First Road Trip (450 Miles Each Way) - The Good and the Bad

[dbsb3233]

Good info. I knew they were putting new chargers around Beaver. I-70 is a little tough. Last I looked Green River was it until Grand Junction. Tesla adapter will help for sure.
Just an added FYI to all, AAA now has mobile chargers in some larger markets as a test. Their website and app show locations.
Thanks
Tom

There is some help coming for I-70 in Utah. The Ivie Creek rest area, and Thompson Springs are both supposed to be getting stations, reportedly by the end of this year (although we'll see). It's not ideal spacing, but backup is still backup.

https://www.ksl.com/article/5078888...-double-fast-charging-ev-sites-by-end-of-2024

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[TEP]

There is some help coming for I-70 in Utah. The Ivie Creek rest area, and Thompson Springs are both supposed to be getting stations, reportedly by the end of this year (although we'll see). It's not ideal spacing, but backup is still backup.

https://www.ksl.com/article/5078888...-double-fast-charging-ev-sites-by-end-of-2024

Thanks. Did not look for the word "soon". Gets a little lonely on desert roads.

 

[jeffMachE]

Thanks. Did not look for the word "soon". Gets a little lonely on desert roads.

Yeah, as Tim previously noted, the 4-station EA in Green River is do or die for us crossing on I-70. Unfortunately the Tesla location in Green River is all V2 and we can't use them.

 

[sparkymartin]

Anyone going to Vegas should have a Tesla adapter or you're going to be waiting a long time to get a charge as the EA and other non-Tesla infrastructure is woefully inadequate.

Excellent advice. I just bought a destination adapter. I don't anticipate making another road trip before I hope to get my free fast charge adapter from Ford.

 

[sparkymartin]

It takes some time to get used to the huge differences in road-tripping an EV. It was new to me too when I got mine. (Well actually, it was new to me before I joined these forums a year before I got mine, where I then learned a lot of the differences).

The range display on the dash is affectionately called the Guess-O-Meter (GOM). It can be way off because it's calculated more based on recent driving patterns. Before a road trip, for most people that means it was city driving which is much more favorable in an EV. But head out on a road trip - especially with 80 MPH speed limits - and that drops a lot. For a variety of reasons, EV mileage (and thus range) varies a lot more than a gas car. Probably like twice as much. In the city some people get 3.5, 4.0, sometimes even 5.0 mi/kWh (MPK) on shorter runs. But for high speed highway, that can easily drop to 2.5, 2.2, even 2.0 MPK. Sounds like you got around 2.7 MPK on your first leg (240 miles + 10 left / 91 kWh battery). That's pretty good for an AWD ER Mach-E @ 80 MPH.

If you run into a headwind, that will drop. If you need to run the heater, that will drop. Even though you made it 240 miles with 10 left this time, personally I wouldn't risk trying to go quite that far. In part because you may not make it if the weather isn't really good, but also because charging stations are sometimes broken, or full. I tend to stop and charge at the station before the last one I can reach, just in case. I like to keep a backup in range.

Thank you for sharing your expertise/experience. This helps me a lot.

 

[Pearce]

My 14 year old son and I embarked on our first road trip in my brand new 2024 Mustang Mach EX Premium. We drove 450 miles from our home in Salt Lake City, Utah to visit my brother in Henderson, Nevada. Boy did I learn a lot about road tripping in an EV.

BlueCruise

• The Good
  • It is awesome and was a huge stress relief
  • It worked remarkably well for most of the trip
• The Bad
  • It does not work over 80 MPH, which means if the speed limit is 80 MPH, you need stay exactly at the speed limit to use it. This was fine for me.
  • It seemed to briefly stop working whenever the pavement would change from dark to light.
  • There were quite a few times that it nagged at me to pay attention to the road when I was paying attention to the road. I think the angle of the sun along with my sun glasses may have played a factor.
• The Ugly
  • It almost got me into an accident outside of Vegas in a construction zone when I had a semi on my right and a concrete wall to my left with a non-existent shoulder to my left. I had to intervene, slow down, and tuck behind the semi.

In Vehicle Navigation and Trip Planning

• The Good
  • I love that this feature is available. It definitely helped me be more comfortable with the overall trip planning.
• The Bad
  • It was fairly inaccurate with the mileage estimates (this could be do to the fact that it is a new car and I have never driven extensive highway miles with it yet). For example, at my first charging stop, it told me I would arrive with 45 miles of range remaining, when in reality I only had 10 miles remaining. Keep in mind that it was just me and my son and I was using BlueCruise AT the speed limit.
• The Ugly
  • The uphill return trip was even more inaccurate and I had to keep restarting the navigation so it would have me charge sooner because there was clearly no way I was going to make it to the first charging stop.
  • The car kept insisting on adding a half an hour detour to charge even though there were other options that did not require any detour.

Charging

• The Good
  • Charging is available and I got mostly lucky to arrive at charging stations in perfect timing where I didn't need to wait (although people who arrived after me had to wait for a long time).
• The Bad
  • Pretty much every charging station I stopped at (Electrify America), had 4 stations, but one of them was almost always out of service and another was just a level 2 charger, so only 2 Ultra Fast chargers.
• The Ugly
  • I spent $160 to charge my car on this trip (.56/kWh), which I guarantee is more than I would have spent in gas by about $25 or so. I thought this was supposed to be cheaper than gas.
  • I waited until 1:00 AM to charge my car the night before leaving just so I wouldn't run into any conflicts. I ended up second in line and waited nearly an hour to start charging my car. I didn't get back to my brother's house until after 3:00 AM. I guess I should have factored in the fact that I was in the City that never sleeps. I found myself getting super cranky and judging everyone else on their stupid and ugly cars.

Lessons Learned

• When you go on a road trip in your EV, be sure to bring your L1/L2 charger from home. I would have just trickle charged at my brother's house if I had it.
• Just go the speed limit and enjoy BlueCruise.
• Don't try charge your car in Las Vegas at night (you will be in for a long wait)
• The Frunk works great for a baseball bag and bat (my nephew wanted to roll up to his game in the 'Stang' and pull his gear out of the Frunk). His gear fit perfectly in the Frunk, even with his giant water bottle too.
• Have contingency plans because the mileage estimates aren't exactly perfect (this is probably more a product of my car not yet having enough experience with me behind the wheel).
• The center console fits a large bag of Sour Patch Kids AND a medium sized back of chips.
• Don't hesitate to take over for BlueCruise if you find yourself in a tight situation. It's easy enough to turn back on.
• I can't wait to get my Tesla adapter so I can charge at Tesla charging stations.
• While I love my 'Stang', I found that Rivian owners are super passionate about their cars. I heard nothing but glowing reviews from all of the ones that I talked to.

Great review! It took me year to learn all that! ? I've never had any close calls with BC, and found it very good at adapting to sudden changes - and in limited visibility, it is the bomb. It responds faster than I do, for sure.

One thing I keep in mind, is that we are beta-testers of the next generation of cars. There are the associated slings and arrows of outrageous fortune associated with that. ?

 

[bbulkow]

I had about 280 miles of stated range upon leaving Herriman. Since I had never road tripped in any EV before, I was just trusting what the car was telling me. I was starting to get nervous about 50 miles before Cedar City though. My car should be AWD...at least that is what I was told.

'trusting the car'! You got pretty lucky! The range estimate is terrible, at least as bad as in a gas car. I dont drive my gas car down to 10 miles left, and that's with gas stations every 10ish miles.

It's true with the tesla adapter a person can be more relaxed.

What's worse is what happens if you run out of charge. No aaa to drive up with a gas can (they are working on emergency charge in tow trucks but i think it is pretty much not there). So they have to tow you to a charger. But these cars are tricky to tow, it is easy to put hooks into the battery instead of the actual charge points, at which point you end up with a very very expensive tow.

Glad it all worked for you. The fact you were in an ER helped for sure.

I am surprised you didn't plug in your phone and get apple maps or Google maps. Tends to be a much better nav experience.

 

[sparkymartin]

I am surprised you didn't plug in your phone and get apple maps or Google maps. Tends to be a much better nav experience.

Good to know. Rookie mistake I guess.

 

[dbsb3233]

Thank you for sharing your expertise/experience. This helps me a lot.

The GOM is still useful though. I didn't want to make it sound like it's useless. But you'll find that it really can vary. In the winter it will drop a lot. At 100% battery, mine shows around 270 in summer and around 200-220 in winter. Sometimes worse.

A general rule of thumb for a conservative estimate for the AWD ER is 2 miles per %. The battery% is considered accurate. It's the conversion to miles that varies a lot. I've only ever driven >200 miles on a single 100% charge once. I usually target stopping <180 miles for the first stop. Then when charging to 80% along the way, I figure <140 for each thereafter. Some so more, but I play it pretty safe since stations are often sparce and not always dependable.

Also, adjust for major net elevation changes (1000s of feet) between stations. A big climb (like 3500' St George to Cedar City) burns an extra 10%-15%.

In CO, I burn 8% going just 7 miles climbing to the Eisenhower Tunnel (EB). But the next 40 miles downhill to Denver is virtually free.

 

[fdny37]

Made my first road trip with my GT (Henderson, NV to Santa Monica, CA) didn't know what to expect. I had a Chevy Bolt back in 2018 and took it to San Diego and that trip took 8 hrs because of the very limited amount of charges. This latest trip was a breeze however. I used the free EA 250 KW along the way and back (Baker, CA and Hesperia, CA) and just charged at Tesla in Santa Monica (no EA in Santa Monica) before the return trip for $23. I was quite surprised with the amount of range I was getting and the car was rock solid on the road. My son's Model 3 feels like there is sand in the motors while the Mach is very smooth. Now with the adapter going on the road is no longer a nightmare. I think you will have to pick and choose which charges you are going to use before you give every company money for their discount rate. I maybe could have done the trip with one charging stop but we had a saying in the FDNY, never pass a working hydrant. I think you follow what I mean.

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