Three Pass Blast

I'm going to try and cross Stephens Pass, Blewett Pass and Snoqualmie Pass this Sunday. I've put on a set of traction tires which are currently required for Stephens and will try to reach that pass this afternoon to test those out. That will be the most difficult climb per weather conditions, but I was able to do that with a margin in good weather with passengers.

Here's the route:
https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=210977308060126940172.0004d011467325cf2676d&msa=0

Follow my updates on Google+ if you'd like to see the play by play. I'll report back on this thread afterwards to let y'all know how it went.
https://plus.google.com/communities...7/stream/ada21f14-0a52-4d84-ac27-1395a37c94d0

I realize that this is a difficult and dangerous route: I'm going to be careful, call ahead and bring emergency survival gear. Wish me luck!

How did the trip go? Did you have to use all five of the L3 chargers?

Absolutely! Using all 5 chargers is required to make the trip in a day. I did a combination of L3, L2 and L1 charging although I wouldn't have needed to stop at the Nason Creek Safety Rest Area or the fudge shop if I'd stayed at Stevens for another half hour. The traction tires decreased the range, as did driving on snow and slushy roads. I'm not sure how much the cold weather affected the battery directly: overcapacity charging keeps the cells quite warm.

Mitsubishi did a test in Eastern Canada last winter
I'll have to find the data and see what they learned.

Pictures from my own adventure here

I'm using the tag #ThreePassBlast on Google+ and Twitter, some LEAF drivers are planning a similar adventure next weekend.

Thanks for sharing, that's a pretty cool adventure and neat pictures.

Did you know ahead of time that the chargers would be available? I mean, it would put a damper on your plans if even just 2-3 people were ahead of you in line for one of the L3 chargers on your route.

Never having used a public charger (because we have 1 now in our area, put in place only 2 months ago), it's one of those things I worry about when attempting a longer trip. Especially since I have no smart phone to make a reservation or check on availability while under way (and I don't really want to get a smart phone, just to be able to do that ... the monthy charge alone would be more than the gas for any longer trips in the gas car I'd have to make in a year).

What Charge-Station activation cards are needed for this trip?

Lee, congratulations and thank you very much for posting the details of your mini-adventure! Incidentally, you now hold the record for maximum number of miles driven in one day on this Forum.

Leec! Thank you so much for posting this. Is wonderful. Links, pictures, everything.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

garygid said:

What Charge-Station activation cards are needed for this trip?

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I technically didn't need any cards as the chargers I used could be activated remotely but it's always a good idea to carry one's own. AeroVironment maintains the quick chargers around the state outside of the greater Seattle metro area. I had their fob and also a ChargePoint card for Stevens Pass. I didn't use any Blink chargers in this case but there were some in the town of Snoqualmie.

ChargePoint can be activated via their app and also by NFC payment using Google Wallet (though the charger at Stevens is free).

JoeS said:

Lee, congratulations and thank you very much for posting the details of your mini-adventure! Incidentally, you now hold the record for maximum number of miles driven in one day on this Forum.

Click to expand...

If I do indeed hold that title it should be for driving to Portland and back in a day: that's 350 miles.

danpatgal said:

Did you know ahead of time that the chargers would be available? I mean, it would put a damper on your plans if even just 2-3 people were ahead of you in line for one of the L3 chargers on your route.

Click to expand...

I didn't think I'd have much competition for chargers along the route. There was no way to reserve chargers other than announcing the trip in a few places and hoping to catch the attention of anyone else planning the same trip. This is an issue we dealt with during the EV rally along US-2 by staggering our start times.

Meeting other EV drivers is nice, so I tend to not mind being blocked in this way; It has yet to happen while driving about the state outside of Seattle.

For the Blink chargers inside of Seattle there are two connections so that a second car made authorize a charge which will automatically start once the first vehicle has finished. I've seen some congestion at these stations which is exacerbated by the occasional "out of service" charging lead. Blink is still the worst in terms of reliability and time-to-fix but at least there are L2 charging alternatives in Seattle.

I had the privilege of re-creating Lee's Three Pass Blast in part this week. Since my car is not CHAdeMO-equipped, Lee and I swapped cars for a few days to allow me electric access to a conference in Leavenworth, Washington. The 238.1 mile round trip went from 50 feet above sea level to 4062 feet, then down to 1171 ft and back over the same route.
On the way there, we made two DCQC stops and one two-hour L2 stop (one hour could've been sufficient, but barely).
CHAdeMO brought the pack up to 14 bars each time, but only read 82% SOC on the AeroVironment charger. The traction pack blower (which sounds just like my non-CHAdeMO blower) comes on at seemingly random times during a quickcharge, probably because of thermal lag in the pack, so that the blower may not come on until after the rate of charge has tapered down). Pack air conditioning only came on briefly once or twice during the four DCQC sessions. The nighttime trip up to Leavenworth used an indicated 40 kWh over 119.9 miles, for 334 Watt-hours per mile. The daytime return trip used 36 kWH over 118.2 miles, for 305 kWh per mile. Of course, the return offered more downhill and there was no need for windshield defrosting, so I drove more aggressively, but stayed at or near the 60 mph limit at most times. Both results are worse than the EPA rating, but I'm not too disappointed with this efficiency for mountain driving!
The longest leg between charges was 40.6 miles, and the shortest was 15.9 miles (which consumed 11 kWh, or 692 Wh/mile in the way uphill, and only 3 bars, or 189 Wh/mile on the way down). On the way home, we hit the peak with only two bars, so stopped for an hour of L2 insurance, but it was not necessary. However, I'm still surprised by how little regen is possible at highway speed. Aero losses seem to prevent the car from accelerating much past a 'terminal velocity' of 60-65 mph even when coasting down 6% grades. If I were comfortable loafing under 45 mph, I'm sure the trip would have had very different results...
These measurements are off our SOC gauge, not a utility billing meter.

Happy Motoring,
Jay

I have also found that the i-MiEV's kWh per mile drop significantly over 65 mph because of drag. Automobile design is always a tradeoff and to create more space in the i-MiEV the aerodynamics suffered. Just curious, what was the ambient temperature when you were using the DC Quick Charge? How long did you Quick Charge and how many bars did you get?

DCQC sessions were as follows, in order with approximate temperatures, and each DCQC took less than 15 minutes
Each session charged to 14 bar, but I noticed that bar #14 disappeared VERY quickly; before I left the parking lot in one case, which means that my Wh/mile figures were conservative.

Left Seattle 21:30, approx 70 degrees,
Sultan, WA, high 60's temperature, DCQC to 14 bar then drove 27.2 miles uphill to
Skykomish, WA, approx 60 degrees, DCQC from 4 to 14 bar, then climbed 15.9 miles to
Steven's Pass, WA, approx 45 degrees, charged L2 from 3 to 10 bar, then descended 36.2 miles to 3 bar
arrived 03:30, gave the car a 10 hr rest

Leavenworth, WA, 75 degrees, DCQC from 3 to 14 bar
2 days of local driving, then fully recharged on L2 and drove 36.1 miles to
Steven's Pass, WA, 60 degrees, charged from 2 bar to 5 bar on L2 then descended 15.9 miles to
Skykomish, WA 65 degrees and DCQC from approx 7 bar to 14 bar then drove 26.8 miles to
Sultan, WA 71 degrees and DCQC from 7 bar to 14 bar, drove 39.4 miles to final destination, 2 bar RR.

Here's the total kWh consumed to date on each DCQC meter. Looks like a lot of EVers skip Skykomish.
Sultan: 5886 kWh
Skykomishmay be a meter error, read 497 kWh both before and after my charge and had no multiplier on the tag)
Leavenworth: 5435 kWh

Sultan had dispensed 61 kWh between Monday night and Thursday afternoon, while Skykomish showed no change...