Trip/EV Station reliability

[hls811]

I've been tinkering with ABRP as I have yet to take a long trip with my MME but but son will be starting college in the fall in Virginia; we live in NJ - about 315 miles away from the campus. I have a Premium, standard range AWD so best case is about 225 miles, and in the winter if I have to go, I'm guessing closer to 160-ish. My summer route shows 2 stops (37 min total to recharge), I'll probably need a third stop if I go in the cold.

Anyway, Is there a site which rates the charging stations that ABRP suggests? I know the EA site will tell you whether all stations are open/closed, but thats just the real time stats and would change as I'm on the road. I'm sure its just basing the suggestion on there being chargers at point A, B and C, but is there a way to gauge reliability, availability, shady neighborhoods, etc from actual users? I've only driven out to the school once (pre-MME) and I know theres alot of nothingness along Rt. 81 - my range anxiety would go into overdrive if I were to pull into the recommended station only to find out there are issues...

And similarly, how does the on-board NAV routing compare to ABRP? I actually like the built in NAV, I use it on my daily drives just from a traffic standpoint and its a little less intrusive than the phone apps through Carplay. I know Apple Maps also recently added charging stations to thier app, but haven't looked into that comparison yet.

Sponsored

 

[SuperRob]

Plugshare has ratings, as well as allowing people to check in and out. Chargeway may have something similar, but it’s pretty new.

 

[NJDevFan30]

Take a look at Plugshare. That's the goto for finding crowdsourced data on station reliability.

I'm in NJ too and have roadtripped down to VA with no issue, though that was the 95 corridor. I'm not sure what's along the I-81 corridor.

I've also roadtripped to St. Louis with no issue. I've never been stranded with a station being completely offline. Yes, sometimes individual stations but not all of them. On roadtrips I usually use Electrify America as my goto.

In terms of the Nav, planning with ABRP is very helpful and gives you a good reference for what is available. I've found it to be overly conservative. I like the built-in nav but it can be a bit wonky if you want to do something it disagrees with, i.e. bypass a station.

 

[Skip Towne]

Plugshare data and rating are amazingly current and spot-on - in my experience.

 

[Mach-Lee]

I've been tinkering with ABRP as I have yet to take a long trip with my MME but but son will be starting college in the fall in Virginia; we live in NJ - about 315 miles away from the campus. I have a Premium, standard range AWD so best case is about 225 miles, and in the winter if I have to go, I'm guessing closer to 160-ish. My summer route shows 2 stops (37 min total to recharge), I'll probably need a third stop if I go in the cold.

Remember to leave yourself a buffer since you can't use 100% of your range. Realistically in the summer your range between charging stops will be about 150 miles, and in the winter you will have to stop about every 100 miles with the standard pack. I think you should plan on taking a gas car in the winter unless you don't mind stopping to recharge 3x for 40+ mins (charging will take much longer in the winter as well, probably closer to an hour per stop).

You should also think how you're going to charge for the trip back. Hopefully you can park the car overnight at a L2 charger at the college to fully charge.

Shady areas come with the territory sometimes, if there's only one DCFC for miles you might not have a choice. Plugshare is the best if you want user ratings.

 

[Tampamike]

Ditto PlugShare. I didn’t use it last weekend and it cost me. I pulled into a station with only one charger working. If I had looked ahead of time, I would have known and gone elsewhere.

Sponsored