Longest electric-only trip for me so far.

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CharonPDX

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 21, 2018
Messages
141
I got the REx to be able to take longer trips without worrying about charging, and have used it that way a few times. In general I have charged on the "more than one full battery plus more than one full tank" trips, but I have yet to do a trip where I have gone more than one battery charge distance *only* on battery.

Until today.

Just drove 172 miles from my home in Portland, Oregon (USA) to our usual hotel in Bend, Oregon. A year ago, this trip wouldn't have been feasible on battery-only because once you left the Portland Metro area, there were no CCS rapid chargers along any reasonable route. But multiple were added along multiple routes over 2019, so I decided to try it out.

Bend is to the Southeast from Portland, over a mountain range. There were two reasonable routes - take an interstate highway (65 MPH speed limit most of it, although most cars go faster,) about an hour South, then cut basically directly East over the mountain range; or take a state highway (55 MPH speed limit, reasonable to go that,) that goes nearly directly East for a while, up to a ski area on the major mountain near(ish) the city, then meanders mostly South/Southeast to the destination on the other side of the mountain range.

The freeway route has the benefit now that there is a CCS charger pretty much right where I would be getting off the freeway to turn East. And that is about one battery charge distance away from home. But then *NOTHING* going over the mountains, just one single L2 charger further than one battery charge from the CCS charger. (That L2 location also has a CHAdeMO, but it's just a small market, not somewhere you'd want to spend a couple hours.)

The route over the closer mountain has the benefit that there is an L2 charger at a ski area on that mountain - that is the *JUST* past the distance one battery charge can go. So started the drive that way. Once I got to the far side of the city, I stopped for breakfast at a place that has an L2 charger. Topped off while eating (was at 98% when I left,) and headed up to the close mountain. Stopped there, and the REx kicked on while I was in the parking lot - it only ran for about 10 seconds before I parked and turned the vehicle off, so I'm counting that stretch as "electric only." (Not even one pixel of REx tank capacity went away.) The teenagers snowboarded while I worked in the lodge/restaurant, and they declared they were done right when the car hit 95%. Perfect timing. From there, downhill to the other side of the mountain range, and in to a small town that has *EIGHT* brand new CCS chargers! (Two locations each have four "CCS+CHAdeMO" units.) Charged up to 90%, then the i3 wouldn't release the plug! I had hit "stop" on the CCS charger screen, so it switched from relatively-cheap charging rate to much more expensive "idle" rate (with zero grace period.) Called BMW Roadside assistance, but the car released it the moment they finally got me to someone in EV support. So, extra $2.50 because the car wouldn't let go. But, that was my last charge needed. Got to the hotel with 12% left. The hotel doesn't have a dedicated EV charger, but they did let me plug in to a 110V outlet with the occasional-use-charger, which has enough juice to get me full overnight. (And the hotel is just outside town - on the way up the mountain, so straight shot 12 miles to the ski area in the morning, even if I don't get completely full, I should be fine enough to get there and back; tomorrow evening I'll probably go in to town for dinner and hit up a proper charger. My favorite brewery is in town, and they have a brewpub with a free charger.)
 
Well, to get the occasional use charger to work, I had to turn down the charging speed to get it to charge.

So when it was time to leave up the mountain this morning, it was at 75%. "That'll be enough, it's only 18 miles to the ski area!"

Got to the ski area parking lot, at 15%. 60% battery usage in 18 miles. (3500 ft elevation gain.) In ECO PRO + the whole way.

Coming back down was fine, though. Dropped to 12.5% leaving the parking lot, then straight shot on the 55 MPH highway down the mountain to the hotel, arrived at 11.5%. So 60% to go up the mountain, 1% to come down. Ended up not even trying to charge at our hotel, drove across the street to the fancy golf course resort that has a free L2 charger. Asked at the front desk "SURE! Go right ahead!" even though I wasn't a guest there.

By the time it was done, drove back across the street to our own hotel, and saw the guess-o-meter the highest I've ever seen it - 202 miles combined, 101 miles REx, 101 miles battery. (I've seen the REx at 100-105 miles before, but the battery was always somewhat drained, and I've *NEVER* seen the battery that high.
 
Wow, 60% up the hill!

Hey, you've got me curious, did you use Nav for that 18 miles, and did it come anywhere close to adjusting your guess-o-meter range, accounting for that elevation gain and speed?
 
Yes, turning on Nav gave a more realistic estimate. Before starting up the hill, it said 50-ish miles, engaging nav it dropped to 20.
 
Made the drive back today. Decided to go the "faster" route, which (I thought) would absolutely REQUIRE the REx to be used. The city I was in has no quick chargers, and the route I was taking had me driving 125 miles over a mountain range to the first rapid charger along that route.

Here's the dearth of CCS chargers in that part of Oregon. The town I was in is Bend at bottom-right - it has one "coming soon." The route home was going to Albany, center-low left:
UA8XHYT.png


There aren't even many L2 chargers along the route!
p88oeP6.png


That gap? From Sisters to Lebanon? 85.2 miles, over a mountain range (~2000 ft elevation gain, followed by ~4000 ft elevation drop. In the snow.)

I figured no possible way I'd make it. I also forgot how far Sisters is from Bend. I manually turned on HSoC at 75%, just as I was passing through Sisters. That's when I remembered the McDonalds there has an L2 charger. Didn't want to take the time right then, but made a note. Left the REx on until the range-remaining to the Albany rapid charger was the same as the battery range, which was while I was still climbing. REx tank was at about 60-65%. Assuming same range for REx as for battery, that means I used 10-15% more energy on REx than if I'd topped off battery at Sisters. So wouldn't have made it to the quick charger even if I had topped off.

Then out of curiosity, I decided to map the next L2 charger along the route - I figured there had to be one before the rapid charger. Yep! Saw the one in Lebanon (at a Walgreens,) and mapped to it. Plenty to spare! So paid attention as I rolled in to it, and I had 18% remaining. So if I *HAD* topped up in Sisters, I would have made it to Lebanon's L2 charger! Added a few % just to make sure the REx wouldn't kick in before getting to the rapid charger. Walked the dog over to the fast food place across the street and got food. By the time I was back to the car, enough to hit the rapid charger.

Made it to the rapid charger no problem. Filled up to 85% - which wasn't *QUITE* enough to make it all the way home. (DANG!) But the in-car nav showed a ChargePoint rapid charger that wasn't on PlugShare, just off the freeway right about where I was going to have REx kick back in. Wasn't sure if it was the in-car nav having an old one that got removed, but figured it wouldn't hurt to try.

From the freeway as I was getting ready to exit, I realized it was obviously going to be at a Chevrolet dealership. Hopefully it's in an accessible 24/7 location! Got there, and yes indeed it was! And it existed! And it was FREE! - but it was only 20kW. Oh well, good enough to get me the rest of the way home with only a couple minutes charge. Added it to PlugShare. (Of note, it's technically a SharePoint network unit, and requires a SharePoint RFID card to turn it on. Presumably it would turn on from the app, too, but the RFID card was quicker. It also had credit card logos next to the RFID symbol, I'm not sure if that's a standard thing with that model of charger (I haven't seen that model before,) or if it even actually would have charged a card.)

Made it home with 9% left.

So, now I know for next time that I *CAN* take this route electric-only! And with only maybe 30 total L2 charger minutes.

Of note, the route I took to get there would not have worked to come home without stopping for probably two hours at an L2 charger, or taking a *VERY* long detour (Highway 26 North to Madras' quick charger, then up to Mount Hood - Highway 26 in to Portland would require a couple hours L2 charging on Mount Hood, or else a very long detour on Highway 35 to the rapid charger in Hood River - adding 90 minutes driving time to the trip.)

So the round trip needs to be a loop to work.

Also of note - I was in ECO PRO + basically the entire drive, both out and back. Went to ECO PRO for a couple minutes on the mountain pass when the windows started fogging up.
 
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