[drunkenspyder]

The countdown is on! I start my cross-country road trip next Sunday, June 5. All in, it looks like I will cover about 8500 miles [ABRP map summary below]. It’s been a while since I’ve done a long road trip in any car, let alone an EV. The longest I did in either the RS7 or the R8 was about 1500 miles, and the longest I have ever done—when I was a much younger man😉—was about 3500 miles. I’ll be visiting and staying with family and friends, and in hotels, along the way and stopping to take photographs when I see something interesting. Going to do my best to stick with the Electrify America network. I took my car into the dealer this past week for a road-worthiness inspection and she is all good. The car has just been superb.

Would welcome any thoughts or suggestions on how best to coordinate ABRP, PlugShare, and the built-in Nav system in the car [which has been great on shorter test drives around California]. Tally ho!

 

[Ps702]

You're a trooper.
Is this to test out the EV infrastructure? Will you be tracking all of your charging times and charging speeds?

 

[drunkenspyder]

You're a trooper.
Is this to test out the EV infrastructure? Will you be tracking all of your charging times and charging speeds?

Thanks. I think it will be fun. The primary purpose of the trip is to visit family and friends. Checking out the infrastructure is an interest point, but not my motivation. Tracking charging times and speeds? Maybe, maybe not. After the first few YT videos of Chris and others doing that, I reached for my beer. It got old fast just watching it, and I suspect it will get that way in the trip for me, too. I plan to try at least on the first leg heading to Texas, but after that . . . 🤷‍♂️

 

[DCTron]

Your road trip rocks! Have fun. Whatever you post, I look forward to reading.

 

[ShenEtronGT]

Great Trip! Be safe and Keep us posted!

 

[Malibu_Scott]

Good luck.

I'm very interested in how the ElectrifyAmerica chargers are doing. Are they located where VWAG claims they are? Are they operational?

My small sample size has been very depressing. But what do I know? I'm located in Southern California. No cars here, right?

 

[das2.7t]

The countdown is on! I start my cross-country road trip next Sunday, June 5. All in, it looks like I will cover about 8500 miles [ABRP map summary below]. It’s been a while since I’ve done a long road trip in any car, let alone an EV. The longest I did in either the RS7 or the R8 was about 1500 miles, and the longest I have ever done—when I was a much younger man😉—was about 3500 miles. I’ll be visiting and staying with family and friends, and in hotels, along the way and stopping to take photographs when I see something interesting. Going to do my best to stick with the Electrify America network. I took my car into the dealer this past week for a road-worthiness inspection and she is all good. The car has just been superb.

Would welcome any thoughts or suggestions on how best to coordinate ABRP, PlugShare, and the built-in Nav system in the car [which has been great on shorter test drives around California]. Tally ho!

It's only just started but this is likely to be my favorite thread on this forum. Looking forward to hearing all about the trip.

 

[WetEV]

The countdown is on! I start my cross-country road trip next Sunday, June 5.

See Road Trip Planned, Seattle to Grand Canyon, Colorado - AudiWorld Forums

About the time I get home you will leave. We have had a blast. Hope you have a good and safe trip as well.

Would welcome any thoughts or suggestions on how best to coordinate ABRP, PlugShare, and the built-in Nav system in the car [which has been great on shorter test drives around California]. Tally ho!

After starting a charge, I check ABRP to find the next charge stop, check for current details in PlugShare, and put into the Nav system using the cell phone app.

 

[CRRiserJR]

I have a trip coming up, though not nearly that distance. Its a routine road trip my wife and I take from Maryland down into South Carolina and back. My son has soccer camp at Virginia Tech, so we head south, drop him off, head down to SC, then meander back. Some Interstate, some middle Virginia highways and byways, some back country curvy roads.

In my Tesla, we knew all the stops perfectly and honestly never once had a challenge. Curious to see just how the same basic trip evolves looking for EA or other networks that have fast chargers that function properly.

So far, some of the places we are staying are Tesla only (thank goodness for the adapter!) destination chargers. It looks fairly doable to be honest.

Truly looking forward to long distance road tripping in this car.

THOUGHT: there really needs to be something similar to the IronButt Challenge that friends and I have done on motorcycles. 1000 miles in one day (24 hours) in an EV. You would get a patch and everything!

 

[epirali]

Would welcome any thoughts or suggestions on how best to coordinate ABRP, PlugShare, and the built-in Nav system in the car [which has been great on shorter test drives around California]. Tally ho!

How exciting! Can't wait for your updates. I have looked at something like this a couple of times but just haven't had the opportunity.

The main advice I have is configure it to only use stations with 4 or more charging stations just in case. EA does have a high "failed" station count, and using 4 gives you a margin. You may not always have an option but its a good start.

Are you going to try to go for maximum charge rates and risk going down to 5-10% on arrival? Or will you try to always keep a buffer?

 

[drunkenspyder]

How exciting! Can't wait for your updates. I have looked at something like this a couple of times but just haven't had the opportunity.

The main advice I have is configure it to only use stations with 4 or more charging stations just in case. EA does have a high "failed" station count, and using 4 gives you a margin. You may not always have an option but its a good start.

Are you going to try to go for maximum charge rates and risk going down to 5-10% on arrival? Or will you try to always keep a buffer?

Thanks. I plan to follow the “charge often for shorter times” approach generally. Not sure if anyone saw this “hit piece” in the WSJ, but man, talk about a couple of idjits. This isn’t like renting a new model of ICE car to try it out before buying it. Who the **** rents an EV for a road trip with no experience?

 

[drunkenspyder]

Cabin fully outfitted.

 

[CRRiserJR]

Thanks. I plan to follow the “charge often for shorter times” approach generally. Not sure if anyone saw this “hit piece” in the WSJ, but man, talk about a couple of idjits. This isn’t like renting a new model of ICE car to try it out before buying it. Who the **** rents an EV for a road trip with no experience?

Saw that and almost reposted here. I was so completely shocked that I pulled up ABRP to see what they missed. I mean who uses PlugShare to actually plan a route THEN relies on ChargePoint … almost none of which are over 50kW power?

Anyhow, with that said, she really did have a murder route. Even with ABRP, going from New Orleans to Chicago is NOT an easy drive. Two of the necessary stops, because they were at those same “destination charger” speed units were well over two hours stops even with using ABRP (ABRP even suggested many of the same stops she ended up using).

Honestly the first read through I was annoyed. The second though just brought home MANY dialogs on these (and other) forums: if you plan on cross country, coast to coast OR you want to stay on either coast, you are golden. But middle country? Even some mid-South routes, you are screwed.

The author pointed out something I have said repeatedly: calling ANYTHING less than 150kW (maybe 120kW) a “fast charger” needs to stop. I realize some of those may indeed be a “DC” charger, but they are certainly not meant for long distance driving. Worse, some goverment plans I have seen suggest using public funding to build out 50kW chargers and higher. That is a complete waste of tax payer dollars.

Every new public financed charger moving forward must be at a minimum, 120 to 150kW or its a waste of money.

 

[CRRiserJR]

Cabin fully outfitted. View attachment 5476 View attachment 5477

So pic#2 shows some type of pretty cool iPad holder … missing in pic#1.

Would you be willing to post where you got both of those devices (holder and the “table). Very cool.

 

[drunkenspyder]

So pic#2 shows some type of pretty cool iPad holder … missing in pic#1.

Would you be willing to post where you got both of those devices (holder and the “table). Very cool.

Yeah, sure thing. You’re right, that went in right after I took the picture of the tray. When I am back at my hotel, I will edit this post and add the Amazon links. Tray. iPad holder. I also tried a larger, heavier duty iPad holder, and while I liked it, it did interfere with the tray.

 

[drunkenspyder]

Saw that and almost reposted here. I was so completely shocked that I pulled up ABRP to see what they missed. I mean who uses PlugShare to actually plan a route THEN relies on ChargePoint … almost none of which are over 50kW power?

No kidding, right? I mean, yes, to your other point, parts of the country are less well-developed than others. But seriously. This is akin to—but even dumber than—being a Mac user who gets a new client gig and decides to rent a Win laptop to use on a field trip for that client for the first time. Or vice-versa. Except dumber, because this involves your personal safety. What a couple of gits.

 

[drunkenspyder]

Day 1 is in the books. Three easy charging stops. What a superb car. Although I used ABRP for planning, I used the built-in nav for basic guidance, while running Waze in the background for audio alerts. At one point, in the middle of the Mojave desert, my car went full blonde on me and wanted to send me backwards to charge, even though the destination charger still appeared on the nav screen. I’d probably prefer that to happen somewhere other than the Mojave, but it was quickly corrected once I pulled over and confirmed on ABRP where I thought the next EA charger was. Other than that, the nav was fantastic. Amazing car.

 

[CRRiserJR]

No kidding, right? I mean, yes, to your other point, parts of the country are less well-developed than others. But seriously. This is akin to—but even dumber than—being a Mac user who gets a new client gig and decides to rent a Win laptop to use on a field trip for that client for the first time. Or vice-versa. Except dumber, because this involves your personal safety. What a couple of gits.

As a counterpoint, a Washington Post writer did similar story over the weekend but drove from Northern VA to New York City using a rented Tesla Model 3.

Completely different take on the trip, including doing research first, planning the trip out and being very successful with the entire process.

 

[CRRiserJR]

Day 1 is in the books. Three easy charging stops. What a superb car. Although I used ABRP for planning, I used the built-in nav for basic guidance, while running Waze in the background for audio alerts. At one point, in the middle of the Mojave desert, my car went full blonde on me and wanted to send me backwards to charge, even though the destination charger still appeared on the nav screen. I’d probably prefer that to happen somewhere other than the Mojave, but it was quickly corrected once I pulled over and confirmed on ABRP where I thought the next EA charger was. Other than that, the nav was fantastic. Amazing car.
View attachment 5483
View attachment 5484
View attachment 5485
View attachment 5486 View attachment 5488 View attachment 5487

How are you running Waze and the navigation system? The minute I pull up something in the navigation, the MMI kills CarPlay. Do you run on the tablet and pipe it through bluetooth?

 

[CRRiserJR]

Yeah, sure thing. You’re right, that went in right after I took the picture of the tray. When I am back at my hotel, I will edit this post and add the Amazon links. Tray. iPad holder. I also tried a larger, heavier duty iPad holder, and while I liked it, it did interfere with the tray.

Great use for those almost useless cup holders!

Seriously many thanks for the links. Super cool setup.