First "long" (250-mile) road trip in my GTPE

[MadManMoon]

Left this morning from our home in MD to visit my parents on Long Island. Charged the car overnight to 100%, set departure time for 0730. Car showed 223 miles of range at 100% with a temperature of about 34° F. Set my nav to the Wawa in New Castle, DE (best 150-kW option en route per ABRP), with an estimated driving distance of 130 miles. Arrived at the Wawa with 45% battery remaining and an estimated range of 95 miles - not too far off!

Having never touched my free 250 kW, plug and charge worked right away and the charger shot up to 152 kW before settling around 115 kW for the charge. Went into Wawa to pee and grab a snack, came out to find a Model X next to me with two employees with Tesla shirts working on the Tesla PowerWall that apparently provides the DCFC "boost" to the Electrify America chargers! We chatted for a bit about the MME, how I like it, what it's like for them working for Tesla, etc. Before I knew it, I'd hit 80% and the rate had dropped to 13 kW. Took 25 minutes to go from 45% to 80%, with 33 kWh provided. Departed with 80% and 188 miles showing on the GOM.

Rest of the trip (149 miles) was on interstates using BlueCruise set at 9 over the speed limit, so most of it was spent at 74 mph. Definitely a higher burn rate without in-town braking. Arrived at my parents' house with 22% and 45 miles remaining. Took my dad on a quick trip to the nearest EA charger, where we went from 20% to 80% in 35 minutes, adding 56 kWh (started at 153 kW, ran around 82 kW, and again dropped to 13 kW at 80%). Got a "Charging Fault" notification in the car when I unplugged, but other than that, zero issues with either EA charge.

Thoughts for the first long road trip? It's a comfortable highway cruiser. The MagneRide plus BlueCruise takes the stress out of the trip, though I do wish the headrests were adjustable. It's not quite as comfortable, ride-wise, as my Escape Hybrid was, but it's close enough, and I would have no issue taking this cross-country. Now that I'm over 40, I'm finding that 2-3 hours is the longest I want to be moving at a time, so a 30-40-minute break to stretch, eat, and relieve myself will be easy.

I do worry that in a year or two widespread EV adoption could lead to wait times for available EA chargers, but I'll likely take long road trips a few times a year at most. 99% of the time I'll be charging at home and commuting/roaming my local area, so an EV fits my use case perfectly.

It's cliched, but driving an EV feels like an early preview of the next generation of automobile technology. I'm looking forward to many years and many tens of thousands of miles and smiles with The Great Pumpkin!

Sponsored

 

[voxel]

I had to press and hold the rubberized stop button on the MME charge port to prevent these “Charging Fault” notifications. They are harmless though. If you stop charging via EA app or EA stall it seems the car doesn’t understand that charging was stopped intentionally.

 

[2FlyMache]

Nice! I've only used EA chargers twice now with no issues shutting down. I will say though, once you get the update for increased charging speed above 80% you'll love that. It stays around 43 kw till at least 90%

 

[ChasingCoral]

I had to press and hold the rubberized stop button on the MME charge port to prevent these “Charging Fault” notifications. They are harmless though. If you stop charging via EA app or EA stall it seems the car doesn’t understand that charging was stopped intentionally.

Agreed. Stopping charging at the car is the most reliable way to avoid the "Charging Fault". However, that notice is really only telling you the charger quit feeding the car electricity. You knew that because you turned off the charger. Just press the OK button on the right side of the steering wheel and the message goes away.

 

[Logal727]

Left this morning from our home in MD to visit my parents on Long Island. Charged the car overnight to 100%, set departure time for 0730. Car showed 223 miles of range at 100% with a temperature of about 34° F. Set my nav to the Wawa in New Castle, DE (best 150-kW option en route per ABRP), with an estimated driving distance of 130 miles. Arrived at the Wawa with 45% battery remaining and an estimated range of 95 miles - not too far off!

Having never touched my free 250 kW, plug and charge worked right away and the charger shot up to 152 kW before settling around 115 kW for the charge. Went into Wawa to pee and grab a snack, came out to find a Model X next to me with two employees with Tesla shirts working on the Tesla PowerWall that apparently provides the DCFC "boost" to the Electrify America chargers! We chatted for a bit about the MME, how I like it, what it's like for them working for Tesla, etc. Before I knew it, I'd hit 80% and the rate had dropped to 13 kW. Took 25 minutes to go from 45% to 80%, with 33 kWh provided. Departed with 80% and 188 miles showing on the GOM.

Rest of the trip (149 miles) was on interstates using BlueCruise set at 9 over the speed limit, so most of it was spent at 74 mph. Definitely a higher burn rate without in-town braking. Arrived at my parents' house with 22% and 45 miles remaining. Took my dad on a quick trip to the nearest EA charger, where we went from 20% to 80% in 35 minutes, adding 56 kWh (started at 153 kW, ran around 82 kW, and again dropped to 13 kW at 80%). Got a "Charging Fault" notification in the car when I unplugged, but other than that, zero issues with either EA charge.

Thoughts for the first long road trip? It's a comfortable highway cruiser. The MagneRide plus BlueCruise takes the stress out of the trip, though I do wish the headrests were adjustable. It's not quite as comfortable, ride-wise, as my Escape Hybrid was, but it's close enough, and I would have no issue taking this cross-country. Now that I'm over 40, I'm finding that 2-3 hours is the longest I want to be moving at a time, so a 30-40-minute break to stretch, eat, and relieve myself will be easy.

I do worry that in a year or two widespread EV adoption could lead to wait times for available EA chargers, but I'll likely take long road trips a few times a year at most. 99% of the time I'll be charging at home and commuting/roaming my local area, so an EV fits my use case perfectly.

It's cliched, but driving an EV feels like an early preview of the next generation of automobile technology. I'm looking forward to many years and many tens of thousands of miles and smiles with The Great Pumpkin!

I’m jealous you’ve got Wawas with EA chargers, ours are at random Walmarts or Loves

Sponsored