[cfspeakman]

Planning a road trip to south Florida from middle Georgia. Definitely going to need to spend some time at some L2 chargers, as first DCFC is in the Ocala area. My CC home charger gets me 7.7 kw, about 25 miles per hour of charge. Can this be predicted at L2 chargers on road trips? Nisson Dealerships? KOA parks with 50 amp plugs using and EVSE and plug adapter? Going to need to get the maximum rate like in my garage if it is going to be doable.

Anybody tried this yet?

 

[Off Oil]

Check out the government energy.gov site for a map of DC CCS chargers. There are fast chargers as soon as Jacksonville.
http://www.afdc.energy.gov/locator/...Network&ev_networks[]=Tesla&ev_networks[]=all

For level 2 chargers, ChargePoint and others list the charging rates of their stations.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[Ladogaboy]

Going L2 on a long road trip would be a pain. I'd only do it if I was stopping for the night or planning to spend a long time at the location. Personally, these 35-45 kW CCS stations are about the slowest I'll go. My emergency chargers are 24 kW CCS.

 

[phil0909]

I agree. I'd rent a regular car for the trip.

 

[TSquare]

Just take your Volt.

 

[Sean Nelson]

KOA parks with 50 amp plugs using and EVSE and plug adapter?

Just be sure that the EVSE you take along with you is 32A-capable. Not all of them are.

 

[PH2]

It may actually be faster for you to add the miles and take a route down 16 and 95, depending of course where you start. There are several L3 on that path that I know to work as of 2 days ago. The charger in Savannah is free and there is another before reaching Florida that is free too.
I made a trip from ATL to Savannah on L2 with my Rav4EV (grueling) and I won't have to do that again since I installed CHAdeMO

.
Macon to Ocala is only 288 miles, which should only be a one stop charge in the Bolt. The most I would count on getting from public stations is about 6.2kW (~208v @ 30A).
Plugshare is my best friend on road trips! RV parks will give you a slightly faster charge, but L3 is the way to go for sure.

 

[GSP]

+1 on getting a portable 32 amp EVSE for use at campgrounds with "50 amp service." Be sure to ask for 50 amps, the 30 amp and 20 amp outlets at campgrounds are all 120 volts, much slower than the 240 Volt 50 amp outlets.

GSP

 

[BAZINGA]

WOW, you are an intrepid soul. Good luck and am looking forward to your follow up trip report.

 

[wws]

... The most I would count on getting from public stations is about 6.2kW (~208v @ 30A).
Plugshare is my best friend on road trips! RV parks will give you a slightly faster charge, but L3 is the way to go for sure.

Good point. Lots of public L2 chargers are running at 208v. I'd imagine almost all RV parks are providing 240v on their 14-50 receptacles.

It would be nice if plugshare listed 208v vs 240v and max amperage for L2s, but they don't. When I check in at chargepoint listed locations, I try to mention the voltage in the plugshare comments. Easy to determine via the chargepoint app.

 

[Ladogaboy]

Plugshare also needs to start listing the amperage of the various DCFC stations as well. For some cars, it's not a huge deal, but it's already a big deal for the Bolt EV. And as more EVs come on the market with varying charging rates based on V and A, a little more transparency will be needed.

 

[Qinsp]

Plugshare is dependent on EV drivers reporting their experiences. When you charge, make sure you leave a comment with their app. Include your car, your original SOC, and how fast it charged, any problems, and take a picture if there is not one so others can ID the site from a distance.

 

[cfspeakman]

Check out the government energy.gov site for a map of DC CCS chargers. There are fast chargers as soon as Jacksonville.
http://www.afdc.energy.gov/locator/...Network&ev_networks[]=Tesla&ev_networks[]=all

For level 2 chargers, ChargePoint and others list the charging rates of their stations.

Enjoy your trip!

Going to seriously look at that east coast Florida route. Need to stay the night in south Georgia anyway. Can probably get to Jacksonville with an overnight charge in south Georgia with no problem. Then, fast chargers all the way through Orlando, Tampa, and on to Ft. Myers, last one around Port Charlotte. Will be farther, but probably faster and less worrisome. Noticed that most of the chargers on the route are on the eVgo network. Interesting also that the Dept of Energy site shows a DCFC near Daytona, and one at Duncan Donuts in Lakeland, both eVgo chargers, and NEITHER of those was found by the Plugshare app. If I stop at either of those and confirm their existence and operation, will inform the Plugshare people to add them.

 

[jsmay311]

Plugshare also needs to start listing the amperage of the various DCFC stations as well.

+1.

Oftentimes it's impossible to tell from available online information if a DCFC station is 24kW or 50kW or some other power unless a user specifically notes it in a comment. It's a huge gap in the necessary information to plan a trip.

And then you've also got the problem with most SAE CCS DCFC's being individual units (rather than banks of 4-8), so if the one station in use, or ICE'd, or out-of-order, you'd be F'd.

Very impractical.

 

[Chris TX]

Oh wow. That brings back memories from years ago, driving across the country in my Model S, before the Superchargers were able to connect me. Relying on public L2 charging was a pain, mostly because they tended to be 24A @ 208VAC (5kW), which is terrible. However, since Teslas already come with an easily transported 10kW EVSE, I found it more efficient to charge up at RV parks. The goal is to find a spot that is closest to the breaker box, and the breaker box that is closest to the main transformer. Those tend to give the highest voltage, which would put me closest to 10kW charging. I even found a nice motel that had a 6-50 outlet near my room, and the maintenance person allowed me to use it. $30 or so worth of parts and a trip to the hardware store got me a 14-50 to 6-50 adapter made, which charged me up to full, overnight.

Since the Bolt EV can do 7.2kW (7.7?) investing in a portable 10kW EVSE would be wise. I think VegasBrad sells some well put together OpenEVSE units in the For Sale, section of the forums. I would get a 14-50 plug, and then use adapters.

The one thing I'm curious about, that I haven't seen any one ask, is if the Bolt will charge at more than 12 amps on 120VAC. That would be nice to have if the only outlet is a TT-30, which can do 24A @ 120V which is close to 3kW, and is also common at RV parks.

 

[cfspeakman]

Have already produced my own adapters. EVSE got from Vegasbrad died. Open source EVSE kit in process. Tried to reuse the J1772 cable and plug, but the wiring in it was very poor, not adequate, so waiting on a 40 amp rated cord and plug. Should be up and running with that before end of the week.

As far as those KOA campgrounds are concerned, looks like it may be a bit expensive if they charge you $20-40 per night. And the Bolt will only do 12 amps on 120 volt plug, but you have to set it that way, otherwise goes ultra slow at 8 amps.

 

[Chris TX]

Have already produced my own adapters. EVSE got from Vegasbrad died. Open source EVSE kit in process. Tried to reuse the J1772 cable and plug, but the wiring in it was very poor, not adequate, so waiting on a 40 amp rated cord and plug. Should be up and running with that before end of the week.

As far as those KOA campgrounds are concerned, looks like it may be a bit expensive if they charge you $20-40 per night. And the Bolt will only do 12 amps on 120 volt plug, but you have to set it that way, otherwise goes ultra slow at 8 amps.

I've only stopped for a few hours at a time, and the ones I used either charged nothing or only $5-10 for however much I wanted to charge, less than 12 hours. KOA is hit and miss. Plugshare is good, but the more reliable app would be RVParky. I think you can sort by 50A hookups.

 

[PH2]

Check out the government energy.gov site for a map of DC CCS chargers. There are fast chargers as soon as Jacksonville.
http://www.afdc.energy.gov/locator/...Network&ev_networks[]=Tesla&ev_networks[]=all

For level 2 chargers, ChargePoint and others list the charging rates of their stations.

Enjoy your trip!

Going to seriously look at that east coast Florida route. Need to stay the night in south Georgia anyway. Can probably get to Jacksonville with an overnight charge in south Georgia with no problem. Then, fast chargers all the way through Orlando, Tampa, and on to Ft. Myers, last one around Port Charlotte. Will be farther, but probably faster and less worrisome. Noticed that most of the chargers on the route are on the eVgo network. Interesting also that the Dept of Energy site shows a DCFC near Daytona, and one at Duncan Donuts in Lakeland, both eVgo chargers, and NEITHER of those was found by the Plugshare app. If I stop at either of those and confirm their existence and operation, will inform the Plugshare people to add them.

Take note that most L3 eVgo stations use RFID cards to start the station, I think the only other way is to call in but I have heard that there are sometimes issues getting a station to activate remotely. I ordered one for $5 from their website and it took about a week to recieve.

 

[cfspeakman]

Okay, got eVgo RFID card in mail, and have Greenlots RFID card. Only cards will need on my trip to south Florida. Am seriously thinking about using a Greenlots DCFC at BMW near Jacksonville on the way down (FREE), but it is only a 25kW charger. If it is tied up, not working, or otherwise unavailable, still other DCFC's in the area on the eVgo network (50kW chargers), just higher cost. Should be around 50% SOC at that point. Anybody done any 25kW charging on the Bolt yet? How long to go 50-80% SOC on 25kW charger? Guessing 60-90 minutes...

 

[Norton]

.... Am seriously thinking about using a Greenlots DCFC at BMW near Jacksonville on the way down (FREE), but it is only a 25kW charger. If it is tied up, not working, or otherwise unavailable, still other DCFC's in the area on the eVgo network (50kW chargers), just higher cost. ...

Funny! What are you going to do? Walk around the lot kicking tires, acting like you are interested in Beemer?
Or plug in and quickly leave the area for a meal or just a walk?
Make sure the Mychevy app will alert you to being unplugged.

Let us know how that works !!