real world range: Tahoe (15 deg f) to Bay Area (50 deg f)

[Bbq9]

I wanted to provide update on our recent trip to the snow. while it turns out there was too much snow, and wind, we still had a fantastic holiday break.

One of the deciding factors for us in buying the Lucid was its range, and in particular we wanted to be able to go from the bay area, to tahoe without charging, even for those horrible trips where you get stuck in a storm, and with the cold having an impact on range.
so this winter was our first test (our third road trip - first was Bay Area to Scottsdale, second to Bend, Or).
Normally the car runs 21" wheels - but as hopefully you all know - the SUMMER tyres are brittle below 40 deg f - so I borrowed a set of 19s from Millbrae (thank you) - which was rather timely since we had just had the stone incident which tore a whole in the side of the 21".
Like all owners, I had signed the "WILL NOT USE Snow Chains" waiver, and so I bought some Snow Socks from amazon that fit both the 19 and 20" tyres. https://a.co/d/0pKTRPg I did not use them, so guarantees, do your own research etc etc etc.

The journey is 225 miles, flattestroute.com shows 2/3rda is flat as a pancake + a big Hill.
We left the Bay Area @94% charge, Nav suggested we’d arrive @24%. Historically I have been cynical with the estimated SOC, as there is little transparency on how it is calculated, or if it recognises the elevation change.

Event free journey - I used ACC (not Highway assist) for the FLAT part of the journey, but went manual for the hill - taking every advantage of the passing lanes - only hit 100 once. Average speed while on ACC was 78mph. Going up ”the hill” was between 50-70, with bursts for the passing lanes.

We stopped at Placerville, for the family to get refueled. Took advantage of EA @ Bank of America / added 10% while we sorted out snacks. There are FOUR EA chargers here, 2 were in use, the 350w was black screen / non-responsive, and the 4th one was ours. Easy recharge about 60 seconds off route 50.

We rolled into South Lake Tahoe @30% SOC, Average Miles/kWh of 3.0, which means that initial estimate of 24% (24+10%) was a bit keen, perhaps 3-4% over reality. This could have been my overtaking maneuvers or the cold (it was around 30 deg f when we arrived)

regardless, pleased with 3.0m/kWh when you consider a net gain of >6000’ (peaking over 7000’)

I recharged to 80% that evening in again at Bank of America. The first 350w didnt work, it authenticated just fine, but the car “stopped charging” almost immediately after.
I moved to a second station and all was good. Nobody else was there.

To be continued…

 

[Bbq9]

Part 2

West bound
SOC is now 70%, temperature is 15 deg f.

Decided to not charge until closer to the bay - more options - and according to ABRP and the car, there was no need to charge.
ABRP suggested we would arrive with 14% SOC.

The start was way slower - seems a lot of people were frightened of the 3’ of snow in the middle of the road. We crawled out of town at maybe 15 mph !! The car was beautifully well behaved, the clearance was an issue, particularly in car parks and drive ways (when we dropped off the skis I could hear the crunch as I cleaned the top inch or three off the ice & snow between the tyres). Still an easy relaxed start - even if slower than I wanted.
Again, I drove “au natural“ up n over “the hill”, and resumed ACC in the flats. We dodged the rain and had a smooth trouble free journey, average speed was again set at 78 in the flats.
We rolled into Mountain View to pick up the cats with 15% SOC. X
225miles - 57 kWh used = 3.947 miles/kWh

I was very pleased with this - it was ultimately one of the deciding factors in buying the car - was the ability to do this journey in any weather without stopping for a forced charge.
EA was available - but with only 4 stations it really is going to be a pain for those that HAVE to stop on this journey.

while near 4.0 miles / kWh is better than I have ever had on a roadtrip I appreciate most of this was due to “the hill” and gravity with a net elevation loss of over 6000’.

interestingly the 600+ miles on 19” wheels I averaged 3.3m/kWh … versus 9000+ miles on 21s I have averaged 3.2m/kWh. I expected this to be a bigger delta. According to Millbrae, I am not the first to has made this observation.

three roadtrips - totally different - and every time the car (and to be honest EA) have performed. The car has been the shining star, EA not quite so shiny

 

[Slam08]

Thanks for posting. Glad to see the range held up!

 

[phantomias]

Thank you for the details!

“interestingly the 600+ miles on 19” wheels I averaged 3.3m/kWh … versus 9000+ miles on 21s I have averaged 3.2m/kWh. I expected this to be a bigger delta. According to Millbrae, I am not the first to has made this observation.”

Question: Did Lucid reset the TPMS when they replaced your tires to 19 inches for this trip? If so, these are really excellent results!

 

[Bbq9]

Thank you for the details!

“interestingly the 600+ miles on 19” wheels I averaged 3.3m/kWh … versus 9000+ miles on 21s I have averaged 3.2m/kWh. I expected this to be a bigger delta. According to Millbrae, I am not the first to has made this observation.”

Question: Did Lucid reset the TPMS when they replaced your tires to 19 inches for this trip? If so, these are really excellent results!

They did not have time to make the adjustment, so the range vs % would report slight low (Eg deliver better than estimated)

However my calculation (for west bound) was based on miles and kwh. And so the miles / kwh should be correct regardless if the estimate soc / range based on soc is slightly off.

The east bound I mistakenly used %soc rather than actual mileage. The average miles/kwh again should be fine regardless of 19 or not since it is a simple mile/energy calc.

So, I believe this 3.95 is correct independent of wheel size (but happy to be educated)

 

[noobzilla]

Do you know your mi/kwh before hitting Placerville from the Bay Area? I'm curious what the mi/kwh is uphill from Placerville to Tahoe.

I had a recent 130mi trip on mostly flat and got 3.3mi/kwh at 50F with my Pure. 2.9mi/kwh on freeway avg 83mph. How fast were you driving on the freeway?

 

[wux]

Thanks for posting. Glad to see the range held up!

Hi, Slam08. I saw you often on I-pace forums. Are you getting a lucid? I have a Pure order and want to be able to take longer trips than what we can with I-pace. But some readings here suggest that charging system (like EA) is not reliable enough for Lucid to do that. Seems Tesla is the best (and maybe only) EV option now for long trips. Thinking to order a Y for now while waiting as the current $20000 saving on Y over last year's price is tempting. What do you think?

 

[joec]

Seems Tesla is the best (and maybe only) EV option now for long trips.

I really, really hate this perception. Not blaming the poster, because who could blame them when there’s so much complaining about EA here, but this notion that only Teslas can do road trips is nonsense. There are plenty of chargers beyond EA at your disposal when you have a standard charging port. And there are plenty of folks here who have done many successful road trips in other cars.

The only reason to favor EA in an Air is that it’s “free” for a while. Tesla is super stingy about giving away free charging these days. (They may give you some miles, but they will expire in a few months time.) So if you are going to compare with the supercharger network, which you will have to pay for, then you have to combine EA, EVGo, Volta, ChargePoint and so on, as all of those are available to you in the Air.

I’m sure there are parts of the country where one is better than the other, but there are few spots where you simply can’t do the trip in one but not the other.

 

[Steveinarizona]

OP: thanks for two terrific posts. I am very impressed given the weather and elevation changes!

 

[Lucken]

The only reason to favor EA in an Air is that it’s “free” for a while. Tesla is super stingy about giving away free charging these days. (They may give you some miles, but they will expire in a few months time.) So if you are going to compare with the supercharger network, which you will have to pay for, then you have to combine EA, EVGo, Volta, ChargePoint and so on, as all of those are available to you in the Air.

I’m sure there are parts of the country where one is better than the other, but there are few spots where you simply can’t do the trip in one but not the other.

Joe, in many parts of the country the major reason to select EA is because they are the most prolific (or only) supplier of 150kW & 350kW chargers. In fact in NY, I’ve yet to see a charger other than an EA charger that can deliver these speeds. I barely consider the EVGo 50kW chargers ‘high speed’.

I know in some parts of the country some are lucky and have other choices, but in many areas it’s EA for high speed or nothin.

 

[joec]

Joe, in many parts of the country the major reason to select EA is because they are the most prolific (or only) supplier of 150kW & 350kW chargers. In fact in NY, I’ve yet to see a charger other than an EA charger that can deliver these speeds. I barely consider the EVGo 50kW chargers ‘high speed’.

I know in some parts of the country some are lucky and have other choices, but in many areas it’s EA for high speed or nothin.

Yeah. You’re right. How silly of me. It is impossible to do road trips with any car other than a Tesla. This is proven fact and cannot be disputed.

Just don’t tell that to all those folks buying other EVs for more than a decade, road-tripping with them every weekend. They clearly are doing that in another dimension, or something.

 

[Lucken]

Yeah. You’re right. How silly of me. It is impossible to do road trips with any car other than a Tesla. This is proven fact and cannot be disputed.

Just don’t tell that to all those folks buying other EVs for more than a decade, road-tripping with them every weekend. They clearly are doing that in another dimension, or something.

Joe, seriously, where did I say you couldn’t do road trips in cars other than a Tesla? Have I done road trips in EVs? Yes. Have I owned a Tesla in the last 3 years? No.

My comment was simply to point out that free EA charging is not the only reason to select EA high speed chargers and I explained why. Availability of other high speed (150-300kW) can be scarce to non-existent. So you may be stuck with only 50kW speeds.

 

[Drendino]

Yeah. You’re right. How silly of me. It is impossible to do road trips with any car other than a Tesla. This is proven fact and cannot be disputed.

Just don’t tell that to all those folks buying other EVs for more than a decade, road-tripping with them every weekend. They clearly are doing that in another dimension, or something.

@joec, I don’t think he said or inferred that Tesla is the only car that you can road trip with.

Let’s be honest, Lucid hitched their wagon to EA’s star, which has turned out to be an absolute debacle. Yes, there are other charging options, but none of them provide the speed and convenience that EA promised. Unfortunately, this is a real consideration for those deciding on what EV to buy. At this point, EA is probably helping Elon sell to a lot of Teslas.

 

[joec]

Joe, seriously, where did I say you couldn’t do road trips in cars other than a Tesla? Have I done road trips in EVs? Yes. Have I owned a Tesla in the last 3 years? No.

My comment was simply to point out that free EA charging is not the only reason to select EA chargers and I explained why.

Your comment was yet another in a long series of knee jerk reactions where you can’t simply let someone make a point with facts and leave it be. Instead you have to find some minuscule sub point to be contrarian about and thus turn anything others say into some sort of debate.

My comment was a simple statement: you can in fact take road trips with other cars, and the constant complaints here about EA are giving others the incorrect perception that you can’t. That was it. That was my whole point.

Can you refute those simple facts? No. So why do you need to respond at all?

 

[joec]

@joec, I don’t think he said or inferred that Tesla is the only car that you can road trip with.

Let’s be honest, Lucid hitched their wagon to EA’s star, which has turned out to be an absolute debacle. Yes, there are other charging options, but none of them provide the speed and convenience that EA promised. Unfortunately, this is a real consideration for those deciding on what EV to buy. At this point, EA is probably helping Elon sell to a lot of Teslas.

Is it possible to take road trips with a car that is not a Tesla? Simple question. Your answer is yes. Everyone’s answer is yes. This is not a debatable fact.

That was my only point. It was not an invitation to have a debate about why people choose EA. Or to get into a whole other argument about how screwed up EA is.

There is a zero percent chance anyone reading this forum for more than ten minutes doesn’t know EA has issues. So what are we adding by talking about that yet again for another 90 posts? And furthermore what do people like you gain from having to shove that into anyone’s face whenever they try to make a simple point that is barely tangentially related?

 

[Lucken]

I simply responded to give a more rounded picture of road-tripping based on 5+ years of experience with 4 EVs and their associated chargers. I did not consider it a ‘minuscule point’ and I thought it important to clarify why I didn’t think there was only 1 reason to consider EA chargers.

Again, of course you can make a road trip in a non-Tesla EV. I don’t refute it and never did.

 

[Tesla2.0]

Seems Tesla is the best (and maybe only) EV option now for long trips.

Tesla supercharging stations often wait in long line and frustration like this regardless of abundance…

Tesla supercharger confrontation | This man is ready to die over a charging spot! 🤬 | By Daily Mail | Facebook

This man is ready to die over a charging spot! 🤬

fb.watch

I have recently made 1900 miles road trip with no catastrophic EA issue, I was mentally prepared to use other network, but still all my DC Fast charging on that road trip was all EA except 1 instance.

https://lucidowners.com/threads/dc-fast-charging-adventure-from-so-cal-to-east-texas.4551/

 

[Tâm]

Tesla supercharging stations often wait in long line and frustration like this regardless of abundance…

Tesla supercharger confrontation | This man is ready to die over a charging spot! 🤬 | By Daily Mail | Facebook

This man is ready to die over a charging spot! 🤬

fb.watch

I remember this video very well when there were very few Superchargers around this place in Main Place Mall, Santa Ana, CA. It's shortly after 2016. At that time, the next closest one would be 13 miles away in Fountain Valley, CA.

Now there are so many only a few miles from it:

5 miles north of it: Anaheim Stadium with 16 stalls
4 miles south of it: Tustin-Red Hill with 12 stalls
5 miles south of it: Tustin-Flight Way with 12 stalls
6 miles south of it: Tustin-Kensington with 8 stalls

and so on...

 

[Tesla2.0]

I remember this video very well when there were very few Superchargers around this place in Main Place Mall, Santa Ana, CA. It's shortly after 2016. At that time, the next closest one would be 13 miles away in Fountain Valley, CA.

Now there are so many only a few miles from it:

5 miles north of it: Anaheim Stadium with 16 stalls
4 miles south of it: Tustin-Red Hill with 12 stalls
5 miles south of it: Tustin-Flight Way with 12 stalls
6 miles south of it: Tustin-Kensington with 8 stalls

and so on...

My last 2 road trips with Turo Tesla was similar story. But it was in Texas in 2021 and 2020, I’m sure Tesla has been constantly improving its supercharging network. I’ve seen them in Bucci stations.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

I like that @joec is pushing back against the "but it's not perfect" vibe. It's not any person or point of view in particular...it's just keeping the balance. Thanks to joec and all the fanboys here. Here's my contribution: I have never had a problem with EA. Always open and always starts charging as soon as I press "continue". It seems everywhere I go the EA chargers are open and working perfectly. Sigh.

Bbq9 thanks for that excellent post.