Anyone in SoCal make a trip to Joshua Tree or Sequoia National Park in their Mach-E?

[astronut325]

Hey folks,

I finally have my Mach-E and I'm absolutely in love with it. I'm thinking of taking a short trip to one of the local national parks with it. I've been using ABRP and I was able to lay out a route and plan that involves only one 6 minute charging stop at an EA station on the way home from Joshua Tree. My biggest fear is that charging stalls are very limited out there. And if they're all full, I'm basically screwed until someone can move. My fear is that I'll be stuck at the charger overnight!

I'm curious if anyone else here has done any trips to local national parks with their Mach-E. If yes, what was it like? Did you suffer range anxiety? Did you find charging stalls at full capacity and end up waiting?

Side note: Having 2-4 stalls is not enough. The amount of non-Tesla EVs I'm seeing daily now is quite high. There is no way chargers won't be at full capacity on weekends and holidays now. At least here in California.

Any thoughts and insights are appreciated.

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[ebeponyan]

Hopefully one of the many resident Californians can chime in here, but we drove down 395 to Tioga Pass and out through Death Valley last Summer as part of a larger trip detailed here. We planned around overnight charging to alleviate the need for fast chargers where they were either unreliable/underprovisioned (Bishop - Las Vegas via DVNP) or simply didn't exist (Klamath Falls - Reno). We did not encounter any charger traffic in California, but we also only charged in Bridgeport during what I would consider to be peak hours, and that time passed easily over a honey ale at Big Meadow. You're already planning ahead, which is great. My other advice for reducing anxiety would be to charge when you can (especially if it's while you're eating or sleeping), and not try to over-optimize for faster charging speeds at low battery levels.

Agreed about 4 stalls not being sufficient. If two go down, as we noticed with a lot of 350kW EA stations last year, it's suddenly a two stall station. If it only had two to begin with, it ceases to exist. If you're in a pinch and not already out of charge, reducing speed can compensate for a single six minute charge pretty easily. Although it's usually faster and definitely more fun to drive fast and hope for better luck at the next station, slowing down (within safe highway speeds) also comes with the added bonus of not frying your HVBJB.

 

[chuchutrain]

We took a trip out there last year with my SR RWD and I definitely had major range anxiety. The few j1772 chargers I saw at Yucca Valley were not right next to grocery stores or restaurants, so plan accordingly if you want to use those. We ended up staying in at the airbnb for one of the days and just slow charged on 120V so we can make it out of there.

If you're coming from SoCal, I'd recommend stopping at Dessert Hill outlet, there's 4 stalls of EA and there're some EVgo as backup. Worst case you can hangout at the mall if you have to wait.

Just make sure you account for the miles you'll be driving inside the national park cause it's quite big and I didn't see any chargers or even outlets inside the park.

It's definitely doable, good luck if you decide to go.

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