Taxman's Lightning Chronology

[pullinggs]

Folks in California are like .40+ per.

How does someone in Kentucky think they know more about my electricity plan than I do? Some places in California are expensive, true, but California is a very big place. My off-peak rate (i.e., the one that counts for charging) is just barely more than yours.

Next report coming Thursday morning & evening!!!!!

@TaxmanHog, this thread is extremely valuable, and you are now my hero.

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[The Weatherman]

How does someone in Kentucky think they know more about my electricity plan than I do? Some places in California are expensive, true, but California is a very big place. My off-peak rate (i.e., the one that counts for charging) is just barely more than yours.



@TaxmanHog, this thread is extremely valuable, and you are now my hero.

My apologies: Some folks in California are .40+ per.

 

[biers]

Repeat that experiment, but pre-charge to 95%, and make sure that the charging time window hours to hours will accomodate the time it takes to run the departure time battery prep phase, you will see more energy consumption if it's a cold day.

Tried it out again today. I left it set at my normal 90% charge limit. It hit the 90% at 0035 and was set to precondition for 0825 departure.

Had a completely different experience than when I did the same thing but clicked the "Charge to 100%" button.

I first checked it at 0743 and it was already starting to warm the battery. Wish I had got it a bit earlier. Display SOC was 91% and stayed there the whole time though estimated miles started at 187 and finished at 195 (I have SR on the old GOM SW). It was ~35 F when I ran this. Energy went from 79.94 kWh up to 83.31 by the end.

My hypothesis is that when it was charged to 100% the software told it to not add any extra energy and only used stored energy to pre condition. At 90% it was able to put energy back in to replace what was used in preconditioning. I'll have to re run the 100% with pre condition.

 

[TaxmanHog]

@biers thanks for your report, my base charging profile will be unlimited time frame at 95%

I am going to set my departure timer start time for t-minus 2 hours, the first hour will be the cushion time frame for when the truck decides it want to start the pack warming phase, then the t-minus 1 hours window is when I'll click charge to 100%.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Continuing the Departure Timer {battery preconditioning} experiments, now with a SOC of 95% and then scheduling the departure event to be ready at t-minus one hour from true departure time, then a last hour final energy bump from 95% to 100%, and t-minus 15 minutes of roll out for remote start. Total of 13.3 KWH was used to warm the battery, raise the SOC another 5% and warm the cabin at the last minute.

This was done to give me peak efficiency for a long 210 mile ride to Avenel, NJ to meet with the Ford Motor Co exec's from the charging and media teams, as well as independent media personalities involved with promoting EV's and the charging infrastructure

The preconditioning battery warming effort started on 2/29, at 12:24 am finishing at 12:50 am

I clicked the charge to 100% button at 1am, it ran a a gradual tapper until unplugged

The last 15 minutes I ran the Remote Start to get the cabin back up to temp's

2am ready to roll to Avenel, NJ to meet Ford & the EV media teams

Next post will be about the drive & the charging experience ...... more to come!

BTW: I was riding solo, so the Christmas music channel got switched out quickly, LOL!

 

[TaxmanHog]

The trip to & from NJ on 2/29/2024.

The outbound leg was started early to improve my chances of avoiding NYC regional traffic, the weather conditions the prior night was rough so I didn't go down early, if it had been nicer I might gone then.

As it was, 2 am the heavy rains had passed by, but the winds were still strong out of the west, which is a direct headwind while traveling along the Connecticut shore line of I-95, eventually the winds shifted NW and brought in colder conditions, with temps already around mid 30's the NW winds made it hover around the freezing point, watching the road surface and gauge intently, the service trucks were out applying salt, brine & sand to help with traction.

As I got into NY & NJ the roads were pretty dry but that NW wind was continuing to pull in chilly air lows in the 30's!!

Averaged 1.8 MPK, running the battery down from 100% to 11% over 207.1 miles in 4 hours 7 min.
Raw numbers (207.1 / (131*.89)) = 1.78 MPK, 117 KWH burned on the way down.

The charging session with Tesla went smoothly after I got the feel for inserting the adapter into the trucks CCS1 port, I'm using a prototype which had a firm fit, just the right angle and force to properly seat it, engaging the connection and communications link. The initial charge ramped quickly since I had been preconditioning during the meet & greet with everyone. Within a minute I was already over 150 KW rate and noted the peak of 167 KW during my session at 3+ minutes.

I continued to run until around 70% and offered up my spot for a Tesla that had rolled up in need, our gaggle had mostly blocked off the entire row of 12 stations, as the rule of thumb 70% is plenty enough energy to get the homebound run off to a good start. $41.16 for 84 KWH $0.49 / KWH including any local fees/taxes.

Projected ending SOC was appx 77% I forgot to capture a shot before unplugging for Ms Tesla

After my session was done, I chatted with the other folks, meeting @Dadalorian13 who rolled in a little later, his charging session peaked at 174 KW after coming in fresh & hot off the road.

Farewells to Jake & Joe and hit the road, north bound up the GSP to avoid late morning NYC!!

Heading north I had enough energy to get to central CT, possibly in the vicinity of Waterford or New London, along the way I scoped out a couple of Tesla stations but they might have been version 2's or version 3's not yet rolled over, the Public Charge app doesn't work on the fly so pick and plan your stops along the route. Eventually I got to Waterford where I decided to visit our good old friend Electrify America, a year ago I used this location and station and had zero troubles .... not the case Thursday, it took for ever to acknowledge my P&C authentication, possibly because I also activated with the APP, but with P&C on, maybe I should not have done that, any how, eventually it started, but on the kick off, was showing that I had received $26 worth of energy, there is no way I got that much in the 2 or so minutes waiting for authentication, in total I was only connected for 7 minutes before I pushed the end charging session button and unplugged [$0.64 / KWH] to boot!!! in seven minutes I allegedly used $31 worth of juice! My calculations are 11% rise in SOC which is accurate, but that comes to appx 14KWH and with taxes maybe $9!!! I called the hot line, met with hold queue, which had an informative announcement to use the [REPORT ISSUE} button to request customer service support, so I left them my details and suggested a full comp or at least adjust the bill down to $9.

THIS is why we're excited to have TESLA CHARGING available to NACS customers!!!!!!!

At this point I still needed more juice to make it home, I looked at the Sync screen public charge app and located another Tesla V3 station not far up I-95 in New London. This location is in a shopping center with ample parking where I can drop my race-trailer, also located on the southbound side of 95, there was another northbound station further up the road, but chose to test this one out for now.

13 minute session just to ensure I had enough juice to make it home, I noticed that Fordpass was wonky during this visit, as I look back over the day and other reports Ford was also transitioning & rolling out a new version of FP 4.33.0 so this might have lead to missing data elements while I was charging. The BON receipt told me I took on 36 KWH for a cost of $18 even I guess no taxes in CT!
With 104 miles DTE I'll make back to southern Mass.

Before I knew it, I was into RI and not for long I was in Mass, picked up the missus and headed out to dinner, this stage total of 432.9 miles drive/run time of 10 hours, average 2.0 MPK, I was doing much better on the return leg as the day warmed up and the winds helped me move along.

After dinner, I headed down to Seekonk Mass not far from my house where a Tesla V3 station is located near I-195 along with a Shell / Neon gas & convenience store, we're seeing more of these being built in the area and another is under construction within 4 miles of my house along I-95

I was able to park much better with station spacing a little more generous, 5 Tesla's were too my left and I only ruined the parking opportunities of the right most stall.

Kick off of the final top up back to my regular 85%, yes, Marie was in the truck with me earlier but finds charging visit not so exciting [her music selections]

Predicting a 5:10 PM finish of this 26 to 85 % session, it was right on point!!!!

More charge ramp snapshot, but notice the SOC isn't rising, I think the my phone or the FP app was acting strange still as found in the New London CT session

I rebooted the phone ......

Finished, the Sync & IPC screens were on point with SOC reporting while FP is buggy, hopefully that's just a transition issue resolved with the phone reboot.

Flat fee tax inclusive, Mass does charge 6.25% for energy services but looks like Tesla eats it in the rate.

Back at the house for final AC bump.

Final impressions, having the Tesla Charging Services available to me in the New England region will be welcome and provides more options to me when traveling, especially to northern New England (VT & NH) while Maines outback needs further development.

Long trailer hauling trips could be possible, but I think the logistics of Pull through stations would make that a better experience, until then the willing and able will make such trips possible.

 

[TaxmanHog]

BTW, total 252 KWH of energy charged in four sessions, 3-Tesla & 1-EA, grand total $122 which includes inferred charge back to 100% and the pre-trip battery preconditioning energy at an average of cost of $0.484 / KWH. Average cost of trip mile was 26.7 cents a mile.

As a reference point, diesel is $3.839 a gallon, my F250-PSD would have run about 30.5 gallons or $117, the refined ride of the F150 Lightning, with it's comparable power & torque, creature comforts makes the Lightning a tremendous value regardless of fuel costs at the moment.

As always YMMV region to region, understanding what it costs us in the north-eastern USA

 

[LightningShow]

Great report!. I've been fondling my A2Z adapter all day...

 

[Dadalorian13]

Great write up @TaxmanHog ! It was great to see you! Can’t wait till the next meet up!

 

[TaxmanHog]

Follow-up communication from EA came in yesterday afternoon, they fully comp'd the erroneous billing from the Waterford CT charging stop, so the 14KWH or so of energy I did receive was free.

Thank you Electrify America, now get your systems operating better as the competition is on your tail!!!!!

 

[Pioneer74]

Great report!. I've been fondling my A2Z adapter all day...

They just sounds so.......wrong.

 

[kstype]

Drive logs

@Ford Motor Company - are. you planning on bringing back the EV Driving section for FordPass? This was some good data - would love to see it return.

 

[hturnerfamily]

as to 'at home' charging rate plans and costs... yes, there is no real 'this state has a great rate, yet Californian's all have to pay more than everyone else' comparison, as it is all over the place, everywhere...

for example:
I have a GEORGIA POWER 'EV overnight charging' rate plan, at maybe 3cents per/kwh...
but...
right down the street, three houses away, where they have the local EMC, there is NO EV RATE PLAN available, leaving them to pay the 'normal' RESIDENTIAL rate for charging, anytime of the day or night, at probably FIVE to SEVEN times the amount I do... owning an EV for them doesn't make near as much 'cents' as it does for me... so, thank you Georgia Power.

the discrepancies between EV Charging Costs across the nation, even within a NEIGHBOR, can be Massive, which is really much greater than even the differences in fuel, like gas and diesel, for everybody else.

 

[hturnerfamily]

I see that 'TaxMan' has made his entrance into the world of 'youtube' via the OutOfSpec channel where KYLE is touting the brand new 'ADAPTER' for the superchargers, for the rest of us : )

Where's the HARLEY???? oh well.

 

[TheWoo]

I saw somewhere else on the forum someone from Missouri was charged .03 at home. Some folks in California are like .40+ per.

With Evergy in western Missouri, the variable-rate plan for EV drivers is .03 in the midnight to 8am (I believe) time period. Unfortunately, it's not available if you have a solar PV setup, which we do, so we get a .01 discount during that timeframe.

While that EV plan is great for those of us with EVs, bragging about it doesn't take into account that peak (4-8pm) energy rates are about double the peak rates on the standard plan. So, some of those savings will get eaten by your other energy needs.

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