I made my first trip in the P85+ where I needed to charge at the destination before returning home. I traveled from Morristown, NJ to Albany, NY, a distance of about 150 miles. Temps were 19 deg going up and 40 degrees returning. Net elevation change was about zero but lots of hills on the way. Ran at 60mph all the way. Car was sort of warm in the garage before I started and regen was limited to start but that lasted only about 10 minutes. So here is how it went.
I started with a full charge of 260mi rated. Used 180 of that (for a 150mi trip). Averaged 320 wh/mi for most of the way. I arrived with 80mi left. The good story here is that I used a couple available trip calculators, AndyM's trip calculator, and Ben Hannel's EV Trip Planner. As it turned out, both these tools were spot on! I was within 2 miles of the predicted rated range when I arrived. These are real confidence builders. I knew I would make it but I needed to charge at the destination. Could I find and get enough juice to get home in the five hours I had scheduled for meetings? AndyM's tool told me "yes."
Plugshare told me there was a free Chargepoint station at the Holiday Inn Express 0.3 miles from my meetings. Using info from Plugshare.com I reserved (they asked for my name) the spot a couple days before. Sadly, when I arrived a Volt was in the spot. The very friendly staff told me that a "reservation" just meant they put a cone in the slot to prevent it from being ICEed and that the Volt is there "every day."
Again using Plugshare, I found a Chargepoint station a mile away at SUNY. There, the Chargepoint app wouldn't turn on the charger because it insisted I was more than a mile away from the charger though the app showed my correct location. A call to tech support fixed me up quickly. With all that folderol I was a bit late for my first meeting.
In 5:47 I went from 78mi to 204 mi of rated range and got back home with 30 miles of rated range left. I was more liberal with my speed coming home.
So, all in all, a good experience with the additional work and minor hassles being an early adopter brings. Lessons are: use and trust the trip calculators and have a plan B for charging.
PS: I usually like to drive fast but to make the numbers work I drove a constant 60 going up. It was surprisingly quite relaxing to be slower than most traffic because I didn't have to do any maneuvering. Everyone else had to go around me (and yes, I stayed in the right lane).
I started with a full charge of 260mi rated. Used 180 of that (for a 150mi trip). Averaged 320 wh/mi for most of the way. I arrived with 80mi left. The good story here is that I used a couple available trip calculators, AndyM's trip calculator, and Ben Hannel's EV Trip Planner. As it turned out, both these tools were spot on! I was within 2 miles of the predicted rated range when I arrived. These are real confidence builders. I knew I would make it but I needed to charge at the destination. Could I find and get enough juice to get home in the five hours I had scheduled for meetings? AndyM's tool told me "yes."
Plugshare told me there was a free Chargepoint station at the Holiday Inn Express 0.3 miles from my meetings. Using info from Plugshare.com I reserved (they asked for my name) the spot a couple days before. Sadly, when I arrived a Volt was in the spot. The very friendly staff told me that a "reservation" just meant they put a cone in the slot to prevent it from being ICEed and that the Volt is there "every day."
Again using Plugshare, I found a Chargepoint station a mile away at SUNY. There, the Chargepoint app wouldn't turn on the charger because it insisted I was more than a mile away from the charger though the app showed my correct location. A call to tech support fixed me up quickly. With all that folderol I was a bit late for my first meeting.
In 5:47 I went from 78mi to 204 mi of rated range and got back home with 30 miles of rated range left. I was more liberal with my speed coming home.
So, all in all, a good experience with the additional work and minor hassles being an early adopter brings. Lessons are: use and trust the trip calculators and have a plan B for charging.
PS: I usually like to drive fast but to make the numbers work I drove a constant 60 going up. It was surprisingly quite relaxing to be slower than most traffic because I didn't have to do any maneuvering. Everyone else had to go around me (and yes, I stayed in the right lane).
but it was a great first roadtrip in the winter nonetheless.
