EVRangeTarget app, another tool in your frunk for road trips

[invertedspear]

I was considering creating a spreadsheet I could pull up on my phone for quick maths and figured maybe the app already exists. While this wasn't 100% how I was looking to solve the problem, I found this app and determined it really suits how I road trip. It's on iOS for sure, I don't know about android.

Quick review: Set your usable capacity of your battery, and what SOC you'd prefer to hit the destination with, and the lowest acceptable SOC on arrival. Then on the main screen input your current SOC (with quick buttons to set to 80 and 100) and the distance to the destination (The next charger on my trip) and the app gives you the m/kWh you should maintain to hit the preferred and minimal SOC upon arrival. Getting higher m/kWh while en-route means all is good. Getting lower means I better slow down a bit.

For the way I road trip, this is great. I pick the next charger I want to hit in plugshare and map to it. Then hang out till the GOM shows me that distance plus an arbitrary buffer. This has nearly let me down a time or two. With this tool, I can more easily ignore the GOM and run a couple scenarios and road trip with a bit more confidence. I like having a target efficiency to aim for rather than just trusting a navigation system to determine if I can make it or not, then have it change it's mind when I change the climate control.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ev-range-target/id1171356681 if you want to check it out. I have no affiliation with the app creator, just wanted to share something I found usefull with y'all.

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[Quietfly]

Thanks for sharing, I'll have to check it out.

 

[mb0220]

This would be amazing - basically an app that does what I always do clumsily on the fly with my phone calculator. Wish there was a version for Android...

GoM is nearly useless. Works better when using Ford Nav, but still not worthwhile. For me it ALWAYS overestimates range.

 

[RickLightning]

ABRP does this, no?

 

[invertedspear]

ABRP does this, no?

Maybe, kind of? I don't recall ABRP telling me what driving efficiency I should be shooting for. Also, it's a lot more complex of an app (good thing, it does a lot more) where I sometimes just want a simple calculator to run my own estimates.

 

[RickLightning]

Maybe, kind of? I don't recall ABRP telling me what driving efficiency I should be shooting for. Also, it's a lot more complex of an app (good thing, it does a lot more) where I sometimes just want a simple calculator to run my own estimates.

ABRP calculates the route, and will flag a leg if you need to slow down. You can put in the SOC you're leaving with, and what you want to arrive with. Seems like that covers what you outlined.

I've driven thousands of road miles on trips, can't imagine why I'd want to have to calculate this kind of stuff myself more than I do today.

 

[GDN]

Excited to go check out the app. I'll attach the spreadsheet that I keep in the truck. I stole this and do not remember if it was this forum or another. So apologies, if the owner will come forward I'm happy to give credit. The formula is pretty simple, I recreated from a screen shot. Makes sitting at the charger super simple. What kind of mi/kW do I expect, how far do I want to go.

If you have an SR you can just swap the number at the top and it will recalculate.

 

[Jim Lewis]

ABRP does this, no?

And, as Rick knows, ABRP has a few extra things helpful to have in one place. You can set a % of the speed limit to which you're willing to slow down and see directly how that affects charging stops. Set how long you're willing to wait for a charger at a stop, see charger availability (to a limited extent), how long you'll be at a charger, see what surrounding amenities are, and what % SOC you're expected to charge to to travel efficiently to the next stop for the driving mode selected. You can slide between fewest stops, the quickest overall trip in the middle, and many stops (to relieve range anxiety). Besides the lowest %SOC you want to have arriving at a charging stop, you can also set the highest %SOC you're willing to charge to. And you can add stops just for amenities and see how that affects your planned route and timing. You don't directly see kWh in the app, IIRC, but you can see %SOC that you're expected to arrive at your next stop, so if that's dropping below what you can accept, you need to slow down or otherwise modify your behavior or route. That's effectively reading the average mi/kWh you need to achieve on a trip leg. The ABRP estimated next stop % SOC factors in all of your past behavior that the app's recorded, and, if you pay for the premium subscription, stuff like real traffic and actual weather (including wind speed, supposedly) along the still-to-be traveled part of your route leg. Does EV Range Target have a way of knowing the temperatures along your planned route in real-time and adjusting? That's pretty important to know in figuring out mi/kWh you need to be achieving. And what the conditions were when you initially planned your route may be changing while you're en route.

Another incidental but still important app property is whether you can add it to CarPlay or Android Auto so the app calculations are available to display on your Sync screen while driving, and you don't have to mess with your phone while driving or pull over to do so. I'd like to be able to adjust my hearing aids while driving, but the HA OEM has never gone to the trouble of making the HA app "CarPlayable," so I can't easily adjust my HAs while driving.

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