When I bought my S60, I knew I could do almost all of my driving without going beyond the range of the car charging only from home. However, the lure of the superchargers and a road trip experience eventually got the best of me. So, more than 18 months into the car, we decided to do a 1300+ mile road trip to Portland, OR. So, it was Santa Rosa to Ashland, then on to Portland a few days later, returning by way of the Willamette wine country and a few days in Eugene.
If nothing else, this trip report is a testimonial to the value/accuracy of EVTripPlanner.com. I set the speed to 1.05x in the planning tool, estimated the temps from weather reports and used 1.25x the Rated Miles estimated by EVTripPlanner to determine how much to charge at each supercharger (SC). I also had a table of supercharging times for a 60 kWh car, given the starting and ending Rated Miles (apologies to the creator of this table, as I lost the original source URL), which proved to be very accurate.
Other than high winds one day, I had no weather surprises. Across all the SC to SC segments, actual Rated Miles used ranged from as low as 93% of the EVTripPlanner estimate to a max of 105% of the estimate. Needless to say, with 20-25% cushion on each segment, there was no range anxiety, especially once I saw how well EVTripPlanner was working. The segments where I used less than the estimate were the mountainous segments where I was conservative and stayed at the speed limit, or maybe slightly above on downhill stretches. Otherwise, I tended to drive at 3-5 mph over the speed limit. The car was set to Range Mode for the entire trip, but the car stayed comfortable even in the 95-100 degree temps in the CA Central Valley we encountered in both directions.
I can provide other color commentary for any one interested on driving these SC to SC segments in a 60 kWh car, along with commentary on the individual SC stops if anyone is interested. I will say that one weakness I found in the EVTripPlanner route instructions is in actually locating the SC, as in a couple of cases we had to go around the block (so to speak) to actually locate the SCs due to vagueness in the location instructions.
Driving long distances in the S60 was very comfortable. We found that the charging stops broke up the trip, and while the elapsed times door-door were a bit longer than in a traditional petrol vehicle, it was not as tiring as our more typical long drive grinds in conventional vehicles where we only stop when the gas tank approaches empty.
I will say that while long distance driving in the S60 is quite pleasurable, no doubt it is easier and faster in the 85 kWh cars, especially as the SC sessions will go much more quickly since charging stays further away from full battery charges. I don't think I would buy a different car given this experience, but it reinforces the value of the extra battery capacity for more frequent long distance drivers. Not just the extra range of the larger battery, but the faster SC charge times for getting from SC to SC.
For others driving the NorCal - Portland route, pay special attention to the mountainous segments, between Corning to Springfield. For a 60kWh car, the Springfield to Grants Pass segment is the most taxing, using nearly 170 Rated Miles, and several other segments in this corridor will used 150+. These segments make for fairly long SC stops, up to an hour in some cases.
If nothing else, this trip report is a testimonial to the value/accuracy of EVTripPlanner.com. I set the speed to 1.05x in the planning tool, estimated the temps from weather reports and used 1.25x the Rated Miles estimated by EVTripPlanner to determine how much to charge at each supercharger (SC). I also had a table of supercharging times for a 60 kWh car, given the starting and ending Rated Miles (apologies to the creator of this table, as I lost the original source URL), which proved to be very accurate.
Other than high winds one day, I had no weather surprises. Across all the SC to SC segments, actual Rated Miles used ranged from as low as 93% of the EVTripPlanner estimate to a max of 105% of the estimate. Needless to say, with 20-25% cushion on each segment, there was no range anxiety, especially once I saw how well EVTripPlanner was working. The segments where I used less than the estimate were the mountainous segments where I was conservative and stayed at the speed limit, or maybe slightly above on downhill stretches. Otherwise, I tended to drive at 3-5 mph over the speed limit. The car was set to Range Mode for the entire trip, but the car stayed comfortable even in the 95-100 degree temps in the CA Central Valley we encountered in both directions.
I can provide other color commentary for any one interested on driving these SC to SC segments in a 60 kWh car, along with commentary on the individual SC stops if anyone is interested. I will say that one weakness I found in the EVTripPlanner route instructions is in actually locating the SC, as in a couple of cases we had to go around the block (so to speak) to actually locate the SCs due to vagueness in the location instructions.
Driving long distances in the S60 was very comfortable. We found that the charging stops broke up the trip, and while the elapsed times door-door were a bit longer than in a traditional petrol vehicle, it was not as tiring as our more typical long drive grinds in conventional vehicles where we only stop when the gas tank approaches empty.
I will say that while long distance driving in the S60 is quite pleasurable, no doubt it is easier and faster in the 85 kWh cars, especially as the SC sessions will go much more quickly since charging stays further away from full battery charges. I don't think I would buy a different car given this experience, but it reinforces the value of the extra battery capacity for more frequent long distance drivers. Not just the extra range of the larger battery, but the faster SC charge times for getting from SC to SC.
For others driving the NorCal - Portland route, pay special attention to the mountainous segments, between Corning to Springfield. For a 60kWh car, the Springfield to Grants Pass segment is the most taxing, using nearly 170 Rated Miles, and several other segments in this corridor will used 150+. These segments make for fairly long SC stops, up to an hour in some cases.
