Trip Report: Austin TX to Rosemary Beach FL

[Tucker74]

Just got back from a week-long 1650-mile trip from Austin to the Florida panhandle, was my first long tip in the R1T so I thought I'd post up. We broke up the trip both ways since it was 15hrs of driving, stopping in New Orleans on the way there and Lake Charles LA on the way home.

The trip to NO was pretty seamless, new software matched my ABRP trip and had us stop in Cypress TX (EVGo), Vidor TX (EA), and Breaux Bridge LA (EA). The EVGo chargers are nicer and more reliable in my experience but cost a bit more (consistently got 165kW where the EAs were everywhere from 36-177kW). Picked a hotel with charging in NO, was an adventure getting it to the charger on the 3rd floor of the tightest garage I've ever been in downtown (3 point turns at every ramp). Buy a TeslaTap or similar, every hotel that offered "EV Charging" had Tesla L2 chargers.

After exploring NO a bit we headed out around noon the next day for a 5hr drive to Rosemary Beach, the plan had us stopping for a short charge at an EA in Mobile AL. This is where the excitement started, along the route it notified me it had determined a more efficient route and changed it to stop in Pensacola FL. I thought no problem, but I had not checked out the station in PlugShare like I had all the others. Lo and behold I roll in and see my first other Rivian of the trip, a brand new LA sliver R1S that the guy had picked up a week before heading to FL himself. From Austin no less! Immediately he comes over to my truck as I'm plugging in and asks if the 350 kW HyperFast is working for me. It started normally, but after a few mins at 64kW, it stopped, tried a few more times, and nada. Three other 150kW UltraFasts are all down, leaving only a single working Chadmo at the station . Luckily for me, I had been averaging over 2.5 mi/kWh on the way in conserve mode, knew it would be close but I showed I would have the range to make it (not in the trip, but by the SOC). I rolled the dice and made it with 29 mi remaining, had gone 304 mi, and averaged 2.56 mi/kWh (clearly overachieving). Felt really bad for the guy I left in Pensacola, he was down to 5 mi and was looking for a hotel with an L2 charger when I left ?

The next fun was at 30A, just keep in mind if you are in this area it's a veritable charging desert. I knew this going in and had scoped some Tesla chargers at Aly's Beach and a single paid L2 at a local apartment complex. The L2 charger was taken by a Tesla Model X on my way in, so I simply plugged it into the wall overnight and scoped out the Tesla chargers the next day. I was able to charge it up the next day with no issues and used the same charger to charge on my last day.

Heading home was pretty uneventful, stopped in Gulfport MS (EA), and again in Hammond LA (EA) without any issues (if you get a slow charger, move to a different one I learned). We spent the night in Lake Charles LA and found a great little brewery with food and a live band, the hotel advertising EV charging again had a Tesla L2 charger which worked no problem with the TeslaTap (11 kW). The drive on was pretty seamless, stopped once in Houston TX (EVGo) but just drove otherwise.

Here's the overall trip shot, all the highway driving was done in conserve mode on 20" ATs. I spent a total of $106 on all the charging for the trip.

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[Tucker74]

What I learned:

• The way superchargers charge is baffling, I paid 3x for the charge at a per min rate as I did at a kW rate (both EA Pass+).
• EA was consistently cheaper than EVGo for the same kW.
• If your charger starts slow, stop the session and move ... HyperFast is not always faster than UltraFast.
• You can safely plug a Tesla NAS plug into an adapter w/o the end cap piece, even if it looks broken it probably works.
• You will spend way more money at Walmart/Target/Kroger waiting for your charge than on charging.
• Try to find chargers in interesting spots, your family will get tired of the same things.
• Check all stations in PlugShare, read more than the last few reviews, and look at dates.
• It's useless to call EA on the phone unless it's a payment issue, they cannot fix the chargers remotely.

Happy travels!

 

[BCondrey]

Good report. I just used a Tesla plug that was in that condition... Exposed metal contacts. Worked okay but I was nervous about using it. The cost difference you noted between EA and EVGo has been my experience as well.

 

[Fmc]

Glad you enjoyed LC and Crying Eagle. Original rumor was RAN would be put on our lakefront. I hope Rivian or the city adds chargers there on day. It is a much better view than target.

 

[moosetags]

Thank you for posting your trip log. We are still trying to learn this EV stuff.

Brian

 

[LL75]

It seems like majority of these long trip reports have common problems of unreliable L3 chargers. It baffles me that these companies have no intention to get it fixes. Tesla superchargers can't come fast enough please !!!

 

[evhelphub]

What I learned:

• It's useless to call EA on the phone unless it's a payment issue, they cannot fix the chargers remotely.

I actually completely disagree with this point. Almost every time I've called EA they've managed to fix a charger/charging issues remotely. Very surprising, I know. If you are in a pinch, always call them just in case they can restart a machine. You never know. It's worked for us a handful of times now.

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