4 day work trip and charging challenges

[FLmac]

After my first long trip driving my car home from the dealer in VA, I took another much shorter trip with more challenges. I wanted to share as I feel I learned something about this new to me world of EVs and charging.

Last week, I had to go to an RV show in Ocala, FL for 4 days. The show was about 85 miles from my house hotel I was staying at was about 95 miles. I was happy to stay at a hotel instead of driving to and from since it’s close to 2 hours.

I left my house in Lakeland with about 80% charge on my SR AWD Premium. I stopped in Bushnell at the EA charger (partly to gain a little extra battery and because I want to use my free charging). Bushnell never seemed to go over 70 kw. It was also night and on the less busy side of Walmart, so I felt a little uncomfortable.

I got to the hotel with about 140 miles of range. I knew I needed about 85 to get home and 70 to get from the hotel to the show and back each day without any other stops. The closest DCFC charger was Bushnell which was 30 miles away and not super fast anyway. The Best Western down the street from my hotel had a L2 charger.

After the first day (with some additional gps issues to add about 10 miles to my drive) I stopped at the Best Western and asked the front desk if I could use he charger. They seemed a little reluctant since it was for hotel guests, but I left my ID and phone number (in case a guest showed up to charge) and they gave me the card to connect to the charger. I went to dinner with coworkers (they drove) and then picked up my car. I gained about 60 miles.

A coworker drove me to the show the next two days and drove to dinner each night. This allowed me enough charge to get to the show the last day and home with about 30 miles left.

It’s a weird new reality to have to really consider my range in these situations. I’m thankful I had people who were basically willing to drive and let me ride with them, but it’s not a feeling I enjoy. In hindsight I should have taken advantage of the Comfort Inn charger and charged to 100% then I wouldn’t have had to worry about my range at all.

These types of trips don’t happen very often and I probably won’t have to worry about it again. It made me realize that while my long road trip was easy since I was constantly moving, it’s not convenient to stay in one place for any length of time without a charging plan.

Sponsored

 

[Logal727]

After my first long trip driving my car home from the dealer in VA, I took another much shorter trip with more challenges. I wanted to share as I feel I learned something about this new to me world of EVs and charging.

Last week, I had to go to an RV show in Ocala, FL for 4 days. The show was about 85 miles from my house hotel I was staying at was about 95 miles. I was happy to stay at a hotel instead of driving to and from since it’s close to 2 hours.

I left my house in Lakeland with about 80% charge on my SR AWD Premium. I stopped in Bushnell at the EA charger (partly to gain a little extra battery and because I want to use my free charging). Bushnell never seemed to go over 70 kw. It was also night and on the less busy side of Walmart, so I felt a little uncomfortable.

I got to the hotel with about 140 miles of range. I knew I needed about 85 to get home and 70 to get from the hotel to the show and back each day without any other stops. The closest DCFC charger was Bushnell which was 30 miles away and not super fast anyway. The Best Western down the street from my hotel had a L2 charger.

After the first day (with some additional gps issues to add about 10 miles to my drive) I stopped at the Best Western and asked the front desk if I could use he charger. They seemed a little reluctant since it was for hotel guests, but I left my ID and phone number (in case a guest showed up to charge) and they gave me the card to connect to the charger. I went to dinner with coworkers (they drove) and then picked up my car. I gained about 60 miles.

A coworker drove me to the show the next two days and drove to dinner each night. This allowed me enough charge to get to the show the last day and home with about 30 miles left.

It’s a weird new reality to have to really consider my range in these situations. I’m thankful I had people who were basically willing to drive and let me ride with them, but it’s not a feeling I enjoy. In hindsight I should have taken advantage of the Comfort Inn charger and charged to 100% then I wouldn’t have had to worry about my range at all.

These types of trips don’t happen very often and I probably won’t have to worry about it again. It made me realize that while my long road trip was easy since I was constantly moving, it’s not convenient to stay in one place for any length of time without a charging plan.

Thanks for the info on the Bushnell EA station, which station only gave 70 kw? I may have to use that in the next couple weeks.

 

[dbsb3233]

These types of trips don’t happen very often and I probably won’t have to worry about it again. It made me realize that while my long road trip was easy since I was constantly moving, it’s not convenient to stay in one place for any length of time without a charging plan.

That's the bottom line... Have a charging plan. We've done 11k miles of road trips in ours over the year we've owned it. Love it, but I'd never take a long trip in it without pre-planning the route, chargers, backups, and options. EA and Plugshare are regular tools in the toolkit.

 

[RickMachE]

Why didn't you leave your house with 100%?

 

[FLmac]

Why didn't you leave your house with 100%?

I left work with 100% then went home, but I had a few errands to run before I left the Tampa area. Overall I just ran out of time before I left as the plan was to charge back up at home before.

 

[FLmac]

That's the bottom line... Have a charging plan. We've done 11k miles of road trips in ours over the year we've owned it. Love it, but I'd never take a long trip in it without pre-planning the route, chargers, backups, and options. EA and Plugshare are regular tools in the toolkit.

I did research ahead of time and the plan was to ask if I could charge at the Best Western. The backup plan was to drive back to Bushnell to charge if needed. The ideal would have been if I had 50 amp at the show (this is the first show I’ve ever worked with limited power and I’ve worked probably 50 shows) and I could have hooked up there.

I think the biggest thing was realizing how inconvenient it can be vs an ICE in certain situations. I don’t consider the more frequent stops on a road trip to be inconvenient, but this trip was in one place for 4 days, the closest DCFC was 30 miles away, and I didn’t book the hotel. Lesson learned I guess.

Sponsored