500 miles in 24 hours - a bust
With the current charging in Tennessee 500 miles in 24 hours just did not work out. I am still 200 miles from home and if you care below is my summary.
The Trip Out – The general plan was to leave in the evening and drive about 200 miles then stop for the night while gathering a full charge. Then drive about 100 miles and take a leisurely lunch while getting a full charge then drive the last 200 miles to the show. I was prepared with a plan B which was fortunate because with the current state of EV charging traveling is a true adventure.
The first challenge was met the first night when I stopped at the KOA to stay. I called ahead and verified they had NEMA 14-50 plugs, but for some reason the Tesla charging cable would not work. It seemed that campground had only 120V NEMA 14-50 not 240V service. So after 20 minutes trying a few sites I gave up for plan B. Thank goodness for Nissan and their preparation for the Leaf roll-out. The Nissan of Cookeville, about 20 miles down the road was generous to let me charge overnight. A hotel was nearby and thus with a good bed and good J-1772 charging I was set.
The next day I headed for Nashville where I planned a leisurely lunch and a full charge. The Marriott Airport just had two level 2 chargers installed and said I could charge, but when I got there I found out I was their first EV customer and the chargers, installed by BLINK, required an RFID card. Something neither I nor the hotel had. The hotel tried their best to get things turned on and cards were to be delivered later in the day. But I did not have time to wait and so I pressed on to plan B. Recargo, an internet site that lists charging stations said there was a charger near the stadium downtown. Unfortunately the charger could not be found, so after searching 30 minutes I went to plan C. A local business 7 miles away had a public charger. But this too was a bust as the Tesla and the charger would not communicate, and now time is getting late and I am starting to worry. I knew there was another Nissan dealer 30 miles away, Mathews Nissan of Clarksville TN who would let me charge. They were most accommodating and started the charging and went to lunch. After lunch I found my last challenge in that charging was at 208V not 240 so rather than getting the anticipated 24 miles per hour of charge I was getting 19 miles/hour. This transformed my planned 4 hour stop into 7 hours as I had to also recoup the miles I spend driving in circles in Nashville. I did not want to cut this charge too close as there were NO charging opportunities for the next 170 miles, with the time now 7pm I was in for a late night on unfamiliar loads and did not want to be stranded. I arrived safely to the campground in Cape Girardeau, too late for opening welcome but early enough to get a night’s sleep and a full charge.
Trip back – I thought this would have been easy as I now had some experience, WRONG. The first planned leg was to drive 211 miles to the Nashville Airport Marriott which I am told now has working J-1772 chargers. I started off on the wrong foot by letting a good friend take a test drive after an already late dinner which burned about 10 miles. Then just as I started it began to rain hard requiring the wipers and defoggers. So I was not able to make it to Nashville without a boost. So I stopped at a Nissan dealer for about an hour to ensure I made it to the hotel, late, very late and with - miles showing and the plug-in NOW . Both the Nissan and the Marriott had only 208V 30 amp so charging was slow at both places. Unfortunately after the short night’s sleep I only had a 60% charge not the full charge I had hoped for. So I pressed on another 75 miles to charge at another Nissan at my son’s college campus. I figure I can take the time to visit and get more power. To my now wearing patience, I had to charge for 4 hours to get enough juice to make it to Knoxville where they have some slightly higher powered chargers (245V vs 208V). So time to catch up on e-mail and some reading along with this trip summary.
While I would love higher powered options I have yet to find them on this trip. Most places are 30 amp and 208V or 6KWH, ugh!