Road Trip Fail - Orange County, CA to Lake Tahoe

[Mcdubjr]

Did you see the 50 kwh charger in Luning? I have successfully used it. You did embrace the Rivian adventure motto so I applaud that.

That is the one I passed by earlier in my route, I was around 60% when I went by. Wish I had stopped to try it!

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[JustFrunkinAround]

First, I’m glad you and the family made it out safely. EVs in the cold + unexpected road closures will be a true source of range anxiety until the infrastructure is there.

 

[BillyBob]

So, How did the new Snow Mode work, and, More importantly...
How is Heavenly? I've gotta believe that with all the snow they are having it's incredible there now.

 

[mkg3]

I’ve done this trip before on a model 3 as well, range really isn’t an issue if the road is open. The two free RAN stations in Inyokern and Bishop are perfect, I might have not even needed to charge again if road was open. I also just prefer the 395 for scenery. However in the future if weather is iffy, 5-99-50 does make sense!

The scenery is definitely a consideration for any roadtrip. The weather is too, especially this time of the year.

Having lived many years in the Bay Area, and having driven up to, and back from Tahoe (north and south) and Reno countless times, the roads are much more serviced for 80 and 50, than 395. I should have included that in the original post.

When we get our R1S, we'll definitely be making the trip back to Tahoe!

 

[iam.rocklander]

It sounds like an epic adventure that will not soon be forgotten. It's adventures like these that your kids will remember forever. Glad you were able to make it all work out. #adventureforever

 

[SDH]

Good post and thanks for the insight. I think the recent weather in CA should be considered on the extreme side before anyone starts to dismiss EVs. I got my R1T on Xmas eve and on 2nd Jan we drove up to Truckee from the Bay for a few days skiing in .... our Jeep Rubicon!

I was just a little nervous of road closures or being stuck in sub zero temps up in the Sierra's with the battery draining on my new toy. That said, I wish now I had taken the R1T. I've seen 6 or 7 R1's here and there's a RAN station in Truckee. The weather was not as bad as feared so perhaps I should have been braver.

I know folks want the max pack, but I think the charging network is the deal breaker and you've got to believe that its only going to improve (right?)!

 

[Mcdubjr]

So, How did the new Snow Mode work, and, More importantly...
How is Heavenly? I've gotta believe that with all the snow they are having it's incredible there now.

I’ve felt very confident in snow mode on the roads here. Felt like I had a lot of traction. Yes, the snow has just been lovely

 

[stynes]

Our ad hoc CSS charging network is replete with these points of no return. I wish that routing software was better at pointing this out. as in “hey you can get to this charger with 20% SOC, but if it’s broken, not only can you not continue the designated route, you will not be able to leave period”. My dream is that one day there will be competing charging stations across the street from each other so redundancy increases.

thanks for the report, and I’m glad you’re all safe.

I just finished a big road trip this week and was thinking a lot about this, too. In 22 DCFC stops I made, exactly once, in London, Canada, did I see multiple DCFCs. The Canadian Tire location had 4 Electrify Canada stations right beside 4 FLO stations. There were a handful of others where the DCFC stop I made was near a Tesla Supercharger, like just outside Toledo, OH, but even that was rare. While everything worked out fine for my family, it was easy to see how problems could arise. More info on my 2800 miles here if you want to read more:
https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/road-trip-recommendations.11184/#post-260558

 

[RivianXpress]

I’m waiting for a winter/snow report between Winnemucca and Boise. That’s one long stretch with one slow charger in McDermitt at the Oregon border. I drove it in sept with some payload and arrived in Boise with 4% range

 

[cardad]

Did you see the 50 kwh charger in Luning? I have successfully used it. You did embrace the Rivian adventure motto so I applaud that.

Hi all, just wanted to share my experience on my recent road trip. I ran into issues because of road closures and bad chargers and ended up having to spend the night in a small town on a level 2 charger. Not the worst fate, but would not have happened in an ice car which I really hate to admit.

Full Story:
Headed out on News Years day at about 6am. Checked and made sure there were no closures as a big storm had hit Tahoe. With charging I was due to arrive at about 4pm. First part of trip was great as there are RAN chargers. Charged up in Inyokern and then in Bishop while I ate lunch.

When I got back to truck I noticed it had rerouted me through Nevada as the 395 had a closure. I was a bit nervous about the route as it seemed very remote and it only had EV Connect 50kw chargers. EV connect app said they were working and my only other option was a very long backtrack. This route will still get us to our destination by 6 but we’d have to charge for like 90 minutes. Decided to go that way and charged up to 95% at the RAN before leaving.

As it was very cold my range dropped pretty quickly, but still had plenty to get to the charger. As I’m sure you can all guess by now the charger would not start. To make matters worse it’s in the middle of nowhere and there isn’t even any cell reception to call for help. I’ve only got about 68 miles of range left and cannot make it to any other fast charger. I also have my wife and 3 kids with me, so yeah I’m feeling stressed. My only option is to make it to the level 2 charger which is only 20 miles or so away, but over a small mountain range. I put the R1T in to conserve and head out.

We make it to the small town of Yerington and plug in at the ChargePoint in front of City Hall. It’s cold, snow is every where and are hungry. We walk over to the nearby McDonalds and get some fries.

At this point I have to decide what to do… charge up a little and try to get to an EA? This seems unwise at this point as it’s already getting dark and I’m currently at 12% battery. I calculate 25% would be a safe number to make it to the EA. This is going to take several hours and just does not feel safe given the conditions to try and make it all they way at this point. I decide to just stay at the local inn.

Happily, the level 2 ChargePoint kept going all night and we got to 77% by the time we were ready to head out the next morning. The R1T did perform like a champ on the snow covered roads for the final portion of the drive and we arrived safely at about 11am.

So, I think a lot about how I could have avoided this situation.

1. I could have realized the 395 was closed earlier and gone a different route
2. Out of Bishop I did pass by one EV connect charger much earlier in the route. I could have played it extra safe and tried to charge there.
3. It‘s possible if I had 21s instead of 20s that I could have made it to and EA
4. Where is my Max Pack, Rivian?

But really I know the biggest issue is the crappy charging infrastructure. It’s the biggest problem EV adoption is facing. So frustrating!

To be clear, I’m not angry as I roll with things pretty well. It’s an Adventure, right? Anyways just thought I’d share my story and remind people to be careful out there! Also, wish me luck! I leave on Friday and another storm is headed in today (Weds)

My detoured route.

Road out of Yerington towards Carson… brrrrrrr.

Road into South Lake Tahoe.

To be fair, taking on this type of drive with an EV to go skiing is a bit masochistic to begin with.

The obvious solution would be to move closer to the ski area. Even with an ICE vehicle, that is a tiring, long travel day for families and I’ve taken 30k miles worth in a 4x4 Winnebago with a wife, 2 kids and 3 dogs. You can’t really blame the car that much for the misadventures of driving long distances.

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