Road trip Bakersfield to Canadian border and back

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We just returned yesterday from a holiday road trip from Bakersfield, CA to Bellingham and Blaine, WA and points between in our Bolt to visit family and see the sights. The total trip was just under 2,900 miles. We traveled mainly on Hwy 99 and the I 5 but also did side trips to Burney Falls, Shasta Lake, Crater Lake, and Anacortes. We also diverted to the Oregon and northern California coast for about 400 miles on the return trip -- a section that has only one (slow-ish 24Kw Chargepoint Express) fast charger and somewhat sparse L2 charging coverage.

It's too long to give all the details here, but the bottom line is that our Bolt performed flawlessly and did better than expected on range on all but one day (the day we battled fierce headwinds), and charging was neither as much hassle nor as time-consuming as I imagined it might be. We did a bit of planning but did not overplan or obsess about it. And we never dropped below 21% charge and only dropped below 25% two times.

The results of this trip are one reason we're seriously considering buying a second Bolt in the next year when the lease on our other current car ends.
 
Truly Impressive!

I've posted several trip reports on this forum and others of our trips in the Bolt. You can also find them on my web site. All are from Bakersfield.

I probably wouldn't have tackled that trip of yous--that's a long, long time in a Bolt. ;)

If you're interested in talking about EV progress here in Bakersfield and its environs give me a call at 661 325 9590. I just posted a piece on the new DCFC stations going in east of Bakersfield. Ollie Danner should have some news on the EV Connect stations going in Mojave and Inyokern shortly.

One question I have is how did you plan your trip? You say you did plan but you didn't obsess about it. What techniques or tools did you use?

Was this your first big EV road trip?

Paul
 
Hi Paul, We've met at some of the EV events here in town. I check you blog occasionally and have seen your posts and really appreciate the info you give.

This was our first EV road trip of more than 250 miles. We go the coast and back often, and we have traveled to Fresno and back same day, as well as to LAX and back. We were on vacation and not in a big hurry. That helped, but I was still pleasantly surprised at the progress we were able to make each day.

I used Plugshare mainly, and Google maps. For hilly areas, I would set the route in Google maps, and then ask for pedestrian directions, which gives elevation gain and loss and usually isn't a radically different route than the roadway. I never did detailed calculations on paper and I never used an EV energy app; just made sure we had enough charge and a comfortable cushion to spare.

We found the Bolt pretty comfortable even for a long trip. The seats are a little harder than most, but not bad. We did walk around during most charging breaks, which helps no matter what car one is driving.

Nice to hear about the fast chargers coming east of the valley. It will be great to be able to get to Bishop and Mammoth finally. It will also probably help with trips to Las Vegas. Hope they are installed soon.
 
hpver said:
Hi Paul, We've met at some of the EV events here in town. I check you blog occasionally and have seen your posts and really appreciate the info you give.

This was our first EV road trip of more than 250 miles. We go the coast and back often, and we have traveled to Fresno and back same day, as well as to LAX and back. We were on vacation and not in a big hurry. That helped, but I was still pleasantly surprised at the progress we were able to make each day.

I used Plugshare mainly, and Google maps. For hilly areas, I would set the route in Google maps, and then ask for pedestrian directions, which gives elevation gain and loss and usually isn't a radically different route than the roadway. I never did detailed calculations on paper and I never used an EV energy app; just made sure we had enough charge and a comfortable cushion to spare.

We found the Bolt pretty comfortable even for a long trip. The seats are a little harder than most, but not bad. We did walk around during most charging breaks, which helps no matter what car one is driving.

Nice to hear about the fast chargers coming east of the valley. It will be great to be able to get to Bishop and Mammoth finally. It will also probably help with trips to Las Vegas. Hope they are installed soon.

Thanks for the info. We've come so far that Bolt owners are taking trips just as you did. Having come from the Leaf I am in amazement that people just hop in the Bolt and drive off. Of course, that's what we want. More of our friends want a Bolt and they're on the fence while the prices are high.

Paul
 
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