SF Bay Area to LA -- what's the best plan?

[rao_94583]

We're taking our AT for more or less its first long-distance drive tomorrow (from San Ramon to Pomona), and would like it to be as fuss-free as possible (who wouldn't?).

Starting with 100% SOC, ABRP recommends just one stop in Lost Hills, which is an EA station. But not a particularly big one, and there might be a lot of traffic on Friday evening.

Has anyone done this a lot, and has some wisdom to share? I'm happy to use non-EA stations and pay for charging, if that's less likely to be aggravating.

 

[SaratogaLefty]

You are very likely to encounter significant traffic enroute and thus the charging locations may have waiting lines. My suggestion is after around 100-150 miles start looking for EA locations on the EA App that indicate they have available chargers. If you find one make a quick stop and add back as many miles as you are willing to wait. Then do the same again after another 150 miles. Hopefully that will get you there with the least amount of stress. If you use ABRP or Plugshare you can also find non EA locations that may have better availability. Good luck and safe travels.

 

[rao_94583]

You are very likely to encounter significant traffic enroute and thus the charging locations may have waiting lines. My suggestion is after around 100-150 miles start looking for EA locations on the EA App that indicate they have available chargers. If you find one make a quick stop and add back as many miles as you are willing to wait. Then do the same again after another 150 miles. Hopefully that will get you there with the least amount of stress. If you use ABRP or Plugshare you can also find non EA locations that may have better availability. Good luck and safe travels.

Yeah, maybe stop at Kettleman City first anyway, even though I'll probably be at 50% or more then.

 

[joec]

Yeah, maybe stop at Kettleman City first anyway, even though I'll probably be at 50% or more then.

Sometimes two quick stops can be faster than one long one, for sure. Especially if there's a line at the long one.

 

[BACamster]

If you start at San Ramon with 100% SOC, you could drive to Kettleman City and charge it up to 80%-90%. If you have HA set on 80MPH on I-5 and reduce your speed up the Grapevine to speed limit, you will range LA metro without any issue.

 

[borski]

We're taking our AT for more or less its first long-distance drive tomorrow (from San Ramon to Pomona), and would like it to be as fuss-free as possible (who wouldn't?).

Starting with 100% SOC, ABRP recommends just one stop in Lost Hills, which is an EA station. But not a particularly big one, and there might be a lot of traffic on Friday evening.

Has anyone done this a lot, and has some wisdom to share? I'm happy to use non-EA stations and pay for charging, if that's less likely to be aggravating.

I would take the 5, and stop at whatever station doesn't have a line; there's a number of good ones:
1) Shell Firebaugh, on Panoche Rd.
2) Harris Ranch
3) Kettleman City
4) Raju Countryside, in Lost Hills
5) Shell in Bakersfield
6) Walmart in Santa Clarita

All of those would be fine, and I've used 5 of them lol. PlugShare gives all of those high ratings, too.

 

[hydbob]

Leave at 530, charge at kettleman, drive 75.

 

[Sandvinsd]

I would echo stopping at the first one that has availability and make two (or three) quick stops. There are two others in Santa Clarita besides the Walmart which I have also used. You do gain a significant amount of range back once you start coming back down the Grapevine into Santa Clarita. And coming I-5 southbound, there is a free fast charger at the Ft. Tejon rest area (50 kW) that many people do not know about.

 

[HariK]

Sometimes two quick stops can be faster than one long one, for sure. Especially if there's a line at the long one.

I drove many times on 680 580 I-5 and stopped two times. Started at home at 95% SoC (100 means hardly any regen) stopped at Kettleman City (10 chargers) and Walmart Santa Clarita or Walmart Burbank. During the holidays, I avoid travel or I suggest going on CA 99 instead of I 5.

 

[HariK]

Leave at 530, charge at kettleman, drive 75.

Yes. I suggest setting HA to 72 which is 70mph. Your door to door time will be better than trying to drive 75+.

 

[rao_94583]

We just got back from our trip, and I'm happy to report that it was more or less without drama.

We stopped at Kettleman City on the way out, where two of the ten stations were inoperative, and five of the remaining eight were occupied by Chevy Bolts. And there was a line of five cars. So there was a 45 minute wait. We charged again at Santa Clarita -- more from paranoia than anything else -- where there was no wait.

On the way back (413 miles, from Cerritos, via Pomona, for complicated reasons), we stopped only once in Kettleman City. Once again, two stations were broken (one looked OK, but wouldn't register a plug in), and only one was occupied by a Bolt. Very short wait time.

My observations:

• The official 384 range on my AT is just a number. Back-calculating from the average efficiency I got (3.5 kW per mile), that translates to only about 300. I had cruise set to 79, but there was too much slow traffic to do anywhere near that. Can't say I'm surprised.
• If EA had their s**t together, there would be several lower power stations in addition to the "hyper fast" ones, so that both slow and fast charging cars can be accommodated efficiently.
• About "hyper fast" -- I have never seen anywhere near the 300 kW charging rate that our cars are supposedly capable of. Starting from 18%, the best I saw on a 350 kW station was 180 kW, for a very short period. Car said "charging rate limited by station".
• I wish Lucid displayed predicted, rather than theoretical, range. My Audi e-tron GT does that, and is very accurate (and the range of that car is in reality not that much worse than my Air Touring).

Truthfully, the state of EA stations is laughably bad. Given that all of us (and every VW Group car, and possibly many others) are charging for free, I don't think they have any incentive to make the service any better. I used to think that they'd get better once there were more VW/Audi/Porsches on the road, but the EA-VW connection appears to be tenuous or non-existent. VW has complied with the letter of the law (of the Dieselgate settlement) but the state of the network warrants a class-action lawsuit, IMO.

 

[sbr41]

• About "hyper fast" -- I have never seen anywhere near the 300 kW charging rate that our cars are supposedly capable of. Starting from 18%, the best I saw on a 350 kW station was 180 kW, for a very short period. Car said "charging rate limited by station".

FYI - max charging on AT and AP is 250kW. I was able to get >200kW only when SOC was <10%.

 

[hydbob]

We just got back from our trip, and I'm happy to report that it was more or less without drama.

We stopped at Kettleman City on the way out, where two of the ten stations were inoperative, and five of the remaining eight were occupied by Chevy Bolts. And there was a line of five cars. So there was a 45 minute wait. We charged again at Santa Clarita -- more from paranoia than anything else -- where there was no wait.

On the way back (413 miles, from Cerritos, via Pomona, for complicated reasons), we stopped only once in Kettleman City. Once again, two stations were broken (one looked OK, but wouldn't register a plug in), and only one was occupied by a Bolt. Very short wait time.

My observations:

• The official 384 range on my AT is just a number. Back-calculating from the average efficiency I got (3.5 kW per mile), that translates to only about 300. I had cruise set to 79, but there was too much slow traffic to do anywhere near that. Can't say I'm surprised.
• If EA had their s**t together, there would be several lower power stations in addition to the "hyper fast" ones, so that both slow and fast charging cars can be accommodated efficiently.
• About "hyper fast" -- I have never seen anywhere near the 300 kW charging rate that our cars are supposedly capable of. Starting from 18%, the best I saw on a 350 kW station was 180 kW, for a very short period. Car said "charging rate limited by station".
• I wish Lucid displayed predicted, rather than theoretical, range. My Audi e-tron GT does that, and is very accurate (and the range of that car is in reality not that much worse than my Air Touring).

Truthfully, the state of EA stations is laughably bad. Given that all of us (and every VW Group car, and possibly many others) are charging for free, I don't think they have any incentive to make the service any better. I used to think that they'd get better once there were more VW/Audi/Porsches on the road, but the EA-VW connection appears to be tenuous or non-existent. VW has complied with the letter of the law (of the Dieselgate settlement) but the state of the network warrants a class-action lawsuit, IMO.

Can almost guarantee you if they had like...100kw stations you would still see bolts on 350s. I've talk to quite a few Bolt owners who were upset they were only pulling 50kw off a 150 station...

 

[DeaneG]

We'll always see a ton of Bolts at charging stations because there are a ton of them, and they need to charge frequently. Far fewer Airs for exactly the same reasons.

 

[rao_94583]

We'll always see a ton of Bolts at charging stations because there are a ton of them, and they need to charge frequently. Far fewer Airs for exactly the same reasons.

They have pretty decent range (248 miles?) but they charge very slowly.

I have to say -- we really didn't see that many EVs at all on I-5. The Bay Area is overrun with them, especially Teslas, but I think people still prefer to drive their ICEs on long trips.

 

[ViperSSD]

We like to do a jaunt down from the Bay Area to Santa Clarita the night before, stay there and then head down into LA the next day. Works well since we can get the kids in their pajamas and they just sleep in the car.
I have noticed that the charging curve in our cars could really use some work from Lucid. I think they went very conservative, peak charge rate is basically not sustained but linearly decreases almost immediately.

 

[t12g]

I have to say -- we really didn't see that many EVs at all on I-5. The Bay Area is overrun with them, especially Teslas, but I think people still prefer to drive their ICEs on long trips.

I had the misfortune of having to deal with this rage inducing EA non-sense recently. Given the current sorry state, sticking with ICE cars or Teslas seems to be the rational move.

 

[DeaneG]

I had the misfortune of having to deal with this rage inducing EA non-sense recently. Given the current sorry state, sticking with ICE cars or Teslas seems to be the rational move.

We just avoid traveling during major holidays. Pretty much any mode of transport will be stressed and stressful.

 

[Negan1000]

R/T LA to SF for Christmas. 1 hour wait at Kettleman City the Saturday before Christmas. Return yesterday was perfect. No wait at Harris Ranch. Had lunch the car was charged.

 

[phantomias]

Did anyone try 101 route? How is the waiting time compared to I-5?