dbsb3233

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I can see my Florida trip taking an extra 5 hours. You’re all correct.

Years ago when my wife’s mother was ill she was making weekly trips up to north of Boston, around 240 miles from our house. She never had to stop for gas nor would want to. She traveled alone at night many times. I was at home watching our 3 young children. With EV she would have to make one stop and then another near her mother’s house to recharge for trip home. If she had experiences of multiple charges not working or being super slow she wouldn’t want to use the car. She just wants to drive from point A to point B, nothing more. Some chargers are also tucked away, away from many people Lao making it a bit scary for some.

anyway I hope they fix all this stuff over the next year or so . Then all we have to focus on is what is the right EV that suits us.
We drive from Denver to Las Vegas multiple times/yr (785 miles each way). Used to be just 2 gas stops in our Escape. One was a fast food lunch too (~30 minutes), the other just gas & pee (5-10). Took about 12 hours, and we'd usually do it same day.

In the Mach-E, it takes 5 stops for charging along the way, averaging about 30 minutes each. That makes it a 14-15 hour drive. Too much for one day for our tastes so now we break it up with a hotel stop each way now.

Getting buggy chargers started probably accounts for an extra 10-20 minutes in there, but that hasn't been a big factor. Most of the extra time just comes from it being a BEV that requires 2-3x as many refuel stops that take half an hour each. That's just the compromise of driving a BEV on a road trip. But the Mach-E is such a fun/comfortable car to drive that it's worth it. :)
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ChasingCoral

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I can see my Florida trip taking an extra 5 hours. You’re all correct.
Are you factoring in charging on L2 while you sleep at night? That cuts out a charging session. Also, do you stop to eat or eat as you drive when using and ICE vehicle? If you stop to eat, you'll do that when you charge.
 

zvez

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When looking at making a trip to Birmingham AL, I was amazed at the lack of charging stations of any type in the birmingham area, I mean come on, it's a pretty big city. Most of the stations are tesla.
 

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Are you factoring in charging on L2 while you sleep at night? That cuts out a charging session. Also, do you stop to eat or eat as you drive when using and ICE vehicle? If you stop to eat, you'll do that when you charge.
Last year my wife and I drove straight thru to florida twice and home without staying over anywhere

not usual but these aren’t usual times
 

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Last year my wife and I drove straight thru to florida twice and home without staying over anywhere

not usual but these aren’t usual times
Yes, that is an option but not one I'll be choosing any more. Hotels are low exposure risk stops and cannonball runs are tiring and dangerous.
 


kennethjk

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Yes, that is an option but not one I'll be choosing any more. Hotels are low exposure risk stops and cannonball runs are tiring and dangerous.
Don’t plan on doing it again this year but would look for hotels with charging stations
 

TheVirtualTim

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I was reviewing EA's "Cycle 3" plan and while it looks like they are mostly opening east/west passage routes in the north central part of the country as well as the east/west route from Dallas to Atlanta.

What's missing? North/South routes. These are painful ... especially in the northern part of the country (they're great if you live along the east or west coast).

One of the charging holes is Fort Wayne Indiana. Fort Wayne has a Harley Davidson dealer with a 20kW charger and they let anyone use it. They also have a Chevrolet dealer but that DC charger is located INSIDE a service bay and if you check PlugShare ... ONLY Chevy Bolt drivers have ever used it (my guess is the only allow Chevy users to access it).

Not only does EA have nothing along the I-69 corridor remotely close ... neither does anybody else. No EVgo, no Greenlots, etc. If I were traveling the I-69 corridor headed north on I-69, the next DC Fast Charger would be located over 210 miles away in Marshall Michigan. It's a 62.5kW charger (ChargePoint). The next EA charger on I-69 is just over 250 miles away.

There's a similar situation if you look at North/South travel via I-75 corridor out of Michigan. EA actually installed several stations in the northern part of Ohio. UNFORTUNATELY these are located at service plazas on the Ohio Turnpike (East/West I-80) and inaccessible to North/South travelers. That was really short-sighted of them. But I bet they look at their coverage map, see those dots, and presume they've got the area covered (they DO ... IF you are traveling east/west. If you travel north/south, they may as well not even exist because you'd have to go pretty far out of your way to access them.

If you leave Detroit headed south... there is a Chevy dealer located in Findlay Ohio with a 25kW charger (it looks like they may allow other cars to use it) and a Career Center in Lima Ohio with a single 50kW CCS charger. That's it until you reach Dayton Ohio where there is finally an Electrify America station ... but that's 210 miles.

Once you get south of Dayton the options start to open up. But going from Detroit, Ann Arbor, Lansing, etc. to any destinations to the south require cross a bit of a DC charging desert and, unfortunately, it doesn't look like Electrify America's Cycle 3 plan is going to be doing anything to improve coverage.

They really need to put stations in

#1 Fort Wayne Indiana along I-69

#2 Findlay Ohio along I-75
 

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I was reviewing EA's "Cycle 3" plan and while it looks like they are mostly opening east/west passage routes in the north central part of the country as well as the east/west route from Dallas to Atlanta.

What's missing? North/South routes. These are painful ... especially in the northern part of the country (they're great if you live along the east or west coast).

One of the charging holes is Fort Wayne Indiana. Fort Wayne has a Harley Davidson dealer with a 20kW charger and they let anyone use it. They also have a Chevrolet dealer but that DC charger is located INSIDE a service bay and if you check PlugShare ... ONLY Chevy Bolt drivers have ever used it (my guess is the only allow Chevy users to access it).

Not only does EA have nothing along the I-69 corridor remotely close ... neither does anybody else. No EVgo, no Greenlots, etc. If I were traveling the I-69 corridor headed north on I-69, the next DC Fast Charger would be located over 210 miles away in Marshall Michigan. It's a 62.5kW charger (ChargePoint). The next EA charger on I-69 is just over 250 miles away.

There's a similar situation if you look at North/South travel via I-75 corridor out of Michigan. EA actually installed several stations in the northern part of Ohio. UNFORTUNATELY these are located at service plazas on the Ohio Turnpike (East/West I-80) and inaccessible to North/South travelers. That was really short-sighted of them. But I bet they look at their coverage map, see those dots, and presume they've got the area covered (they DO ... IF you are traveling east/west. If you travel north/south, they may as well not even exist because you'd have to go pretty far out of your way to access them.

If you leave Detroit headed south... there is a Chevy dealer located in Findlay Ohio with a 25kW charger (it looks like they may allow other cars to use it) and a Career Center in Lima Ohio with a single 50kW CCS charger. That's it until you reach Dayton Ohio where there is finally an Electrify America station ... but that's 210 miles.

Once you get south of Dayton the options start to open up. But going from Detroit, Ann Arbor, Lansing, etc. to any destinations to the south require cross a bit of a DC charging desert and, unfortunately, it doesn't look like Electrify America's Cycle 3 plan is going to be doing anything to improve coverage.

They really need to put stations in

#1 Fort Wayne Indiana along I-69

#2 Findlay Ohio along I-75
Fortunately the I-75 corridor is one of the few places there is DCFC in KY.
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