Holy Crap, never doing long distance drive again around here

[tigger19687]

Went to Cape Cod yesterday. Going down seemed fine ......
I basically drove from Burlington Mall (MA) to Osterville ma (barnstable.hyannis area). You can look on Plugshare to figure out my drive, all highway, Rt3 Sagamore Bridge.
Left at full charge, stopped in Norwell DCFC (6 bars left), then Kingston DCFC (15 bars), then got to Hyannis with like 5-6 bars.
Thought I was good. Had to drive my DAD around a little. left his house at 8pm and went to hyannis Kohl's to charge (L2) from 6 to 8 bars.
THOUGHT that would get me to Kingston DCFC,,, nope. Had to make a fast stop just south at some Newly installed charger at a Spa/inn place and charge from a blinking 2 bar to 4/5 bar.
Got to Kingston at 1 blinking bar, charged to 15 bars ?.
Hit Norwell at 6 bars, charged to 80%.... Hit Norwood at 4 bars and charged to 80%, got home at 4 bars left.

Heavy rain, windy (that sucked) wavy road terrain going Rt 3, crappy other drivers in the rain.

... WHITE Knuckled and got home at 1:30AM :shock:

Will NEVER do that again.... will take the Truck for that trip from now on.
Holy Crap talk about Range anxiety !!

 

[JoeS]

Sorry you had your first unfavorable Range Awareness experience. :shock: Hopefully, it will be your last, as that shouldn't stop you from taking longer trips.

I find that having a portable GPS (specifically, the older Garmin 255W-265W series) allows me to enter as waypoints all the charging spots along the way, and that GPS' "instrument" display then shows me the distance remaining to that waypoint. Bounce that number off the RR gauge and you've now got the feedback to alleviate your range anxiety early on, when you can still comfortably take corrective action. What hurt your range also I think was the rain, as the car's rolling resistance increases in that situation, and, of course, the wind.

After you've cooled off, think about your experience and what perhaps you should have done differently to avoid your nail-biting. Think of it as an adventure game.

In reading your description, it sounds as though fully charging at Hyannis Kohl's (instead of only 8 bars) would have been the key to a stressless trip.

Admittedly, L2 for longer-distance travel kinda sucks unless you stop in with friends or have nice long meals along the way - having a good book and/or tablet works wonders. A movie theater close to an L2 station would work nicely, also.

 

[tigger19687]

My main down fall was not having full charge from my Dads. I couldn't sit at the L2 in Hyannis for much longer.
Was trying to get home before the storm really hit.

I do use the Plugshare app, has miles to go. Thought I would have been good, and should have.


I desperately need a few more DCFC chargers along the Rt 495 belt and it would be better

I had the whole trip all planned out a week in advance

Worst part was the waiting for the DCFC to charge...I was so tired.

p.s. I don't use RR, it is not reliable, I go by distance traveled, and try to figure out how much less I should get depending on driving speed and type

 

[PV1]

Yeah. Most of us have had that experience. Mine was climbing 1,000 ft. to my destination nearly straight uphill, and having the turtle show up 3/4 of the way up. And, I still had another three miles to go once I reached the top.

Rain and wind can really have an effect on range. While it can be nerve wracking, that is usually the best way to learn your car's capabilities. You'll probably justify taking the i-MiEV on that trip again sometime, and now you have a better feel for how much charge it takes to cross certain sections.

The first time I drove to the Cranberry quick charger about 46 miles away, I took the main roads halfway there, then jumped on the highway. The next time (after gaining of highway experience in the i-MiEV) I went there, I took the highway all the way. The first trip is the hardest.

 

[rkarl89203]

Mostly its the unexpected that gets you. Always have a plan B.
We learned that on a trip to Chicago from Rockford. One charger was not hooked up, and another was broken. Turned a 8 hour round trip with stops to 19 hours. No plan B.
Took the same trip a month later with numerous other charging alternatives. Even with
Many more shopping stops, took only 9 hours.
Don't be discouraged.
Trips are possible, just patience and careful planning is required.

 

[jray3]

The first trip is the hardest.

Amen to that! After that, I get kind of a sick thrill out of confidently cruising down the highway at speed to then pull in at a fast charger right after the start of a "2-bar blinkdown".

Not that tigger did this, but among the first lessons I learned were that when depending on L2, always wait for an extra bar/15 min more charging than you think you need, and on CHAdeMO, think twice about unplugging early. One more minute on the fast charger can save fifteen minutes on L2. (50 kW vs 3.3)

 

[NeilBlanchard]

The closest CHAdeMO (last time I looked) to the Cape is all the way up in Hingham, at the Nissan dealer (Frost, I think?). If you Dad has an available 240V outlet, then a portable L2 charger would be a very good thing.

I plan to stay under 50MPH if possible, and plan my route accordingly. My Garmin has a "Saves Gas" setting, and generally it works well. Sometimes, those routes are straighter / shorter distance and more stops. You get to see a lot more interesting things, that you otherwise would not see.

 

[kiev]

Sorry to hear about your nightmare trip.

The bars can be deceptive because they are variable and can disappear quickly with changing speeds and conditions. i've seen 6 to 8 bars before and thinking nearly half full, one time the RR showed 42, another 26. Like the stupid tv ad says, '6 is greater than 6'

That is actually how the RR can be your friend--it will give you the real scoop based upon your actual driving condition (over the past 15 miles). The bars vary but the RR never lies.

 

[JoeS]

I don't use RR, it is not reliable,...

Au contraire, once you get used to it you might find RR to be very dependable. You just need to recognize that it is a moving average based on your last 15-miles of driving. You will soon be able to mentally compensate for altitude, rain, wind, and temperature effects.

As I mentioned earlier, using an older Garmin 200-series with its "instrument panel" screen is very helpful. It has an easily-resettable trip meter which I use every day just to record my daily mileage. When I've fully charged and about to set off on a longer passage I reset that trip meter. When a waypoint is enabled, the Garmin has the distance-to-destination prominently displayed. The beauty of bouncing RR off the DTG (distance to go) is that you can easily see how well you're correcting the difference if, e.g., DTG>RR. To repeat myself, we have four readouts (DTG, RR, Fuel Bars, Trip) which I find very helpful in alleviating any long-distance driving stress. Here's a snapshot of that Garmin display I took last night after coming back from a short city-13.6mi driving trip - I entered a friend's house as the destination (44.9mi) as an example just to show how the display works:

 

[jray3]

Don't be coy, Joe. We know that you really wanted to post that 84.3 mph top speed from your 'short city trip'.....
I don't think I've ever managed to exceed 83....

 

[JoeS]

Don't be coy, Joe. We know that you really wanted to post that 84.3 mph top speed from your 'short city trip'..... I don't think I've ever managed to exceed 83....

Actually, it was a surprise to me and I didn't realize it until I was editing the photo, as I rarely look down at the lower numbers in the panel. That max speed must have happened at some earlier point in time, as resetting the trip meter does not affect that max speed reading. On a straight windless level road the car maxes out at 81-82mph, so I tell people "it does over 80" - higher than any legal speed limit in the USA.