Kona EV Road Trip: Bakersfield to Vegas

Discussion in 'Hyundai' started by Kevin Gilmore, Jul 14, 2021.

To remove this ad click here.

  1. Kevin Gilmore

    Kevin Gilmore New Member

    I'm looking at making my first long-distance road trip from Bakersfield to Las Vegas in my Kona EV. Has anybody made the trip with any tips to share?

    With the AC on, I'm averaging between 3.2 and 3.4 in freeway driving. I'm not sure what to expect with the three big climbs on this trip. Also don't know how the desert heat will affect range and charging times.

    I'd appreciate any advice/tips from those who have made the trip (in a Kona or other EV).

    Thanks!
     
  2. To remove this ad click here.

  3. mdpEV123

    mdpEV123 New Member

    I haven’t made that exact trip in my Kona EV but I did LA to 10,000 ft at Horseshoe Meadow campground (Eastern Sierra above Lone Pine). Began in LA with a full 260 mile charge but I knew I wouldn’t get that much with the uphill climb and the heat. Drove without AC as long as I could but I probably had it on within an hour. I think my real world range dropped to 2.8 miles per Kw (max speed set to 80mph)

    Stopped once at an Electrify America station @ Coso Junction. L3 charge to 80% for about 36 minutes in very hot weather. The fan came on within a minute of starting that session.

    Parked at 10,000 ft with 105 miles of range left (don’t quote me but efficiency dropped to ~2 miles/kw on this steeper climb).

    4 days later the car still had 104 miles range, as I’m sure it charged the 12v. By the time I coasted downhill and got to Hwy 395 again I had recaptured enough downhill energy to be at 125 mile range.

    There’s an ok amount of charging stations in that “DC Safety Corridor” given how little is out there, but I’m sure your ABRP App gets you the best plan. It does get a little iffy when you try to maximize your charging efficiency, trying to arrive at your charging station with a relatively low charge, ideally 20-30 miles left. A lot of times you’ll probably end up charging when you still have 50-80 miles of range left and it’s safer to stop one more time for a half hour charge.

    You definitely get to points where you’d be SoL if the station you intended wasn’t working for some reason. You may barely have enough charge left to get to an adjacent station. I will say both stations I used (including the Denny’s in Mojave) worked fine and had all charging stations open. It surprised me how few EVs were out there but I’m sure range anxiety is an issue.

    Obviously limit your speed to 70-75mph if you want better range, but honestly the slower right hand speeds are not ideal on some of the 2 lane highways out there.

    Next time I’ll also try to leave earlier in the morning since heat definitely takes down efficiency.
     

Share This Page