range, charge time, trip time, used leaf 200 miles from home

[dhanson865]

So I'm cruising autotrader.com looking at used leafs. The thought is how far away can I buy a leaf without it turning into a multiday drive?

Take for this example trip: suppose I buy a used 10 bar leaf (with unknown capacity, might be strong 10 bar, or weak 10 bar) in Alpharetta, GA and drive it to the west side of Knoxville, TN. Assume the car has the 3.3KW charger and no L3 charging is available on the trip no matter if the car has the port or not. Just not much L3 charging happening in my part of the world

https://evtripplanner.com/planner/2-4/?id=4hox" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; shows a proposed trip charging on L2 public evses after about 55 miles travel, forcing me to stop and get a nearly full charge 3 times on the trip home. Travel time alone is 4 hours, how much time do I add for charging during that 200+ mile trip?

If it is fully charged I'd get no chance to test the EVSE that comes with the car. If the dealer charges to 80% or doesn't charge the car I'd probably have to do a partial or full charging session to stretch to the charging locations already on the trip.

How much time would you spend checking out a car you hadn't seen before when trying to check it out for purchase? Assume I have bluetooth ELM and phone with all the apps I'd want.

Assuming a trip down (4 hour drive) in the Prius can I possibly make a transaction and drive back home with both cars before I or my other driver is falling asleep at the wheel? Is it a 12 hour day, 16 hour day, 20 hour day? How tight would that schedule be?

There are several stretches of I75 in northern GA and southern TN that have no chargers and no exits worth stopping at for dozens of miles so there isn't room for misjudging by 10 miles on a charge. Chop it up and tell me if I'm underestimating the difficulty or just being overly cautious.

[DNAinaGoodWay]

Sounds like a very, very long day. I think you'll need to stop overnight. Four hours to get there, four back, plus three L2s of likely 4-5 hrs each, plus the transaction time, you're at or near 24 hours. Might be easier to rent a flatbed?

[dhanson865]

Sounds like a very, very long day. I think you'll need to stop overnight. Four hours to get there, four back, plus three L2s of likely 4-5 hrs each, plus the transaction time, you're at or near 24 hours. Might be easier to rent a flatbed?

would renting a flatbed truck be cheaper than a hotel room? It'd save time for sure but deisel fuel and rental fees would rack up pretty quick for 150-200 miles (I suppose if you did it right you could drive the leaf toward home and rent the flatbed truck on the way home).

[johnrhansen]

Just make it an overnight trip. Maybe you can plan something fun to make it worthwhile? Get to the car in the early to late afternoon and arrange to have it charged to 100 percent. spend the night 75 miles away while the car charges. leave first thing in the morning without eating breakfast. drive 75 more miles and then stop for breakfast and fun somewhere there is a charging station. If you throw a bicycle in the back, or just make a weekend of fun out of it, It won't be that long of a drive back home.

[DNAinaGoodWay]

+1

[dhanson865]

Just make it an overnight trip. Maybe you can plan something fun to make it worthwhile? Get to the car in the early to late afternoon and arrange to have it charged to 100 percent. spend the night 75 miles away while the car charges. leave first thing in the morning without eating breakfast. drive 75 more miles and then stop for breakfast and fun somewhere there is a charging station. If you throw a bicycle in the back, or just make a weekend of fun out of it, It won't be that long of a drive back home.

we'll I haven't settled on a car purchase yet. I just want to make sure I have a sense on the travel time limitations and costs if I'm making a choice between a car in my home town vs one 100 miles away vs one 200 miles away. Plenty to choose from in a variety of cities within 200 miles of me.

If I'm looking at a night in a hotel plus gas for the chase car I guess we are talking about $100 worth of expenses not counting the value of the time for the two drivers.

So as a rule of thumb say it's worth $500 per 100 miles away. If the car isn't that much cheaper I'm better off buying local. Then I have to factor in differences in mileage, features like the cold weather package, paint color, etectera.

Thanks to those that were willing to share their thoughts on this, good to have a sounding board for life's bigger decisions. No one I know locally could answer such questions about cross country leaf travel.

[johnrhansen]

If you have a chase car, you don't need to stay in a hotel. Drive it as far as it can go, plug it into a 120 volt outlet to charge, and drive home in the chase car. Come back the next day and drive it another 75 miles. Then go home in the chase car again. Then on the final day, you can bring it home. Just figure the cost to go 200+200+125+125+50+50 miles in the chase car. At 30 mpg and $4 per gallon, that's a hundred bucks. Plus what your friends along the way will charge you to plug into their outlet. If you do it this way, you don't need a charging station. Just L1 at any dedicated outlet.

[NeilBlanchard]

Take a look at http://www.plugshare.com/ to see where available chargers are to plan a trip.

[dhanson865]

Take a look at http://www.plugshare.com/ to see where available chargers are to plan a trip.

I looked at plugshare and without being logged in it didn't show any additional L2 or L1 chargers that would help on my route. Maybe logging in I might have seen a residential option that I didn't see as a guest.

Even if it did I don't think it would change my options, I'm still limited by the 3.3KW charger in the car. If someone had a private L2 option closer to I75 it might save me a couple of miles on the trip but it wouldn't be significant.

I actually used plugshare to find the L2 chargers as I used evtripplanner to do the routing, revised the route dozens of times trying to find an optimal solution.

what I haven't done is look harder for L3 options at Nissan dealerships or other possible L3s along I75. Since I haven't picked a car yet I'm not sure if it will have the L3 charge option. If it does and there is L3 in Chattanooga that I can use it could cut a few hours off the trip.

There used to be an L3 at a gas station in Chattanooga but it broke and they decided not to repair it. http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.p ... &start=100" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So unless there is a Nissan dealer along the route I haven't considered I don't think L3 will be an option even if the car has the port.


OK, Nisan dealers along the way include

PYE NISSAN
2801 E WALNUT AVE
DALTON, GA 30721

NISSAN OF CHATTANOOGA EAST
2121 CHAPMAN RD
CHATTANOOGA, TN 37421


And I'm passing a number of Cracker Barrels if any of those have a L3 but http://newsroom.crackerbarrel.com/image ... 281%29.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; says they only have L2.

Looking on the Blink network they have L3 listed at

Dalton Utilities - College Drive
890 College Drive
Dalton, GA 30722

Cracker Barrel 29 East Ridge
1460 North Mack Smith Road
East Ridge, TN 37412

SEARS - Store #1115 (Hamilton Place Mall)
2100 Hamilton Place Blvd
Chattanooga, TN 37421

Cracker Barrel 21 Cleveland
1650 Clingan Ridge Drive NW
Cleveland, TN 37312

Cracker Barrel 9 Athens (Sweetwater)
110 Burkett L. Witt Blvd
Athens, TN 37303


$7 a charge for members / $10 a charge for guests.

So maybe L3 charging could turn it into a one day event? If so I'd be paying Blink instead of a hotel.

[Turnover]

I wouldn't make or plan any trip before knowing for sure if the vehicle supported L3 charging or not. Figure out your bottom line and work from there.