Maryland to Charleston SC. Which route planner/charging finder app?

[agoldman]

What would anyone suggest as the best route planner to plan on the most reliable fastest speed charging app to use to go from the DC area to Charleston SC in mid January? Wondering if I'll need to stop overnight if the charging stops are too slow?

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[RickMachE]

The route planner has nothing to do with the route.

You should look at the route in GoogleMaps. See what a direct drive should be. You should then use A Better Route Planner, set to prefer EA network, and loaded with your car. See what it proposes doing differently.

That's a 530 mile drive. If you charge to 100%, you'll need to stop 3 times using 2.3 m/kWh efficiency. Charging time of just under 4 hours, arriving with 20%. Total of an 11 hour drive.

 

[agoldman]

Yeah that's a long drive without a sleep stop. 95 is the fastest direct route, but I guess my question is what app, or ABRP would best target the reliable highest capacity chargers? I've never charged out on the road so I really have no idea what is reliable since so many people post charger "out of service" comments. And does any major hotel chain have higher speed access? I do have a tesla adapter for normal tesla chargers. Trouble is, what if you get to a hotel and all chargers are busy for the night you're booked at? ugh.. too bad you can't reserve those as well.

 

[sotek2345]

The route planner has nothing to do with the route.

You should look at the route in GoogleMaps. See what a direct drive should be. You should then use A Better Route Planner, set to prefer EA network, and loaded with your car. See what it proposes doing differently.

That's a 530 mile drive. If you charge to 100%, you'll need to stop 3 times using 2.3 m/kWh efficiency. Charging time of just under 4 hours, arriving with 20%. Total of an 11 hour drive.

They should be able to do better than that. ABRP tends to be a little conservative (which is a good thing). I have done Albany NY to Pittsburg PA (almost the same distance - a little shorter) and can do it in about 9.5 hours total time in our GT. Given your drive will be a little longer, I would guess 10 to 10.5 hours.

 

[sotek2345]

Yeah that's a long drive without a sleep stop. 95 is the fastest direct route, but I guess my question is what app, or ABRP would best target the reliable highest capacity chargers? I've never chraged out on the road so I really have no idea what is reliable since so many people post charger "out of service" comments.

Once you have chargers listed in ABRP, look them up in Plugshare to see how reliable they are. Always best to check right before you leave for any last minute updates.

 

[agoldman]

How many "safe" miles left as a buffer for broken chargers, and what % of charge are people doing between and at charging stops? 50 mile/80%? Do the super fast chargers charge quickly all the way to 100%?

sorry for so many questions after owning one locally for over a year, but I all of a sudden have horrible range/broken charger anxiety. I think I worried less when I almost burned my house down when my JuiceBox 40 melted down the 14/50 socket.

 

[sotek2345]

How many "safe" miles left as a buffer for broken chargers, and what % of charge are people doing between and at charging stops? 50 mile/80%? Do the super fast chargers charge quickly all the way to 100%?

sorry for so many questions after owning one locally for over a year, but I all of a sudden have horrible range/broken charger anxiety. I think I worried less when I almost burned my house down when my JuiceBox 40 melted down the 14/50 socket.

I have pushed it down as low as 2 miles remaining on 1 trip, but typically just hit the chargers as they are available on the route. I believe ABRP defaults to keeping you above 10% which is reasonable. Take the mobile charger with you and worst case you can always find a 110V outlet to plug in and trickle charge to get where you need to go. Not great, but better than stranded. I have never not been able to charge at a DC fast charge location. Sometimes I have to switch stalls, but that is it.

As far as distance between chargers, just go by when the Ford Nav or ABRP says. Their placement won't meet your needs exactly and sometimes you will have shorter drives between them so you don't need to charge up as much.

Note: Fast charging slows down above 80% and way down above 90%. You typically want to stop fast charging around 80% unless you are having a meal or something and aren't just waiting around.

 

[dp-mache]

We just traveled from KY to FL.
It results in quite a few stops but I found it was nice to stretch legs and daughter seems to constantly want to take a potty break anyway so fine for me. Stopped every 2-2.5 hrs for a charge.

The route planning apps all keep you between 20%-80% since the fast chargers are up to 3 times faster between that range. Once you hit 80% you hit a brick wall and usually charge about 40KWH because of the charge curve to protect the battery.

I used ABRP and it was handy but frankly felt the best was the navigation app in the car. I would let the car pick the next charger and sometimes switch back and forth between google maps and native navigation. I was very impressed with native navigation but trust google maps more to tell me about traffic and cops.

ABRP and the ford navigation usually were pretty close to the same recommendation. I found myself also pulling up the recommended charging station in google maps to see what restaraunts etc were in walking distance to determine if I wanted to pick a different stop instead. Good suggestion above about checking plugshare, I did not do that but there was one stop which was ALWAYS busy and what made it even worse is one was down. If I looked at plugshare I may have known to skip it.

 

[RickMachE]

Yeah that's a long drive without a sleep stop. 95 is the fastest direct route, but I guess my question is what app, or ABRP would best target the reliable highest capacity chargers? I've never charged out on the road so I really have no idea what is reliable since so many people post charger "out of service" comments. And does any major hotel chain have higher speed access? I do have a tesla adapter for normal tesla chargers. Trouble is, what if you get to a hotel and all chargers are busy for the night you're booked at? ugh.. too bad you can't reserve those as well.

No app targets reliable chargers. YOU must determine that, using PlugShare.

No hotel will have DC chargers. You charge overnight at a hotel. And, as you noted, they may be busy.

You can easily see on EA's map the chargers on that route. So, you can see the distance between the ones they suggest you stopping at, and see if there is one in between, or use PlugShare and see what other high speed chargers are nearby.

Think about what you asked in your questions. Then realize that every route has different charger density - there is no right answer. Given you're already anxious about the trip, and that there are limited EA locations on / near 95, I'd put all their locations in a spreadsheet, with links to them in PlugShare, and figure the mileage between each. Then YOU can judge how comfortable you feel. For example, if there are 90 miles between chargers, and you're getting 2.4m/kWh, you need 38kWh to make it - which is 42% charge. I'd want 50%. You might want 60%.

https://www.electrifyamerica.com/locate-charger/

 

[ChasingCoral]

1. Use A Better Route Planner to plan the trip
2. Use PlugShare to check the stations
3. Use the Ford Navigation to route you during the drive, including status of chargers
4. Use the company's app (EA, ChargePoint, EVGo, etc.) to double check status of chargers if you want

I've done almost the same trip a couple of times with no issues. If you don't trust the information from these apps, stop at the next closer charger on each segment.

 

[Larry]

No brainer. Step 1, forget the EV horror stories you’ve heard and seen.
Plenty of level 3 chargers along I95. Punch in your destination and the car will tell you where to stop. Even if half of them quit at once you’d still be ok.

If you don’t want to drive straight through, I would, find a hotel with free level 2 charging on Plugshare.

I’ve made many road-trips in the 1,000-1,500 mile range. This is an easy one.

 

[agoldman]

appreciate the advice! I'm one of those guys that hardly ever let the fuel get below half a tank. ha..

 

[Larry]

appreciate the advice! I'm one of those guys that hardly ever let the fuel get below half a tank. ha..

I remember my first couple EV trips. You’re where I was.

There are parts of the country, eg: WV, where it’s tight. The I95 corridor is not one of them.

Relax. Enjoy the trip.

 

[Woeo]

appreciate the advice! I'm one of those guys that hardly ever let the fuel get below half a tank. ha..

General rule of thumb is that an EV will add kW faster at 25% capacity than it will at 50%. You will end up spending more time adding the same amount of kW if you stop early.

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