No More Road Trips

[devmach-e]

Not having a choice about when you want to stop, with 150-180 being the furthest one should go, is bizarre in comparison to what’s out there now. My friends pickup truck can go 500 miles on a tank. Even more frustrating than the frequency of stops required is having to deal with the charging issues once stopped. If we owned a gun, my wife would have shot up half the chargers on I-5 by now.

150-180 miles is 2 hours of freeway driving . We don’t need to stop every two hours to stretch our legs or use the restrooms. When we stop with an ICE we can get gas for 400 miles of travel, stretch legs, use restrooms and be on our way in 5-10 minutes - not the 20-30 (or often more) minutes with the EV. After 3 and a half years of this I’m done.

As numerous people have pointed out the Tesla adapter could be a game changer for the charging aggravation part of it anyway. Once the adapter arrives I’ll do a solo test road trip.

We both love driving the car, just not for these multi-charge road trips.

We do an 800 mile road-trip on I5 every weekend in the spring. SF to LA and back. 400 miles on Friday night, and 400 miles back on Sunday night. 12 straight weekends. The hybrid SUV gets about 350 miles of range on a full tank. We stop twice to change drivers, and/or refuel the car. Stop in the same places every time: Santa Nella and Lost Hills/Buttonwillow. Take about 15 minutes each time, even with the need to re-fuel. Those same locations have Tesla Superchargers available to the Mach-E now. Plus there's a ton of other Supercharger sites all up and down I5 that could be used. The spacing of the Superchargers, and EA sites, along I5 is about equivalent to the spacing of gas stations along I5.

Looking at the Tesla app, I see a ton of Tesla Supercharger sites open to the Mach-E all along I5 in Oregon. Certain spaced closer than every 150 miles.

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[Nathan R Jessep]

After 3.5 years of ownership I’ve finally tossed in the towel with lengthy road trips. The poor mileage under freeway conditions, unpredictable charging infrastructure, wait lines for charging, and the Walmart parking lot ambiance makes for a longer and unpleasant experience. My wife has been putting up with this up to now, but has finally put her foot down. Not doing it ever again.

This is for trips 300 miles or more. Great car for around town and shorter trips.

Someone else asked if you've received your Tesla adapter?

I just did a 500+ mile trip each way and found the adapter to a be a blessing. EA isn't awful, but I found them to almost always be full or down. You're talking maybe 4 EA chargers to 8 to 12 Tesla stations. The only problem is getting close to enough to hook up, but I was getting better at it (Other than when I made it "over the curb" only to scrape the base of the station which was like an inch higher and I didn't see it.....ouch!)

Anyway.....I agree with everyone here, the MME is awesome for daily driving, but you can't beat the Blue Cruise when it works compared to the adaptive cruise on my wife's Jeep Cherokee Limited. (And don't get me started on the constant shifting, over shifting, and shift lag!!). There were long stretches where Blue Cruise really made just sitting there and going along for the ride enjoyable.

So all in all, the long trip had its challenges, but I'd do it again. I can't drive more than a couple hours without a break to stretch and hit the restroom, etc. anyway.

Thanks for sharing.....but I'd keep trying if I were you, but I understand your concerns.

 

[dtbaker61]

I think at this point charging infrastructure must find its own way in the marketplace without much government involvement. The possible exception to that would be rural locations which might need some subsidies.

some states (like NM where I live) still have pretty good support available for non-NEVI chargers to be installed at "rural" small business locations.

there are a lot of places that don't have 480v-3ph nearby, so the designs MAY shift to Solar carport canopies combined with "boost chargers" that can charge internal batteries at 20-30kw and DCFC output at 150kw as long as the batteries are charged, or drop to the 20-30kw when batteries are depleted.

so.... rural chargers WILL be available in the next couple years, but will be slower for long roadtrips for sure.

 

[2FlyMache]

Someone else asked if you've received your Tesla adapter?

I just did a 500+ mile trip each way and found the adapter to a be a blessing. EA isn't awful, but I found them to almost always be full or down. You're talking maybe 4 EA chargers to 8 to 12 Tesla stations. The only problem is getting close to enough to hook up, but I was getting better at it (Other than when I made it "over the curb" only to scrape the base of the station which was like an inch higher and I didn't see it.....ouch!)

Anyway.....I agree with everyone here, the MME is awesome for daily driving, but you can't beat the Blue Cruise when it works compared to the adaptive cruise on my wife's Jeep Cherokee Limited. (And don't get me started on the constant shifting, over shifting, and shift lag!!). There were long stretches where Blue Cruise really made just sitting there and going along for the ride enjoyable.

So all in all, the long trip had its challenges, but I'd do it again. I can't drive more than a couple hours without a break to stretch and hit the restroom, etc. anyway.

Thanks for sharing.....but I'd keep trying if I were you, but I understand your concerns.

I would also add that the cruise maintains set speed better than any ice car I’ve driven in the past

 

[cheerioboy26]

I am a major EV advocate, but I'm kinda surprised anybody is defending the timescale or the results of NEVI. The time this has taken is inexcusable and the results are so close to nothing as to be indistinguishable.

21...22...23...24... NEVI has thus far been a poster child for government ineptitude.

I agree, and I think my state, Pennsylvania, has been fairly forward with all of this. PennDOT submitted their plan to the Feds in mid-2022, received solicitations late 22/early 23, and awarded 56 sites in August 2023. Then a follow up award of about 25 more in early 2024, and 10 more sites in August this year. So, 91 sites in all, and 4 are operational, all from the first group, and 15 more being actively worked. The remainder still in the "planning" phase.

 

[Sillybibbles]

One upside for us in the medium term: all the charging vehicles shifting to Tesla Superchargers will leave the EAs and EVGo's less overcrowded. Having finally (~FINALLY~) received my adapter, I do feel a little less stressed by long trips. But it still a hodgepodge of 'it will probably work'. If I was driving alone, that would be fine. But my partner is less patient , and just can't handle the stress of not knowing where will work or won't.

 

[Nathan R Jessep]

One upside for us in the medium term: all the charging vehicles shifting to Tesla Superchargers will leave the EAs and EVGo's less overcrowded. Having finally (~FINALLY~) received my adapter, I do feel a little less stressed by long trips. But it still a hodgepodge of 'it will probably work'. If I was driving alone, that would be fine. But my partner is less patient , and just can't handle the stress of not knowing where will work or won't.

One thing I found, was, when I got close to my charging destination, I could go into the app in the car for "Public Charging" and it would show me how many stations were available at both and, more importantly, whether my car would work at the specific Tesla station while using the adapter. That was VERY comforting.

Cause I rolled up to an EA station using my in-car navigation and found it "under construction" with the stations sitting there wrapped in plastic!! Nothing in the Nav app gave me a clue. I was on 12%. Not happy! Luckily there was a large Telsa station 2 tenths of a mile away.

 

[Sillybibbles]

One thing I found, was, when I got close to my charging destination, I could go into the app in the car for "Public Charging" and it would show me how many stations were available at both and, more importantly, whether my car would work at the specific Tesla station while using the adapter. That was VERY comforting.

Cause I rolled up to an EA station using my in-car navigation and found it "under construction" with the stations sitting there wrapped in plastic!! Nothing in the Nav app gave me a clue. I was on 12%. Not happy! Luckily there was a large Telsa station 2 tenths of a mile away.

This is why I use plugshare - I find it's the best to see what's actually working in an area, with real-time updates.

 

[SonicBlue]

I agree, and I think my state, Pennsylvania, has been fairly forward with all of this. PennDOT submitted their plan to the Feds in mid-2022, received solicitations late 22/early 23, and awarded 56 sites in August 2023. Then a follow up award of about 25 more in early 2024, and 10 more sites in August this year. So, 91 sites in all, and 4 are operational, all from the first group, and 15 more being actively worked. The remainder still in the "planning" phase.

I would not be shocked at all to see much of the money mysteriously disappear, much like PPP, without chargers ever being built.

 

[cheerioboy26]

I would not be shocked at all to see much of the money mysteriously disappear, much like PPP, without chargers ever being built.

PennDOT has already funded all of those awards. They have received $59M of expected $171M. No reasons those stations shouldn't all be built.

 

[Tampamike]

Just did a 1500 mile road trip. Charged 10 times and only used Tesla twice.
Others were, Florida Power & Light, EA, 2 different Ford Dealers through BOCN, Mercedes Benz at Bucee’s, EVGo at a Pilot and an EVConnect at a Cadillac dealer.

Only found 1 broken charger but was able to move to a working one (Florida P&L)
One EA at a Walmart was full with waiters. Had to go to WalMart anyway. Left and went down the road less than a mile to an empty Tesla spot (took two spots but it didn’t matter).
Haven’t used dealers before but the ones I used this time were just in the right spots. The Ford ones were great and empty.

There’s lots of options out there now - just wish that the built in nav had them all. I found one of the dealers in the Public Charging app that wasn’t in the nav. I don’t do as much advance planning as I used to.

Looking forward to the day when stations start advertising kw pricing like gas pricing - there’s competition now.

 

[Sikkun]

Only found 1 broken charger but was able to move to a working one (Florida P&L)

Lake City FPL?

Have had problems starting charges with FPL but always managed to get it going in the end.

 

[kindofblue]

Mine was supposed to arrive in July. Maybe July next year is more realistic. I think one’s experience is going to vary dramatically by location. And it’s a moving target; so trying to plan out a trip with multiple options just in case, and then not have it work out anyway is not worth it. I don’t do that many lengthy road trips anyway so not a big deal. My main motivation for using it is to reduce our carbon footprint, which is pretty significant in other ways. When we get the Tesla charger I’ll take a trip and see how that goes.

A2Z makes adapters that many of us have used and using the Tesla SC network is truly a game changer ;-)

 

[Tampamike]

Lake City FPL?

Have had problems starting charges with FPL but always managed to get it going in the end.

No, one just north of Jax on I-95 near Yulee across from a Wawa. Weird setup - parallel parking in a line on the left side as you spot it.

Last week I had one on the turnpike go south. It slowed down after a good start and then they all went off-line. Previously though, I’ve had good luck with them and they’re cheap.

 

[Billyk24]

PennDOT has already funded all of those awards. They have received $59M of expected $171M. No reasons those stations shouldn't all be built.

Yes, Sheetz on Rt8 and I-80 opens Thursday at 9am. Loves Travel Station on I79 and Rt 108 is scheduled to open late this month.

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