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Trying to go from Ithaca, NY to Grand Rapids, MI -- range anxiety

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neroden

Model S Owner and Frustrated Tesla Fan
Apr 25, 2011
14,676
63,892
Ithaca, NY, USA
So I'm trying to do this trip in my Model S 85 kWh with only one overnight stop. Around Christmas. And I just don't think it's possible to do it reliably at the moment. Sun Country Highway has 90 amp chargers available from Niagara Falls to London, ON -- so I can get as far as London in one day without too much trouble.

But charging speeds west of there are just too low, and seem like I'd be stuck charging for so long that it would take more than a day.

If Sun Country Highway gets something in in Windsor or Sarnia that would help, but there's no guarantee those will be open in time. If Tesla gets its Supercharger open in Jackson/Ann Arbor, that would help, but that seems even less likely to open on time.

Worse, there seem to be approximately zero hotels in Michigan with on-site charging. (OK, I found one in Grand Rapids, but nothing east of there.)

If anyone has any idea how this could be done reliably in mid-winter given *current infrastructure*, I would appreciate thoughts. I may fall back on doing the trip with two overnight stops, but it seems absurd.
 
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With an 85 you might be able to make the stretch from London (overnight charge) to Grand Rapids with a top up charge along the way (240-250 miles). It's a stretch in the summer fall, probably too much in the winter. Don't route through Detroit, cross at Sarnia and top up in Lansing. Plenty of options there if you take a 3-4 hour break to add some miles.
 
I don't know how much it helps, but I made the trip from the suburbs west of Chicago to the east side of Grand Rapids last weekend and the folks at Fox Nissan at 4430 28th St SE were very accommodating in letting me charge at one of their Leaf stations overnight. I showed up with 10 miles of range and it was ready the next morning, 14 hours later. The sales folks were very interested in the car and I think they treated it as some EV advertising to have a Model S parked there. I cleared it with the general manager before arriving. If you're staying at a hotel nearby, they might be willing to shuttle you back and forth. Alternatively, nearby Holland, MI is very EV-friendly, with lots of public chargers downtown.
 
I'd recommend topping up in London and continuing on to Chatham ON, for the night. There appears to be an operational CS-90 there.. To Grand Rapids it's 343km... December is usually not that cold, I think I was averaging ~240Wh/km back in February. That would take you 337km on 81kWh (a range charge on the 85kWh battery I believe). If you slowed down a couple extra km/h you'd likely make it without stopping.

If you want to avoid range anxiety altogether, you can detour down to Ann Arbor.
Ann Arbor DDA: EV Charging Stations | Ann Arbor DDA: EV charging ready when you are

Plenty of high amp chargers there it appears! (~17kw perhaps??? Ann Arbor DDA: EV Charging Stations | Republic Ann Arbor (4th and Catherine): 4th and Catherine EVSE 1 (Ann Arbor, MI)) (Stumbled across these by searching "Ann Arbor" in the forums. :)

Oh, and if you want to take a break for a coffee here in Hamilton and get some power off my 14-50 you are more than welcome to. I'm 3km off the 403 Highway. (7km total detour.)
 
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Thanks to everyone -- I think I can do it even in the worst case. It looks like I can top-up in either Lansing or Flint, or more likely both. I'll spend more time charging than driving, but it should work.

I'd rather stop in London than in Chatham (because the day from Ithaca is already pretty long -- there's the border crossing, with unknown delays, and I have to charge for quite a long time in Niagara Falls). It's good to know that the Chatham charger is up and running though.

Of course, if I'm lucky, Tesla will have put Superchargers in, there will be CS-90s in Windsor, the weather will be balmy, and I'll have a plethora of options. But I want to plan for the worst case.
 
There is a good possibility that a supercharger will be in Flint or Lansing by the time you head out. As indicated by the other blogger, going through Sarnia is much more direct.

If the Superchargers in Michigan and Ontario open by then, that'll be lovely. I simply can't rely on that, though. I asked Tesla and they said they couldn't promise that the "Fall" chargers would be there by the winter solstice; they hope to do so, but you know they've been late before. So I had to plan assuming that it wouldn't be available.
 
There are plenty of chargers in Lansing. We haved stopped at the one just south of there at the celebration theatre. (Its a charge point, and free with the card, and using our j1772 connector) There is also a texas roadhouse across the parking lot(among other stores within walking distance) It was powering up at 18/hr. Also there was word of a Tesla charger going up in Lansing, it wasn't ready when we drove past last weekend. Good luck!
 
Neroden, there is a 90 amp charge station in downtown London at the Budweiser Center, as well as the Best Western Stoneridge Inn (it is now working, I confirmed it with them this morning)...there is also a 90 amp charge station in the Downtown Mall in Chatham (about 80 km from Windsor)...in Windsor, the pending install at the Comfort Inn now has been installed (again, I confirmed this today), however, I don't have any data to confirm that it is a 60, 90 or 100 amp station...hope this helps!
 
Neroden, there is a 90 amp charge station in downtown London at the Budweiser Center, as well as the Best Western Stoneridge Inn (it is now working, I confirmed it with them this morning)...there is also a 90 amp charge station in the Downtown Mall in Chatham (about 80 km from Windsor)...in Windsor, the pending install at the Comfort Inn now has been installed (again, I confirmed this today), however, I don't have any data to confirm that it is a 60, 90 or 100 amp station...hope this helps!

Be careful how you refer to the Ampacities of these EVSE's. I think that you are using the circuit breaker rating which is how ClipperCreek labels their EVSE's. The current available to the J1772 connector is 80% of that (max allowed by NEMA). Most Tesla folks refer to the Ampacity available at the J1772, not the circuit breaker. With that, 100A maps to 80A usable, 90A to 72A, and 60A to 48A. As we all know, nothing above 40A can be used by the Model S unless you have dual chargers which will go up to 80A.

Also, remember that power is Volts times Amps. Many commercial installations are 208V rather than the typical household 240V. The same current at 208V is 13% less power than at 240V.

Good Luck!
 
For reference, I decided to rearrange my trip a little by adding an extra night in Lansing. So the trip is now
Ithaca - London
London - Lansing
Lansing - Grand Rapids
and reverse.

I'm a little worried about London-Lansing if the weather provides extremely adverse conditions, but it looks like there are chargers in Flint to top up with.

And of course the hotel I was planning to stay in in London seems to have had its charger break. Yeech. I'll have to call them tomorrow to see if they expect to fix it. If not, there's another hotel with charging not very far away....

Any suggestions for charging between London-Lansing would still be welcome.
 
Neroden,

I'm also planning a trip across to Chicago but from Toronto just after Dec 20th. I'm not sure if this is on the route or too big a detour but according to PlugShare there is a Hampton Inn (3988 Baldwin Rd, Auburn Hills, Michigan 48326, United States) off the 75 near the Great Lake Crossing Outlets Shopping Center. They have a J1772.

Also - as per other threads (and the maps in my Model S), two new superchargers are now open - Angola, IN and Mishawaka, IN (as well as St. Joseph, MI). The last two are past your destination but Angola might be useful with a slightly different route. From what I've seen in other threads, it looks like Toledo is delayed until early next year as is London so these two are definitely out.
 
For reference, I decided to rearrange my trip a little by adding an extra night in Lansing. So the trip is now
Ithaca - London
London - Lansing
Lansing - Grand Rapids
and reverse.

I'm a little worried about London-Lansing if the weather provides extremely adverse conditions, but it looks like there are chargers in Flint to top up with.

And of course the hotel I was planning to stay in in London seems to have had its charger break. Yeech. I'll have to call them tomorrow to see if they expect to fix it. If not, there's another hotel with charging not very far away....

Any suggestions for charging between London-Lansing would still be welcome.

Two things:

1) There is an HPWC installed in Lansing (Eastwood Towncenter mall).
Michigan Tesla Owners - Page 16

2) There are a few J1772 options on your way to Lansing. You could also charge at my office building (I installed a HPWC). Send me a PM if you are interested.
 
Neroden,
If this helps,there is a very friendly Model S owner in Clarence, NY with HPWC. I have stopped and charged at his home on the way from Syracuse to Cleveland. He is listed on Plugshare. He also is responsible for the Sun Country 90 Amp chargers at the Best Westerns in Syracuse and Albany.
Baird
 
Hi Cottonwood...most of us here are well aware of the J1772 charging limitations and the charging limitations of our individual vehicles (and if they are taking a road trip and they don't know this info, they had better find out prior to leaving)...the wild card is "how powerful is the charge station that I am planning to use"...I guess we express things differently here in Canada...



Be careful how you refer to the Ampacities of these EVSE's. I think that you are using the circuit breaker rating which is how ClipperCreek labels their EVSE's. The current available to the J1772 connector is 80% of that (max allowed by NEMA). Most Tesla folks refer to the Ampacity available at the J1772, not the circuit breaker. With that, 100A maps to 80A usable, 90A to 72A, and 60A to 48A. As we all know, nothing above 40A can be used by the Model S unless you have dual chargers which will go up to 80A.

Also, remember that power is Volts times Amps. Many commercial installations are 208V rather than the typical household 240V. The same current at 208V is 13% less power than at 240V.

Good Luck!
 
Neroden,

I'm also planning a trip across to Chicago but from Toronto just after Dec 20th. I'm not sure if this is on the route or too big a detour but according to PlugShare there is a Hampton Inn (3988 Baldwin Rd, Auburn Hills, Michigan 48326, United States) off the 75 near the Great Lake Crossing Outlets Shopping Center. They have a J1772.
Potentially useful, but off-route for Lansing and Grand Rapids. I'm now planning to charge in Niagara Falls (daytime), Ingersoll ON (overnight -- the London hotel flaked out so I shifted to Ingersoll), and Flint (daytime) before getting to Lansing. I'm having enough range anxiety about the Ingersoll-Lansing bit that I don't want to detour.

Also - as per other threads (and the maps in my Model S), two new superchargers are now open - Angola, IN and Mishawaka, IN (as well as St. Joseph, MI). The last two are past your destination but Angola might be useful with a slightly different route.
No good -- all of them are both too far south and too far west. And I have to take a Canada route, I can't take the Ohio route because of the charging dead zone heading east of Cleveland towards New York State, which nobody is planning to rectify and which I don't want to risk in midwinter.

- - - Updated - - -

Two things:

1) There is an HPWC installed in Lansing (Eastwood Towncenter mall).
Michigan Tesla Owners - Page 16
Thanks! Although I should have overnight charging in Lansing at my hotel, this could help a *lot*.

2) There are a few J1772 options on your way to Lansing. You could also charge at my office building (I installed a HPWC). Send me a PM if you are interested.
I think I probably want to take the most direct route in this weather (with cold and snow and ice, mileage has been really bad) so I'm settling on London-Sarnia/Port Huron-Flint-Lansing. There seem to be some J1772s in Flint, but I don't see anything from there to London. I think you're off-route (too far south) but thanks for the offer!

Worth noting, since it's a lot colder at night, my range drops noticeably at night, so I'm making an effort to do the whole drive in sunlight, which pushes me towards the most direct route.
 
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