Seattle to Milwaukee Winter Trek

[Space_Pony]

That trip reminds me of one I did around 1980. I transported my mother from Indiana to northern ID. On the return trip I traveled U.S. 2 across northern MT and across the top of Lake Michigan and then down to IN. One thing that sticks in my brain was that a couple of motels that I stayed at were $12/night.
Man those were the days!

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[music_cities]

Yeah, my dad and I did the math and came to a similar conclusion. It gets even a bit worse, because I don't appear to have yet been charged for my use of the Rivian charger in Bozeman, and that will add to the total if that ever happens. I know I paid as much as 58 cents/kwh at an EVGO. Conversely, my charge at an EA in Butte was only 20 cents/kwh. Hopefully this situation will get better as more stations come online and competition can set it.

At this point in history I don’t mind paying the equivalent of gasoline prices on a road trip to support/encourage reliable and fast public charging. In five years I expect there to be a lot more price competition on public charging, whereas right now there is either no competition or the competition is dominated by charging speed/convenience/reliability.

For example, the OP didn’t seem to check out the price of the ancient Lewis & Clark 50 kw charger, didn’t weigh any potential cost savings against charging speed. ABRP doesn’t take into account costs in route planning, and PlugShare doesn’t have any filters on price, usually doesn’t even have price information. It would be nice if ABRPs slider for frequency of charge preference was a triangle, with a third dimension on charging costs.

 

[Fluffy09]

At this point in history I don’t mind paying the equivalent of gasoline prices on a road trip to support/encourage reliable and fast public charging. In five years I expect there to be a lot more price competition on public charging, whereas right now there is either no competition or the competition is dominated by charging speed/convenience/reliability.

For example, the OP didn’t seem to check out the price of the ancient Lewis & Clark 50 kw charger, didn’t weigh any potential cost savings against charging speed. ABRP doesn’t take into account costs in route planning, and PlugShare doesn’t have any filters on price, usually doesn’t even have price information. It would be nice if ABRPs slider for frequency of charge preference was a triangle, with a third dimension on charging costs.

I actually did make one or two price comparisons where I had the ability to do so. I picked a pricier option at least once just because of location or convenience or whatever. When I ran the math for what national average gas prices would have run me if I got 25mpg, it was about $60 cheaper. I don’t consider that a back-breaking sum. What is worse for EVs right now is the purchase cost differential.

 

[MME Farmer]

Longtime forum lurker, first time poster. I thought people might be interested to hear about the current state of wintertime road-tripping in our beloved electric conveyances, so here goes.

A while back my wife and I made the decision to move from Seattle to Milwaukee in search of fewer crowds, cheaper cost of living, more cheese, etc. After a grueling few weeks of packing boxes and house-cleaning, the day finally arrived at the end of January where I got to set forth on my long-fantasized winter road trip. I tried to convince my wife to come along, even if she just caravanned alongside in her RAV4, but she was having none of it. In my wife's defense, we have two lovely young children and one very useless cat that would have had to cram into that arrangement somehow, so she sensibly declined and will be flying. Instead, my dad graciously flew out to Seattle and served as my copilot.

Thanks to all of the amazing insight from this forum, I knew to plot out my route on ABRP and check ahead on Plugshare to validate and pre-plan all my charging stops. I'd taken the Mach E on a round trip from Seattle to Palm Springs several years ago without incident, but that was when exterior temps were a breezy 95 degrees and efficiency was above the EPA rating. Going through the Great Plains when Bismarck ND might put up a temp of -20 was quite a different proposition. As an intellectual exercise, I also plotted just the first leg of Seattle to Missoula MT on the in-car navigation. The car spit out a route that would have worked, but it also suggested that I do my initial charge at some ancient 50kw charger that had been erected during the Lewis and Clark expedition. I had cautioned my dad that EV road-trips require patience, but I don't think he wanted to be that patient.

As you've probably determined by the very fact of reading this, we made it to MKE safe and sound. I'll give you the highlights of the trip. At our first charging stop in Ellensburg WA, I was pleasantly surprised to find a 180kw charging station at a Circle K that I'd somehow glazed over during my (very extensive) Plug Share investigations. There was an EA and open Tesla supercharger all within walking distance, but I opted for Circle K just to try something new. We made it to Missoula without incident and the pony car happily slurped from the trough of a free hotel charger. Thanks again to the forum and the excellent advice of Mach-Lee (BIG shoutout to Mach-Lee, thank you so much for all your advice!), I'd set a destination time the next morning and the car was primed and ready to go.

I'd looked at the route many times leading up to departure and I knew that several stretches in Montana would present the biggest possible challenges, notably Bozeman to Billings and Billings to Miles City. I'm mildly embarrassed to admit that I'd failed to appreciate that our second morning's first stretch would be our most stress-inducing, due to its climb of 2000 feet over 120 miles as we rose up to Butte. Mother Nature was also not on our side here, as we saw exterior temps drop as low as -4. Despite all this, the car did admirably and maintained 2.1 mpk. We arrived in Butte with 30 miles on the GOM at 31% SOC. I would have washed the windows with the handily-provided washer at the EA station, but it was frozen solid! You all may wonder why I would consider this "stress-inducing". The reason is that if the car hadn't performed and we'd been left stranded on the side of the road, I would never stop hearing "I told you so" from my lovely wife.

The rest of Montana was long, lovely, and uneventful. In Bozeman we took advantage of a Rivian Charger over the nearby EA because the Rivian was close to better food options. This is the type of detail that would be utterly mundane on an ICE trip, but it was a true delight for those of us who need to wait a bit to refuel. My dad and I also pulled over one time in the bustling metropolis of Custer MT (maaaaybe a stop sign could be found here, but also maybe not). As we pulled into a gas station to use the bathroom I remarked to my dad "Wouldn't it be wild if this place had a charger?" I turned around and immediately had to eat my words when I saw a level 2 charging setup at the back of the lot. It came complete with a "Powered by Coal" sticker. Well I had to try this now didn't I? I drove the car over a sheen of ice and did the usual fiddling-with-bad-cell-service-to-get-a-charging-app-I'd-never-heard-of dance to plug in and get all of 2kwh while we used the bathroom. I also bought a Montana trucker's hat.

I had purchased a Lectron Tesla adaptor for this trip, but I didn't end up breaking out my shiny new toy until Dickinson ND. The only reason I even did this was that I didn't feel like sitting in the parking lot of a Ford dealership to charge. We charged at Superchargers on two other occasions (one was in Madison WI because I didn't feel like doing the obscure charging app dance again with Shell Recharge, and there was a Supercharger in the same lot). I'm absolutely positive that we could have done this entire trip on CCS charging alone.

The only negatives of note were that my ever-occurring Front Camera Fault became permanent in western Montana, necessitating that I keep my foot on the pedal the rest of the way like a plebe. We also lost one of my precious Route 1 aerocover hubcaps somewhere. I'd gotten the tires replaced just before leaving, and I'm thinking they didn't put the caps on all the way.

The trip totaled 2040 miles with an average mpk of 2.7. Electricity seems to have run us about $300, with two free hotel charges along the way. We definitely lucked out on weather and enjoyed blue skies nearly the entire way. Bismarck ND was also more in the 30's and 40's rather than -20. We got lucky here, and I'll absolutely take it.

On the plus side we have had to make a few trips to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Mn. which is about 490 miles round trip. I start at 100% then we throw on a small confidence charge at a town about 90 miles from here at 9 cents/kw. We found a very reasonable motel with a free charger overnight, then another small charge again or not and then back to 100% at home. One time it cost us about $8, another time almost $10. At $3 gas that works out to 147 - 184 mpg. Most ICE vehicles I know of would have a hard time matching that. I'm sure many can beat this, but for just a normal trip I didn't think it was too bad. Please don't tear into me too bad, but I am really enjoying my Shelby sound system!

 

[Blue highway]

Thanks for the write-up, I enjoyed it very much. I just want to make an observation that you averaged the equivalent of roughly 20 mpg in an ICE vehicle (based on local gas prices) even after two free charges. This supports what I have said before, we are being taken advantage of by these commercial chargers.

uh huh... and yet they are not making money. On a road trip I don't care what the cost is... I care about availability and reliability.

 

[dan_meh]

You all may wonder why I would consider this "stress-inducing". The reason is that if the car hadn't performed and we'd been left stranded on the side of the road, I would never stop hearing "I told you so" from my lovely wife.

I totally identify with this. I love my wife more than I thought I could and as our marriage lengthens our love grows. I am never stressed by low state of charge except when I think of her ??.

 

[MikeGB]

Welcome to WI. Picked up our pony 3yrs ago yesterday. Wanted to take it on a road trip to visit with one of our kids in Moses Lake, WA. Back then my 2 options were to drive across Canada, (passport expired) or via Denver. I90/I94 was not an option. We opted to take our ICE Escape. I'll wait for summer and give it a try, thanks.

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