timbop
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Tim
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2020
- Threads
- 63
- Messages
- 6,729
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- 13,758
- Location
- New Jersey
- Vehicles
- Solar powered 2021 MME ER RWD & 2022 Corsair PHEV
- Occupation
- Software Engineer
- Thread starter
- #1
tl;dr version/highlights:
I used ABRP and plugshare to map out my trip (see tutorial here), tweaking the charging stops and percentages along the way to come up with the "main" plan and then added alternate stops if any of my primary stops were unavailable. To figure out if I could reach the next/alternate charger I tweaked the "charge to" percentage to 1% at the primary site. I also played with departure times and "charge to" percentages to map out meal times and overnight charging to come up with the "best" plan. Since the driving time from NJ to Atlanta was 13+ hours I knew it was better not to try to make the trip in one day, so I split it into 2 days to make it a more leisurely drive with extra time in case things went haywire. I initially tried to work in hotels with J1772 chargers, but it became apparent that most hotels only have 1 or 2, and if I wasn't able to charge at them it would have been an issue since no DCFC were nearby. After mapping it out in ABRP I then put the stops into a spreadsheet that I put on my google drive and printed it out to take with me. Using a printout made it easier to put waypoints into Waze over Android Auto. For those that are interested, here is a copy of the spreadsheet with the alternate stops hidden to make it easier to see the interesting statistics (note that construction and traffic threw off the times):
Here's an extract of the full sheet with the alternate stops as well:
And finally, the reason for the excursion to Atlanta was so I could swim with the Whale Sharks - a bucket list item of mine. I highly recommend it (that's me spread-eagle over the shark):
- Drove 1580 miles from NJ -> Atlanta -> Port Canaveral -> Sanford FL (train to Lorton VA) -> NJ, with overall efficiency of 3.3 mi/kwh. The reason for the trip was to hit the georgia aquarium to swim with the whale sharks and to catch a cruise out of port canaveral. We wimped out coming home and took the autotrain back.
- It was "orange barrel season" on the east coast (lots of construction to slow us down), so it was hard to gauge "true" efficiency since we could not maintain 65+ MPH (occasionally we were crawling along at 5 to 20 mph)
- Adaptive cruise control and auto lane centering performed very well (along with stopping every couple of hours) so fatigue was kept to a minimum - it was one of the more pleasant drives I've done in a long time
- The Mrs actually remarked that "charging was no big deal", and she didn't mind it - the 2 non-mealtime stops per day were only 15-20 minutes and a nice break, particularly for older bladders.
- I did notice that cars cutting in front of us at a higher speed caused adaptive cruise control to maintain speed, but a car at the same speed or slower cutting in front of use meant the ACC slowed down abruptly. I ended up reducing the ACC distance to 1 to cut down on the number of cars cutting in front of me
- We split up the majority of the drive down over 3 days with a max 7 hours driving each day, stopping to charge for half an hour or so at lunch and dinner and 2 short 15 to 20 minute stops per day. 2 other days (from Atlanta to Cordele, and Lorton to NJ) were 3 hours of driving with no charging stops.
- Of 11 EA charging stops 8 were flawless, but 3 stops required switching chargers and 2 incurred charge faults mid-charge. Plug-n-charge worked every time, which was a pleasant surprise
- At almost every stop, the car was done charging before we were done eating or taking advantage of the bio break. In fact, several times we stopped to talk with other BEV owners and didn't even realize charging was done. In Buford I didn't bother to unplug after 80% because I was enjoying dinner with my wife and didn't want to have to run out to move the car - the 80% cliff is actually handy for that case
- ABRP was very accurate after tweaking to 350 extra pounds and 3.5 mi/kwh base efficiency (see spreadsheet below)
- Managed to charge to 100% for free in Atlanta (at the aquarium) and Cordele, although the charger in Cordele was at the exit from the hotel so someone scratched my fender with a suitcase.
- At the aquarium a pair of Tesla's took 2 J1772 charging spots without plugging in - apparently Tesla owners are endowed with the right to block a charger without charging. Luckily there are a dozen chargers at the aquarium so I was able to charge anyway
- At the hotel in Cordele GA several cars/trucks blocked the chargers, but I managed to plug into one of the J1772's. This particular hotel had 7 chargers (5 tesla and 2 J1772), but beware at hotels with fewer of them as you might get ICEd out of being able to charge
I used ABRP and plugshare to map out my trip (see tutorial here), tweaking the charging stops and percentages along the way to come up with the "main" plan and then added alternate stops if any of my primary stops were unavailable. To figure out if I could reach the next/alternate charger I tweaked the "charge to" percentage to 1% at the primary site. I also played with departure times and "charge to" percentages to map out meal times and overnight charging to come up with the "best" plan. Since the driving time from NJ to Atlanta was 13+ hours I knew it was better not to try to make the trip in one day, so I split it into 2 days to make it a more leisurely drive with extra time in case things went haywire. I initially tried to work in hotels with J1772 chargers, but it became apparent that most hotels only have 1 or 2, and if I wasn't able to charge at them it would have been an issue since no DCFC were nearby. After mapping it out in ABRP I then put the stops into a spreadsheet that I put on my google drive and printed it out to take with me. Using a printout made it easier to put waypoints into Waze over Android Auto. For those that are interested, here is a copy of the spreadsheet with the alternate stops hidden to make it easier to see the interesting statistics (note that construction and traffic threw off the times):
Here's an extract of the full sheet with the alternate stops as well:
And finally, the reason for the excursion to Atlanta was so I could swim with the Whale Sharks - a bucket list item of mine. I highly recommend it (that's me spread-eagle over the shark):
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