WetEV
Well-known member
A road trip with an EV is somewhat different than a road trip with an ICE car. Taking an EV on a trip beyond the range of the car takes some planning and some new knowledge. Once you have done it a few times, it will be easier. It is not as easy as driving an ICE long distance. BEVs are easier in daily driving, but not as easy on longer trips.
I don't know enough about the Bolt to make this anything close to a complete guide. This is a sketch from a Leaf driver that has done some longer trips. There are people with more and different experience. Will be interesting to read their thoughts.
For the Bolt: CCS (DC quick charge or DCQC) stations are not yet all that common, even on the coast. L2 stations are nice for long stops, like overnight. Can't use Tesla Superchargers or Chademo stations. L1 or 120V is way slow. Camping or to recover from disaster. If you did a lot of camping, a RV plugs charging cables and adaptors might be worth buying...
Some resources:
1) http://www.plugshare.com/
This is a crowd sourced map showing most charging stations, can be filtered by types (CCS and L2 for Bolt) in settings. Checking out the most recent comments for each stop can be very useful.
2) AV, Blink, Chargepoint, EVgo, Lecircuitelectrique, Semicharge, Greenlots, etc. That's a partial list.
Get access in advance with the correct cards/fobs/cellphone apps for places you might stop at.
3) Learn some of the planning tools:
a) Greenrace http://www.jurassictest.ch/GR/
Metric only, kinda funky, easy to use, accuracy isn't the best especially with a car not released yet, but isn't very far off for some older cars, best of all can hack details to make accuracy better if you want, already (kinda!) supports the Bolt. I use this more for "fun" planning than for real trips.
b) EV Trip Planner https://evtripplanner.com/index.php
Telsa centric, but the college student(!) running this has added in the Leaf, and will add in more cars if you send enough accurate and detailed trip reports to him. He likes donations as well (I've donated). Accuracy has improved. Charging time isn't even close to accurate for non-Tesla cars, doesn't consider Chademo and CCS at all. Can write out a spreadsheet and modify to more closely match the Bolt (next item).
c) Spreadsheets.
Yes, geeky, messy and engineer centric. But that is me, and I suspect a few others. I start with the EV Trip Planner output spreadsheet. I'll provide an example later.
4) Rough non-specific trip plans:
a) Most trips don't need a plan, as they are well in range. This is true for even for 80 mile range BEVs. Unlike ICE cars, you don't need to plan in refueling stops for local travel, only for longer trips. This is the BEV sweet zone.
b) Suppose you are taking a trip that is close to car range. Might have a problem if cold/snow/wind/rain or other complications use more battery than expected. On a trip like this, I suggest you pick a point near a charging station past the half way point and work out in advance how much charge you need at that point to get home safely with a margin or reserve in bad conditions. If you don't have enough when you get to the checkpoint, stop and charge until you have enough. Just be prudent. Better with a BEV.
c) Suppose you are taking a trip that is past the car's range, but not a lot past the car's range. Plan for a charging stop near the half way point. Try for a stop that has something else to do other than wait for the car to charge. Eat lunch. Or breakfast or dinner. Shop. Coffee. Hike a trail. Frisbee in a park. Know how full the car needs to be to make it to your destination with a margin or reserve, leave when you have it. Still can be better with the BEV trip, but not always, and not by as much.
d) Trips requiring multiple charging stops. Ask yourself if you really can't go another way. Take the train, take the Prius, fly, rent an ICE. Will take more time. May spend more on charging than you would for gasoline.
Best general plan to drive until you are near 15%, then CCS charge to near 65%. Exact points would depend on things I don't know, such as taper rate of CCS charging in the Bolt. If there is a more robust network of charging stations, could go to lower state of charge. Of course, charging stations are not exactly where you want them, there is often only one at each location, and the station might be down or busy. You need a plan as to where to charge, and at what charge to leave each station. I suggest you also plan on what to do if the planned charging station(s) is occupied or broken. Wait for the car already there to finish? What if two cars are there? When to fall back to L2 and take the time hit? When to drive to the next CCS? Don't want to arrive at anyplace too empty to have a fallback plan or better two.
5) A rough and big example:
San Jose to Portland in one day. Want to take a Bolt. Sure, let's see what it might look like.
Leave San Jose with full battery. Charge at Williams CA(24kW), Redding CA(24kW), Yreka CA(24kW), Canyonville OR(24kW), Cottage Grove OR(24kW), Salem OR(faster?). Longest run is first one, 146 miles. Roughly 11:00 driving time, very roughly 5:00 charging time at 24kW. 675 miles total energy used is about 170kWh, need to put about 120kWh during the trip into the battery. Long day (16 hours), I'd suggest taking an overnight stop midway with an L2, at least as an option.
Should check on Plugshare for comments on each of these stops. For example, last check-ins at Canyonville don't look good to me (CCS was down!). I suggest to changing this plan to avoid this station. Remember, this plan was just my first cut. It needs improvement.
Need to work out alternatives. For example, there isn't a CCS in range from Williams CA, in the event this charger is failed, so perhaps move the first stop to back to Vacaville CA, make Williams CA a "Plan B" stop, then adjust others as needed.
There are some CCS stations that are 48kW. Other than perhaps Salem OR, I didn't find any on this route.
The bottom of the battery will charge much faster than the top of the battery. Going past 90% probably takes a LONG time, and probably should switch to L2 for the last bit as will go just as fast on L2 as CCS.
Both cold and hot weather might make this trip slower.
I don't want to make this sound too hard, as it isn't. I don't want to make this sound too easy, as the charging stations are not as available as you would want. This trip is doable, but care needs to be taken.
(Edits: Some corrections and added graph)
I don't know enough about the Bolt to make this anything close to a complete guide. This is a sketch from a Leaf driver that has done some longer trips. There are people with more and different experience. Will be interesting to read their thoughts.
For the Bolt: CCS (DC quick charge or DCQC) stations are not yet all that common, even on the coast. L2 stations are nice for long stops, like overnight. Can't use Tesla Superchargers or Chademo stations. L1 or 120V is way slow. Camping or to recover from disaster. If you did a lot of camping, a RV plugs charging cables and adaptors might be worth buying...
Some resources:
1) http://www.plugshare.com/
This is a crowd sourced map showing most charging stations, can be filtered by types (CCS and L2 for Bolt) in settings. Checking out the most recent comments for each stop can be very useful.
2) AV, Blink, Chargepoint, EVgo, Lecircuitelectrique, Semicharge, Greenlots, etc. That's a partial list.
Get access in advance with the correct cards/fobs/cellphone apps for places you might stop at.
3) Learn some of the planning tools:
a) Greenrace http://www.jurassictest.ch/GR/
Metric only, kinda funky, easy to use, accuracy isn't the best especially with a car not released yet, but isn't very far off for some older cars, best of all can hack details to make accuracy better if you want, already (kinda!) supports the Bolt. I use this more for "fun" planning than for real trips.
b) EV Trip Planner https://evtripplanner.com/index.php
Telsa centric, but the college student(!) running this has added in the Leaf, and will add in more cars if you send enough accurate and detailed trip reports to him. He likes donations as well (I've donated). Accuracy has improved. Charging time isn't even close to accurate for non-Tesla cars, doesn't consider Chademo and CCS at all. Can write out a spreadsheet and modify to more closely match the Bolt (next item).
c) Spreadsheets.
Yes, geeky, messy and engineer centric. But that is me, and I suspect a few others. I start with the EV Trip Planner output spreadsheet. I'll provide an example later.
4) Rough non-specific trip plans:
a) Most trips don't need a plan, as they are well in range. This is true for even for 80 mile range BEVs. Unlike ICE cars, you don't need to plan in refueling stops for local travel, only for longer trips. This is the BEV sweet zone.
b) Suppose you are taking a trip that is close to car range. Might have a problem if cold/snow/wind/rain or other complications use more battery than expected. On a trip like this, I suggest you pick a point near a charging station past the half way point and work out in advance how much charge you need at that point to get home safely with a margin or reserve in bad conditions. If you don't have enough when you get to the checkpoint, stop and charge until you have enough. Just be prudent. Better with a BEV.
c) Suppose you are taking a trip that is past the car's range, but not a lot past the car's range. Plan for a charging stop near the half way point. Try for a stop that has something else to do other than wait for the car to charge. Eat lunch. Or breakfast or dinner. Shop. Coffee. Hike a trail. Frisbee in a park. Know how full the car needs to be to make it to your destination with a margin or reserve, leave when you have it. Still can be better with the BEV trip, but not always, and not by as much.
d) Trips requiring multiple charging stops. Ask yourself if you really can't go another way. Take the train, take the Prius, fly, rent an ICE. Will take more time. May spend more on charging than you would for gasoline.
Best general plan to drive until you are near 15%, then CCS charge to near 65%. Exact points would depend on things I don't know, such as taper rate of CCS charging in the Bolt. If there is a more robust network of charging stations, could go to lower state of charge. Of course, charging stations are not exactly where you want them, there is often only one at each location, and the station might be down or busy. You need a plan as to where to charge, and at what charge to leave each station. I suggest you also plan on what to do if the planned charging station(s) is occupied or broken. Wait for the car already there to finish? What if two cars are there? When to fall back to L2 and take the time hit? When to drive to the next CCS? Don't want to arrive at anyplace too empty to have a fallback plan or better two.
5) A rough and big example:
San Jose to Portland in one day. Want to take a Bolt. Sure, let's see what it might look like.
Leave San Jose with full battery. Charge at Williams CA(24kW), Redding CA(24kW), Yreka CA(24kW), Canyonville OR(24kW), Cottage Grove OR(24kW), Salem OR(faster?). Longest run is first one, 146 miles. Roughly 11:00 driving time, very roughly 5:00 charging time at 24kW. 675 miles total energy used is about 170kWh, need to put about 120kWh during the trip into the battery. Long day (16 hours), I'd suggest taking an overnight stop midway with an L2, at least as an option.
Should check on Plugshare for comments on each of these stops. For example, last check-ins at Canyonville don't look good to me (CCS was down!). I suggest to changing this plan to avoid this station. Remember, this plan was just my first cut. It needs improvement.
Need to work out alternatives. For example, there isn't a CCS in range from Williams CA, in the event this charger is failed, so perhaps move the first stop to back to Vacaville CA, make Williams CA a "Plan B" stop, then adjust others as needed.
There are some CCS stations that are 48kW. Other than perhaps Salem OR, I didn't find any on this route.
The bottom of the battery will charge much faster than the top of the battery. Going past 90% probably takes a LONG time, and probably should switch to L2 for the last bit as will go just as fast on L2 as CCS.
Both cold and hot weather might make this trip slower.
I don't want to make this sound too hard, as it isn't. I don't want to make this sound too easy, as the charging stations are not as available as you would want. This trip is doable, but care needs to be taken.
(Edits: Some corrections and added graph)
