First road trips in '22 Lariat - a couple of notes

[mklcolvin]

Just returned from a couple of road trips in our '22 Lariat, and just wanted to post a few nuggets of things that I liked/disliked about the experience.

Went from Shreveport to Baton Rouge, LA with little to no issues, except dead charging stations at the Breaux Bridge, LA Electrify America stop. Fortunately, there were enough of the 350kW chargers to not be a major pain.

There is now a Tesla Supercharging station in Nachitoches, LA that has the Magic Dock port! We were able to use it with NO problems (you have to nudge the front end of the truck SO close to the protection bollards just to get the cable to reach, though). Thank goodness I kept my Tesla app/account active when we traded in our Teslas!

On a second trip, Shreveport, LA to the Galveston, TX area, we stopped to charge in Huntsville, TX at the EA charger there. Once again, a couple of dead chargers, but we lucked out for a second time on the faster charger being available.

On the way back, at the same chargers in Huntsville, we ran into folks that were blocking the EA chargers with their ICE vehicles! I thought that folks had gotten over this BS behavior! How are folks handling this - should they be reported to EA?

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[invertedspear]

It doesn't really look like those spots are designated for charging from the pics, they're just near the charger. Even if they were, EA won't do anything, even if they wanted to, they wouldn't respond fast enough and it's really the lot owners responsibility. The lot owner won't care, I'm pretty sure they get their rent money from EA regardless if people use the chargers or not. About the only thing you can do is look as pitiful as possible to guilt the people when they return, but if they were doing it to make a point, well, they got their jollys. It's a shit situation that we just have to wait for people to figure out they aren't high school bullies before it'll stop.

 

[hturnerfamily]

those aren't EA charging station parking spots, they are on the other side of the units... the unit spaces are next to the units - there are 4 of them, for each of the 4 units.

I agree, though, that I've seen this same type of 'space' design, which makes almost no sense for EV charging 'easy in, easy out' parking... meaning that the POSTS that block each of these should be removed, and EVs should be able to then pull into either SIDE of these units, ESPECIALLY if your are towing, like I do with my camper much of the time.

I believe these were designed this way because they installed these units so close to the Walmart entrance... but, I have NO idea why, when their HUGE parking lot has MANY other options, and out-of-the way of most others...

 

[hturnerfamily]

reality bites: you're going to find out, if you travel as much as we do, that there is relatively little thought to PLANNING the layouts of these Fast Charger locations and designs. Unfortunately, many of the designers may never have had to 'charge' an EV themselves. That's unfortunate. The owners of the property probably have NO IDEA, either. They just think that someone else much know better than them, so they rely on EA to plan it. EA is not listening to us drivers.

If it was up to us EV owners:
A) put DC Fast Chargers in LARGE OPEN Parking Areas, far away from travel lanes and other congested parking areas.
B) provide PLENTY of free parking space for EACH EV... there is NO reason for 'compact EV parking only' signage or paint on the parking space - EVs are NOT compact! EVs need even MORE room since now they have to bring a charging cable between vehicles to 'plug in'... there is a lot more room needed. BIG EV trucks are Already Here!
C) provide PULL THRU EV charging lanes/spaces, WITHOUT barriers and constrictions - EV trucks towing need a LOT of room, lengthwise too, and much more maneuvering space to turn a towed trailer. We need WIDE OPEN spaces!
D) it would be nice to be fairly close to AMENITIES, like a bathroom, at least.
E) provide 'NOT IN SERVICE' clear alert SIGNAGE above each non-working unit - EV drivers do not need to 'guess' whether a unit is working, or not. There is no reason for confusing situations where a unit's screen makes it 'look' like the unit is operational, when it clearly will NOT provide charging. There is also no reason for this information to not be CLEARLY and LARGELY shown when an EV arrives to try to charge.
F) everything else is secondary, even speed.

G) SPEED. Provide what you say you will. Period.
H) cost: finding the true 'final cost' of charging is very confusing. Some screen refer to $ per kwh, and yet the final cost proves that it is actually $ per minute. We don't charge fuel at gas stations by the 'minute', we charge by the gallon. DC Fast Charging should be the same, no matter how 'long' you are forced to sit there.

 

[davehu]

I'm in the middle of planning a simple overnight fall color tour of NW Arkansas, starting from our home in Hot Springs. About 439 miles. I'm well aware of ABRP, Plugshare and even the EV charging location feature of Google maps but find that all of them are inadequate and they don't always agree on what actually exists. (ie: one location shows up on plugshare but the only check in says that it doesn't exist.) Also disappointing is that I would have liked to spend the night in the Bentonville area but was shocked that there are virtually zero hotels with (non-Tesla) EV chargers. and that there are only a couple DC fast chargers available. Both at Walmarts... Thank you Walton family for that.

I think I figured out a route but I'll be nervous until we get our last charge before heading home. THIS is why the EV adoption rate is slowing. It takes time (YEARS)!

 

[mklcolvin]

I'm in the middle of planning a simple overnight fall color tour of NW Arkansas, starting from our home in Hot Springs. About 439 miles. I'm well aware of ABRP, Plugshare and even the EV charging location feature of Google maps but find that all of them are inadequate and they don't always agree on what actually exists. (ie: one location shows up on plugshare but the only check in says that it doesn't exist.) Also disappointing is that I would have liked to spend the night in the Bentonville area but was shocked that there are virtually zero hotels with (non-Tesla) EV chargers. and that there are only a couple DC fast chargers available. Both at Walmarts... Thank you Walton family for that.

I think I figured out a route but I'll be nervous until we get our last charge before heading home. THIS is why the EV adoption rate is slowing. It takes time (YEARS)!

Arkansas' charging is so sparse that there's little out there short of Little Rock, Hope, and (maybe) Forrest City along I-40. Chargepoint seems to have the higher wattage chargers short of EA in the state. I don't know why Blink even has those low power chargers still out there.

I did purchase a Tesla-to-J1772 adapter, to use at the Tesla Destination chargers, but haven't had a chance to test it out yet. It would be slow, but might help in a pinch.+

 

[RickLightning]

With the signage there, the metal poles, and the location of the chargers, very surprised that they would be seen as charging spots, which they clearly aren't. As OP travels more, you will better learn how these areas are configured. Yes, you will find spots iced, but these aren't.

 

[TheBigBezo]

As someone who's charged there before, yah you have to either pull in or back into the spots. The other side of the Ballard is normal parking. I will say I ran into some nice folks who were very curious about it. I liked that stop. Now Little Rocks EA location was sketchy af. I got panhandled which I can handle, but I never like when strangers are asking for money or just watching my truck when I'm stuck charging with few options.

There was a privately owned fast charger in little rock that was significantly nicer, slightly slower, but was a proper travel stop with clean bathrooms, wifi, well lit, cameras, and honestly just in a nicer area overall. East of Dallas was a nice stop too, only 4 stalls, but it was the perfect mid point between little rock and DFW.

Now Mississippi, that's an actual black hole. I couldn't cross it and had to go up and over through Memphis to make it to Little Rock.

I've done probably 7k plus miles road tripping so far, all across the gulf coast, south, up to Virginia ish. Honestly, hot take, Alabama and Texas had the best EA stations and less EVs so always easy charging. Once I got to more populated areas or towards DC in Virginia the amount of EVs meant more waiting.

 

[lakeguy55]

Charging deserts are not the exclusive province of southern states either. The attached picture is central-northern-western NH (and most of northern NE is the same). Nothing but Tesla chargers the whole way.
I live on the right side of the picture. My son lives on the left side. Last week we were going to visit him. I wanted to take the truck but had forgotten to charge it the night before. We ended up taking my wife's car because I didn't have enough charge to get there and back. Didn't help my standing with my ICE-biased son.
Of course it will be much better once Tesla opens their network. I wish it would hurry up and happen.

 

[OtterJohn]

Just returned from a couple of road trips in our '22 Lariat, and just wanted to post a few nuggets of things that I liked/disliked about the experience.

Went from Shreveport to Baton Rouge, LA with little to no issues, except dead charging stations at the Breaux Bridge, LA Electrify America stop. Fortunately, there were enough of the 350kW chargers to not be a major pain.

There is now a Tesla Supercharging station in Nachitoches, LA that has the Magic Dock port! We were able to use it with NO problems (you have to nudge the front end of the truck SO close to the protection bollards just to get the cable to reach, though). Thank goodness I kept my Tesla app/account active when we traded in our Teslas!

On a second trip, Shreveport, LA to the Galveston, TX area, we stopped to charge in Huntsville, TX at the EA charger there. Once again, a couple of dead chargers, but we lucked out for a second time on the faster charger being available.

On the way back, at the same chargers in Huntsville, we ran into folks that were blocking the EA chargers with their ICE vehicles! I thought that folks had gotten over this BS behavior! How are folks handling this - should they be reported to EA?

Thanks for the trip report! My wife and I drive about 18K miles a year, long weekends and that sort of thing, so this is very helpful information (even if we're geographically nowhere near you...the info and details are still relevant).

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