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2,000 Mile Road Trip | Charging and Timing Part 2

YOU DON’T NEED TO “FILL UP”

With a gas car on a trip, usually, you will pull in to a station, fill up to 100%, then go on with the rest of your trip. That mindset has been so ingrained in us that when we got Scarlett, we thought we had to always get to 100% when charging on a trip. Old habits.

Yet, that isn’t the case and isn’t even the best way to go with an EV. So some rethinking and retraining has been occurring in our minds.

First, when charging an EV, getting from 90% to 100% takes a proportionately longer time. So while you may be able to go from 20% to 90% in 30 minutes, it could take another 30 minutes to go from 90% to 100%. And with Superchargers every 100 miles or so along the road, it isn’t necessary.

Second, if you can plan your charging around lunch or coffee stops, as I mentioned in my last post, the time it takes to charge can overlap with the time you would have been parked anyway.

I mentioned how we charged in Ukiah. We stopped, plugged in and went to lunch. By the time we returned, I think we were at 85% or 90% charge with plenty of distance to get to our next stop in Sacramento, just 150 miles away.

Having learned this, on our way home, we had planned to stop again in Eureka. Our lodging this time was not near the Supercharger. After our experience on the way down, we decided to see if there was a dinner spot near the Supercharger. We found a German restaurant across the street and decided to charge that evening while eating dinner. This time, it worked seamlessly AND we found a wonderful restaurant with amazing food at reasonable prices. Thank you, Yelp!

We did the same thing at the charger in Crescent City for lunch and found another excellent restaurant. And it was maybe four blocks from the charger.

I think we are now getting into a change of our habits while traveling and charging. We are slowly getting past the need to “fill up” and shifting our thinking to be more strategic. Now on a road trip, I think we can reduce that 30 minutes extra charging time to 10 or 15 minutes tops.

But for now, we’re back home for a while and charging in our garage during the sunny days that are still left to us this fall with our solar.

This takes zero extra time and costs almost nothing.

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2,000 Mile Road Trip | Charging and Timing Part 1

One of the many comments I hear about charging our car on a road trip is the assumption that it takes a lot of extra time and prolongs the trip. It is true that a fill up at a gas station may take only 5 or 10 minutes and charging an EV could take up to an hour. But, keep in mind that the 98% of the time we’re not road tripping and are in town, we charge at home, which SAVES us time because we don’t have to go to a gas station at all. Those weekly 5 or 10 minutes aren’t used at all.

With a little planning, however, and a couple of realizations about charging, it can most often not take any more time than filling up at a gas station.

Really. Here’s my logic. Part One Planning.

PLAN YOUR STOPS

Tesla Superchargers are located about every 100-150 miles along most major roads. It’s true that if you want to take back roads in the middle of nowhere, you’ll REALLY have to plan your route. But for the more common road trips, you can usually find a Supercharger every couple of hours along your route. As an example, on the first leg of our recent 2,000 mile road trip, we went from Eugene to Eureka the first day and Eureka to Sacramento the second day.

On the first leg, we had lunch in Coos Bay at a great BBQ sandwich place. No charging there. The charger is in Bandon. So we went a little farther and stopped at Bandon. It’s right by a supermarket and we bought some snacks for the afternoon leg of the trip. Then we continued on to Eureka where our motel was located.

We booked a motel close to the Eureka Supercharger partly for convenience and partly because it was a last-minute booking since we had to leave a day early due to the fire that closed Interstate 5. We decided to plug in and charge that evening and did a little shopping in the adjacent mall. Not much to see and we did just kill a half hour or so. Fortunately, it was a fast charger. But we got bored and decided to top it off in the morning.

The next morning, we plugged in and it was decidedly slower. We should have just done more the night before. But there was a good coffee shop in the mall for us to get a mocha for the trip out. So we walked over, got our coffee, then walked back to the car. We weren’t full, but had plenty of charge to continue on, so we did.

Our next stop was Ukiah, which hit right at lunch time. So we plugged in, walked to a nearby brew pub and had a very good lunch. When we returned to the car, we were almost completely charged this time, so we continued on to Sacramento.

In all of these stops, we spent extra time only in Bandon (partly because it’s a wasteland for much of anything near the Supercharger) and in Eureka (mostly because we didn’t take advantage of our stop better).

Total “extra time” in four “fill-ups” (which should have only been three): probably about 30 minutes. This is 45 minutes total less the 15 minutes we would have spent for two gas fill ups. Had we planned it better, we could have reduced that to about 10 or 15 minutes extra. Not too bad for 11 1/2 hours of driving.

Next: Part Two – You Don’t Need to “Fill Up”

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Road Trips, Supercharging and Sabbath

I’ve talked a little bit about battery range and some of the shorter road trips we’ve taken in Scarlett. Most have been just a few hundred miles with limited need for charging along the way. I think our longest road trip so far has been Eugene to Seattle and it went seamlessly; we even found a wonderful Thai restaurant for lunch in Vancouver just a short walk from the Supercharger there.

However, now we are planning our vacation. It will be a two-week 1,700 mile jaunt  from Eugene to Southern California then back up Highway 1 all along the coast and home. We decided since both National Parks we wanted to visit were on fire, we’d hug the coast and revisit Hearst Castle, Big Sur, San Francisco and the Napa Valley.

Math has always been a passion of mine (you can see that from some of my previous posts) and so planning a 1,700 mile trip in an electric car does take a bit more planning. There are not yet chargers at every freeway interchange (as there are gas stations), but with 310 miles of range on a charge, as I planned out our trip, I discovered a few nuggets I want to share.

First, Tesla planned the Supercharging network impeccably well. All along our route, there are Tesla Superchargers about every 100 to 150 miles. A Supercharger will gain us about 180 to 200 miles in about 30 minutes. And a coffee or lunch stop about every two to three hours is a driving tactic we have done for a while. I can’t physically do long driving stretches without a break. I’ve never been able to and thought it was just me; now I’m learning it’s actually healthier.

From the website Driving Tests:  “Take frequent breaks. Never think that you must make a long drive in one stretch. Take a break approximately every two hours. If you are driving on an interstate highway, state sponsored rest areas will provide you with a great place to stretch your legs, grab a snack, and use the restroom. Other great places to take a break from a long drive include gas stations, local restaurants, and parks.”

Taking a 15 minute coffee break or a 30-45 minute lunch break matches not only the recommended rest pauses, but the timing for charging as well. It’s almost like someone thought that through at the front end.

There are Tesla Superchargers conveniently located at every needed point except one. As we head up the coast, deciding to stay on Highway 1 instead of 101, we will need a slight boost in charge on our trip from Petaluma to Eureka (almost 300 miles via Highway 1). But our planned lunch stop is about halfway at Fort Bragg. And Fort Bragg has just installed several Level 2 chargers (240 volt, gaining about 40-50 miles of charge in an hour). Two are at City Hall, right across the street from our planned lunch stop. In the time we will eat lunch, we will be able to boost our charge enough to easily make it to Eureka, where there is a Tesla Supercharger. Plus, the first hour is free.

Which brings me to Sabbath. My wife and I have been trying to slow our pace of life and truly rest a little more and not be so driven to accomplish a task, do way more things than we need to and simply chill. We find we are much more comfortable about life and our demeanors are much more relaxed. It’s a little better understanding of the scriptural principle of Sabbath rest.  And it’s changed our lives for the better.

This has been a little longer post than normal, but I wanted to set the stage for my next series of posts. I plan on blogging about each day or two of our trip and evaluate how it goes; from the pure relaxing vacation aspect, and also how Scarlett performs on very long trips and charging.

One added benefit of Supercharging has been the conversations we’ve engaged in and the people we have met at the charging stations. Tesla owners are a tight-knit community and it’s fun being a part of something that is revolutionizing the way we travel. Tesla’s Mission Statement fits our lifestyle choices and sums it up well:

“Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”

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Carbon Footprint

 

We were at an EV meet-up recently. It was at a public park and a woman walking through the park stopped to see what was going on. As the conversation turned to sustainability, her question was “but what about the batteries and the carbon footprint related to them?”

That’s a good question and one that often comes up when talking about EVs. From the concerns over mining the lithium to disposing of spent batteries, it’s a valid concern. However, no manufacturing process or mechanical activity is without some footprint.

Unless we all go back to walking (without shoes), there will be SOME environmental impact from what we do. The goal is to minimize that as much as possible while still living our first-world lifestyle. You may disagree with that last sentence, but really, I don’t think very many of us want to give up the perks of a first-world culture, so how can we maximize our sustainability and minimize our footprint?

In the chart above, you can see how electric cars over their life have a much smaller carbon footprint than ICE (internal combustion engine) cars. While electric cars have a higher manufacturing impact and a significantly higher upstream impact, they are much lighter on the earth than ICEs. (Upstream is the very beginnings of the entire process, which includes the mining and sourcing of the raw materials: lithium for the batteries included).

However, we never should only look at the initial cost or impact of anything. For example, WHERE you live has a far greater impact than the efficiency of your home. A relatively inefficient home in an urban, walkable area, actually has a smaller carbon footprint than a very efficient home in the suburbs. But that is another post for another time.

So the third category in the chart is lifetime emissions from the tailpipe. Since EVs have no tailpipe, they have no emissions. ICE cars, however, emit more greenhouse gases just from their tailpipes than the entire impact of manufacturing and upstream costs of an EV.

We have been trying to “walk the talk” in this regard. That is why we committed to buying an EV. That’s why we committed to living in an urban, walkable area AND building an efficient home. Did that cost more money initially? Absolutely. But what are the benefits?

First, the economic ones: our electric bill last month was negative. Even with charging Scarlett and running the AC in the house. Our environmental impacts are also much lower by not using as much electricity (we are an all-electric house). We are using no fossil fuels. We live in an area where much of our errands can be done on foot. I bike to work every day. We only have one car (which reduces our monthly costs for fuel, insurance, maintenance, etc).

Back to the batteries. All indications are that the Tesla batteries will outlast the car.  If Scarlett’s  doesn’t hold at least 70% of a charge by the end of 8 years or 120,000 miles, it will be replaced under warranty. So replacing the battery is probably not in the cards.

Assuming the car goes away at the end of its life, I’ve been hearing of people tossing around the idea of using the battery as a home battery to supplement their solar. This would give it many more years of use.

In short, the carbon footprint of EV batteries and, for that matter, EVs in general, is far better then ICE vehicles.

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Bikes Racks and Tesla

Scarlett has no trim on the roof where you can attach a bike rack. She also doesn’t have the ability to add a trailer hitch for a hitch rack. The only viable option is a SeaSucker Rack, which attaches purely with large suction cups.

Can you say “nervous?” We had a bike fall out of our previous Yakima rack while going 65 mph down I-5. It didn’t fall off the roof (thankfully), but you don’t forget that sort of thing. I watched a bunch of videos. Race cars with bikes on top running a slalom at 100 mph or something ridiculous like that. The bikes appeared to be rock solid. But I still had visions of two metal bikes skidding down Scarlett’s very expensive all-glass roof and what that would cost to fix.

But I had no options so I bought a SeaSucker Mini Bomber, which can hold two bikes. It came Thursday and we planned a bike ride for today.

Friday night was reserved for assembly, installation and dry run for mounting the bikes. By the end of the evening, I was even more nervous and asking myself “what did I just do? Did I throw away $500?”

First, the front fork extenders that keep you from needing to take off the front tire didn’t fit. $90 of the $500. Then the handlebars, when mounted, bumped each other and I couldn’t cinch down the bikes. Plus it was awkward and flat out scary putting a bike with a metal front fork on top of a car with an all-glass roof. Although removing the front tires was much less of a problem than I originally anticipated.

There is also an alignment on the rack you can do to avoid the handlebar issue; although it was easier for me to simply loosen and twist Brenda’s handlebar.

This morning I backed the car out of the garage and mounted the bikes. They fit really snug, the front wheels easily fit in the rear trunk along with our gear and helmets in the frunk.

We went to the Row River Trail and rode from Mosby Creek to Bake Stewart Park, about 8.5 miles each way. One of our favorite rides, which will be shut partially down for repairs starting Monday. We came in under the wire.

Can I say the MiniBomber performed flawlessly? I kept asking Brenda on the drive down to look up and check how they were doing. I actually think they ride more solidly than our previous Yakima rack. On our ride, because the racks don’t lock, I removed them and stowed them in the trunk. This has the additional benefit of we don’t have to clutter up the car with a bike rack except when we are needing one.

When we returned from our ride (which was beautiful, by the way. See our Facebook pages), I timed the process of getting the rack out, reinstalling, removing the front wheels, mounting the bikes, loading the car and being on our way.

Fifteen minutes.

Total.

Plus, we can be pre-cooling the car while we are doing this, so it’s not an oven when we are ready to go.

I’m sold on the rack. I thought about titling this post “This Rack Sucks” or something like that, but most of the reviews I saw already used that perspective.

I’ll just say it is a wonderful rack. We can store the entire thing in the frunk so it’s ready at any time. And SeaSucker is letting me send back the front fork extenders for a full refund.

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Automobile Design

Why am I posting a picture of my Beetle?

I just watched a short video of Tesla Lead Designer, Franz von Holzhausen speaking to the Tesla mission of sustainability. But he also spoke of design. I found out he also was one of the lead designers for the New Beetle, which was my previous car pictured above and one that I thoroughly enjoyed for a dozen years.

In his speech, he kind of alluded to leaving VW in part because of ICE manufacturers getting in to the EV realm largely for marketing and not as a core value in their mission statement.

This brought back two memories; one recent and one from around 2006, which was about the time Franz left VW.

My memory of 2006 was at a time in our lives where we had a 2001 VW Passat and a 2003 VW Turbo S Beetle. We loved our cars. The styling, the drive, the whole concept. Around that time, we also had committed that our next car would be an EV.

So, being the VW fans we were, I contacted VW about when they planned on making an EV. I explained we absolutely loved our VWs and wanted to stay in the VW family.

I wish now I had saved their email response. It was a very terse “we have no plans to make an electric car.” This was in 2006.

Fast forward to 2012 and the upstart Tesla, who now has a new lead designer and a new Model S. Designed as an EV from the ground up; not a converted ICE. Beautiful car.

Over the last 5 years, Tesla has dominated the EV market and changed the entire paradigm of the way we think about automobiles. And guess who is joining the momentum? Just about every auto manufacturer out there: Audi, Porsche, BMW, Chevy, Ford.

Even VW.

For me, it’s too little, too late with VW. Had they responded more diplomatically, I might feel different. But I struggle with such nasty, dogmatic statements. I also struggle with ugly cars; I put the Leaf and the Bolt in that category.

Which brings me to my more recent memory. It was of two MSNBC reporters interviewing a former VP for GM. They schooled him in that interview in many categories related to EVs, including the question that if, as he claimed, GM could “easily duplicate everything Tesla was doing and do it better,” why they weren’t doing it? Boom.

But the clincher for me was the observation from one of the interviewers when she remarked, specifically related to design, that Tesla made cars “that people really really really want to buy.”

And that’s where I have immense respect and appreciation for Franz and his team and Tesla in general. It’s also why we waited almost two years to own a Tesla.

We’ve not regretted a single day of that wait.

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Range Anxiety… not



We just got home from taking our granddaughters and daughter to a park north of Salem. Brenda had driven all week on our 90% charge from last Sunday.

We don’t drive a lot of miles.

But we do occasionally have a friend ask us the question: “What would you do if you ran out of battery charge?”

Well, that question actually begs a companion question: “What would you do if you ran out of gas?”

You see, both are essentially the same question, just for different cars. ICE versus EV. But the answer to both is really a comment that we plan ahead, just like you do when you make sure you have enough gas in your tank before you set off on a trip, or go to work, or go anywhere.

Granted, it takes us a little longer to fill our tank at home as evidenced by the screen capture above. But right now we’re back home, the sun is still shining, we are generating more electricity than we are using in the house, so we’re charging Scarlett.

I’m going out in a few minutes and unplug, even though we don’t yet have a “full tank” so I can wash her. I’ll start charging again in the morning when the sun comes back out. Saturdays we walk most places, so we’ll probably be fully charged by mid day.

So, yes, we have to think and plan a little differently, but really not much. And not spending over $60/month on gasoline, which today is at $3.71/gallon for premium (what we had to use in our Passat) makes me very very happy.

Plus, as I’ve mentioned before, Scarlett is just plain fun to drive.

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Seattle Road Trip

We had the opportunity this weekend to take our first TRUE road trip with Scarlett. Every April, we attend a conference in Seattle’s Belltown and have traditionally taken the train, in part, because it is cheaper.

But, since we had Scarlett and we have a road trip vacation coming up this fall to Yosemite, Tahoe and the Napa Valley, we just HAD to know how Supercharging and timing and all that would play out.

So we left and headed up I-5.

Our first stop was at the Supercharger in Vancouver, Washington right about lunch time. It’s right next to a Fred Meyer (many SC seem to be). With a really good Thai restaurant just a short walk away. No extra time spent and a cost for charging of $7.25.

Our next stop was the Centralia, Washington Supercharger. A shorter time needed to charge (we might have made it to Seattle, but didn’t want to risk it). A visit to the Starbucks (again, just a short walk away), a boosted battery range and $5.75 later, we are on our way.

Once in Seattle, we stay close to our conference venue, so we parked the car and walked while there. The hotel was going to charge the battery, but didn’t really have the facility to do so. Even with the 110v connector and an extension cord, we gained maybe 10 miles of range at no additional cost, so I’ll ignore that in our review. It did, however, make for a nice conversation about preparing for the future and the coming demand for destination chargers with the hotel manager. We stay at they hotel every time we’re in Belltown and LOVE it.

Here’s where I’ll add in the cost for valet parking. $40 per night for four nights; a total of $160.  It won’t factor in to our per-mile costs, but it will when we compare to the trip via the train. I’ll get to that.

So coming back today, we left around 11:00am and hit the Centralia Supercharger on our way home. Superchargers seem to be either at Fred Meyers’ or Outlet Malls. This one was an outlet mall.

Sort of.

While there is a nice Starbucks, the restaurant fare within walking distance is pretty weak. A McDonalds, Arby’s, Taco Bell, Country Cousin (scary looking building) and a Denny’s. We picked Denny’s.

This was the first time we’d been to a Denny’s in a couple of decades. And it was OK. Not great by any means, but not horrible.

We were able to almost completely charge there and have more than enough range to get home. About 45 minutes and $11.75 later and we’re on our way again.

One more Starbucks stop in Kelso along the way home, a passing wave to the Supercharger at the Woodburn, Oregon Outlet Mall and we booked it home.

To be fair, I do have to add in the cost to charge at home to bring it back up to full charge. We had 55 miles of range left when we pulled into the garage. At our retail charging cost of $0.0235 per mile, that’s another $5.75.

Our total hard cost for “fuel” to go about 580 miles was right at $30. Compared to gas, we would have spent about $85. And we would have still had to pay for valet parking.

As a side note, the train would cost $175 for two round trip tickets plus about $25 for our Car2Go rides to and from the hotel. That totals about $200. Scarlett cost about $190. The Passat would have cost $245. And one other note: on long trips, the Passat seats get very uncomfortable.

In the past, we took the train in part to save a little money and not have to drive. Now, with just how fun Scarlett is to drive, the seat comfort which is excellent, and the ease of Supercharging, I think we’ll drive next year.

 

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50 Days With Scarlett

 

Today marks our 50th day with Scarlett. Yes it’s Easter, yes it’s April Fool’s Day, yes this will be a serious post.

I’ve been tracking our electric use the entire time we’ve been in our home. If you follow my blog, you’l know we live in a LEED Platinum, net-zero (so far) home. We designed it from the start for up to two Level 2 charging stations in our garage. Each would supply up to 40 amps at 240 volts for charging. Put into basic terms, we can fully charge Scarlett overnight.

We have a 6KW solar PV system as well and in a previous post, I talked about costs, electricity, etc.

But the real test is in our actual electric bill. There are so many variables, it is actually very hard to make a determination in just one month. We just received our electric bill and it was a bit lower than last month. It was also a bit lower than February last year. I checked heating degree days and they were a bit higher this February over last February. So I would have to say the results right now are inconclusive.

As I said, too many variables. I think the real test will be after a full year.

But based on my estimates, our average gasoline bill last year was $63 per month. And, also based on my estimates, our electric bill should only go up about $10 per month, for a net savings of about $50 per month.

Which is, in all reality, all somewhat academic. I was asked today if I had calculated how long it would take me to recoup our investment in Scarlett.

Well, we have traditionally only bought new cars about every 15 years or so. And, beyond the carbon footprint reduction of an EV, Scarlett is just flat out fun to drive.

I’d have to say that’s the REAL investment.

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Supercharging

 

We had our first “road trip” with Scarlett.

Just a relatively short jaunt to Sunriver, Oregon for my wife’s staff retreat. We did our first Supercharging since taking delivery in February. This is the Bend, Oregon Supercharger.

I wondered how the credit card link to our account and all that would work. In a word: seamlessly. Back in, plug in, charge, unplug and go. We were the only ones there on a Sunday afternoon until another silver M3 with California plates showed up.

About 40 minutes later (I was going to time it and forgot…), we topped off adding about 180 miles of range and we were on our way.

Total cost: $10.56. That’s the equivalent of about $1.46/gallon compared to our Passat. And that only because Tesla recently changed the supercharge rates and Oregon rates doubled from $0.12/KW to $0.24. My understanding is they are trying to keep locals from using the superchargers for their day-to-day charging and leave the stations open for travelers.

Like us.

So while it isn’t the screaming deal it once was, at $3.25/gallon for the Passat, this is VERY economical.

We are looking forward to our vacation to Lassen and Yosemite this fall.