West coast charge network suggestions for Canada to Palm Springs trip.

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webeleafowners

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 5, 2015
Messages
1,306
Location
Okanagan Valley British Columbia
Hi Folks. We own a 2016 SV. Love the car. Bought it for local commuting and the occasional 450 Km trip. We now find ourselves in a situation where we will be making a single (return) trip from the BC interior to Palm Springs via i5. This will be a leisurely trip of about 6 days as we have a few places to visit along the way although we will be travelling every day. We currently have cards and active accounts for Chargepoint, FlO and greenlots so The Canada portion is well covered. Here are the questions.

1. What networks do you recommend that we enroll in to make the recharging easier along the way.

2. Any suggestions on the level 3 gap in the siskyoos between Northern California and southern Oregon. There is level 2 there.

We will also be using overnight L2 charging at hotels and have a Tesla to J1772 adapter for destination charger use.

Our plan in 2020 is to get a new long range Leaf SL and then we will be making that trip more often but until then this will have to happen at least once if not twice with the 2016 SV.

Thanks in advance. Would love to hear of others experiences on the i5 corridor, favourite charge stops etc. We are very familiar with the route but have always done it in a motorhome.
 
You absolutely need the Aeroviroment (AV) fob for I-5 WA/OR. They have stations every 50 mi and $20/mo. You can order and cancel after one month. That's what I've done. Until they add another DCQC between Wenatchee and Pasco (and it won't happen with AV), the system is useless to me.
 
Thanks for the reply’s so far. Sounds like Aerovirmonent and EVGo are a must. Does EV go use a swipe card like chargepoint? We find that convenient.

Also, does Aerovirmont have a presence in California. I haven’t noticed them in Palm Springs where our winter home is.

Any other important networks? I would hate to pull into a charger and not be able to use it.

How about “EV connect”. They seem to use a keyfob too.

Thanks again all.

John and Angela. (Never thought we would be making a trip this long in our 2016 SV).
 
webeleafowners said:
Any other important networks? I would hate to pull into a charger and not be able to use it.

In Seattle metro area there are ChargePoint, EVgo, Greenlots and Blink DCQCs.

Might add SemaConnect for some useful L2 stations.

Many of these also have apps that will activate the station, so only us old school drivers have the cards/key fobs.

I'd suggest the key fob for AeroVironment. These were amazing high tech when installed, but are fairly clunky today when compared to the modern DCQCs. Reliable, however, which is worth a lot. I've also activated with "pay with Plugshare", which works at other stations as well.

Plugshare is an app.
 
Here are the networks that I would think would be useful:
Chargepoint
EvGo
Aerovironmnet
Greenlots
Sema
GE WattStation
Sun Country

Blink should be considered an emergency option only and really don't depend on them, 95% of the time they are either broken or missing completely. They are also extremely expensive at $.49-$.59 per kwh with free membership.


While not a network, don't forget to sign up for Drive the Arc: https://drivethearc.com/ and download the App so you can get free access to many quick charges in Northern California

Also, many Nissan dealerships along that route will offer free quick charging, so feel free to take advantage of that as well. You may also find some Honda and Kia dealerships that will let you charge for free, just a note that often the chargers at Kia dealerships are not fully functional either.

I admittedly can't imagine driving my Leaf from Canada to Palm Springs though, I mean with a range just over 100 miles that would take a long time.
 
cmwade77 said:
<snip>I admittedly can't imagine driving my Leaf from Canada to Palm Springs though, I mean with a range just over 100 miles that would take a long time.
Yes, it does, although it's gotten a lot quicker since these:
BC2BC Mexico to Canada via Electric Highway June 12-20, 2012
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=8879&hilit=bc2bc#p198034

North to South:
All EV Rally, BC2BC-2013, 1500 miles from Canada to Mexico
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=207811#p207811
 
webeleafowners said:
Thanks for the reply’s so far. Sounds like Aerovirmonent and EVGo are a must. Does EV go use a swipe card like chargepoint? We find that convenient.

Also, does Aerovirmont have a presence in California. I haven’t noticed them in Palm Springs where our winter home is.

Any other important networks? I would hate to pull into a charger and not be able to use it.

How about “EV connect”. They seem to use a keyfob too.

Thanks again all.

John and Angela. (Never thought we would be making a trip this long in our 2016 SV).
EVGo has their own cards and they have a couple different plans that can make it cheaper: https://www.evgo.com/charging-plans/

They aren't as good as their old plans (so glad I am grandfathered in at $15/month and $0.10 per minute). There is also another plan if you have an EzCharge card and a Nissan Leaf, then you can get a plan that has no monthly fee and a discounted per session connection fee and per minute rate.

But no matter what, definitely sign up for a plan, even the free one before you go, otherwise last I checked, it is $9.95 connection and something like $.50 per minute.
 
cmwade77 said:
webeleafowners said:
Thanks for the reply’s so far. Sounds like Aerovirmonent and EVGo are a must. Does EV go use a swipe card like chargepoint? We find that convenient.

Also, does Aerovirmont have a presence in California. I haven’t noticed them in Palm Springs where our winter home is.

Any other important networks? I would hate to pull into a charger and not be able to use it.

How about “EV connect”. They seem to use a keyfob too.

Thanks again all.

John and Angela. (Never thought we would be making a trip this long in our 2016 SV).
EVGo has their own cards and they have a couple different plans that can make it cheaper: https://www.evgo.com/charging-plans/

They aren't as good as their old plans (so glad I am grandfathered in at $15/month and $0.10 per minute). There is also another plan if you have an EzCharge card and a Nissan Leaf, then you can get a plan that has no monthly fee and a discounted per session connection fee and per minute rate.

But no matter what, definitely sign up for a plan, even the free one before you go, otherwise last I checked, it is $9.95 connection and something like $.50 per minute.

Thanks for the info. Good to know.
 
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