JSeis
Well-Known Member
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- #1
We drove 1900 miles out and back from the Pacific Ocean to Great Falls, Montana. MME AWD SR Select.
Caveat: Your Swiss Army Knife App kit needs Plug Share, EVgo, ChargePoint, A Better Route Plan, plus Electrify America Plug & Charge activated and you need a pretty smart feeling for your driving profile.
Must be the golden age of BEV travel as there’s available chargers and rare other BEVs along Interstate 90 to Missoula but once you are off the interstate corridor areas.. it’s a desert of DCFC (particularly eastern MT. And advance plan on level 2’s is need and good luck driving blue highways.
Electrify America charging stalls appear to be designed for compact cars. Lightning owners will be frustrated parking in them and if you don’t check the screens for available working charging units you will be relocating so always check 1st!
Anyone and their grandmother can stuff a gas nozzle into a fill-up pipe but an EA DCFC connector needs poisonous snake fang milking wrestling skill. I sure hope that charge port lasts… cause those cables can stress it.
About 850 miles from our place to Great Falls. Started with 100%.
We used EA sites east bound at the:
Covington Walmart (on SR 18 between I5 & I90)
Ellensburg Taco Bell
Ritzville Cow Creek Mercantile
Smelterville Walmart
Missoula Walmart
Those 5 charges got us to Great Falls via MT 200 with one big fat issue.
EA site in Missoula didn’t show up on onboard navigation. Thus the Nav system would not plot a route on MT200 likely due to the distance, elevation gain, & speed. I found it with ABRP and ABRP indicated I could reach Great Falls 170 miles away if I stayed under 58 mph. So we charged to 85% with 4 miles “extra” range.. haha. You all can accuse me of being an idiot but I actually beat the ABRP 8% charge arrival estimate handily at 22% by driving 54-58 mph and letting every single MT driver by as best I could by signaling, pulling off etc.
If I’d driven at 80 mph… We’d have been pushing the MME into GF.
We arrived in GF with enough charge to nose around for level 2’s. Found the one at North 40 Outfitters & plugged in for an hour and 20 miles while we grabbed a bite at Arby’s .. Then the S.O. got busy surfing for chargers and found the one at Citizens Alliance Bank which was very conveniently close to the Staybridge Hotel. I walked over to the two Level 2’s, did some quick surfing, found a comment that they work great with Plug Share, opened my PS account and we could charge for $1 an hour. Which we did as needed.
On the reverse trip on MT200 we charged to 100% at those Level 2’s and had no issues but I will say that prevailing west winds will play havoc with your charge level, particularly if you want to jam at the higher speeds at longer distances between chargers. Our standard range is good for 170 miles + because I’m not pushing the speed. But going home with the good spacing on chargers we cruised 65-75 mph to Snoqualmie pass.
On the return to the coast we used the EA site next to Joann’s Fabric westside Olympia and talked with the owner of a bright red MME then continued on.
Upshot. Interstate 90 traveling somewhat ok, chargers available. After discovering only 1 of 4 chargers working at Cow Creek Mercantile I loaded the EVGO app up as they’ve a DCFC about 200 yards away near the Conoco. Having a charger backup is a good plan to have fun!
Basically a pretty uneventful trip. MME did fine. I’ve put 20,000 miles on it since Mid July so expect a yearly report when I hit about 25,000.
Without DCFCs as common as modern fueling stations, driving off the beaten path will be a challenge and take longer. Montana and east on 90 is.. a challenge. But we could drop south towards Yellowstone so there’s that! I suppose a Tesla adapter is in my future. And if I want to go to Fargo ABRP says I can.. via Canada.
Caveat: Your Swiss Army Knife App kit needs Plug Share, EVgo, ChargePoint, A Better Route Plan, plus Electrify America Plug & Charge activated and you need a pretty smart feeling for your driving profile.
Must be the golden age of BEV travel as there’s available chargers and rare other BEVs along Interstate 90 to Missoula but once you are off the interstate corridor areas.. it’s a desert of DCFC (particularly eastern MT. And advance plan on level 2’s is need and good luck driving blue highways.
Electrify America charging stalls appear to be designed for compact cars. Lightning owners will be frustrated parking in them and if you don’t check the screens for available working charging units you will be relocating so always check 1st!
Anyone and their grandmother can stuff a gas nozzle into a fill-up pipe but an EA DCFC connector needs poisonous snake fang milking wrestling skill. I sure hope that charge port lasts… cause those cables can stress it.
About 850 miles from our place to Great Falls. Started with 100%.
We used EA sites east bound at the:
Covington Walmart (on SR 18 between I5 & I90)
Ellensburg Taco Bell
Ritzville Cow Creek Mercantile
Smelterville Walmart
Missoula Walmart
Those 5 charges got us to Great Falls via MT 200 with one big fat issue.
EA site in Missoula didn’t show up on onboard navigation. Thus the Nav system would not plot a route on MT200 likely due to the distance, elevation gain, & speed. I found it with ABRP and ABRP indicated I could reach Great Falls 170 miles away if I stayed under 58 mph. So we charged to 85% with 4 miles “extra” range.. haha. You all can accuse me of being an idiot but I actually beat the ABRP 8% charge arrival estimate handily at 22% by driving 54-58 mph and letting every single MT driver by as best I could by signaling, pulling off etc.
If I’d driven at 80 mph… We’d have been pushing the MME into GF.
We arrived in GF with enough charge to nose around for level 2’s. Found the one at North 40 Outfitters & plugged in for an hour and 20 miles while we grabbed a bite at Arby’s .. Then the S.O. got busy surfing for chargers and found the one at Citizens Alliance Bank which was very conveniently close to the Staybridge Hotel. I walked over to the two Level 2’s, did some quick surfing, found a comment that they work great with Plug Share, opened my PS account and we could charge for $1 an hour. Which we did as needed.
On the reverse trip on MT200 we charged to 100% at those Level 2’s and had no issues but I will say that prevailing west winds will play havoc with your charge level, particularly if you want to jam at the higher speeds at longer distances between chargers. Our standard range is good for 170 miles + because I’m not pushing the speed. But going home with the good spacing on chargers we cruised 65-75 mph to Snoqualmie pass.
On the return to the coast we used the EA site next to Joann’s Fabric westside Olympia and talked with the owner of a bright red MME then continued on.
Upshot. Interstate 90 traveling somewhat ok, chargers available. After discovering only 1 of 4 chargers working at Cow Creek Mercantile I loaded the EVGO app up as they’ve a DCFC about 200 yards away near the Conoco. Having a charger backup is a good plan to have fun!
Basically a pretty uneventful trip. MME did fine. I’ve put 20,000 miles on it since Mid July so expect a yearly report when I hit about 25,000.
Without DCFCs as common as modern fueling stations, driving off the beaten path will be a challenge and take longer. Montana and east on 90 is.. a challenge. But we could drop south towards Yellowstone so there’s that! I suppose a Tesla adapter is in my future. And if I want to go to Fargo ABRP says I can.. via Canada.
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