Charging options in Big Bear or near big bear city

[AARivian48]

I can go from my house to big bear and do some offroading and come back with a full charge. I am wondering if anyone knows what charging options available close to big bear or in big bear city for longer excursions or overnight camping?

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[HaveBlue]

Aside from the few DC chargers in big bear lake some hotels have level 2 plugs. The serrano campground on the lake has RV hook ups and is quiet. Hallorans RV boat in town would have hookups also but cramped. I'm planning to install a 1450 or something off my panel when i make the ev switch. Our place is up a dirt road in a canyon. In foul weather only a 4wd can get there. Maybe there will be an option as an emergency charge point for rivians only lol.

 

[AARivian48]

Thank you.

considering most of us in Socal, like going up big bear for a day trip, or some light offroading. it would have been a good place for Rivian to put some new chargers so we can extend our stay and time we spend in the mountains. when I see other Rivians on the road, it is always in big bear.

 

[sizotty]

Just the other day I went from North County SD, charged at the newer EA station in Cabazon to about 88%. Then drove up to Johnson Valley and took Rattlesnake Canyon all the way up into Big Bear. Got free 11kw charging at the ReMax in town while I had lunch since there are no other options and the Loop DCFC in town is busted. Went through a few more trails and made it all the way home to San Diego with 24 miles remaining.

Long story short, if you do your best to top up before heading up into big bear I think you will be surprised how much range you will have.

Photo and video evidence :

 

[HaveBlue]

Rattlesnake canyon is a lot of dirt road miles and big bear is a mile up. That's a good loop.

I grew up in Solana Beach...

 

[sk05]

Would have been nice if there was something along the way to Big Bear, similar to the Inyokern/Bishop Rivian Level 2 chargers on the way to Mammoth.

I've done Snow Summit a few times now in the R1T. I start up the mountain with around 180 miles left and arrive at Summit (40-45 miles later) with 110 miles of range left. On the way back, regen slows the decline quite a bit but I have to charge somewhere in LA to get home.

 

[HaveBlue]

There are DC chargers at the bottom of the 330. Highland City Hall. If you are just going for the day, it's tough as there's only a CCS at the Union bank and catch the shuttle from there to the slopes but two hours later someone's going to mad that you're sitting there charged. Our place is on the other side of the lake and to far to share a level 2 for that purpose.

 

[ActionableDave]

Since it's been almost a year since the past post here, I was wondering if anything has changed up near Big Bear in the way of DC charging? Hoping EvGO or Electrify America have something in the works in the area. If anyone has any recent experiences, I am planning a trip up from Temecula and thought I would ask first.

 

[HaveBlue]

There's another dcfc in the village now behind the shops. Also a new Tesla 6 station at the entrance to the village but not for us yet.

I'll pm you my number. If you get in a real bind, you can borrow my 14-50 plug that's wired on a 60a breaker but would be limited to your mobile charger. It's on the fawn skin side up a dirt road so only Rivian accessible.

You'll get 8 mi/kWh going back down the 330 to highland.

 

[ActionableDave]

Thank you again for the contact info, the option is helpful, but will be planning to make sure I don't need to use it.

 

[ActionableDave]

@HaveBlue - We got to the mountain with 52% charge, All-Purpose mode; coming down the hill, I was at 52% in Highland. You gotta love the regen on high!

Thanks again for the offer, it was much appreciated!

 

[HaveBlue]

Nice! Glad you had fun. Definitely some snow there lately so I'm sure your timing was ideal.

 

[shamoo]

This is an older thread, but given there's hardly any information on Big Bear EV charging (and Google searches keep bringing this thread up), I figure I'd update it a year and a half later.

Around the Big Bear Lake and Village area there is VERY LIMITED charging.

The Tesla superchargers (there are ~6 chargers at one location) do not currently support Rivian. I did see a Volvo plugged in so I decided to try even though it was not shown on the Rivian compatible list. First, the cables are the older/shorter kind meaning you'd have to park in the wrong charging spot (one less for a Tesla vehicle) or park in the handicapped spot on the right most side. I was lucky to get there with two spots open, so I tried with my NACS adapter. It did NOT work. Tried on two chargers. Stuck in "Starting" message and never changed.

Chargepoint has two locations. One location has two 6.5 kW chargers and one 62kW CCS. The latter is almost always full and has a wait of 2-3 cars. Expect to wait 1+ hours. I was lucky that I went later at night and there was nobody waiting. Charge was reasonably quick (even though I waited an hour to charge up to almost 90% since I wanted to do some off roading the next day).

The other CP location only has two 6.x kW chargers. It says its free until 2:45pm, but it is not. Those were mostly empty throughout the day but only useful if you're going to be parked for a while.

All other chargers you see on the app are private or hotels (Hyatt for example you have to pay for parking too).

If you're staying in Big Bear, I'd recommend finding a hotel/AirBnB with EV charging. Or at least a place which allows you to plug in 110V overnight. Won't get you much, but another 20-30 miles overnight is probably good enough.

 

[HaveBlue]

Yes it hasn't gotten much better but there are eight L2 Chargepoints in the public lot off Knickerbocker/Pennsylvania in the village. $.25/kwh

The 50kw Loop in the bank across from Get that Burger might still be down. A bunch of my friends up there all got EVs and everyone is running 240v for level 2.

 

[mkg3]

According the Tesla SC map for NACS Partners it shows a station in Big Bear and a station in Arrow Head.

I haven't been up there this past season but we usually go once or twice a year. The last time I charged at the Highlands SC and that covered us up and down.

https://www.tesla.com/findus?bounds...wheadCASupercharger&functionType=supercharger

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