Best Practices for Road Trips

[DeaneG]

Since many on this forum are new to EVs, I thought I'd start a thread about best practices for smooth, fast EV road trips. It's a completely different approach from taking a road trip in a gas car, where you typically drive until you have 1/4 tank remaining, then look for a gas station, then fill the tank (100%).

1) Preplan your trip using A Better Route Planner (ABRP) while choosing stops, hotels, etc. Set ABRP to a departure charge level of 90% from your home, and a final destination arrival charge level of your choice (15%-80%). Use Plugshare and the Electrify America app to assess the status and reliability of the chargers you plan to use along the way.

2) Aim to arrive at each charging stop with only 10-20% charge remaining, and charge only as much as needed to arrive at the next charging stop with this SOC. Charging is far faster at the "bottom of the battery" than the top. Avoid charging over 70% on a long trip, it'll just slow you down. You can experiment with this on the ABRP website or phone app to see the effect of fewer longer charging stops vs frequent shorter stops on overall trip time. It's not intuitive for first time EV owners.

3) [Added] Precondition your battery about 30 minutes before you arrive the charger.

4) If you have trouble getting a charge started at an EA site, call the number on the charging pedestal. They answer quickly and are generally quite helpful. I was surprised.

5) Bring disinfecting wipes to handle the CCS connector. You'd be surprised what comes off on the wipe. It's also handy to bring a spray bottle of Invisible Glass and a roll or paper towels.

Others please chime in!

 

[MPawelek]

Some have reported that the EA chargers will not start sometimes until you re-boot the Air after plugging in. No one knows the reason yet….

 

[hydbob]

Also, if Plug & Charge doesn't work and the station asks for billing, you can initiate the charge through the Lucid App/ Charging screen/ Electrify America button/ enter station # and it should work!

 

[DeaneG]

And note that if you have no mobile data at your charging location, the EA app won't work at all. It will give you a login error. You may be able to use the app by turning on data roaming on your phone. If you have a mobile voice signal though, calling EA to initiate a charge will still work.

 

[GEWC]

Also, if Plug & Charge doesn't work and the station asks for billing, you can initiate the charge through the Lucid App/ Charging screen/ Electrify America button/ enter station # and it should work!

I've used 3 of the 4 chargers at my local EA and each one is different! One I had to input the charger number through the Lucid app, one needed me to click "yes" on its screen and one just went ahead on its own.

 

[hydbob]

And note that if you have no mobile data at your charging location, the EA app won't work at all. It will give you a login error. You may be able to use the app by turning on data roaming on your phone. If you have a mobile voice signal though, calling EA to initiate a charge will still work.

Shouldn't every location with an EA have mobile data since the EA station uses cell to authenticate your payment?

 

[DeaneG]

Shouldn't every location with an EA have mobile data since the EA station uses cell to authenticate your payment?

I thought so too, but my (Verizon carrier) phone showed "roaming" with a very weak signal at EA site "One Log House" outside Garberville CA. I thought this meant that EA's app should work, but since I had roaming data turned off (need to research that), my phone had no data signal, and the app errored out. The credit card pad on the charger also refused my perfectly good credit card. Fortunately there was enough signal to place a voice call. Interestingly the EA CSR I spoke with was able to start the charging session remotely - EA must be using the mobile carrier my that phone was "roaming" to. My backup plan was a 50kW chargepoint at the nearby Benbow Inn.

 

[Demosthenes]

Since many on this forum are new to EVs, I thought I'd start a thread about best practices for smooth, fast EV road trips. It's a completely different approach from taking a road trip in a gas car, where you typically drive until you have 1/4 tank remaining, then look for a gas station, then fill the tank (100%).

1) Preplan your trip using A Better Route Planner (ABRP) while choosing stops, hotels, etc. Set ABRP to a departure charge level of 90% from your home, and a final destination arrival charge level of your choice (15%-80%). Use Plugshare and the Electrify America app to assess the status and reliability of the chargers you plan to use along the way.

2) Aim to arrive at each charging stop with only 10-20% charge remaining, and charge only as much as needed to arrive at the next charging stop with this SOC. Charging is far faster at the "bottom of the battery" than the top. Avoid charging over 70% on a long trip, it'll just slow you down. You can experiment with this on the ABRP website or phone app to see the effect of fewer longer charging stops vs frequent shorter stops on overall trip time. It's not intuitive for first time EV owners.

3) If you have trouble getting a charge started at an EA site, call the number on the charging pedestal. They answer quickly and are generally quite helpful. I was surprised.

4) Bring disinfecting wipes to handle the CCS connector. You'd be surprised what comes off on the wipe. It's also handy to bring a spray bottle of Invisible Glass and a roll or paper towels.

Others please chime in!

Thanks for this! I think it’s useful advice, especially keeping somewhat to the bottom of the battery to save time. From 0-50% with a preconditioned battery and at a level 2 charger, seems pretty easy to add 10-15 mi/minute charging speed.

 

[DeaneG]

One lesson learned is to turn on data roaming on my cell phone so I don't get caught out at an EA charger again. My network != EA's network.