waitingonanr1s
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Just wrapped up my first 3,000 mi road trip from Denver to Reno/Tahoe to Monterey to San Diego and back. My R1S was a great road tripper. It was a joy to drive out there.
I kept the vehicle in all-purpose mode for the vast majority of the drive. If it looked like I could push for the next charger, I would switch into conserve once on the freeway. I didn't do anything else to try to get the best efficiency - speed limit is 75 to 80 most of the way until you get to CA (best efficiency I got at 85 was 1.66 mi/kwh vs 1.8ish at 75). I ended up averaging 1.81 mi/kwh vs my lifetime average of 2.09. I'm content with that.
Charging actually was better than expected. I was worried about the rural areas - but I didn't have any problems with the I-70, 15, and 80 rural chargers. It would be nice if there were more locations - but there's not even many gas stations on a lot of that drive. I did have to try multiple stalls at some locations in order to get the fastest speed, as I ran into a few throttled chargers. Bonus points for the Salina, UT Love's EA station that actually has a bucket and squeegee at the chargers - one of my favorites and also easy on/easy off. It will be nice if these really start rolling out to more truck stops - they really are the perfect spot for chargers since they generally have the room, and are easy to get to from the freeways.
Cities were my pain point. Had an EVGo station in SLC with 2 broken stalls, 2 in use, and one person charging on 100kw but blocking two stations - I moved over to another EA station. I also had problems in the Mission Beach area of San Diego - first EVGo charger I went to was charging at 50 kw rather than 150 kw. I had to move over to another EA station, which was also throttled at 100 kw. The only place I had to wait for a stall was at the EA station in Morro Bay, CA. Lots of Hyndai's sucking down free electricity didn't help the situation - some of these folks have home chargers, but go to the fast chargers since it's free (slightly annoying, but I guess you have a bigger incentive to do that with the high cost of electricity in CA).
About half the Airbnb/hotels I stayed in had chargers -and that makes such a difference in the trip quality. On top of overall convenience, it means you get to start off at 100% for the next road trip leg and don't have to deal with city fast chargers. I will make a greater effort to seek out accommodations with chargers available in the future.
The vehicle ran great until I hit a rough bridge joint that caused a fault in the cruise control/driver assist. It wanted service, and I had to drive the last 3.5 hours of the trip without cruise control. Soft reset didn't fix it and I didn't want to do a hard reset at that time. After the vehicle slept that night, the error cleared.
So all in all, it was a successful first road trip. Excited to drive it to NC for Christmas.
I kept the vehicle in all-purpose mode for the vast majority of the drive. If it looked like I could push for the next charger, I would switch into conserve once on the freeway. I didn't do anything else to try to get the best efficiency - speed limit is 75 to 80 most of the way until you get to CA (best efficiency I got at 85 was 1.66 mi/kwh vs 1.8ish at 75). I ended up averaging 1.81 mi/kwh vs my lifetime average of 2.09. I'm content with that.
Charging actually was better than expected. I was worried about the rural areas - but I didn't have any problems with the I-70, 15, and 80 rural chargers. It would be nice if there were more locations - but there's not even many gas stations on a lot of that drive. I did have to try multiple stalls at some locations in order to get the fastest speed, as I ran into a few throttled chargers. Bonus points for the Salina, UT Love's EA station that actually has a bucket and squeegee at the chargers - one of my favorites and also easy on/easy off. It will be nice if these really start rolling out to more truck stops - they really are the perfect spot for chargers since they generally have the room, and are easy to get to from the freeways.
Cities were my pain point. Had an EVGo station in SLC with 2 broken stalls, 2 in use, and one person charging on 100kw but blocking two stations - I moved over to another EA station. I also had problems in the Mission Beach area of San Diego - first EVGo charger I went to was charging at 50 kw rather than 150 kw. I had to move over to another EA station, which was also throttled at 100 kw. The only place I had to wait for a stall was at the EA station in Morro Bay, CA. Lots of Hyndai's sucking down free electricity didn't help the situation - some of these folks have home chargers, but go to the fast chargers since it's free (slightly annoying, but I guess you have a bigger incentive to do that with the high cost of electricity in CA).
About half the Airbnb/hotels I stayed in had chargers -and that makes such a difference in the trip quality. On top of overall convenience, it means you get to start off at 100% for the next road trip leg and don't have to deal with city fast chargers. I will make a greater effort to seek out accommodations with chargers available in the future.
The vehicle ran great until I hit a rough bridge joint that caused a fault in the cruise control/driver assist. It wanted service, and I had to drive the last 3.5 hours of the trip without cruise control. Soft reset didn't fix it and I didn't want to do a hard reset at that time. After the vehicle slept that night, the error cleared.
So all in all, it was a successful first road trip. Excited to drive it to NC for Christmas.
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As you found, L2 destination chargers are key. We need many, many more L2 options at hotels and other destinations.
