Educate me - charging in Washington state, Oregon, California

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Does anyone know how to change the odometer to read in miles? Mine is in km, which is best for Canada, but I would like to change it to miles while I am in USA. I have found a way to show mph on the speedometer (in addition to kph) but no luck so far with the odometer. My old honda had a button to press for this, lol.

RFID cards should all be in my hands tomorrow! I'll update at the end of my trip.
 
C02less said:
Does anyone know how to change the odometer to read in miles? Mine is in km, which is best for Canada, but I would like to change it to miles while I am in USA. I have found a way to show mph on the speedometer (in addition to kph) but no luck so far with the odometer. My old honda had a button to press for this, lol.

RFID cards should all be in my hands tomorrow! I'll update at the end of my trip.
Click to expand...

This is the “general” forum, so you’ll want to specify which vehicle you are driving. It will differ from model to model.


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
C02less said:
And one more thought: if we really wanted to make EVs more common all the government would have to do is make paying for gas as complicated and slow as EV charging. I can dream, can't I? :)
Click to expand...

Indeed. Not only for switching to EV, but make gas flow out of the pump at 1 litre per minute, and people will suddenly start to care about fuel consumption.
 
C02less said:
Hi All,

I am planning my first American road trip from my home in British Columbia through Washington state, Oregon, and California. My car is a 2021 Kona EV so I am looking for CCS or J1772 connectors. The charging networks will all be new to me so I am looking for some advice:
- What are the most common, useful and reliable networks in these states?
- Which networks accept credit cards? Which accept RFID cards? And which are only activated with an app (apps are my least preferred method).
- Back in the day when I used to burn fossil fuels (ugh!) I needed a zip code to pay at the pump, but Canadians don't have a zip code, so this was problematic. Am I likely to encounter a similar problem if I use a credit card at an EV charger?

Thanks in advance for your recommendations!
Click to expand...
When I travelled with my motorhome in the US, I used my Canadian credit card. When responding to a ZIP code, enter the three numbers from your postal code, and add two 0’s. Works like a charm.
 
Although I have not driven our Kona EV in BC, Canada, I have driven our 2021 Kona all over Washington, Oregon and California. I've had much better success with Electrify America and if you sign up for a $4 month membership, it knocks most charges down to $.31 per kwh. The app works much better than Credit card. There are also many places you can charge for free traveling up and down the West coast. Plug Share is the only one you can filter to catch this reliability. Some of these free places have stopped offering free charging but it is worth a review on Plug share. We have charged for free at the Sierra Nevada brewery near chico, CA. Even charged at a senior center in Temecula, Ca. Most of the free chargers are J1772 and will take a while to charge. The DC Fast Free we found mostly to be ChargePoint as the owners can set their own prices. Our biggest find was that since we were staying in Motels most of the time, we just stayed each night in Motels that had "FREE" charging. Some say they do and some say it and do not.... we called for reservations and asked. It was great most the time and we left in the morning with 100% charge.
Be careful when traveling into the central or eastern parts of these states. There are few chargers and with 256 miles of range, you could get in trouble if you don't plan. We traveled once from Burns, OR to Boise, ID because there were no chargers on the entire root. We made it but just barely. An adventure but not worth the stress.
 
C02less said:
Hi All,

I am planning my first American road trip from my home in British Columbia through Washington state, Oregon, and California. My car is a 2021 Kona EV so I am looking for CCS or J1772 connectors. The charging networks will all be new to me so I am looking for some advice:
- What are the most common, useful and reliable networks in these states?
- Which networks accept credit cards? Which accept RFID cards? And which are only activated with an app (apps are my least preferred method).
- Back in the day when I used to burn fossil fuels (ugh!) I needed a zip code to pay at the pump, but Canadians don't have a zip code, so this was problematic. Am I likely to encounter a similar problem if I use a credit card at an EV charger?

Thanks in advance for your recommendations!
Click to expand...

I was also wondering about wifi at charging stations. Do most stations have wifi. With all of the station having an app for travel from Canada to the US we might get charged with high data charges. Wifi is a must to use the app but do the stations have them



Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
My trip is complete, and here's what I learned and want to share with other west coast road-trippers.

First of all, I was very impressed with the availability and quality of chargers in Washington, Oregon and N California. A little thin in the eastern part of these states but still better than in many parts of Canada. Lots of chargers near the coast, generally. Chargers were often located in places that were OK to spend time in, unlike our infamous truck stop chargers in Canada. In all my travels I never once had a charger quit on my halfway through charging which was a nice surprise.

Hotels: Like GeorgeS says above many hotels have J1772 or Tesla destination chargers. Hotel chargers may not be visible on plugshare so call ahead. It's good to carry a Tesla to J1772 adapter since most hotels have too many tesla chargers and not enough J1772.

Shell recharge: RFID card worked perfectly every time. Order the RFID card a month before you go. They will ship it to Canada.

Chargepoint: RFID card worked perfectly every time. Have the RFID card shipped to an American address if you are Canadian. Chargepoint won't ship an RFID card to Canada, they only say they will.

Electrify America: Lots of these around. You pay by credit card but often the card reader didn't work. So it's a 5 minute delay to call the toll free number and get EA to start it. EA provided a free charge when this happened. Unfortunately no RFID card is available.

EVGO: RFID card showed up the day after I got home, nearly two months after I ordered it and tree failed attempts at shipping it to Canadian and American addresses. So I never charged with them. What a bunch of clowns.

EVSE: Were offering free charging with their app, so I decided to try it. Technical difficulties on EVSE's end prevented the app from working after multiple calls to their support line. Again, clowns.

Conclusion: Hotels, EA, Chargepoint and Shell gave me more options that I really needed. EVSE and EVGO weren't missed.

Tip: use the filters on plugshare to remove the charging networks you don't have access to.

Comment: I am bumfuzzled that charging networks who spend millions on their infrastructure can't figure out easy, reliable methods for payment to recover their investment. Is it that hard to put a card in the mail or get a credit card point of sale machine to work? I predict that the charging networks that become dominant will be the ones that work reliably and get paid painlessly. Networks need to realize they are selling a service, not a product, so service level is important. This comment applies to Canada as well.
 
Update: an EVGO rfid card arrived in yesterday's mail. So they do ship RFIDs to Canada. Just request one two months before your trip (don't believe the 5-7 business days EVGO will tell you).

Also for Canadians travelling to the US: Rogers has a good smart phone plan: $Cdn55/month for 20GB plus unlimited talk and text in Canada and US with no roaming fees. Cell service was sometimes sketchy in more rural areas, but it had just enough reception to make my calls, use plugshare, and have Google navigate for me. Cheaper and simpler than buying a new SIM in US, and you get to port your own number. Worked for me.
 
C02less said:
Hi All,

I am planning my first American road trip from my home in British Columbia through Washington state, Oregon, and California. My car is a 2021 Kona EV so I am looking for CCS or J1772 connectors. The charging networks will all be new to me so I am looking for some advice:
- What are the most common, useful and reliable networks in these states?
- Which networks accept credit cards? Which accept RFID cards? And which are only activated with an app (apps are my least preferred method).
- Back in the day when I used to burn fossil fuels (ugh!) I needed a zip code to pay at the pump, but Canadians don't have a zip code, so this was problematic. Am I likely to encounter a similar problem if I use a credit card at an EV charger?

Thanks in advance for your recommendations!
Click to expand...

Hello, I recently founded a company to create co2e tracking tools for EV owners. Would you be interested in being involved in a study to track co2e generation resulting from charging off different parts of the U.S. grid?

Alex
 
Hi Alex,
My journey through the US is done so I can't help you, but maybe there would be others interested in your C02e tracking tool. I suggest starting a new thread so your request doesn't get hidden here.
FYI - back home in Canada most electricity grids are organized by province. BC, Manitoba, and some other provinces (Quebec?) use clean hydro; while Saskatchewan and Alberta use some fossil fuels to generate electricity. So your software may also be of use to Canadians.
All the best!
Knoa.
 
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