Driving long distances

NEVER do #2. You will end up stranded!
Yes, always plan ahead. An app like Plugshare and the website abetterrouteplanner.com are really good. It's also a good idea to sign up with several charge companies like Chargepoint and EVgo. Depends a little in which area of the country you're driving.

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no, that will require at least one full charge.

you can do it in two smaller charges if you want, and this may actually save you time, but it doesn't require two full charges.
(EDIT: well, this was for a theoretical 500 mile trip with plenty of chargers. But looking at the columbus-NY trip, it's actually more than 500 miles and using the DC chargers may not take you on the most direct route. so you probably need to stop for charging two or three times. You won't charge to 100%, but you need to charge enough to comfortably get you to the next charger.

EDIT 2: the more I think about it the more complicated it gets... in reality you are never using 100% of the battery capacity, more like 60%, because you don't really want to drop below 20% and you don't want to charge above 80% because then it gets much slower. so that gives you a realistic range of about 150 miles.
so you'd have to stop every 150 miles or so and do a 20-80% charge, which is probably about 45 minutes on a 50 kW charger. )



of course this depends greatly on the number and location of available chargers and how you drive.

the amount of power consumed depends greatly on the driving conditions. When I drive the car it always uses a lot more power than when my girlfriend drives it. She did some long highway drives where the car did not consume nearly as much power as I expected, based on the amount of charge left and the kilometers driven she could have done 500 km on one charge (drove 270 km and had 45% battery left). Meaning she averaged about 13 kWh per hundred Km or 7.67 km (4.76 miles) per kwh, which is very impressive, considering when I drive it's anywhere from 15 to 18 kwh/100. But I like the strong acceleration... a bit too much I guess. and I don't drive at 100 km/h either. speed kills the range.

yes, a minimal amount of planning is required.

if you want to drive straight there without long stops then you require a quick charger every 150 miles let's say, just to make sure you don't get stuck.

you don't need to do it every 150 miles, but it might make sense to stop for 15 minutes every 150 miles, or you might need to depending on how the chargers are located. (EDIT: my numbers are messed up because I am not used to thinking in miles. it wouldn't be a 15 minute charge every 150 miles. I'm used to doing small charges just to top up and combine that with a bathroom break or quick break, since 15 minutes quick charge gives me a 100 km boost)

if you have chargers every 50 miles, then you don't need to do it at 150 miles.

but I wouldn't personally go beyond 200 miles.

It's hard for me to think in miles so my numbers may be a bit off.


yes, some planning is required.
yes, it will take longer to charge than to fill up in a gas car.
no, it's not that long and it's not the end of the world.
you can combine it with a pit stop, have lunch, go to bathroom etc.

 

Always good to read the comments on the charge point app stops, in case their broken or under maintenance too.

 

if we're talking about the real NY to columbus trip, I see many chargers on plugshare.

going from columbus to NY it looks to me like the the longest distance without chargers seems to be around 100 miles, between columbus and pittsburgh and then pittsburch to hagerstown, after that plenty of chargers around.

so on that segment you could stop and charge for 15 min in cambridge, although you can also make it from columbus to pittshburgh in one go. but then for sure you need to stop in pittsburgh.

I would attempt columbus- pittsburgh -hagerstown- new york. but of course new york is big so it depends where exactly you're going.
in pittsburgh you would be down to maybe 25%. you'd have to charge to 80%. but then you might reach hagerstown at maybe 12%... which is low but this all depends on how you drive. charge again to 80% but then you need to do another stop somewhere, I think.

I would take a look at the power consumption and decide from there. You can stop to be sure, or keep going to the next one. Just have your stops mapped out.

 

No, like i edited my original message, i got messed up with kilometers and miles.

The battery is 64kwh, at 50kw charging rate you are getting 12.5 kwh in 25 minutes which is 20% of the battery so at most 100 km, if you drive nicely and keep it under 60 mph.

 

Plugshare is the best app to plan your route. In case of multiple charging options, I research Restaurants near each charger and will pick the one with better food options. If I travel with wife and kids, I may choose a charger at a Park where the kids can play. Just research what kind of things you can do around the particular charging location to kill some time.

 

Just in general: you'll find out quickly that driving style makes a huge difference on energy consumption. Even just a few mph in speed is huge. For example going 60 mph versus 65 or 70 will save you lots of electrons and will get you a lot further.

Terrain is a huge factor as well. That's where abetterrouteplanner.com comes in very handy because it factors in terrain like going uphill versus downhill.

Depending on the charging network it might make sense to stop at certain chargers. Here in Nevada they have the electric highway. You can actually fast charge for free at certain chargers. A lot of that info can be found in the comments of the chargers in Plugshare.

And help others out by checking into the chargers in the Plugshare app and share your experience so others know what to expect as well.

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I just charged the other day and I have the receipt here:

23min = 63miles
46min = 135miles
38min = 112miles

They all were at 50kW chargers which charged at 49kW.

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Always have a plan B in case of a faulty charger (rapids particularly) . I wouldn't be concerned if my plan b left me at 20% when I got there, but I'd probably slow down a bit!
Bear in mind that there is little point charging over about 80% at a rapid as the charge rate is much slower - often quicker to go to the next rapid and charge faster from a lower starting point.

 

Worst case scenario as a plan b, have your granny cable in the back. Better than being completely stranded.

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So i figured out how my girlfriend got 13 kwh/100 km

She hates AC and i hate heat. She turns it off and i set AC to the max.

Today on my way home my average halfway through my drive was 15 but i noticed that 30% was being used by AC (this was city driving portion) so i turned AC off and on the highway i went at 90 km/hr and my average in the end was 13 kwh/100 km. It would have been less if i didn't switch AC on at all.

So if you can suffer the heat and limit speed to less than 60 mph/100 km/hr then you can do more than 500 km or 300 miles on one 100% charge.

 

Sounds great, I'll leave my AC on, though. It's 43°C/110°F here in Vegas!

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Oh definitely. It's pretty much always on. Using mostly 0.6kW. but I've seen it using 1.6kW.

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Yeah, I still get more than 4.0 miles/kWh driving to and from work even with AC blowing.

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