Anyone driven from the South Bay to San Francisco? 45 miles

[jennrod12]

I'd like to attend a meeting in SF. The distance is 45 miles, but that's all freeway driving. I haven't had the car long enough to know if this is possible (I'd recharge before returning, of course). Any ideas?

Thanks, Jenn

 

[JoeS]

Jenn - how good are you at hypermiling and enduring the wrath of other drivers as you putt along at or below 55mph in the right lane (just to make sure you'll get there)? Do you have a recharge station lined up and sufficient time to fully recharge your iMiEV in SF? Shouldn't have a headwind if you go in the morning.

For myself, I'll be attempting a round trip without recharging from Los Altos to Brisbane and back tomorrow (~75miles), as the temperature is forecast close to 70degF, with a fallback being a long lunch with recharge at the newly-installed EVSEs in the public garage in South San Francisco. On Thursday I'll be going up and over the hill to Capitola (~40 miles), but will recharge @240vac at a friend's house before returning.

On short trips I enjoy roaring along with or faster than traffic just to show that an EV is no slouch, but for longer distances we must show self-restraint...

Let us know how it turned out.

 

[jennrod12]

Thanks, Joe,

I don't know if I'll have the guts to try it, but do let us know how your Brisbane trip goes!

Jenn

 

[jennrod12]

I bet I could make it if I take El Camino - same distance, half the speed. (Twice as much time, too.)

Jenn

 

[JoeS]

45 miles of stop-and-go traffic will drive you insane! I'm pleasantly surprised that, with our powerful regen, the in-town mileage is actually excellent. Jenn - as soon as you get your ChargePoint card, try it out first and then map all the charging stations along your projected route(s). If you're really serious about Santa Clara -->SF, then be sure you plan for a good 4+ hours of recharge time to get you back home. Going up 101 is actually very flat going, so you may be ok... (just find a truck to follow)

 

[jennrod12]

Okay, I did it today!

I left home at 7:25 am and headed up El Camino. This will sound dumb, but I got lost along the way. Wound up going about 5 miles out of my way. I arrived at my destination having driven 48.7 miles and I had 6 bars and 33 RR (range remaining). I did stop and charge L2 for 7 minutes along the way, while I got my bearings. It took me just about what Google predicted, 1 hour 41 minutes.

I left the city on a now warm, sunny day and drove 6 miles to a Walgreens in Daly City, where I arrived with 5 bars and 24 RR. There I bought some things and charged L2 for 1.5 hours (I brought stuff to do with me, so the time was not wasted). When I left there I had 10 bars and 46 RR, and I had put in 4.27 KW, if I read the machine right.

I kept to the surface streets until the 380 interchange and there I jumped onto 101. I was approaching Woodside Road with 20 RR and I knew it was 21 miles to home, so I pulled off and charged L2 for about 45 minutes. I think that brought me back to 30 RR (I didn't write it down).

I jumped back on the freeway until I got down to 3 bars and 15 RR, then I went back to surface streets for the last few miles. I arrived home with 2 blinking bars and 11 RR.

Total trip was 96.3 miles. It took me about 1 hour 45 minutes to get up to the city and roughly 3.5 hours to get home - I forgot to look at the clock when I got home! 2 hours 25 minutes of charging time on the way home, and between 1-1.5 hours of driving time.

I'm going to have to get a real GPS if I do more of this kind of thing using exploratory routes.

Jenn

 

[JoeS]

Jenn - congratulations!

That was some marathon trip using city streets to go all the way up the Peninsula, and it was a good test to perform on a warm sunny Sunday. In your case, taking the train up to the meeting would have made more sense ... although your 'fuel' cost was probably less than the train ticket. We were at the same meeting in a friend's Leaf and stopped in South San Francisco and recharged for over an hour while we had lunch there (making sure to let the restaurant management know that the reason we stopped there was because their city had installed those charging stations).

You may have set a new iMiEV record that begs to be broken: number of miles driven in one day.

Here in the SF Bay Area we are fortunate to have a significant number of convenient charging stations in place along the way and, as early adopters, lucky that they aren't being used. Wonder what the picture will be like a couple of years from now...

 

[FiddlerJohn]

...Total trip was 96.3 miles... I'm going to have to get a real GPS if I do more of this kind of thing using exploratory routes...

Wow! You play that iMiEV like a pro. I'm impressed.

I was just thinking about which bike computer you might attach to your iMiEV. That's why I posted the Wheel Speed Sensor thread.

Some bike computers display energy used. Could we recalibrate a bike computer to imply kWh used? Does the bike computer understand that twice the speed uses twice the energy?

After studying EV GPS models, I'm convinced there are no good EV Trip Energy Planner options. Garmin and TomTom seem to be the best, but they can't calculate RR, or energy used, Bars to destination. GPS is a natural for electric cars. Some have a traffic warning, which can be useful.

Please let us know what option you choose. I will wait for an EV Trip Energy Planner model before I upgrade my Garmin nuvi 1490.

 

[jennrod12]

Hey, FJohn,

Thanks for posting that stuff about the wheel speed sensors. It made me wonder if a bike computer would interfere, because it also uses a magnet.

For an EV trip planner I'd definitely want something that considers altitude.

Joe - I actually would have taken the train from Redwood City (to save myself a zone), but it doesn't run that early on Sundays! I agree with you, though, once you have the car it is cheaper to drive it than to take the train.

Jenn

 

[FiddlerJohn]

... a bike computer would interfere, because it also uses a magnet. ...

What about tapping the sensor signal? No magnet.

The best place for the bike computer magnet is on the half shaft at the transmission.