Good To the Last Drop

[TMartz]

First person experience - took my first significant road trip (total to/from abut 2200 miles). I had to get over 'range anxiety' with this first trip but what a way to only ADD to the anxiety: Planning on a charge and gearing up for an exit on the highway with a comfortable SOC. I MISSED THE EXIT!!! Next exit was 20 miles but NO other chargers so I had to hit that exit and circle back to the missed exit, another 20 miles. Well, no more comfortable range wiggle room! I was approaching ZERO battery and range. I was doing everything to suck as much out of the battery as I could including 'drafting' behind a truck to lower wind resistance. I did make it to charger but only after 5+ miles of being ZERO battery & range. I guess that I needed such an experience to really understand the dynamics of EV long range driving and planning. The return trip was a breeze for this newly minted EV veteran! I also learned of the value of some of the planning apps such as ABRP and the Ford nav app (though SO INFERIOR to google maps). I use that app when needed only. A great trip though to/from Asheville, NC from the Jersey shore!!

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[hartmms]

So I planned a day trip to Tucson from Phoenix. A round trip was estimating having 20-30 miles left. That was running rather close for my comfort given that the AC to handle 105+ temps will decrease that a non-trivial amount. Also, with I-10 as the only road that often gets a crash blocking traffic, there was a small chance to get stuck in traffic on the way home. So I planned a DCFC session to add a little buffer.

I stopped at the EA charger at the outlet mall that worked last time I was there. I pulled into the only empty stall, but the nice F150 lightning owner told me he couldn't get it to work. I triend and confirmed it didn't work. So wait 5 min for another charger. This one triped a red flashing ring on my mach-e with "charger station fault" message. So I figured screw EA and drove 8 miles to the closest Telsa SC. It too was full, so I had to wait again. Finally plugged in (and getting pretty big side eyes for taking 2 stalls in the completely full site) and still red ring flashing. At this point, I'm thinking my car is the problem. Stress levels increase to uncomfortable levels about not being able to charge. The range guesstimate said I had exactly enough miles to get home. I love this car, why is it letting me down?

So I decided to set out for home. There was a L3 charger on the way home and I would try that. I decided to draft every semi on the way there and realized the miles left to home was decreasing faster than the miles of charge estimate was. With the added range, I decided to just go straight home. I ended up getting home with 15 miles on the guesstimate. Whew. And that night the car charged with no issues on the the home L2 charger.

Lessons learned:
1) forecast the trip and range early. Drafting for 100 miles an add decent range.
2) always bring the OBDII in the car on trips so error codes can be read and reset.
3) there still are not enough L3 chargers in Tucson to handle the volume of EVs on the road around here for afternoon traffic, even with Tesla SCs added in the mix.
4) the new fordpass app "public charging" allows you to see individual station status and activate it. Of course I find this out after I get home and was playing around in the app.

 

[Teslaeata]

Yeah my wife was really stressed out. I was picturing getting loaded onto a tow truck bed for a 5 mile drop off at the house. Or stopping at a random house and asking to plug in for an hour with my portable 110. “Do you have any single-malt?”

iI was talking with a Ford truck EV guy while charging earlier and he carries a gas generator with 50 amp capacity for these very situations. The huge truck gets 325 miles btw.

We had options by god!

Now, single Malt, Scotch I hope!

Those cup holders in the MME aren’t quite big enough for a Scotch glass?

 

[Mandretti]

Laphraig 21 of course! In a sippy cup.

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