Texas Fast Charger dead zones

[DaveA]

Well, just completed a trip from San Antonio, Texas to near Tucumcari, New Mexico. Rivian's map estimation is that I would not be able to make Sweetwater to Amarillo and ABRP also showed that I had to stop in Lubbock at a slow charger, but I soldiered on....as it is 240 miles and at 100% charge in Sweetwater, truck showed 293 mile range....so going 68 mph and in the second lowest setting and conserve mode, I arrived at the Amarillo Electrify America station with 82 miles remaining! Efficiency showed 3.15 miles per kwh on very flat terrain for a good stretch. (Loaner on AT tires, 3 passengers, 300-400 lbs of cargo, etc) The return trip with some wind, still had 58 miles remaining.

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[ajdelange]

I arrived at the Amarillo Electrify America station with 82 miles remaining! Efficiency showed 3.15 miles per kwh on very flat terrain for a good stretch.

That's 318 Wh/mi which is appreciably less than the truck's rated consumption which is around 450 - 500. Thus you must have had a tail wind.

 

[DaveA]

That's 318 Wh/mi which is appreciably less than the truck's rated consumption which is around 450 - 500. Thus you must have had a tail wind.

More than likely...it is very windy in that area...mostly flat plains....on the way back the wind came from the side, so 30 miles less pushing me around.

 

[ajdelange]

The art to driving one of these things is to know when you are ahead of the curve (can potentially skip a charge) or behind the curve (need to add a charge). Unfortunately Rivian does not show us the curve (as some of the competition does) but I am hopeful they may modify software to do so some day.

 

[ceedy]

I'm glad to know this is possible. It certainly makes trips from Texas to New Mexico a lot more viable.

West and South Texas have so many fast charger dead zones. Does anyone know if there are plans to add a DC Fast Charger in Lubbock?

 

[DaveA]

I'm glad to know this is possible. It certainly makes trips from Texas to New Mexico a lot more viable.

West and South Texas have so many fast charger dead zones. Does anyone know if there are plans to add a DC Fast Charger in Lubbock?

There have been plans for Lubbock to have a Tesla Supercharger for several years, but haven't seen anything as of yet for other companies. South East quadrant of New Mexico has plans for many DC chargers using EA money...think its Francis Energy and they will be at all the Allsups locations.

San Antonio has 1 fast charger from EA...Houston has like 6. Pretty annoying.

 

[RBR1S]

You got me looking and while it's quite the deadzone, there seem to be a LOT of wrenches (meaning coming soon/under construction). Hopefully this resolves some of it. There is also this list for upcoming sites in the state.

https://www.env.nm.gov/vw-settlemen...020/04/VW-Project-Selection_22Apr20_LDZEV.pdf


Lubbock having zero both surprises me and doesn't. It's not the first city over 250k pop that I've seen without a single DC fast charger.

 

[DJG]

The art to driving one of these things is to know when you are ahead of the curve (can potentially skip a charge) or behind the curve (need to add a charge). Unfortunately Rivian does not show us the curve (as some of the competition does) but I am hopeful they may modify software to do so some day.

They provide the information needed. You can see both a recent 15 avg efficiency/consumption and a total trip stat. Also, the projected range constantly factors these in to recalculate the projected range so you don't have to.

 

[ajdelange]

I'm glad to know this is possible. It certainly makes trips from Texas to New Mexico a lot more viable.

The key word here is "possible". OP was able to do it comfortably because he had tail wind sufficient to get his consumption down to 318 Wh/mi. Going in the opposite direction he'd have a headwind that would get his consumption up to around 700 Wh/mi and the story would be quite different.

 

[ajdelange]

They provide the information needed.

Yes they do. It's just not in very informative format to those of us that have to know "why" or "what happened there". It's an engineer thing.

 

[ceedy]

All of those sites in New Mexico are going to be awesome. We need to invoke some state pride to shame us Texans into doing something similar.

Another dead zone is in South Texas. Taking a trip to South Padre Island is painful with the current infrastructure:

 

[DaveA]

All of those sites in New Mexico are going to be awesome. We need to invoke some state pride to shame us Texans into doing something similar.

Another dead zone is in South Texas. Taking a trip to South Padre Island is painful with the current infrastructure:

Ooof....yeah, EA needs one in Brownsville and Corpus for sure.

 

[miasm]

The Allsups is a big deal for Southern NM, and will provide good coverage. Northern NM outside of Taos is pretty barren too, but also with nothing planned yet. Rough, since I spend so much time up there.

 

[RBR1S]

You guys got me looking and man, if this map is right (granted sometimes plugshare misses some), I-20 has no fast chargers from the DFW area all the way to Birmingham. How is that even possible? Over 600 miles with no fast chargers.

This truly speaks to how it's infrastructure that is limiting EV adoption, not the EVs themselves.

 

[DaveA]

You guys got me looking and man, if this map is right (granted sometimes plugshare misses some), I-20 has no fast chargers from the DFW area all the way to Birmingham. How is that even possible? Over 600 miles with no fast chargers.

This truly speaks to how it's infrastructure that is limiting EV adoption, not the EVs themselves.

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