dgalvan
Well-known member
Took the family on our first Leaf "long distance" trip last weekend (between L.A. and Santa Barbara), and it all worked out well.
Thought I'd share some data and lessons-learned.
I'd welcome/encourage/invite any other long-range "trip reports" (for the Leaf or other short-range electric cars) to be posted to this thread. As a new-ish Leaf owner I'd find such stories heartening, and I imagine other new Leaf owners might as well. I'd define "long-distance" as any trip that requires you to stop and charge the car before arriving at the final destination.
Background:
We've had our 2014 Leaf S since April of this year, and up to now have not driven it more than ~40 miles from home (it's a fantastic commuter car). But on Friday my wife agreed to the idea of taking the Leaf on the 84 mile trip to visit my relatives in Goleta (north/west of Santa Barbara). My car has 12/12 capacity bars (I haven't used a device to count GIDs.)
Trip overview:
The trip normally takes us about 1 h 30 m without traffic on a Saturday morning (in an ICE car).
This time, it took about 2 hours total, since we stopped once for 30 minutes to QuickCharge in Ventura.
Mileage / Charging Data:
-It took 50% of the battery (100% to 50%) to travel 44.3 miles from hour home in Woodland HIlls to the NRG eVgo quick charge station in Pacific View Mall (Ventura).
My "EZ-Charge" card did not work with the station, though I had set up my account months ago with NRG, but after calling NRG they activated the station for me, resulting in a free quick-charge. (Would have normally cost $10.)
-Charged from 50% to 91% in 30 minutes. I walked the dog while my wife took the kids to the nearby Target for some shopping while the car charged.
-It took 56% of the battery (91% to 35%) to travel the remaining 39.2 miles from Ventura to Goleta.
-Luckily my relatives live close to the only DC Quickcharger in Santa Barbara / Goleta (at least, the only one listed on Plugshare), which is at Nissan of Goleta. After dropping off the family and putting the little one down for a nap at my relatives house, I took the car over to the quick charger. This was a Chargepoint station, and cost $5 for the quick charge. My Chargepoint card worked fine.
-QuickCharged from 33% to 100% in 54 minutes. (from 33% to 86% in 30 min; to 91% in 45 min).
-After some driving around to parks and attractions, we departed Santa Barbara the next day with only 57% in the battery.
-It took 52% of the battery (57% to 5%; I saw only dashed lines on both the charge indicator and the guess-o-meter) to travel the 41.3 miles from Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History to the Team Nissan dealership in Oxnard, which had another NRG evGo station. Again, my EZ-Charge card did not work (though I had set it up yet again the preceding night after it hadn't worked the previous day), so I again called NRG and they again issued me a free one-time charge. So, hey, my card not working actually ended up giving me a second free quick charge. Again, normally it would have cost $10.
-Charged from 5% to 87% in 27 minutes. Wife walked my 4-year old to Costco for an errand, I stayed with the dog and my sleeping 2-year old in the car.
-It took 65% of the battery (87% to 22%) to travel the 38.3 miles from Team Nissan in Oxnard to our home in Woodland Hills (!). I attribute this poor efficiency to the fact I was driving ~70mph this whole leg (kids were getting antsy), and that there is a long, steep hill coming up out of Camarillo into Thousand Oaks.
Lessons Learned:
-The entire trip from home to Goleta (83.5 miles) took 106% of the battery charge. Efficiency: 1.3% per mile
-The entire trip from Santa Barbara to my house (79.6 miles) took 116% of the battery. Efficiency: 1.5% per mile
(I didn't make a conscious effort to drive slower, and drove my typical 70 mph when I could.)
-If I had paid for all 3 quick charges (only reason I didn't was because my EZ-charge card wasn't working), it would have cost a total of $25. That's pretty darn close to what the gas would have cost me had I taken this trip in my other car, a 22 mpg Hyundai Santa Fe (I estimate that cost would have been ~$23.87 assuming $3.22 per gallon). If someone did the trip in a fuel-efficient car like a Prius, it would definitely have cost less for gas than the quick charging costs in an electric vehicle. I could have mitigated this a bit by charging at my relative's house, but didn't want to impose on them. Alternately, I probably could have gotten by with charging at a Level 2 charger in Ventura for an hour, which would have given me about 20% of the battery, enough to get me to the quick charger in Goleta, and only costing me $2 instead of the $10 quick-charge fee.
Still, with NRG charging $10 for a quick-charge, driving an electric car on a long-range trip is NOT attractive from a cost-of-fuel perspective. ($5 per quick charge is much more reasonable, IMHO. Kudos to Chargepoint.)
-Stopping to quick charge really wasn't a big deal from my wife/kids' perspective. Since the charging stations were within walking distance of useful stores (a Target in Ventura, and a Costco in Oxnard) We were able to use the stops to get some shopping done that we would have normally had to make additional trips for anyway, so the time was not in any way wasted.
Thought I'd share some data and lessons-learned.
I'd welcome/encourage/invite any other long-range "trip reports" (for the Leaf or other short-range electric cars) to be posted to this thread. As a new-ish Leaf owner I'd find such stories heartening, and I imagine other new Leaf owners might as well. I'd define "long-distance" as any trip that requires you to stop and charge the car before arriving at the final destination.
Background:
We've had our 2014 Leaf S since April of this year, and up to now have not driven it more than ~40 miles from home (it's a fantastic commuter car). But on Friday my wife agreed to the idea of taking the Leaf on the 84 mile trip to visit my relatives in Goleta (north/west of Santa Barbara). My car has 12/12 capacity bars (I haven't used a device to count GIDs.)
Trip overview:
The trip normally takes us about 1 h 30 m without traffic on a Saturday morning (in an ICE car).
This time, it took about 2 hours total, since we stopped once for 30 minutes to QuickCharge in Ventura.
Mileage / Charging Data:
-It took 50% of the battery (100% to 50%) to travel 44.3 miles from hour home in Woodland HIlls to the NRG eVgo quick charge station in Pacific View Mall (Ventura).
My "EZ-Charge" card did not work with the station, though I had set up my account months ago with NRG, but after calling NRG they activated the station for me, resulting in a free quick-charge. (Would have normally cost $10.)
-Charged from 50% to 91% in 30 minutes. I walked the dog while my wife took the kids to the nearby Target for some shopping while the car charged.
-It took 56% of the battery (91% to 35%) to travel the remaining 39.2 miles from Ventura to Goleta.
-Luckily my relatives live close to the only DC Quickcharger in Santa Barbara / Goleta (at least, the only one listed on Plugshare), which is at Nissan of Goleta. After dropping off the family and putting the little one down for a nap at my relatives house, I took the car over to the quick charger. This was a Chargepoint station, and cost $5 for the quick charge. My Chargepoint card worked fine.
-QuickCharged from 33% to 100% in 54 minutes. (from 33% to 86% in 30 min; to 91% in 45 min).
-After some driving around to parks and attractions, we departed Santa Barbara the next day with only 57% in the battery.
-It took 52% of the battery (57% to 5%; I saw only dashed lines on both the charge indicator and the guess-o-meter) to travel the 41.3 miles from Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History to the Team Nissan dealership in Oxnard, which had another NRG evGo station. Again, my EZ-Charge card did not work (though I had set it up yet again the preceding night after it hadn't worked the previous day), so I again called NRG and they again issued me a free one-time charge. So, hey, my card not working actually ended up giving me a second free quick charge. Again, normally it would have cost $10.
-Charged from 5% to 87% in 27 minutes. Wife walked my 4-year old to Costco for an errand, I stayed with the dog and my sleeping 2-year old in the car.
-It took 65% of the battery (87% to 22%) to travel the 38.3 miles from Team Nissan in Oxnard to our home in Woodland Hills (!). I attribute this poor efficiency to the fact I was driving ~70mph this whole leg (kids were getting antsy), and that there is a long, steep hill coming up out of Camarillo into Thousand Oaks.
Lessons Learned:
-The entire trip from home to Goleta (83.5 miles) took 106% of the battery charge. Efficiency: 1.3% per mile
-The entire trip from Santa Barbara to my house (79.6 miles) took 116% of the battery. Efficiency: 1.5% per mile
(I didn't make a conscious effort to drive slower, and drove my typical 70 mph when I could.)
-If I had paid for all 3 quick charges (only reason I didn't was because my EZ-charge card wasn't working), it would have cost a total of $25. That's pretty darn close to what the gas would have cost me had I taken this trip in my other car, a 22 mpg Hyundai Santa Fe (I estimate that cost would have been ~$23.87 assuming $3.22 per gallon). If someone did the trip in a fuel-efficient car like a Prius, it would definitely have cost less for gas than the quick charging costs in an electric vehicle. I could have mitigated this a bit by charging at my relative's house, but didn't want to impose on them. Alternately, I probably could have gotten by with charging at a Level 2 charger in Ventura for an hour, which would have given me about 20% of the battery, enough to get me to the quick charger in Goleta, and only costing me $2 instead of the $10 quick-charge fee.
Still, with NRG charging $10 for a quick-charge, driving an electric car on a long-range trip is NOT attractive from a cost-of-fuel perspective. ($5 per quick charge is much more reasonable, IMHO. Kudos to Chargepoint.)
-Stopping to quick charge really wasn't a big deal from my wife/kids' perspective. Since the charging stations were within walking distance of useful stores (a Target in Ventura, and a Costco in Oxnard) We were able to use the stops to get some shopping done that we would have normally had to make additional trips for anyway, so the time was not in any way wasted.