Another road trip in the books (680 miles round-trip)...Took I-40 / Rte 66 between Flagstaff and Albuquerque and back.

[SpaceEVDriver]

It's become routine, so I didn't get any photos of the car by itself.

We drove along I-40 from Flagstaff to Albuquerque. We left at 08:20 AZ with 100% SOCD.

Our first charging stop was Grants, NM. We rolled into Grants with 15% SOCD. We left Grants 23 minutes later with 58% SOCD. We chose to leave before charging up to 80% because we were expecting to have an L2 at the hotel in ABQ. We got to Albuquerque with about 33% remaining at 13:30 AZ (5 hours, 10 minutes total time since leaving Flagstaff).

I've been told it's not possible for me to do an EV road trip with minimal increase in time. My drives to Albuquerque have been ~5 hours for decades.

The hotel's L2 was right in front of the hotel entrance, which seemed like a dumb place to leave our car for an L2 charge, so we skipped charging on L2.

Went to dinner, visited a museum and Old Town, and did some around-town driving. Ended the night at the hotel with about 26% remaining.

Next morning I ran over to the DCFC nearby and charged up to 90% (I got distracted while chatting with another person charging).

Went to breakfast, and the arboretum. The arboretum has L2 chargers in their parking lot, and 3 of four were empty, so we plugged in. We sent an hour and 20 minutes, walked around the gardens, and had a generally lovely time. The car charged up to 93%.

We dropped off people and then headed home, at 12:40 AZ.

I was driving and got sleepy by the time we got to Grants. The original plan was to skip Grants, but I wasn't going to be able to drive to Gallup, so my partner took over. While we were stopping in Grants for driver swap, our bio stop, and to grab some caffeine and snacks, we plugged in and charged up from 59% to 81% (15 minutes). This wasn't strictly necessary, but we were there, so why not. The charging station was empty.

Someone in a Mustang GT with a very loud exhaust shouted over themselves, "Hey, man, I love the Mustang!" I was caught off guard and so wasn't prepared to respond and just just flashed a peace sign or thumbs up or something. They had a big grin on their face.

We decided to stop in Gallup for another short charge, bio break, etc (21% added, bringing us up to 80%, 15 minutes).

The drive from Gallup to Flagstaff is usually completely reasonable with a starting SOCD of 80%, but we hit some 30-40 mph headwinds and ended up with our lowest freeway efficiency to-date (~2.0 miles/kWh), so we stopped in Winslow for another short charge and a bio break (9 minutes, 20% added).

We arrived home with about 17% SOCD and plugged into our L1 charger. Time was 18:00 AZ., 5 hours, 20 minutes.

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[JohnFoxeSheets]

Nice writeup! But dang that hotel charger is in the dumbest spot ever. "Sure, let's put an EV charger (you know, the thing that is used to charge cars) in a red zone (you know, the place where cars are not supposed to park)." WTLF?

 

[Mach-Lee]

Nice writeup! But dang that hotel charger is in the dumbest spot ever. "Sure, let's put an EV charger (you know, the thing that is used to charge cars) in a red zone (you know, the place where cars are not supposed to park)." WTLF?

Yeah that gets the award for one of the dumbest L2 locations I've ever seen. Looks like there's one on the other side too. Maybe the designer thought you'd only need to park there for 10 minutes to charge up.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Nice writeup! But dang that hotel charger is in the dumbest spot ever. "Sure, let's put an EV charger (you know, the thing that is used to charge cars) in a red zone (you know, the place where cars are not supposed to park)." WTLF?

Yeah. And there are two, one on each pillar flanking the entry.
It's just about the dumbest L2 location I've ever seen.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I guess that's what I get for not doing a thorough investigation before making reservations. I glanced at PlugShare but other than checking to see that people had used it, I didn't dig any deeper.

 

[DevSecOps]

I've been told it's not possible for me to do an EV road trip with minimal increase in time. My drives to Albuquerque have been ~5 hours for decades.

No, you've been told that for some people doing certain drives, ICE is much quicker. You challenged people to give you examples and then refuse to accept them.

If you had to drive 200 miles each way for work in a single day (which I do), there's zero chance an MME is quicker or even close to equal.

 

[Logal727]

It's become routine, so I didn't get any photos of the car by itself.

We drove along I-40 from Flagstaff to Albuquerque. We left at 08:20 AZ with 100% SOCD.

Our first charging stop was Grants, NM. We rolled into Grants with 15% SOCD. We left Grants 23 minutes later with 58% SOCD. We chose to leave before charging up to 80% because we were expecting to have an L2 at the hotel in ABQ. We got to Albuquerque with about 33% remaining at 13:30 AZ (5 hours, 10 minutes total time since leaving Flagstaff).

I've been told it's not possible for me to do an EV road trip with minimal increase in time. My drives to Albuquerque have been ~5 hours for decades.

The hotel's L2 was right in front of the hotel entrance, which seemed like a dumb place to leave our car for an L2 charge, so we skipped charging on L2.

Went to dinner, visited a museum and Old Town, and did some around-town driving. Ended the night at the hotel with about 26% remaining.

Next morning I ran over to the DCFC nearby and charged up to 90% (I got distracted while chatting with another person charging).

Went to breakfast, and the arboretum. The arboretum has L2 chargers in their parking lot, and 3 of four were empty, so we plugged in. We sent an hour and 20 minutes, walked around the gardens, and had a generally lovely time. The car charged up to 93%.

We dropped off people and then headed home, at 12:40 AZ.

I was driving and got sleepy by the time we got to Grants. The original plan was to skip Grants, but I wasn't going to be able to drive to Gallup, so my partner took over. While we were stopping in Grants for driver swap, our bio stop, and to grab some caffeine and snacks, we plugged in and charged up from 59% to 81% (15 minutes). This wasn't strictly necessary, but we were there, so why not. The charging station was empty.

Someone in a Mustang GT with a very loud exhaust shouted over themselves, "Hey, man, I love the Mustang!" I was caught off guard and so wasn't prepared to respond and just just flashed a peace sign or thumbs up or something. They had a big grin on their face.

We decided to stop in Gallup for another short charge, bio break, etc (21% added, bringing us up to 80%, 15 minutes).

The drive from Gallup to Flagstaff is usually completely reasonable with a starting SOCD of 80%, but we hit some 30-40 mph headwinds and ended up with our lowest freeway efficiency to-date (~2.0 miles/kWh), so we stopped in Winslow for another short charge and a bio break (9 minutes, 20% added).

We arrived home with about 17% SOCD and plugged into our L1 charger. Time was 18:00 AZ., 5 hours, 20 minutes.

They probably had someone with a Chrysler Pacifica complain about no chargers one time and then installed those

 

[ArthurDOB]

No, you've been told that for some people doing certain drives, ICE is much quicker. You challenged people to give you examples and then refuse to accept them.

If you had to drive 200 miles each way for work in a single day (which I do), there's zero chance an MME is quicker or even close to equal.

Read your story with exploding station. So, what’s your assessment of charging infrastructure a year+ later? Improved? Same? Worse?

 

[DevSecOps]

Read your story with exploding station. So, what’s your assessment of charging infrastructure a year+ later? Improved? Same? Worse?

I think it's improving, but not keeping up with the pace of sales. Opening of Tesla superchargers is a great thing, now just to get them all converted over. Vacation travel (Christmas, Thanksgiving etc) in an EV in California is a nightmare and I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy. There's a huge conundrum because we need more chargers, which are rarely used (compared to gas stations) unless it's a holiday, coupled with free charging hogs in the cities, it's messy. Reliability compared to a year ago is better, but also still needs to catch up to Tesla. Plug and charge is getting better and more widespread, but still has a way to go. I think it's all heading in the right direction, just at a glacial pace.

 

[ArthurDOB]

Thanks, and I echo others about the thoughtless placement of chargers at that hotel!

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

No, you've been told that for some people doing certain drives, ICE is much quicker. You challenged people to give you examples and then refuse to accept them.

If you had to drive 200 miles each way for work in a single day (which I do), there's zero chance an MME is quicker or even close to equal.

You bought the wrong tool for the job and seem pretty angry about it, but that's not my problem, nor the fault of the tool. A GTPE with a 260 mile range at best is maybe not a 400 mile road trip vehicle. It's not the fault of the vehicle; those specs were very well-advertised.

A buddy of mine took his C6 across the country and came back complaining that it wasn't a good road trip vehicle. Nobody was surprised, and it wasn't the fault of the Corvette.

With my CR-1, I can easily make >400 miles in one day with minimal time added to my drive. I drive to Pasadena for work and take the Mustang for the 460 mile one-way trip. In my ICE it takes me 7.5 hours. In my Mustang it takes me 7.75 hours. Given the traffic uncertainties between Victorville and Pasadena, those times are equivalent. If I stop for dinner, it takes 8-8.25 hours, and if I do that with the Mustang, I save time relative to the ICE because I arrive at my destination with >60% charge and can avoid having to refuel for the week that I'm there.

This is my real-world experience, not ABRP or some other theoretical estimation. I do this regularly.

 

[DevSecOps]

You bought the wrong tool for the job and seem pretty angry about it, but that's not my problem, nor the fault of the tool. A GTPE with a 260 mile range at best is maybe not a 400 mile road trip vehicle. It's not the fault of the vehicle; those specs were very well-advertised.

This is quite comical. I'm not upset at all. I'm a realist and I speak truth without trying to sell an agenda.

So, let's go on record here... You agree that ICE vehicles can (operative word) get places quicker than EVs? You assert that EVs (or the GTPE) are not generally suited for road trips over 400 miles? You also agree that not everyone likes to drive at the same pace, stop for 30 minute piss breaks or have a meal every time?

You're putting a lot of conditions on your original blanket statement that EVs won't increase travel time. I can agree that if you have 1 stop for 20 minutes in your trip then yes it will be the same time or close to it, but that's in that specific instance. Claiming that EVs don't take longer as a blanket rule of thumb is not correct and that's why people chimed in against it. Some people love the extra time it takes with an EV. They stretch their legs and they say it reduces the stress of driving. There's nothing wrong with that, and to each their own, but they admit it takes longer.

As for real-world experience, I think I have plenty of that. I have 40k on my MME at 17 months old and I've owned previous EVs.

Your example, in this thread, shows 3 stops in 340 miles (return trip). In an ICE vehicle I wouldn't stop once. I would likely arrive 1 hour sooner. Again, I'm not against either option, but reality is reality.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

This is quite comical. I'm not upset at all. I'm a realist and I speak truth without trying to sell an agenda.

So, let's go on record here... You agree that ICE vehicles can (operative word) get places quicker than EVs? You assert that EVs are not generally suited for road trips over 400 miles? You also agree that not everyone likes to drive at the same pace, stop for 30 minute piss breaks or have a meal every time?

An ICE can be faster; an EV can be faster. Depends on the specifics. I never said otherwise.

I don't agree with your (not my) generalizations about EVs and road trips. A 400 mile day trip is easily doable in any number of EVs, including at least one Mustang trim, and for minimal time increase. I do it regularly. I don't know what your purpose is in trying to attribute the opposite assertion to me; please don't do that.

Your use case doesn't seem to lend itself to EV use, but that cannot be generalized to "EVs are not generally suited for road trips over 400 miles," as you assert. Perhaps this is true for your 400 mile road trips, but many of us are doing it just fine.

 

[DevSecOps]

Your use case doesn't seem to lend itself to EV use, but that cannot be generalized to "EVs are not generally suited for road trips over 400 miles," as you assert. Perhaps this is true for your 400 mile road trips, but many of us are doing it just fine.

I really don't get why you're twisting things here. I have NEVER said that EVs aren't suited for road trips, so don't put that on me. You said:

A GTPE with a 260 mile range at best is maybe not a 400 mile road trip vehicle.

I simply asked you to confirm your statement.

I'm not saying, nor have I ever said, that EVs aren't for road trips. I've only said that EVs will take longer on road trips, for me, based on my driving style, vs ICE. I have always said that some people like to take their time, and for them the added time is enjoyable. I just take issue when people say there's no difference in time as a blanket rule. Maybe for them, and the way they like to travel lends to the same time, but that's not true for everyone.

I think one of the main issues with EVs is that EV enthusiasts make up stories to impress people who don't like EVs. Likewise EV haters claim stupid things like "you'll have to replace a battery every 5 years". I really wish people could just be honest about EVs. They have pros and cons, just like almost anything in life. We should stop trying to say they're equal to ICE vehicles, they aren't. When we set improper expectations on EVs it lends to greater distaste.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

You edited your post to change what words you attributed to me. I'm done.

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