This will be my last attempt at a Lightning Road Trip

[John Becker]

I'm scanning through random states now and see chargers all over the place.

It's my understanding that West Virginia used to be a DCFC desert. Is that still the case?

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[lightspeed]

It's my understanding that West Virginia used to be a DCFC desert. Is that still the case?

I see a pretty good number of chargers in WV in the FordPass app. Maybe 130 miles between chargers in the worst case (but just a guess by looking at the map).

The app even makes it clear which Tesla chargers are not compatible (V2 or whatever), not sure why it doesn't just hide those to be honest.

 

[John Becker]

Maybe 130 miles between chargers

That's my fear. I get to a charger. It's broken. And then I don't have enough juice to go 130 miles to the next charger that might also be broken. Is my fear unreasonable?

 

[lightspeed]

That's my fear. I get to a charger. It's broken. And then I don't have enough juice to go 130 miles to the next charger that might also be broken. Is my fear unreasonable?

Not unreasonably, because you can't just assume a charger will be close to where you need it like a gas station.

But, if you pick the next general area down the road 180 miles you can see all the chargers in that area with the number of stalls and current availability. If you want confidence, make sure there is a compatible Tesla station even if it's a backup for another preferred charge network.

I'm sure there are areas that need careful planning, but how many of us are tripping through North Dakota?

500 mile range with 500 kW charging would be a game changer...but it's not too bad now.

 

[B177y]

I'm sure there are areas that need careful planning, but how many of us are tripping through North Dakota?

I did a round trip from Western WA to East-Central ND. 3300 miles round trip. Not necessarily "through" ND, but drove around plenty while I was there. It was autumn, so temps were reasonable and not crazy ND winter cold.

Hotel had a level-2 charger which made it possible to day trip and stay charged up. ABRP pre-planning and using ABRP with an OBD dongle during the trip made it easy. Almost all Tesla charging except for two EA stops.

80mph on the interstate and mileage was approx 1.4 mpKw. Pretty seamless and enjoyable trip.

 

[lightspeed]

I did a round trip from Western WA to East-Central ND. 3300 miles round trip. Not necessarily "through" ND, but drove around plenty while I was there. It was autumn, so temps were reasonable and not crazy ND winter cold.

Hotel had a level-2 charger which made it possible to day trip and stay charged up. ABRP pre-planning and using ABRP with an OBD dongle during the trip made it easy. Almost all Tesla charging except for two EA stops.

80mph on the interstate and mileage was approx 1.4 mpKw. Pretty seamless and enjoyable trip.

Thanks. Sounds like it was good.

I wasn't trying to pick on ND or anything, just saying certain rural areas need more carefully planning, but most more populated areas should be pretty easy now with just the FordPass app.

 

[B177y]

Thanks. Sounds like it was good.

I wasn't trying to pick on ND or anything, just saying certain rural areas need more carefully planning, but most more populated areas should be pretty easy now with just the FordPass app.

Didn't feel picked on, all good.

ID, MT, and ND are pretty much worse case scenarios for EV road tripping. Just wanted to show that it's still possible in the Lightning... With proper planning.

 

[Henry Ford]

What could be simpler?

Google Maps route planning integration would be nice. It already has the capacity to reroute around traffic - I use it in town and on my drive to work for this reason - it knows my truck and it can predict what the SOC will be at the destination. It doesn't seem like a stretch to add charging stops at known compatible chargers.

 

[tls]

After purchasing my first EV over 8 years ago, I came to realize that I won't use it for long trips. The thought of sitting for a couple of hours while charging is not for me. I use my EVs for round trips up to around 250 miles. I have not had to use a public charger so far. I have not used the new TESLA supercharger technology yet. That may make it more palatable to extend those trips to 500 miles. I have a hybrid, and an old fashioned ICE for really long road trips.

I don't understand, really. You decided not to use the charging technology (there's nothing new about it, public DC fast chargers have existed for 10+ years) that exists in the market specifically to enable long trips, and therefore long trips are not for you?

I mean, it's your car and you should use it as you like. But this seems like an unusual decision process.

 

[tls]

Sorry, rough night. I had started out to get to a supercharger that was in range. Halfway there a warning came up saying I didn't have enough to get there, and it took me to a blink Level 1 charger.

Is the "it" here the ford nav software? All I can say really is just don't use it. Its tendency to suggest insane "corrections" when it decides its original (likely very poor) trip plan was wrong is only one of its many flaws.

Try a segment of your trip with ABRP and/or PlugShare. It might be a lot less frustrating for you.

 

[evowner]

I don't understand, really. You decided not to use the charging technology (there's nothing new about it, public DC fast chargers have existed for 10+ years) that exists in the market specifically to enable long trips, and therefore long trips are not for you?

I mean, it's your car and you should use it as you like. But this seems like an unusual decision process.

I don think my decision is 'unusual'. I prefer to recharge at $0.12/kwh as opposed to $0.30 - $0.50/kwh. In my book that is smart.

 

[Joe.....Montana]

Didn't feel picked on, all good.

ID, MT, and ND are pretty much worse case scenarios for EV road tripping. Just wanted to show that it's still possible in the Lightning... With proper planning.

Now I feel picked on ...living in Montana and all...previous to Tesla access it was a 370 mile one way trip (essentially) dependent upon two EA chargers...with significant elevation changes and potential for 30+mph sustained headwinds...

 

[evowner]

Is my fear unreasonable?

No, it is real. In my case it was self inflicted though.

We made a trip to north west Indianapolis From Cincinnati, about 240 miles round trip. We had 310 on the car. We did a little driving around in Indy, and at the time to return, after the concert, we had about 140 miles left. It was very hot and humid so cooling was required for us. As we got close to the border of Ohio we had about 20 miles to go and roughly 35 miles on the car. It was dark and started raining. So more usage on the battery.

I made a decision to not stop at the last reasonable charging station and go for it. Long story short, I pulled up to my shop with 3 miles remaining on the car. Warnings galore. I can tell you the fear is real. The regrets about not stopping to recharge, what am I going to do if it shuts down on the expressway, how long will it take to get a tow truck, etc, etc.

 

[Rip]

Is the "it" here the ford nav software? All I can say really is just don't use it. Its tendency to suggest insane "corrections" when it decides its original (likely very poor) trip plan was wrong is only one of its many flaws.

Try a segment of your trip with ABRP and/or PlugShare. It might be a lot less frustrating for you.

So, an update. We made it to Captiva, pretty much without further incident.

The problem night came because we had a dinner reservation and meeting. Due to excessive traffic and one dud charging stop (that entailed backtracking 20 miles to get to a compatible charger), we were running late, so couldn't spend a half-hour charging before we got to the restaurant. I didn't think it would be a problem, because there was some charging available at the hotel. The problem came in when that charger was not available. Then I needed to make it to an EA charger. I sent the directions from the Fordpass app to the android auto google map. It let me get halfway there before a warning came up in the Lightning's display saying something like "You don't have enough charge to get to your destination." It offered a button to navigate to another stop. That was how I ended up with four miles left, waiting for a level 1 charger to add enough miles to get back to the EA charger.

I ended up getting an Uber back to my hotel. By the time I got a few hours' sleep and got up, the Lightning had accumulated 80 miles, and I took an Uber back to pick it up. We had to make a reservation in Charlotte and eat the first day at our hotel in Savannah, but the rest of the trip was fairly uneventful.

My main gripe is probably due to the fact that I drove a Model Y for 5 years. For all its faults, Tesla had developed pretty good tech. The Tesla nav app wasn't Google Maps, but it was close, and you just had to hit a button to see all the chargers within 100 miles, and it was just a tap to add a stop to your route. It helped that in the Model Y I wasn't going to arrive and find out that the station was incompatible.

So it is disappointing that Ford engineers did not benchmark that tech and build something better. I have developed a process that works, but it's not flexible. Before getting underway, I let Google Maps tell me where the next charging stop should be. Then I look at the Fordpass app to see all the chargers in that area, and pick the best one that IS compatible. Then I enter that address into the Google Map. That has worked to get me here, but it's not flexible. You have to stick to the plan.

So, some folks have asked for more details about this Maine-to-Captiva road trip. A few highlights:

1. Did stop at a Buc-ee's for the first time. Quite an adventure. This one was in St. Augustine. Really fast Mercedes/Chargepoint chargers (expensive, too). What a zoo the store was, though! I can see why someone said you couldn't get in and out in the time it takes to get to 80 percent. They did have very clean restaurants. The brisket sandwiches were good; the beaver chips were not.
The stop I made after that, in Winter Home, Florida, was at a WaWa. I've always liked WaWa; now I like them more. They had garbage cans right next to the chargers, and a window-cleaning station. There was also a sign that said you could order food and they would bring it out to your vehicle while you charged.

 

[tls]

I think part of the reason I'm less bothered by the awful Ford nav experience than others is that our first few years with a Tesla in 2015 heavily conditioned me to use PlugShare and ABRP whenever travelling somewhere I don't have full comfort that I know where the chargers are. Back then the Tesla in-car nav was maybe not as bad as the Ford software is now, but it sure wasn't good. When ABRP came on the scene it was a huge change and using it at least to rough out a plan before departure quickly became a habit. I honestly don't love the in-car experience with ABRP - I use it to find my series of stops and then load them into Waze, which I greatly prefer while driving; if something goes wrong I use PlugShare to find an alternative.

This is of course only possible because Ford allows my phone to display on the car's screen while Tesla ties themselves in knots to prevent that. Ford's own apps are so bad I wish they would just drop them, but without tighter integration with CarPlay or Android Auto then there'd be no way to precondition.. which honestly I seldom bother to do.

There's no question it's a very different experience than a modern Tesla. But it doesn't cause major problems on road trips for me.

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