go back.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Stopping every 150 miles or so..may want to see a urologist about that!

Each to their own, tons of leisure time/retired/like to poke along an EV may be OK for road trips, however for most consumers it definitely is not as the hwy miles are best quickly put behind one and max time at destination is the key with 0 worries about range or "will the chargers even be working". In some parts of the country they still putt along in horse and buggies too -- fun I guess if time and hassles don't matter. ICE is simply more worry free and convenient on a long trip. That said, love tearing up the around town/commute in the BEV.

I have a bad back from an accident working on a well when I was a teen.

I don't find ICE to be more worry free or convenient, but again, to each their own. I'm happily free from gasoline and will never ever go back.

 

[Bruboy]

Yes, they left it plugged in. They were walking away from the vehicles when I arrived because FordPass alerted me to the stop charge. I was going back to move the car, assuming the sc had stopped me at 80% because the place was busy.

What makes people thank that they can just unplug someone. I have an huge problem with that, I've never pulled the nozzle out of someone's tank. WTF?

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

For us, the MME is just nicer. Quieter, more comfortable, better tech features, big screen for nav, one-touch cruise control, more fun to drive with regen, immediate torque, and power to burn when needing to pass on a 2-lane road.

And cheaper to fuel. DCFC is pretty close to the same price as gas on a per-mile basis, but a significant share of the miles are either dirt cheap (the initial home charge) or free (hotels).

All of this too.
The cheaper part is huge.

The Lightning is even more comfortable, quieter, etc on the highway, though it's less easy to drive while in populated areas. We'll be taking it on our second road trip in a few weeks, this time to go camping.

And we'll be able to charge at an RV power post, which is fantastic compared with ICE camping since the nearest gas station is 30 miles round trip in the wrong direction.

That's another thing I'll be glad to be done with: no more gas cans in the back of the truck while camping. This summer I'll be designing a solar system that can give me a trickle charge. It won't fill the truck, but ~8-hours of sun (where we camp) * 0.5 kW of solar = 4 kWh per day = ~20 kWh during a week of camping. 20 kWh = the perfect extra range for getting away.

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