Ev Road Trip

Baldwin NY

Description

A little long but interesting It seems to buy EV or not to buy EV depends on the purpose of the vehicle. Person rented an electric car for a 4-day road trip, and spent more time charging it than I did sleeping. Thought driving the brand-new rented EV6 would be a breeze. If, that is, the public-charging infrastructure cooperated. We wouldn't be the first to test it. Sales of pure and hybrid plug-ins doubled in the U.S. last year to 656,866 -- over 4% of the total market, according to database EV-volumes. More than half of car buyers say they want their next car to be an EV, according to recent Ernst & Young Global Ltd. data. they aimed to make the 2,000-mile trip in just under four days. With a battery range of up to 310 miles, they plotted a meticulous route, splitting their days into four chunks of roughly 7 1/2 -hours each. They'd need to charge once or twice each day and plug in near our hotel overnight. The PlugShare app -- a user-generated map of public chargers -- showed thousands of charging options between 2,000 miles. But most were classified as Level 2, requiring around 8 hours for a full charge. While they would be fine overnight, they required fast chargers during the days. ChargePoint Holdings Inc., which manufactures and maintains many fast-charging stations, promises an 80% charge in 20 to 30 minutes. Longer than stopping for gas -- but good for a bite or bathroom break. Fast chargers tend to be located in parking lots of suburban shopping malls, or tethered to gas stations or car dealerships. Cost varies widely based on factors such as local electricity prices and charger brands. Charging at home tends to be cheaper than using a public charger, though some businesses offer free juice as a perk to existing customers or to entice drivers to come inside while they wait. Over four days, they spent $175 on charging. They estimated the equivalent cost for gas would have been $275, based on the AAA average national gas price for May. That $100 savings cost us many hours in waiting time. Charging nuances Our starting point, has exactly zero fast chargers, according to PlugShare. As we set out, one of the closest is at a Harley-Davidson dealership about 40 minutes away. So they use their Monday-morning breakfast stop to top off there on the way out of town. But when we tick down 15% over 35 miles? Disconcerting. And the estimated charging time after plugging in? Even more so. This "quick charge" should take 5 minutes, based on our calculations. So why does the dashboard tell us it will take an hour? "Maybe it's just warming up," or. "Maybe it's broken?" they think. Over Egg McMuffins at McDonald's, they check the internet. Chargers slow down when the battery is 80% full, the State of Charge YouTube channel tells us. Worried about time, we decide to unplug once we return to the car, despite gaining a measly 13% in 40 minutes. When 'fast' is not really fast Our real troubles begin when they can't find the wall-mounted charger at the a dealership, the state's seventh-largest city and hometown of country-music legend Jimmie Rodgers. When I ask a mechanic working on an SUV a few feet away for help, he says he doesn't know anything about the machine and points us inside. At the front desk, the receptionist asks if we've checked with a technician and sends us back outside. Not many people use the charger, the mechanic tells us when we return. We soon see why. Once up and running, our dashboard tells us a full charge, from 18% to 100%, will take 3-plus hours. Turns out not all "fast chargers" live up to the name. The biggest variable, according to State of Charge, is how many kilowatts a unit can churn out in an hour. To be considered "fast," a charger must be capable of about 24 kW. The fastest chargers can pump out up to 350. Our charger in Meridian claims to meet that standard, but it has trouble cracking 20. "Even among DC fast chargers, there are different level chargers with different charging speeds," a ChargePoint spokesperson says. Worse, it is a 30-minute walk to downtown restaurants. They set off on foot, passing warehouses with shattered windows and an overgrown lot filled with rusted fuel pumps and gas-station signs. Clambering over a flatcar of a stalled freight train, we half-wish we could hop a boxcar to their destination. They Missed reservations By the time they reach their next station, at a dealership outside Birmingham, Ala., they've already missed dinner reservations in Nashville -- still 200 miles away Here, at least, the estimated charging time is only an hour -- and we get to make use of two automatic massage chairs while we wait. Salesman tells us the dealership upgraded its chargers to 54-kW models a few weeks earlier. "Everyone's concern is how far can the cars go on a charge," salesman says. He adds that he would trade in his car for an EV tomorrow if he could afford the price tag. "Just because it would be convenient for me because I work here," he says. "Otherwise, I don't know if I would just yet." After the Birmingham suburbs, the journey takes them along nightmarish, dark mountain roads. Stop for snacks at a gas station featuring a giant chicken in a chef's costume. they lean heavily on cruise control, which helps conserve battery life by reducing inadvertent acceleration and deceleration. We are beat when we finally stumble into our hotel at 12:30 a.m. To get back on schedule, are up out early, amid pouring rain, writing the previous day off as a warm-up, an electric-car hazing. For the most part, they are right. Thanks to vastly better charging infrastructure on this leg, all our stops last less than an hour. It isn't all smooth sailing, though. At one point we find ourselves wandering through a Kroger, sopping wet, in search of coffee after wrestling with a particularly finicky charger in the rain. By this point, not once have we managed to back in close enough to reach the pump, or gotten the stiff cord hooked around the right way on the first try. In the parking lot of a Walmart, barely have time for lunch, as the Electrify America charging station fills up car battery in about 25 minutes, as advertised.The woman charging next to them describes a harrowing recent trip in her Volkswagen ID.4. had to be towed twice while driving between her apartment where her daughter was getting married. "My daughter was like, 'You've lost it mom; just fly,' " the retired hairdresser says. She says she felt safer in a car during the pandemic -- but also vulnerable when waiting at remote charging stations alone late at night. "But if someone is going to get me, they're going to have to really fight me," she says, wielding her key between her fingers like a weapon. While she loves embracing the future, she says, her family has been giving her so much pushback that she is considering trading the car in and going back to gas. Smiling at gas prices At another Walmart, on the way, they meet a man as he waits for his Ford Mustang Mach-E to charge. He drives all over the Midwest from his home for work. In nine months, he says, he's put 30,000 miles on the car and figures he's saved thousands on gas. "I smile as the gas-sign prices tick up," he says. That day, his charge comes to about $15, similar to what we are paying to fill up. they pull into our final destination at 9 p.m., having made the planned 7 1/2 -hour trip in 12 hours. Not bad. Leaving Chicago after a full night of sleep, I think I might write only about the journey's first half. "The rest will just be the same," I predict, as thunder claps ominously overhead. But, as intense wind and rain whip around us, the car cautions, "Conditions have not been met" for its cruise-control system. Soon the battery starts bleeding life. What began as a 100-mile cushion between departure and our planned first stop in., has fallen to 30 miles. "If it gets down to 10, we're stopping at a Level 2," they say and frantically search PlugShare. Feeling defeated pulling into a Nissan Mazda dealership. "How long could it possibly take to charge the 30 miles we need to make it to the next fast station?" I wonder. Three hours. It takes 3 hours. YES 3 HOURS They begin to lose their minds in search of gas-station doughnuts, the wind driving sheets of rain into their face. I phone to get guidance. "What if we just risk it?" I say. "Maybe we'll make it there on electrical fumes." "That's a terrible idea!" she says, before asking me to bring back a bag of nuts. Cruise control disabled Back on the road, we can't even make it 200 miles on a full charge en route. Clearly, tornado warnings and electric cars don't mix. The car's highway range actually seems worse than its range in cities. Indeed, highway driving doesn't benefit as much from the car's regenerative-braking technology -- which uses energy generated in slowing down to help a car recharge its battery -- spokesman for the brand tells me later. He suspects our car is the less-expensive EV6 model with a range not of 310 miles, as listed on Turo, but 250. He says he can't be sure what model we’re driving without physically inspecting the car. "As we have all learned over many years of experience with internal combustion engine vehicles, factors such as average highway speed, altitude changes, and total cargo weight can all impact range, whether derived from a tank of gasoline or a fully charged battery," he says. To save power, they turn off the car's cooling system and the radio, unplug our phones and lower the windshield wipers to the lowest possible setting while still being able to see. Three miles away from the station, they have one mile of estimated range. "Charge, Urgently!" the dashboard urges. "We know!" they respond. At zero miles, we fly screeching into a gas-station parking lot. A trash can goes flying and lands with a clatter to greet us. Dinner is beef jerky, plans to dine at a kitschy beauty shop-turned-restaurant is long gone. Then they start to argue. reminded she needs to be back in time for her shift the next day. There's no way we'll make it. "Should we just drive straight through?" asks desperately, even as they realize they’ve failed to map out the last 400 miles of our route. To scout our options, Mack calls a McDonald's, that is home to one of the few fast chargers along our route back home. PlugShare tells us the last user has reported the charger broken. An employee who picks up reasonably responds that given the rain, she'll pass on checking to see if an error message is flashing across the charger's screen. Home, sweet $4-a-gallon home At our hotel, we decide 4 hours of sleep is better than none, and set our alarms for 4 a.m. We figure 11 hours should be plenty for a trip that would normally take half as long. THAT IS IF EVERTHING ABSOLUTELY GOES RIGHT. And, it does. At the McDonald's where we stop for our first charge at 6 a.m., the charger zaps to life. The body shop and parts department director at Rogers-Dabbs Chevrolet., comes out to unlock the charger for us with a keycard at 10 a.m.. We're thrilled we waited for business hours, realizing we can only charge while he's there. We pull into home 30 minutes before the job shift starts -- exhausted and grumpy. The following week, filling up the old gas car at a local gas station. Gas is up to $4.08 a gallon. I inhale deeply. Fumes never smelled so sweet. Can you imagine if everyone was driving these, it would make the Bidumb gas crisis look like a cake walk. The other take away is rent before you buy. Wow, too bad we couldn't have done that with Bidumb.