SoCal LEAF & EV Gathering, Y7 - Finished - 19 Aug 2017

[abasile]

Congratulations, Boomer, on the Bolt!! It seems like a very practical EV, and it appears that CCS Combo charging will end up being good enough for getting around most of California if you're patient.

We are still appreciating the pre-owned Model S that we purchased last year. It is roomy enough to comfortably enable family camping trips, as evidenced by its now having 80K miles on the odometer (7K driven by us in 4 months of having possession of the car). Last week, we returned from a six day trip to Death Valley, where we stayed at Furnace Creek Campground (NPS) and did some great hikes in a number of locations around the Valley, including Mosaic Canyon where the narrow canyon's walls are composed of marble. Getting there and back required only the use of the Supercharger in Inyokern, CA, as well as the use of an RV outlet at the campground. Being able to set our air suspension to "very high" helped our comfort level when navigating short dirt roads up to trailheads and when crossing large puddles on the main roads left behind by flash flooding.

Unfortunately, our 2012 Tesla shut down last month in a Trader Joe's parking lot and it turns out that the main battery pack had a fault due to moisture intrusion. So we're currently driving around on a loaner pack that appears to be relatively new (it charged to 264 rated miles in Death Valley). Tesla will either repair or replace our pack within several weeks or so. While it's regrettable that our car has had issues, we feel great about Tesla's service and intend to purchase the Model 3 that we reserved for an older family member who wants autonomous driving functionality.

[TonyWilliams]

See ya all Sat.

[garygid]

See you Saturday the 4th of March at the Golden Corral in the City of Industry.
I should be arriving with Boomer in his new Bolt, right around 8 AM.

The meetings for the next few months are listed in this thread's first post:
viewtopic.php?f=51&t=22460

Cheers, Gary

[JeremyW]

I'll be there! Won't have to leave early this time ether. Need to get some family photos with the spark and bolt together.

[Boomer23]

Here's my report of our first long day trip in our Bolt EV today, down to Anza-Borrego. Tbleakne emailed that he would be going there as well with friends. I hope the terrible crowds didn't ruin their day too badly. I just laughed, and Carol just said "Keep driving". The crowds were horrific, their willingness to peep the same flowers as hundreds of other people adjacent to them was appalling, and we couldn't wait to get away from the major intersection that was stopping traffic into the valley and requiring rangers to direct traffic. You couldn't get near the visitor center. What a scene. And the flowers weren't nearly what the news stories are ballyhooing. Super bloom? Not yet.

Anyway, to my story..,

This was a particularly challenging trip because the elevation at Borrego Springs is just 600 feet, but it's surrounded by mountains and plains that are much taller. So the trip felt like heading for a hole in the ground as a destination. EV drivers know the challenges there.

And challenging because there are zero DC fast chargers anywhere east of Route 15, anywhere near where we were going, and darn few Level 2 plugs, though apparently there are 4 Blink Level 2 plugs in Borrego Springs.
This being our first ambitious outing with the car, we planned carefully, and mapped our charging opportunities with Plugshare.

We took our favorite route, down Rte 5 from Orange County, over the 3,500 foot coastal mountains on Ortega Highway, Rte 74 to Lake Elsinore, down Rte 15 to Temecula, DCFC at an EVgo station on Rte 79 while we ate take out breakfast from iHop, then East on 79 to Warner Springs and down into Borrego Springs. Then a fast, steep climb up to Julian (600 ft to 4,000 ft) for lunch and pie, a short 12 mile round trip explore out to Cuyamaca Lake and back to Julian, and then down Rte 78 to Escondido and back up Rte 5 and home. Two hundred ninety-five miles on one DC fast charge. We planned for another DCFC at Escondido on the way home, but we didn't need it and we didn't stop.

We got home having used just 65.2 kWh, traveling 295.3 miles, averaging 4.53 miles/kWh and with the app showing 65 miles remaining range and 23% SOC. We added 18.2 kWh at the DCFC charging stop. If you do the math, we did need the charge in order to make the trip, just barely. If we hadn't charged mid-trip, driving with that 4.53 mi/kWh efficiency with 60 available kWh would have given us only 272 miles of range, and we would have sputtered to a stop 23 miles short of home.

I drove the whole route mostly in L, using Regen On Demand rather than friction braking whenever possible. Freeway legs were kept to an average of 70 mph. We were lucky that air conditioning was needed for only a very few minutes and heating not at all. Temperatures varied from about 53 when we left home about 6 am, to about 70 when we arrived home, with a high of 90 on the desert floor for a short while (but it's a dry heat).

[garygid]

At our previous Gathering, on March 4th at the Golden Corral
in the City of Industry, we got to see and ride in Boomer's new
royal blue Bolt. It was the hit of the party by far, with a lot of
details well done ... with lots of "features" to explore and learn.
From the very usable bottom battery to the USB-cord connected
smartphone-sourced navigation, the Bolt appears to be a real
contender in the non-luxury but over-200-mile EV marketplace.

I think that we had about 15 people at the Gathering.
See you at the next Gathering, on the 18th at HTB in Santa Ana.

Remember, the first post of this thread lists the upcoming Gatherings.
The time jumped from 2am to 3am this morning, as Daylight Saving started.
Cheers, Gary

[Boomer23]

As a reminder, I'll be bringing the new Bolt EV to the breakfast meetup on Saturday morning at Hometown Buffet in Santa Ana.

Plenty of opportunities to see the car, check out anything you'd like, sit in it and try out the seats, go for a ride, whatever.

[garygid]

This will be an excellent chance to see the Bolt, and talk to someone who
is totally immersed in this new long range EV experience.

I am planning to be there at 8am, with Robert, to see you all.
Hometown Buffet is just 2 blocks East of I-5, on 17th street,
in Santa Ana.

[Boomer23]

Added attraction: A friend, Patrick, with a new Tesla X will also be coming. New to our group, I met him at a BMWi3 focus group over a year ago. He has both the BMW and the Model X.

He'll be happy to show off his recent production Model X in Saturday.

Big fun for EV nerds!

[JasonA]

Any fellow members with long range EV's, we (myself, Hilda, LeafyD, etc) are heading out to see the Superbloom in the desert tomorrow. Anza Borrego area, Borego Springs, etc.

This might be a once in a lifetime event as the last time this happened was 13 years ago and it wasn't this big... If anybody is interested let me know.. there might be some space still in my car but any EV with over 120+ mi range can make it. There is L2 charging out there...


http://www.abdnha.org/pages/03flora/reports/current.htm

https://www.wired.com/2017/03/super-blo ... alifornia/

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opi ... story.html

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-m ... story.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/anz ... 9d29d87842