Trip report Central Texas to Panhandle – No Recall and 1091 miles

[roamtheworld]

With all the talk on the forum about recalls and worries about long distance driving I thought I would provide a report on a 1091 mile round trip drive to Western Texas this past weekend.

2022 Premium 4 X – Zero updates since picked on May 14. No recall applied

Trip summary

• Total charge time at DCFC or L2 - 355 minutes 5.9 hours
• Lowest charge percent at start 4%
• Number of DCFC charge sessions 5
• Number of L2 chargers used 2
• Number of failed charge attempts 1
• Total amount spent charging $4.34
• Charge 100% at start and 34% at return home
• Busiest EA charger I’ve ever seen was in Amarillo with all 4 stalls being used and 2 cars waiting.

With the extreme heat and high winds traveling at 75 mph at least 80% of the trip a 160 mile range was
the safe distance between charges

Cool EV sighting

• Lordstown Motors Endurance
  • It was on a 3-car hauler, and I didn’t get any pictures since the family was sleeping and I couldn’t grab my phone
• Looked good in person
• 50 Miles South of Lubbock

The good

• Ride quality good
• Seat comfort good
• Never had to wait to begin DCFC in any location
• EA worked great with PnC
• Free EA charging with 175kW used
• Charging curve was very good 80% to 100% It was way better than expected
• L1 charging at AirBnB worked as expected

The not so good

• High temps over 100 and car reported between 108 and 110 while in traffic
• Highest observed charge rate 123 kW in Junction
• GOM helpful but not so much with various apps Apple Maps and ABRP trying to reroute us to the charge location we where currently plugged into and actively charging
• L2 charging in Lubbock sucked
• Blink forces $10 at signup and charge time as slow at least it was at a Ford dealer, so they let us use bathroom They had never seen a Mach E before at this location in Plainview
• ChargePoint didn’t like my account information at physical charger causing 5-minute delay
• Mostly had access to bathrooms and food near chargers but not all

The Bad

• No DCFC in Lubbock – 300K+ people and the home of Texas tech and ZERO DCFC
• ZERO chargers in destination location of Canyon This is the home of West Texas A&M and the have no chargers.
• ChargePoint location at Harley Davison was broken and all the apps wanted to go to this location causing 15 minutes of time lost and an extra 1.5 miles to next location a Best Buy
• Several EA chargers offline or acting weird for other people

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[TGIF]

In Iowa, I have had no issues with EA charging stations. I had several charge faults at a ChargePoint but it was right after leaving a MN off-brand station that didn’t work. I suspect it fouled up my car’s system until the fault cleared.

 

[Maquis]

At EA, did you use 150 or 350KW units? The 123 max is not unexpected if you only used 150s.

 

[roamtheworld]

In Iowa, I have had no issues with EA charging stations. I had several charge faults at a ChargePoint but it was right after leaving a MN off-brand station that didn’t work. I suspect it fouled up my car’s system until the fault cleared.

I've been using ChargePoint's L2 chargers frequently around town in Austin with success. EVgo around town hasn't been a good an experience.

 

[roamtheworld]

At EA, did you use 150 or 350KW units? The 123 max is not unexpected if you only used 150s.

The 123 kW was a 350 in Junction at an empty EA lot since no one else was around. That was the case for the trip out and the return trip.
The other stops had vehicles charging so I used 150 kW stations I saw maybe 110 kW max on those.

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