Range anxiety still an issue almost 4 years into lease.

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CanuckEVDriver

Active member
Joined
Aug 23, 2018
Messages
31
Location
Ottawa, Ontario
This past Easter weekend was a good test of the EV charging infrastructure in Ontario (AKA the land that EV development forgot... thanks to Doogie) :x

Drove from Ottawa to North Bay (379 kms, based on Google maps). Leaf had 3 adults for the ride).

All went well up to Petawawa, where I charged up to 95%. From there it was a white knuckle ride to get to Mattawa, the next station where I can charge up. Pulled in to the charger behind the Subway with 4%, Leaf was showing all kinds of "charge now" warnings.

The whole way, my speed was set to 91 kph, to conserve energy. Going any faster, I very likely would not have made it to Mattawa.

On the way back home, stopped again at the Subway in Mattawa, knowing that I need to make sure that I'm close to 100% charged. This time the only charger available was not working (forget the one behind the Scotiabank, that one hasn't worked for years). Called the support team. They were really helpful in getting the charger back up, but it took two hours of trying this and that to get it working again. Left Mattawa at 99% charge, and got to Petawawa with 17%.

All this to say, we need more reliable L3 chargers along the Trans-Canada Highway, especially in areas where there's a gap between chargers. Stonecliffe would be just right.
 
Just a suggestion: set your speed to about 80KPH for half an hour each way, at or near the beginning of the trip. That may give you enough extra range that you can alleviate the range anxiety and do the rest of the trip each way worrying only about the chargers working. ;) Personally I hated that white knuckle thing near the end of long trips in my 2013, so I learned to do the above technique at the beginning of a trip, leaving me with less worry for the whole ride.
 
LeftieBiker said:
Just a suggestion: set your speed to about 80KPH for half an hour each way, at or near the beginning of the trip. That may give you enough extra range that you can alleviate the range anxiety and do the rest of the trip each way worrying only about the chargers working. ;) Personally I hated that white knuckle thing near the end of long trips in my 2013, so I learned to do the above technique at the beginning of a trip, leaving me with less worry for the whole ride.

That's really good advice. It pays to be extra-conservative early in the drive while it has the most chance of being effective. It's too late for hypermiling when you're 15 miles from a charger with 4 miles of range left.
Since we have sold my wife's ICE SUV while we wait for Model Y, the LEAF is getting more use. We just made a 400+ mile trip in the 2015 -- it's first extended trip in quite a while. Basically I just keep an eye on distance-to-destination vs. Guess-o-meter, to monitor my "cushion" and adapt accordingly. Of course the GOM doesn't know about upcoming driving conditions (hills, wind) so you have to yourself. The return home was interesting as we had strong southerly headwinds (which is rare here) so I had to be more careful than normal. On the plus side there were a lot more charging opportunities than a few years ago, so no need to settle for any Level2 chargers, except for a pleasant surprise of free Level2 charging at our hotel (not listed on Plugshare), which eliminated a charging stop on the way home.
 
Wind can sure complicate the task for DIY range finders

LeafSpy shows kWh remaining; then I use a web app that shows me wind speed and direction, and I use that with a little Trig to correct my driving speed to an equivalent of 60 mph for 250 Wh/mile consumption
 
Just in case you a haven't done so already, make sure that your tires are inflated to at least 40 PSI, particularly before a long road trip. It's amazing how much range you'll lose running 35 PSI or lower.
 
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