This tale starts with me taking a test drive as the mini is the first EV that I've really been excited about and seemed pretty affordable. Went for a test drive and didn't make it out of the parking lot before deciding I had to have one. A few months later, I picked up my new mini on July 30th. The only downside I saw to the mini was the range was pretty low. When I ordered it, I told myself I just wouldn't take it on long trips. So what's the first thing I do the day after I take delivery? I took it for a 500 mile road trip... So to start with, after taking delivery, I went and showed it off... At the end of the day, I don't remember exactly what the charge was, but it was less than 50%. I don't have a level 2 charger yet so I plugged it in with the level 1 charger, figuring it would be ready to go by morning. (Note: I did not adjust the charging current to Max) When I went to leave the next morning, it was still less than 75% charged Not a good start, especially because there aren't many chargers around me. But before I get into the road trip, let me talk about planning apps. Everyone says how a better route planner is such a great tool. I had nothing but frustrations with it. I think if you just accept it's route and go with it, it's probably fine. But if you want to say not drive through Manhattan and over the GWB and instead go some other way, it's a PITA. Also it would be nice to say you'll charge up a little more at a particular stop so you can go further till the next. I dunno, I had nothing but frustrations trying to use the app. Normally I know which way I'm going and just let the mapping software recalculate as I go but I was concerned about range so I wanted to plan it out more carefully. Plugshare on the other hand, has been awesome. It doesn't do route planning but it gives you a lot of really good info about where chargers are. I was able to filter by CCS stations and see where I could charge up quickly. So I ended up just using google maps combined with plugshare. It reminded me a little more of the old days when you would use a paper map and plan out a route. Ok, so morning of the trip, I open up a better route planner, curse a bit and then just plug in my first destination into google maps. I'm a little concerned I won't make it (because I'm starting at a reduced charge) but according to the GOM, I think I can make it. Of course it's hot so I have the AC going and we're loaded a bit heavy because of bags but I'm gonna give it a try. As I get closer, the battery percentage makes me weary and I switch to green+ mode and lose the AC. We made it with I think about 10 miles to spare. This is a little too close to comfort for me because there aren't a lot of level 3 chargers around and if there were issues with this station, I don't know what I would have done. So I pull up and there are two people there, one charging, the other waiting to charge telling me that the charger I pulled into wasn't working. Well I'm not one to take someone's word for it and I try it out and IT WORKS!!! Fortunately as I started charging the other person who was waiting was able to use the other charger. Using the charger wasn't so bad but I was confused about when I'd have to pay as it didn't prompt me for a card. I followed the instructions and started charging. Went for a walk around the shopping plaza and stopped into Home Depot to use the restroom. Got back and it was at about 80% charged and someone was waiting to charge. I estimated that we'd be fine to make it to our next destination with what we had so I finished up and it turns out for whatever reason, it didn't charge us. Next stop we had the opposite happen where it seemed to just charge me ~$20 but it didn't make sense to me. There was no one else at the charging station and there were a bunch of them here though the first two I tried didn't work. It was a little off the beaten path again, in a shopping plaza. Went for another little walk while it charged up. Starting to feel a little better as there are more places to charge but I'm still reluctant to let it get too low. Third stop had a Barnes and Noble which was nice. Because of this I ended up spending a little more time and got it up to about 95%. I don't remember the rest of the costs but I don't remember any of stops except for the last one being all that high. Next stop was in a Target parking lot. I thought I might browse around but just stopped and topped up to around 90% because it was getting late and I wanted to get where I was headed so I relaxed in the car and played Breath of the Wild on the Switch. Next stop was going to be at my Sister in Law's to pick up the key for the place we're ultimately staying at. I called to update them on our ETA and they suggested we spend the night there as it was getting late. (I had also started my trip later than I had hoped) So I agreed but after my experience with level 1 charging, I didn't want to show up almost empty so I figured one more stop to charge up to ~80% then I'd top off at their house while I slept. Final stop of the day was at a mall. It was late but the Electrify America chargers were lit up like a spaceship. There were lots of places to eat at the mall so I figured we'd grab a bite to eat while it topped off. Well guess what closed 5 minutes before we got there? That's right... the mall did. So while I was charging, we looked for where we could grab a bite. Shake Shack wasn't too far but they closed in 30 minutes. Car was close to 80% so I placed an online order and picked it up on the way to my sister in law's. Final stop for the day we plugged in and spent some time with family and then got some rest. If we had gotten an earlier start in the day, I think we could have made it all the way. Day 2... Got on the road earlyish and we were around 90%. We had about 100 miles to drive today and I was figuring on making two stops, one soonish to top off (because there's a bit of a dead zone with no chargers), the other just so we didn't arrive almost empty. First stop was at a Shop Rite (grocery store chain up here in the north east) and I played some more on the switch. I got it back up to around 95% which didn't take long. After that we got back on the road and started getting hungry so we stopped at a diner. No electric charging here but we had plenty to get to where we were going. Final stop before our destination was a charge point that was behind a brewery. It's the only level 3 charger in the area. There was a Hyundai Kona there charging and we chatted for a bit. Turns out there are two plugs but only one car can charge at a time. They had about 15 minutes left and we weren't in a hurry so it wasn't a big deal. Once they were done we charged up. I thought about seeing how high I could get it but it told me it thought it was done at around 98% so I decided to just head on our way and figure out the charging situation when we arrive. Also I had to sign up for a ChargePoint account in order to use the charger as there was no card reader. All the other stops I was able to just plug and and swipe my credit card. Fortunately the couple that was there told us about this so I did it while we were waiting for them to finish up. Finally, we got to our destination but there was no outdoor outlet anywhere near the parking area. Long story short, I ran a heavy duty extension cord (I brought with me just in case) out the window and plugged in that way. Letting it sit like this finally allowed it to get to 100%. I've already mapped out the route home (We're going a different way home) and if there's interest I can share that adventure as well. The big takeaway I got from all this is that Level 1 charging takes forever. Also, I'm still uncomfortable letting it get below 20% just in case there is something wrong with a charging station, I might still be able to get to another one. Fortunately I was able to charge up at all the stops without waiting too long but I passed a lot of gas stations trying to get to some charging stations. I think it will only get better (especially if Tesla really does open up their network) but I still had range anxiety.
Agree with your commentary on A Better Route Planner. I find myself fiddling with the settings a lot to figure out how to coax it into showing me various "what if" scenarios, then point the car's built-in nav to each waypoint based upon my conclusions. I typically fare better than ABRP estimates, even though it's far more reasonable than the GOM.
Great write-up, thanks for sharing. I always start my planning with ABRP just to get a rough idea, but then quickly shift to PlugShare. PlugShare does have a route planning feature too. It's not as good as ABRP, but it does give you a lot more control. I don't blame you for wanting to avoid the GW Bridge! It caught my eye that you found a charger at a Shop Rite. Do you mind sharing where? I didn't know Shop Rite had any chargers. Where I grew up (lower Hudson Valley region of NY), Shop Rite is the go-to grocery store. None of them where I am now; central NY is Wegmans country.
Seriously, every route planner wants me to go this way saying it will save "2 minutes"... Of course if you go that way, suddenly you are in unexpected traffic and it will take way longer than the 2 minutes I was supposed to save. Sure thing though it was in Southern NJ: https://www.plugshare.com/location/165734
Oh wow, that's a serious EVgo station. I still have yet to see one with more than a single charger. They installed a bunch 4-5 years ago in upstate NY (mostly Albany area) and New England. They are all 100-120A, single units (single point of failure). Unfortunately, it looks like they are all still "50kW" units (according to PlugShare, although I'd rather see a picture of the plaque showing maximum output current). That's fine for our Minis, but still stuck in the past for all the new EVs that can charge at 100+kW (VW ID.4, Ford Mach-E, Audi e-Tron, etc).
Yeah, even though our MINIs max out at 50 kW, we want to clear the line in front of us as quickly as possible.
Also, I'm an advocate of buying a Tesla to J1772 adapter to allow charging at Tesla "destination chargers," which are Tesla-nozzled L2 AC connectors usually installed by hotels and stores for public use. Generally, they require no fee, though it is accepted practice to ask the proprietor to use it if one is not patronizing the business. Nobody seems to care if the car is not a Tesla. Note this adapter will fit, but CANNOT be used at Tesla Superchargers, the big, DC chargers found in banks of 6 or more along highways and in big cities. Those require a Tesla financial handshake to switch on the juice, and the Supercharger putsout way too much power for the adapter to handle. https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07V7V2QT8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_6MTJD9X8MP9EVQF80RC0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
I purchased this adapter for an upcoming road trip to get my windows tinted! I already tested it locally at a public level 2 charger (a dentist office - the dentist owns a Tesla and lists the charger on Plugshare for anyone to use free). Worked like a charm. On my road trip next week I'm staying with a friend who has a Tesla Model Y, so I can charge up in his garage using the adapter.
Yeah, since I live in both the J-1772 and Tesla worlds, I've formed an opinion that J-1772 locations are more plentiful but less reliable. The Tesla stations are almost always "up." For my own setup, it's nice using my communicating Tesla home chargers to share all 48 Amps available between the two cars by using the adapter on my second Tesla connector.
I was disappointed with ABRP for the long road trip I just took. I went from California to Colorado, around Colorado in the mountains and back. It was extra exciting because Glenwood Canyon (I-70 between Vail and Glenwood Springs) was shut down during periods I needed it, requiring long most-of-day detours on fairly rural roads. ABRP is good for determining how much charge it will take to get to the next charging station I am targeting, but a crappy job of plotting out a long route and telling me where I need to charge. For instance, it would tell me there was no way to get from A to B (or only if I drove at some lower max speed) even though the route shown would pass by charging stations where it would not recommend a stop and charge. In the end, I would estimate which charging station was in range in my general direction and then check ABRP to see if I could actually get there or how high I would need to charge up first to to make it. It was good for that. Plugshare was essential for finding stations and peeking ahead to confirm that they were actually operational. I checked-in at most stops. Cool tool.
Odd. Did you happen to try the EVSE locator in the MINI navigation system? It's supposed to automatically route you to EVSEs within your range.
I have a Kia Niro EV. I found my way to this thread when I was planning my long trip and figuring out how to pull such a thing off. Figured I would report back on ABRP. I did not think to use the Kia built-in tool (smh). Maybe it works just as well. Don't know.
I have had this happen to me as well. If you find a charger along the route that ABRP is ignoring, you can force it to route you there. Click on the charger and select "set as waypoint". ABRP will then assume that you are going to charge there and re-plan the route. It's a work-around for sure. I have found that the tool then predicts a slightly longer overall route because of the charging stop. So it seems to me that ABRP is looking to get you to your destination in the shortest time, even if it means driving much slower to stretch to the next charger.
