I'm a biker currently ride on Roadmaster and avid EV enthusiastic. Own Iron butt cert and took my bike to Vegas and 40KWH leaf to Dallas. Quite some adventure with a small battery and Chademo port. And, I'm Houston based. Welcome to Texas!
Awesome These road trip videos are really helpful. Your good at explaining what and how your planning it out. I'm very interested in what a challenging trip will look like and I don't wish that on you but it is probably the best for people like me that have a little range and knowledge anxiety.
Glad to help. What got rid of my range anxiety was going on trips and watching other videos. PlugShare and A Better Route Planner are great tools. To get rid of range anxiety, have a backup plan.
Thanks for your informative videos - I have been watching to educate ourselves on the Bolt EV. We get ours this weekend. Same color, same trim (1LT) as yours! We live in the central California valley.
I'll be glad when they simplified this shit I shouldn't have to pull out my phone open up an app to indicate I'm at the charger I should be able to swipe my card and begin charging my car if I don't have an account... If they want people to really accept electric cars im America ,they need to make this an easy thing and I also think a lot of those charging stations need to be covered... And yeah yeah yeah I know most people charge at home but he'll you're not going to always be at the house or near your house 😂
I really enjoyed your video, and I have subscribed to your channel. You mentioned another RUclipsr just remember you’re not him your videos are different than he’s is and I like that it has more of a family feeling to your videos where his videos or more a one person personality. Thanks again for the video will be watching more of your videos ❤
So round trip it's gonna cost a little less than $20 to charge and the same trip in my hybrid would be about $25. That's helpful information. On a full tank, plus my battery, I get about 460 miles of range. I'm driving a 2023 Honda CRV Hybrid.
That’s with DC fast charging, which is the most expensive way to charge. I’ve done some charger reviews and will have a summary video coming soon, but Electrify America seems like it will be the most cost effective way to charge on a road trip (even if it isn’t the most reliable.) For my normal everyday driving and charging at home, it’s about half that cost or less.
If charging with paid fast charger. EV doesn't have advantage over hybrid, especially small one like Prius, Volt... Because almost paying almost 2 dollar for 30 miles for EV... EV for road trip still need a lot planning, if using Tesla network (next year for GM, VW, FORD.._, then possible less planning but I assumed will pay more. So, if doing a lot road trip, Hybrid may be better choice. But currently in US, Tax incentives on EV bringing EV price a lot lower than Hybrid. Let's say Toyota Prius based model around $28k. Bolt EV can be low as $20k after all incentives, some states, you even got more incentives that bring down the price to $17k
Why didn't you charge to 100% at the free L2 charger at the hotel? My routine has been to charge to 75% when I'm home and it might take a few days before I'll want to charge again. But if I'm expecting to drive a lot the next day, I'll charge to 100% overnight.
@@SpinnerEV The first few weeks with my new Bolt, I've never gone more than 200 miles in a day and I've only needed to charge at home. Today was my first road trip. I stopped at two EA chargers. I had more than your recommended 50 mile buffer for the EA stops, but I arrived at mom's house with only 32 miles left on the GOM. Feels like I accomplished something! Thanks for your support and advice!!
Houston we have a problem, Luke is over the line, and then "out of range"... Gotta work on that gimbal lock! ROFL Good thing you added that buffer or you wouldn't have made it. I agree with your method of adding the buffer vs Kyle's method. The charging network is not reliable enough for me to roll into a charger sucking fumes and risk that the charger isn't going to work sitting on empty gives me range anxiety just thinking about it. Fantastic setup at the hotel and you were actually able to get a spot, plug in, and get a charge. That is the ideal way to do it. Hotels need to accommodate EV's as it will attract business.
@@SpinnerEV I think that is great. Would be awesome if hotels doing this becomes common place. Certainly would be a feature I would look for as the world goes electric.
@@SpinnerEV agreed! I stay at a Rodeway Inn because of the same reasons. Since my car can recharge in 2.5 hours, on level 2, I repark in the lot after filling up. Then the charger can be used by others. Eventually the charger etiquette might prevail. Necessity charge vs. Opportunity charge. If I’m not near my car, I have a little flag collar that goes over the cable, it has my number on it, if the chargers are full and people are waiting. I can take my :30 minutes and go.
You always need to add a buffer. Even if you have a magic wand that guarantees perfect charger reliability, there's still the possibility of a missed exit. In areas with lots of fast chargers around, a 30 mile buffer, or even a 20 mile buffer is often sufficient. But, in areas where chargers are more sparse (e.g. Texas), you need to be more cautious, and 50 miles of buffer is very reasonable. It is also possible, if you think the guess-o-meter is off due to lots of city driving before the trip, to estimate the range yourself. There are several ways to do this with varying tradeoffs around complexity vs. accuracy. However, the way I like to do it is crude, but effective. Just count the number of battery bars and treat each bar as 10 miles of range, which tends to work pretty well for highway driving with moderate climate control (e.g. 40-90 degree temperatures). For example, 10 bars=100 miles, 5 bars=50 miles, etc. This heuristic is not perfect (on unusually cold days, you might want to increase caution and assume 8 miles per bar instead of 10), but in practice, it's good enough, and will within the margin of error if you're shooting for 50 miles of buffer on each charge session.
One note on charging etiquette. The worst-case impact of blocking a 350 kW charger with a Bolt is that somebody else maybe needs to charge slower (depending on what kind of car they have and what their arrival SOC is). But, blocking the site's only Chademo plug with a Bolt means that Leaf drivers can't charge at all until you leave, which is much worse than needing to charge slower. There are also very few cars on the road, presently, capable of achieving anywhere near Electrify American's full 350 kW. Of course, a 150 kW charger with two CCS plugs is the best option, but if that's unavailable, I would argue that it is actually less impactful on others to simply take the 350 kW charger and leave the Chademo plug open than to block the Chademo to leave the 350 kW charger open.
I'm a biker currently ride on Roadmaster and avid EV enthusiastic. Own Iron butt cert and took my bike to Vegas and 40KWH leaf to Dallas. Quite some adventure with a small battery and Chademo port. And, I'm Houston based. Welcome to Texas!
Thanks!
Awesome
These road trip videos are really helpful. Your good at explaining what and how your planning it out. I'm very interested in what a challenging trip will look like and I don't wish that on you but it is probably the best for people like me that have a little range and knowledge anxiety.
Glad to help. What got rid of my range anxiety was going on trips and watching other videos. PlugShare and A Better Route Planner are great tools. To get rid of range anxiety, have a backup plan.
Ice Blue is a nice blue. 🎉
Thanks for your informative videos - I have been watching to educate ourselves on the Bolt EV. We get ours this weekend. Same color, same trim (1LT) as yours! We live in the central California valley.
Congrats!
I like yalls rule of the range you need plus 50. That's good advice for a road trip.
It was a piece of advice I got from a friend of mine with a Model 3. It works well for us and had never left us stranded.
Love your channel ❤Drive safe!
Thanks!
Another enlightening and engaging video. I always enjoy seeing what you guys are up to.
Thanks!
Nice planning of your roadtrip. Safe driving always. Love your channel! 🙂
Thanks!
Nice choice of music!
Wha5 app and device where you using to check the kw charging on the hotel charger? Thanks!
A Veepeak OBD2 dongle and the Car Scanner app.
I'll be glad when they simplified this shit I shouldn't have to pull out my phone open up an app to indicate I'm at the charger I should be able to swipe my card and begin charging my car if I don't have an account... If they want people to really accept electric cars im America ,they need to make this an easy thing and I also think a lot of those charging stations need to be covered... And yeah yeah yeah I know most people charge at home but he'll you're not going to always be at the house or near your house 😂
I really enjoyed your video, and I have subscribed to your channel. You mentioned another RUclipsr just remember you’re not him your videos are different than he’s is and I like that it has more of a family feeling to your videos where his videos or more a one person personality. Thanks again for the video will be watching more of your videos ❤
Thanks!
So round trip it's gonna cost a little less than $20 to charge and the same trip in my hybrid would be about $25. That's helpful information. On a full tank, plus my battery, I get about 460 miles of range. I'm driving a 2023 Honda CRV Hybrid.
That’s with DC fast charging, which is the most expensive way to charge. I’ve done some charger reviews and will have a summary video coming soon, but Electrify America seems like it will be the most cost effective way to charge on a road trip (even if it isn’t the most reliable.) For my normal everyday driving and charging at home, it’s about half that cost or less.
If charging with paid fast charger. EV doesn't have advantage over hybrid, especially small one like Prius, Volt... Because almost paying almost 2 dollar for 30 miles for EV...
EV for road trip still need a lot planning, if using Tesla network (next year for GM, VW, FORD.._, then possible less planning but I assumed will pay more.
So, if doing a lot road trip, Hybrid may be better choice.
But currently in US, Tax incentives on EV bringing EV price a lot lower than Hybrid.
Let's say Toyota Prius based model around $28k. Bolt EV can be low as $20k after all incentives, some states, you even got more incentives that bring down the price to $17k
Why didn't you charge to 100% at the free L2 charger at the hotel? My routine has been to charge to 75% when I'm home and it might take a few days before I'll want to charge again. But if I'm expecting to drive a lot the next day, I'll charge to 100% overnight.
I wasn’t too worried about it I guess.
@@SpinnerEV The first few weeks with my new Bolt, I've never gone more than 200 miles in a day and I've only needed to charge at home. Today was my first road trip. I stopped at two EA chargers. I had more than your recommended 50 mile buffer for the EA stops, but I arrived at mom's house with only 32 miles left on the GOM. Feels like I accomplished something! Thanks for your support and advice!!
@JeffKaplanFame congrats!
Houston we have a problem, Luke is over the line, and then "out of range"... Gotta work on that gimbal lock! ROFL Good thing you added that buffer or you wouldn't have made it. I agree with your method of adding the buffer vs Kyle's method. The charging network is not reliable enough for me to roll into a charger sucking fumes and risk that the charger isn't going to work sitting on empty gives me range anxiety just thinking about it.
Fantastic setup at the hotel and you were actually able to get a spot, plug in, and get a charge. That is the ideal way to do it. Hotels need to accommodate EV's as it will attract business.
That’s the whole reason we chose that specific hotel, and we let them know.
@@SpinnerEV I think that is great. Would be awesome if hotels doing this becomes common place. Certainly would be a feature I would look for as the world goes electric.
@@SpinnerEV agreed! I stay at a Rodeway Inn because of the same reasons. Since my car can recharge in 2.5 hours, on level 2, I repark in the lot after filling up. Then the charger can be used by others. Eventually the charger etiquette might prevail. Necessity charge vs. Opportunity charge.
If I’m not near my car, I have a little flag collar that goes over the cable, it has my number on it, if the chargers are full and people are waiting. I can take my :30 minutes and go.
Good idea
You always need to add a buffer. Even if you have a magic wand that guarantees perfect charger reliability, there's still the possibility of a missed exit. In areas with lots of fast chargers around, a 30 mile buffer, or even a 20 mile buffer is often sufficient. But, in areas where chargers are more sparse (e.g. Texas), you need to be more cautious, and 50 miles of buffer is very reasonable.
It is also possible, if you think the guess-o-meter is off due to lots of city driving before the trip, to estimate the range yourself. There are several ways to do this with varying tradeoffs around complexity vs. accuracy. However, the way I like to do it is crude, but effective. Just count the number of battery bars and treat each bar as 10 miles of range, which tends to work pretty well for highway driving with moderate climate control (e.g. 40-90 degree temperatures). For example, 10 bars=100 miles, 5 bars=50 miles, etc. This heuristic is not perfect (on unusually cold days, you might want to increase caution and assume 8 miles per bar instead of 10), but in practice, it's good enough, and will within the margin of error if you're shooting for 50 miles of buffer on each charge session.
One note on charging etiquette. The worst-case impact of blocking a 350 kW charger with a Bolt is that somebody else maybe needs to charge slower (depending on what kind of car they have and what their arrival SOC is). But, blocking the site's only Chademo plug with a Bolt means that Leaf drivers can't charge at all until you leave, which is much worse than needing to charge slower. There are also very few cars on the road, presently, capable of achieving anywhere near Electrify American's full 350 kW. Of course, a 150 kW charger with two CCS plugs is the best option, but if that's unavailable, I would argue that it is actually less impactful on others to simply take the 350 kW charger and leave the Chademo plug open than to block the Chademo to leave the 350 kW charger open.
Good point. In this case it all worked out, but I’ll keep that in mind on future trips.