In about 7 weeks, I hope to be in TX watching the total solar eclipse. The only rental vehicle I found was an EV Chevy Bolt, I plan to watch the eclipse in Kerrville - about 70 miles NW of San Antonio. I have no worries about getting there from the hotel (near San Antonio Airport). But I'm worried about the return trip to San Antonio. The traffic leaving the event will be crazy. I'll chill for a few hours in Kerrville. But it may take me 3 hrs to go 70 miles. I know regenerative breaking will help stretch some miles. Will I need a charge in the middle of the round trip? How high can I charge the battery before I leave the hotel on the day of the eclipse? Will downloading an app to find charging stations be helpful? Here are my charging options: - Type 1 at the San Antonio hotel - Kerrville has type 2 chargers but their power company requires you buy a 6 month subscription to use those chargers (for $30). - There are also stations in Boerne, TX (between San Antonio and Kerrrville). I appreciate any advice you can offer!
I know it's a let down but if you're relatively new to the EV game my advice would be to just rent an ICE vehicle and be done with it. This is going to be a special trip for a special maybe once in a iifetime event which could be spoiled by your inexperience and the spotty reliability of public chargers. And this is coming from an experienced EV user of over 7 years. If you do want to go ahead with it, use Google maps to determine the distances between all of your stops. You can also ask Gmaps to show chargers along the routes. Level one charging at the hotel will give you about 8km (5miles) per hour so you can factor that in as well. Bear in mind that others with EVs might be making this trek as well so there could be long waits at the chargers. Good luck with whatever you decide.
Your biggest enemies are speed, needing cabin heat, a working charge station, and renting a car that been fully charged. From what I'm reading, folks in Texas drive 80 miles an hour or more. That kind of speed will use up your battery. Going back in bumper-to-bumper traffic should work out to your advantage. Yes, you can charge to 100%, however charging speed will decrease a lot once you're past 80%. So DC charging is usually not worth the money or time past 80%. So moving to a 240 volt L2 charger makes more sense from 80% to 100% charge level. Plugshare is showing the chargers in Kerrville are networked to ChargePoint. So you should be able to download the ChargePoint app to your phone and pay with your ChargePoint account. https://www.chargepoint.com/drivers/mobile https://www.plugshare.com/location/382516 The trip is doable if things go right for you. Leave with a full charge and then charge again in Kerrville. I would want to carry the portable charging cable that Chevy provides for the Bolt. As you may need to charge at the RV campground in Boerne if the chargers in Kerrville are backed up or not working. If the rental company can't provide it, then you wouldn't have a backup plan. https://www.chevrolet.com/support/vehicle/engines-power/ev-charging/dual-level-charge So if you are game, then download Plugshare and ChargePoint to your phone and start your planning. Good luck! PS: If ChargePoint can provide a physical card to use, that may prove helpful if you run into issues. https://www.chargepoint.com/drivers/support/faqs/how-do-i-get-chargepoint-card One more thing, sometimes you have to lift up on the charging nozzle to get a Chevy Bolt to connect to the charging station. Once it's connected, you can let go.
