4K Miles Road Trip and Charging Strategies

[Hgray]

I am looking at road trip from AZ to MI this fall. ABRP is recommending DCFC charging every 140-170 miles along major interstates. My MME is an ER RWD premium. Just curious on people's thoughts on charging this frequently considering the range on my MME is 300 miles. I am aware there are many factors such a driving style and terrain and weather. My travel schedule is extremely flexible. So stopping frequently is not an issue. There seems to be numerous options for DCFC as well.

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[timbop]

Well, for one thing ABRP is trying to maximize charging speed; the more charged a battery is the slower it charges. In the case of the Mach E, once you hit 80% charge the charging speed drops really low. It is also very conservative so you are sure to get to your destination

 

[Hgray]

Well, for one thing ABRP is trying to maximize charging speed; the more charged a battery is the slower it charges. In the case of the Mach E, once you hit 80% charge the charging speed drops really low. It is also very conservative so you are sure to get to your destination

This is something to consider. ABRP has me charging to 65-80%. So, this does lessen my range. I had not thought about that "math." Thank you!

 

[MJMachForum]

I am looking at road trip from AZ to MI this fall. ABRP is recommending DCFC charging every 140-170 miles along major interstates. My MME is an ER RWD premium. Just curious on people's thoughts on charging this frequently considering the range on my MME is 300 miles. I am aware there are many factors such a driving style and terrain and weather. My travel schedule is extremely flexible. So stopping frequently is not an issue. There seems to be numerous options for DCFC as well.

ABRP worked great on my trip. There were some chargers that were in the planned route I could have avoided so I would say that ABRP did suggest more frequent charging. For now, on a road trip, I’d say 80% of your total range you should use as your calculated range.

 

[Hgray]

ABRP worked great on my trip. There were some chargers that were in the planned route I could have avoided so I would say that ABRP did suggest more frequent charging. For now, on a road trip, I’d say 80% of your total range you should use as your calculated range.

Mark,
I think ABRP is a great place to start. The MME is my first BEV. So, figuring out the "charging game" is a must! 80% is the magic number for road trips. Thank you!

 

[timbop]

Mark,
I think ABRP is a great place to start. The MME is my first BEV. So, figuring out the "charging game" is a must! 80% is the magic number for road trips. Thank you!

I'm also very much a pessimist, and ABRP lets you add waypoints and tweak the settings. For a trip I am planning (NJ->ATL->Orlando->NJ) I used ABRP and plugshare to figure out alternatives in the event that a charging location is unavailable for whatever reason. I also added a couple of hotels along the way that have L2 charging, which helps since you can charge to 100% overnight. I feel much better about "not getting stranded", especially since we are catching a cruise ship in port canaveral. I also tweaked the charge levels so the stops around mealtimes were longer and the others were a little faster

 

[@kWhpony]

I am looking at road trip from AZ to MI this fall. ABRP is recommending DCFC charging every 140-170 miles along major interstates. My MME is an ER RWD premium. Just curious on people's thoughts on charging this frequently considering the range on my MME is 300 miles. I am aware there are many factors such a driving style and terrain and weather. My travel schedule is extremely flexible. So stopping frequently is not an issue. There seems to be numerous options for DCFC as well.

My wife and I will be doing the reverse trip from suburban Chicago to Peoria, AZ in November as we transition into retirement in our home in Vistancia.

My route planning has us stopping every couple of hours at mostly EA stations as we'll be traveling with our dogs. Weather may dictate if we take the southern route through MO/OK/TX/NM or the northern route IA/NE/CO/NM. Our 2 overnight stays need to be pet friendly so that may be a tough ask along with L2 charging, but the planned stops have DCFC close by. Giving strong consideration to buying a TeslaTap

Once we use up kWh credits on FordPass, I'll use EA or Greenlots to initiate charging sessions, and plan to get the apps for Francis Energy & ChargePoint as well.

The stretch between Amarillo and Flagstaff has been built out, but there is one suspect EA location in Gallup NM that was receiving bad checkins on PlugShare but it now has a 10 rating. I've also noted the nearby RV parks in this stretch as a backup.

We've done a couple 300 mile day trips to get range confidence using both 50 and 150 DCFC locations. One learns quickly the impact of wind direction, temperature and elevation changes on your actual range. I've saved our trip in ABRP estimating we'll achieve an average of 2.7 mi/kWh at max speed of 75 MPH.

Definitely looking forward to our road trip.

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