One day road trip in a BEV.

stmache

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I interned at ONP back in 1981 and finally got back there a couple of years ago. Beautiful country.

Would you attempt the Hurricane Ridge road in a BEV? Knowing you'd get a lot of regen on the way down. It would be interesting to see how much energy was used on the climb up though it is only 18 miles.
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ChasingCoral

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This is probably being nitpicky, but I'd call that the biggest benefit (overnight home charging at cheap residential rates) rather than the biggest difference. It's a great benefit though - perhaps the biggest reason for getting a BEV (if you can charge at home).

An equally big difference (maybe even more so) is on the other end of the scale though -- charging on the road (slow, more frequent, sometimes scarce, sometime nervous, usually more expensive, and requires a lot more pre-planning).
There's no question this difference is a benefit.
 

highland58

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I interned at ONP back in 1981 and finally got back there a couple of years ago. Beautiful country.

Would you attempt the Hurricane Ridge road in a BEV? Knowing you'd get a lot of regen on the way down. It would be interesting to see how much energy was used on the climb up though it is only 18 miles.
When we were on our loop in my Clarity, I headed up that road, but after going a ways up we determined that the forest fire smoke was too bad and we would not be able to see anything from up there, so we turned around. I still had battery power but I turned around before the ICE would have started. This was 2 years ago when the fires were really bad. The good news was the next morning in Seiku, the smoke was cleared by onshore winds.
 

stmache

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When we were on our loop in my Clarity, I headed up that road, but after going a ways up we determined that the forest fire smoke was too bad and we would not be able to see anything from up there, so we turned around. I still had battery power but I turned around before the ICE would have started. This was 2 years ago when the fires were really bad. The good news was the next morning in Seiku, the smoke was cleared by onshore winds.
I had the same issues with the smoke. Went up there three times. This was the "clearest" day.

i-LHDQzbG-L.jpg


On the coast, I stayed at Kalaloch Lodge for four days. It was either foggy or smokey. On the last day there, it was clear for about an hour. LOL

i-G8ndFX2-L.jpg

You can see the fog bank on the way in.
 

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This road trip story is more for the new BEV owners. You members that have been driving on electric for a while might find this silly, simple, and a waste of time.

I wanted to see what it would feel like(the rhythm of it) to make a bunch of quick stops during an all-day road trip. This is to simulate driving at 70+ mph for a sustained distance and being able to recharge in 20 minutes, gaining 100+ miles. I don't have a Mach-E or Porche or Tesla, although I guess I could rent one. I do have a MB 250e that can go just over 100 miles in the summer, and it can't fast charge, but it is a dream to drive(google it). I also have a Chevy Bolt which is basically the opposite of that. The trip I planned could be done in either car, although in the Mercedes it would take a long time. There were no working DCFCs on my route.

Here is the route. My plan was to mimic going to a destination, hanging out for 1/2 a day, and then driving the rest of the day to another location. What I did was drive to the beach, hung out a couple of days then drove home the long way around.
Here is the route on the Chevy app. Not all my stops are listed there.
Ford Mustang Mach-E One day road trip in a BEV. i-G8ndFX2-L

The Chevy app is pretty good. It can predict range accurately even over a mountain pass. You can't save your trips like you can in Plugshare but customizing the stops is quick and easy. If you don't have cell service, it won't help you. I set most of the stops to only add 1% battery.

We made it to our first stop, the beach, at 53%. The app said it would be 54%. We had the A/C on for a bit.
Ford Mustang Mach-E One day road trip in a BEV. i-G8ndFX2-L


We plugged in and charged to about 95%. I then unplugged and did not plug in again until we were on the way back two days later. While we were there, we drove around town for 20-30 miles at 20-40mph. We were just under 90% when we left.

On the way back we made a lot of unnecessary stops to mimic the timing of the stops that the Mach-E will do on a freeway road trip. I also wanted to do some check-ins on Plugshare. Some of these chargers haven't had a check-in for months, but I know they get used. I hate it when I am planning a trip and there hasn't been a check-in at a charger for months. Can I depend on it to be working? Is it still there? We all need to check-in when we use a charger. And take the few minutes to report the bad ones and/or post a picture that makes them easier to find. If you don't report a broken charger, they don't get fixed. You can bet that when a Tesla Supercharger goes down, the Tesla drivers are bugging customer support daily until it is fixed. (that's a big reason the supercharger network is better, it's our fault)

The trip back...
We made two 5 minute stops along the coast about 20 minutes after we began our trip back. It was just long enough to post a review and take a picture. Both are places you could easily spend time exploring or whatever.
Ford Mustang Mach-E One day road trip in a BEV. i-G8ndFX2-L
Ford Mustang Mach-E One day road trip in a BEV. i-G8ndFX2-L

I saw that the Tesla destination charger across the street that was blocked, so I did a check-in for that one also.
Ford Mustang Mach-E One day road trip in a BEV. i-G8ndFX2-L


The third stop was for just over 30 minutes. I'll call it "lunch." Really we just walked along the lake and found a restroom that was semi-Covid safe.
Ford Mustang Mach-E One day road trip in a BEV. i-G8ndFX2-L

Lake Quanalt Resort, very nice! I may go back to this one.

We ran into some trouble after lunch!
Ford Mustang Mach-E One day road trip in a BEV. i-G8ndFX2-L

Ok, not really. They are replacing 6 or 7 bridges along this section of Hwy 101. The road went down to one lane multiple times. With no cell service for miles, a closed road could be a problem. You should know where your backup chargers are and road conditions. Until chargers are at most every gas station (or have replaced them), these issues may give you anxiety.

Our next stop was at the beach again. I know this charger gets used every day, but the last check-in was 2 weeks ago.
Ford Mustang Mach-E One day road trip in a BEV. i-G8ndFX2-L

We were the fourth car to plug-in. This stop was about 15 minutes. We walked down to the beach and back.

Next, we stopped in Forks, where they made those Twilight movies. We didn't see any vampires as it was the middle of the afternoon. This isn't a good place to get a charge because it's nearly a mile off the main drag. That's where you could walk to get a "bite." It's the only charger for a long while, so an old Leaf driver might be forced to stop here. ...and there was no shade!
Ford Mustang Mach-E One day road trip in a BEV. i-G8ndFX2-L


If you are seeing these pictures and thinking to yourself that we have great weather and beautiful scenery here in the Pacific Northwest, don't. This is the one weekend a year it doesn't rain. It never looks like this. That's why everything is so green and mossy. It's so wet, it kills everything. Look at this tree we passed.
Ford Mustang Mach-E One day road trip in a BEV. i-G8ndFX2-L


And as you can see our beaches are super crowded.
Ford Mustang Mach-E One day road trip in a BEV. i-G8ndFX2-L


... :cool: (sarcasm)

Ok, after Forks where we only stayed for long enough to realized we didn't want to stay, we headed off to our last charging stop. We stopped in Port Angeles. There is a charger right on the waterfront. We were there for about an hour and a half. We sat down to eat dinner outside a brewery and then walked around to find some ice cream. We did find some, and it was great! We didn't "wait" at all for the charger.
Ford Mustang Mach-E One day road trip in a BEV. i-G8ndFX2-L

This gave us enough to have a 50-mile buffer to make it home. There is a DCFC in town that has been broken for a long time. I think the owner disconnected it from the network, just a theory. After we filled up, I went over to the broken DCFC and tried to charge. I went through all steps, called in, and did them all again. It's a Greenlots charger and they were very nice on the phone. I've never had a bad charging company customer service person. Hopefully, they fix that charger.

We then stopped at the Walmart just out of town. This Walmart shows as a future EA site on Plugshare and the EA website. I was very disappointed to see that they haven't broken ground yet. Hopefully soon.

We made it home with 17% battery left. Most of the driving was under 60mph so the efficiency for the entire trip was very high. Hwy 101 is slow as it's mostly a curvey, hilly, two-lane road, with a lot of motorhomes.

These screenshots or from the Bolt when we arrived home.
Ford Mustang Mach-E One day road trip in a BEV. i-G8ndFX2-L
Ford Mustang Mach-E One day road trip in a BEV. i-G8ndFX2-L


I learned that stopping for 10 minutes or less felt rushed. I didn't have time to do everything I needed to do.
Always look at the picture of where the plugs are, it will help you find it. The "pin" on Plugshare is normally very accurate.
It's not a waste of time to plug in for a short time on a free L2 charger, that 10-20 miles might be the difference of being able to skip a stop.

All the stops on this trip were 6-7kW L2 chargers, they were all free, none of them were blocked, I didn't have to wait in line one, and they all worked.

I hope this was helpful, as I am not the best writer.
Thanks - very useful for EV newbies like me
 
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ajmartineau

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...attempt the Hurricane Ridge road in a BEV?
Yes, I would (will soon) go up to Hurricane Ridge in a BEV. For fun, you can reset your stats at the top and drive around showing off your 18 miles per kWh car. The gauge on the Bolt only goes to 51.8m/kWh. lol
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