Maximum Miles Driven In One Day

[rnlcarlov]

Back in January I made somewhere around 420km in one day in my C-zero in a roundtrip, with four quick charges and 2 relatively short level 2 charges.

 

[ed5000]

Well, this wasn't the most miles I've driven in one day but it was the most I've driven on one charge without charging along the way. The destination was a birthday party for someone my wife knew at work. Google maps said it was 29 miles away one way plus, we went 2 miles out of our way to pick up a card, present, etc. for a total of 60 miles round trip. I thought since the car is EPA rated for 62 miles I thought "why not". But I didn't tell the wife about this for she would have insisted on a gasoline car. All of it was hilly terrain on mostly freeway on highways 580, 13 and 24. Hwy 13 has a couple of good peaks to climb over, one being 650 ft above sea level and one on hwy 24 we had a climb to 950 ft. On the downhill side I tried to maximize my regen until I was about to climb again where I would try to get up some speed for the next hill. I did have a nine mile stretch on a two lane highway with a 50 mph speed limit where I kept my speed down to 40 with no cars behind me and 45 with cars behind me. I pulled over twice to let traffic pass as on each time I had a some gasoline powered BMW's with angry looking headlights out trying to use up their fuel. At one point along the way my wife casually turned on the AC completely unaware of my fuel maximizing. I was able to turn it off later while on the two lane highway where I could crack the windows open. I was pretty happy to arrive at our destination with 9 bars remaining.

For the return trip I was already checking Plug Share for some possible charging along the way. There wasn't a lot along the way but my plan B was to curve out of the hills at some point and descend into Oakland where there would be some familiar places to charge. But luckily I didn't need to. I used the same fuel maximizing techniques going 50 to 55 mph up hill and 60 mph downhill while on the freeways. I arrived home with 2 bars remaining and a blinking gasoline pump indicator. All this in a 62 mile range electric car. With 2 bars remaining I could have gone another 8 miles, right! How about that?

 

[JoeS]

...I arrived home with 2 bars remaining and a blinking gasoline pump indicator...

Excellent! You're getting the hang of it!! On trips like that it's good to carry a long extension cord and your Mitsu portable EVSE with you and when you get to the destination don't be embarrassed to scrounge around for any old 120vac outlet and plug the car in for the few hours' duration of the party. Usually people go out of their way to help one get plugged in if asked (calling the host ahead of time works wonders). I normally carry a collapsible orange cone (from Harbor Freight) in case a tripping hazard possibility exists. Such 'opportunity' charging makes life soooo much easier for the trip home.

Yesterday in the hills of western Virginia way up in coal country far away from any charging stations I rigged a bunch of extension cables from a dryer outlet out to the Tesla, much to the amusement of onlookers - hey, it worked!

 

[ed5000]

...I arrived home with 2 bars remaining and a blinking gasoline pump indicator...

Excellent! You're getting the hang of it!! On trips like that it's good to carry a long extension cord and your Mitsu portable EVSE with you and when you get to the destination don't be embarrassed to scrounge around for any old 120vac outlet and plug the car in for the few hours' duration of the party. Usually people go out of their way to help one get plugged in if asked (calling the host ahead of time works wonders). I normally carry a collapsible orange cone (from Harbor Freight) in case a tripping hazard possibility exists. Such 'opportunity' charging makes life soooo much easier for the trip home.

Yesterday in the hills of western Virginia way up in coal country far away from any charging stations I rigged a bunch of extension cables from a dryer outlet out to the Tesla, much to the amusement of onlookers - hey, it worked!

Thanks Joe! Those are some great ideas. I like the one about calling ahead. It's got to be easier than showing up at their front door with a cord plug in my hand. :lol: Yesterday ended up being a hundred mile day for me since I was on call and got called into work (33 miles r/t) and we did some shopping. Every month I put about a 1,000 miles on the car. :mrgreen:

 

[JoeS]

OK, I went back in this thread and here are the all-out records to date:

L1 (120vac ) - 108 miles (174km) - sandange - 13 July 2012 - http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2812#p2812
L2 (208vac - 240vac) - 232 miles (371km) - Pier - 2013 - http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=494&start=50#p26171
CHAdeMO - 388 miles (624km) - sandange - 20 June, 2015 - http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=22762#p22762 with video.

The latest CHAdeMO winter and mountainous conditions epic one day skiing excursion is 350.5 miles (564km) - KiwiEV - February 2017 - http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2819&start=70#p31978 with video.

 

[PV1]

350 miles on a battery with only 34 Ah? I'm impressed...and rather jealous of your charging infrastructure. I've yet to break my 144.7 mile personal record set over a year ago.

 

[blackheart]

Just got back from a one day trip up to Seattle to see my daughter for her birthday. I decided to go ahead and take the miev. The Chargers all seemed to be operational and my old fossil truck just wasn't up to it. 350 mile round trip in one day. Left at 6:30am from Portland and got to south Seattle around noon, 5 quick charge stops later. Drove around town a bit for my daughter, used the miev to haul some furniture for her, and hung out till 5. The battery was about 98° when I parked and down in the 80's when I started home.
But this time, I needed to QC to get started. So it was 6 QC's to get home. Battery was at 101° and close to midnight. The ambient temp was in the 40's the whole trip. Hope I didn't fry the battery - but I rarely (read once a year?) quick charge. I Level 2 quite often at my house.
But, the car did it. But it took much more of my day than I would have liked.
Oh, and I didn't use much heat to see if I might be able to leapfrog a charging station or two - nope ;-( No matter how miserly I would drive, I would still figure I would only have a mile or two in the bank to get to the next charging station, and that is not in my comfort zone...

Jray3... I need to be working on that motorcycle/scooter based pusher trailer!! Heat would have been awesome. And even to skip one or two of the charging stations would have been worth it!!

I wonder if skinning the bottom of the car and putting rear fender skirts would help enough to help out in a trip like that?

 

[Don]

Impressive!!

So how many miles in total was it, door to door?

Don

 

[blackheart]

Right about 360 miles total. My Canion app froze a couple of times and I didn't think to clear my trip odometer.
All in all, the car performed very well - especially for having the battery size that it does. But wow - what a difference a 20kW or 24kW battery would make (or at least the added range...).
Like I said, my plan is to make a decent gas powered pusher from a motorcycle or scooter. Nothing that would replace the traction drive - but supplement. If I could make that same trip and only stop twice to charge - I would sell my truck. I pretty much wouldn't need it at all any more (even long trips).