On the Road Again

or,   EV Travel on the cheap: 900 miles on Zero Dollars.

We're not exactly post COVID, but finally close enough to get out and do mostly outdoor things.

Being crazy people we're out doing a road trip in the EV. [2021 Nissan Leaf S-Plus, 62KWh battery]

"But I thought EV roadtrips were for rich people with Teslas?
      Besides, aren't most of the chargers Tesla 'Superchargers'?"

With a little thought and minimal planning it's quite possible to do some semi-serious road tripping in a Leaf that you're paying maybe $200/month for (or less, see previous posts!) without shelling out the extra +$400 to $600 a month (we're comparing leases here, YMMV) for a Tesla. Roadtripping in a Leaf is slightly slower, mainly due to slower 'Fast Chargers' (DCFC) but think of yourself as being paid SEVERAL $Hundred$ per hour or your time. See Note on Cost/Mile below.

Wenatchee valley at apple blossom time, Rainer in the distance.

Pre-trip: You pretty much *have* to have several charging vendor's Apps on your phone.
Yes this sucks ... and ... they're working on it.
There are some recent wrinkles to that: Shell Recharge (the biggest non-Tesla charging network player in Europe) has recently bought out GreenLots, a conglomerator (is this a word?) of charging networks in the U.S. and Canada. They claim their account will be able to activate Shell, GreenLots, EVGo and ChargePoint chargers, 'and several more to be named later' and if that's true it may reduce the number of apps you have to cart around, since those were all on my 'must have' list. Stay tuned for updates.

In addition I need (but sometimes dislike) both EVCS (formerly AV/Webasto) and Electrify America (Charge America too darn much IMHO)
My issues with EVCS are almost entirely due to pricing. $20/mo. is what AV/Webasto billed for their all-you-can-eat plan. I didn't need it (well except once) but that was pretty reasonable. When EVCS took over that went to $50/mo. They bill $0.49/KWh otherwise, also a completely ridiculous amount, so if you have need (over 100KWh/month regularly) that monthly amount might look less awful to you. Of course that's only for the rather limited EVCS network and does you no good with the dozen other suppliers. Boo.
They do have a 'First Month's Free" deal so that's one of the things we'll be using on this trip. Yay!

First day: 420 Miles from Eugene to Leavenworth/Wenachee Washington.

Leg one from Eugene to Hood River OR, 100% down to 5%, 188 miles ~ 3hrs.
Cold (38-42) raining and blowing, not ideal 'range' weather.
We almost certainly could have made it to TheDalles but 5% isn't much charge remaining.
Besides, the EVCS charger was free-to-me (see above) and though 44KW isn't fast, Hood River is a nice town to walk around and have lunch in during the 90 min(!) it took to go from 5% to 95%. You kind of have to do -something- since the town seems convinced that a public restroom will attract homeless folks (and they may be right) but if you expect to need that type of relief it will probably be in a restaurant if you're planning to walk less then a mile. We could have cut it off at 90% and have been fine, maybe even 80%. The newer EVCS chargers have a button that allows 80% charge or 100%. See "Note about 100% charge" below.

Hood River to Wapato WA. 120 Miles.
I still had some free charging available through  ChargePoint and their charger at Wolf'sDen Wapato WA which was just about perfect. It went from 30% to 85% in 28 min. peaking around 55KW. Battery temps were edging up so 85% was 'it' and besides we only had like 106mi. left to go. Note that even had it not been free-to-me, this location has an unusually low rate of $0.11/KWh so the charge-up cost would have totaled $5.20

Wapato to Leavenworth: 110 Miles
This part has two mountain passes, one over 4000 ft. and in this case there was still some snow on the ground. It's also (mostly) not major freeway, so keeping the speeds down closer to 60 and allowing some regen on the down-slopes made this work well. We arrived with around 20% SOC left so technically that's the end of the day's travels. We just happened to have time during dinner for some charging so we didn't need to do it the following day.

EVCS (AT/Webasto) charger in Leavenworth. 10 years old this year!

The EVCS charger (behind the Library/City Hall parking lot directly off the main drag, address on PlugShare is somewhat misleading, although the map marker is right) is one of those which hasn't yet been updated from it's old AV/Webasto days and as a result, is, right now, free to use for everyone with a CHAdeMO connector. (mainly Leaf and Kia Soul EV) But I'm sure that will change. Not for the better from my perspective.
We happened to be using it almost exactly 10 years (2012) from when this charger was installed and turned on. Back then it was amazing it worked at all. Now it seems somewhat clunky and slow, but it still moved us from 18% to 80% while we were having dinner. ($50 for two hamburgers. Are you insane? With sides like a small salad and fries, but $50? and that doesn't include tips or drinks. Leavenworth is a very pretty expensive tourist trap.) And if you'll forgive the 90 sec. or so it takes to get going it works well if not quickly. 45KW peak, but then our batteries had experienced a long hard day so their temperature might have been part of the equation.

Yes, this day of the trip could have been done in 30-60min. less time in your new Tesla, Primarily because there would have been one less charging stop, but you paid dearly for that bit of time.

"What if you still had your 'old' 2018 40KWh Leaf instead of the 60KWh Leaf S-Plus you have now?"
I'd just add a charge stop in Portland, move the next charge from Hood River 10-20 miles farther to The Dalles and keep everything else the same. I might have to slow down a bit (5 mph less?) going up the passes but it would only add around 30-40 min. to the day. ...and the 40KW LEAFs cost $8-10K less than the 60KW ones!
I know Tesla owners who go a couple hundred miles per day, several days a week. If that's what you need to do then a Tesla may make perfect sense. Just don't try and tell us how awesomely frugal you are. Yes, I'm looking at you Don.

Day Two and Day Three:
Running around locally in the Wenatchee Valley. Nothing to see here, move along.
At the end of day three we plugged into the same EVCS charger in Leavenworth. Those free electrons sure do taste sweet. 40-90% charge during dinner again. Peaked at 47KW this time!
We may need that tomorrow. Passes Ahead!
Almost makes up for the simply absurd $0.49/KWh that EVCS 'normally' charges.

Day Four, Stevens Pass:
...would be really awesome to look at if the entire thing weren't covered in clouds and rain. Boo.
It was less than 120 miles over the hump and we stopped at PowerSports KIA in Everett for some free charging. They also had the new KIA EV6 on display (WAY Cool) -and- being Cinco de Mayo were hosting a free Mexican themed lunch buffet for all comers. Good deal all around. OTOH they have about the slowest 'fast charger' we've ever seen. Peaked at about 15KW. Since we couldn't spend all day there we only took on about 16KWh.

Day Five:  Dinking around the N.Seattle area. Pouring rain all day. Whee!

We did stop for a charge at Campbell Nissan, which was kind of a disaster compared with the KIA folks the day before. For starters they have set up with ChargePoint so you do have to pay. OTOH it's only $8 for a full charge. Neither of the two chargers there have a credit card option -or- QR Code scan option. You must have an RFID card or a NFC equipped phone. That kind of phone costs $300 more than the ones we have. Not Happening. But we have the RFID card (remember day one?) so no problem, right? "Not Authorized!" on the display. We found out later that our good friends (NOT!) at EVgo had disabled the card. Of course they reached out to us to let us know in a timely manner (NOT!) Nice folks  (NOT!). Now that we're friends for life, I'll be doing absolutely as much as possible to damage their business and reputation. I don't want them to die screaming in agony, but having all the senior management purged during a bankruptcy would be nice.

We got on the phone with the ChargePoint support folks. The poor trainee person we talked to first wanted the number off of the charger. There was no number anywhere. She didn't want to believe me "Of course there's a number." then she wanted an address, "Campbell Nissan, Edmonds WA."
Yes, but what's the address?
How would I know?
We went around for 5+ min. and she then said she'd talk to someone and call us right back in less than 5 min. ... So 10 min. later. I called them again. Remember the pouring rain? Yeah, so do I.
Anyway the next support person sounded like English was his third language -and- he kept spare golf-balls in his mouth. However he was a technical whiz. From all the typing noises I suspect he was on some kind of command-line terminal app. Turns out that charger does not show up at all on their internal application, and there's three different locations labeled "Campbell Nissan" in their system. 10 min. to find the right charger, "Iz dispay flash now?"  then a reset (4-5 min.) then a full reboot (5-8 min.) and hurray! It worked! In compensation he gave us the charge session for free.
Obviously charging providers cannot afford to have a skilled technician spend 28 min. on the phone to get a single charge session to work. IMHO this whole industry (except Tesla) has a ways to go before this becomes viable.  Nothing against Campbell Nissan, their guy came out and tried to help. The problem was not on his end. Anyway, we picked up 45KW in about 90 min. end to end. We'll need it. Long day tomorrow. Remember the pouring rain? Yeah, so do I.

Day Six:  Mukilteo WA to Eugene OR.

Driving through Seattle traffic in rain that requires the wipers be frequently switched to high speed is not exactly a fun time. Given construction delays on I5 we went around the city on 405. The longer distance plus rain, wind and temperature ran through 80+% of our charge in the 120 miles to Centralia WA. Where the sun came out and the EVCS charger, not yet converted to the new style, was free! Nice places to eat too. It took right about an hour to make it up to 95% charge. In any sort of normal circumstances that would be enough to get us home. ...Almost...

The rain and wind came back and we had to stop for a bit 20 miles from home at the charger shown here. Despite being all upgraded to the new hardware, this EVCS station does not yet show up on their app. It does show on PlugShare.com and there's positive reviews there, which also point out that it's Free. We picked up 10KW in less than 10 min.

Yup the entire trip, 6 days, almost 900 miles, was accomplished without spending even one dollar on charging,  if you ignore the $5 worth of home charging we started with. Not completely without issues but little of that was the normal course of events. Had we taken the gas car we'd have been out $220 or so for this trip. There was around two  hours of 'wasted' time during the trip that wouldn't have happened in a gas car, although the difference isn't quite so large once you include the bathroom and filling-up and meal breaks you would have taken anyway. Would we do it again? Sure, although better weather would be nice.
EVCS will eventually finish upgrading all their chargers and the free sessions will go away. There's still their First Month Free deal so that's not completely off the table.
"But I already used my free month."
Does anyone you're traveling with have a cellphone and has not used 'their' free month? Just sayn'...
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Note on Cost/Mile:
The average gas powered auto, at for example 30mpg, runs around 14 cents/mile in fuel costs if gas is $4.00/gallon, or around $66 for a 500 mile day. Your old pickup, driving at 75 is probably more like $150. Currently in WA gas is nearer $5/gal. As they say, Your Mileage May Vary.

This kind of travel in a Leaf will use up somewhere between 3 and 4 miles per KWh. Depending on speed, temperature and elevation gain, usually closer to the 4 mi/KWh mark than 3. 
On the high end, at least in this area, EVgo and Electrify America are roughly $0.43/KWh and EVCS is $0.49. The ChargePoint unit we stopped at was $0.11/KWh. However, that's unusual, even for ChargePoint. I think the location subsidizes this unit to bring in people. Heck, a lot of people pay that much for their domestic electricity, including us!

The worst case  ( 3 mi/KWh @ $0.49) is $81 for that 500 mile day
The best case     ( 4 mi/KWh @ $0.11) is $13.75 for that same 500 mile day!
Even mo'bettah is doing it all for free, but that takes more planning, and luck.

You can see why planning is so important. If planning is too much of a bother for you, just pay, and  resolve to not care much about it.  Or get a car with better charging infrastructure and (relatively) sensible charging costs, ie: Tesla. Most of the folks reading this do care, probably find at least some thought is worth the bother and can't afford a $50K and up automobile purchase.

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Click to expand

Note about 100% vs. 80% charge:
Charge rates taper off starting somewhere between 50 and 80% State of Charge (SOC). As a result, depending in the car, temperature, and charger it can take, for example, one hour to go from 20 to 80% SOC, but then require another hour to go from 80 to 100%. That is often not worth your time, but there are some circumstances where you'll need every last electron to get to your destination.


In the olden-days we wouldn't consider getting anywhere near 100% on a DC Fast Charger, but things have changed a bit in the last couple years: Battery capacities have improved, as have battery management circuits.  The 60KWh (or even 40KWh) packs will be charging at a rate of 5-8KW above 90% SOC. If the batteries aren't running too warm (check the display!) this is only about a tenth of the peak they're capable of, and at least for me it seems unlikely this is causing damage, especially if it's a rare occurrence. Regardless I probably would not have charged this high on a warmer day. Neither would I need to, as the range is generally better on a warmer day, and without the heater running.
Another thought to consider: There are frequently 'L2' Level 2 chargers in the same vicinity as the DC fast chargers. Since they can provide nearly the same charge rate above 85% SOC you might consider switching over to one of those. They often have a lower cost per KWh, and especially if its a charger company that bills by the minute rather than by the KWh. [Some states have laws that only allow per-min. billing, and some companies try to do it everywhere because they're (EVgo?) er, slimy, but I repeat myself.]
Note that the L2 charging is also perhaps slightly better at 'easing' your pack right up to the 100% mark as the electronics that manage it are built into your car.
Anyway, it can be good to switch over somewhere above 80% SOC if there's no 'Charge Startup' fee and you can afford the time. Also, there might be someone waiting for the DCFC. ;-)