Atlanta to Greensboro trip advice?

[Nickatgt]

I picked up my 2023 RWD two weeks ago and I am itching to get it out on the road. I’m going to take a short trip this weekend to see my sisters in Greensboro, N.C. From the Atlanta area. I would like to go up through the mountains avoiding I-85 if at all possible. Looking at the EA availability it looks like Asheville is a good stop and possibly one other.

Does anyone have any experience traveling up that way? Any advice would be appreciated. I’ll post a trip report on the Trip Report topic when I return.

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[dflohr]

Hey Nick. Haven't gone as far as Greensboro but from Atlanta we've done this drive to Asheville in our 2021 RWD. Head up through Dahlonega, (food great at Wolf Mtn Winery if you haven't been there), drive Richard B. Russell Scenic Highway and stop at Hogpen Gap. Hit EV charger in Cleveland if needed and drive back roads to Asheville.

 

[kort]

planning is the key, get a better route planner, plugshare and the EA app. then check your route, pick your charging locations then pick emergency alternatives. try to stay in a hotel with a charger.
did I mention planning?

 

[Tooney]

planning is the key, get a better route planner, plugshare and the EA app. then check your route, pick your charging locations then pick emergency alternatives. try to stay in a hotel with a charger.
did I mention planning?

+1 !!!!!!

Take a look at the road trip planning threads listed here.
Note that some Electrify America sites are offline for hardware upgrades. Look at plugshare and EA apps.
Practice DC fast charging at your locality before starting your trip.
Good luck & enjoy.

 

[Genau]

I picked up my 2023 RWD two weeks ago and I am itching to get it out on the road. I’m going to take a short trip this weekend to see my sisters in Greensboro, N.C. From the Atlanta area. I would like to go up through the mountains avoiding I-85 if at all possible. Looking at the EA availability it looks like Asheville is a good stop and possibly one other.

Does anyone have any experience traveling up that way? Any advice would be appreciated. I’ll post a trip report on the Trip Report topic when I return.

@amazing resides in the Asheville area and may be able to offer advice.

 

[amazing]

Hi, yes I live up in the mountains close to Asheville and make the trip to Atlanta often. @dflohr makes a good case for going up through NW Georgia, especially if your want to totally avoid I-85.

Once you get up there there are so many roads to drive, it just really depends on how much time you want spend and whether you're trying to get to Greensboro in one day or not. I know a lot of people from Atlanta make the drive up into the mountains to do Tail or the Dragon and Cherohala Skyway. The main problem is that you start going pretty far out of your way if your final destination is Greensboro. AutoHaus Social and Appalachian Driving have organized group rides up around there (like this one). You could maybe ask them for advice as well; I just don't know how many people are making the trip from Atlanta in EVs.

As @kort mentions it's important to plan ahead (I'll usually try to use the Porsche Route Planner and ABRP for road trips plus Chargepoint for finding good places to park that have level-2 charges), especially in Western North Carolina and NW Georgia because there is a paucity of high speed chargers in the mountains and driving up hills consumes more energy. For instance I can drive from my house down the mountain to Atlanta on one charge, but I can't really return from Atlanta and go up the mountain on one charge.

When I enter the route direct from Atlanta to Greensboro it looks like you can get there in 6-hours. So, I mapped two alternative routes, one of which you could still probably make it to Greensboro in the same day, and the second would maybe become a multi-day trip. Other important thing to note: I'm calculating using the 93 kWh battery so could make a difference depending on which battery your Taycan has.

The first you'd be adding ~2:30 to your trip and could still probably get to Greensboro in the same day. The other is more like @dflohr route, with an extended side trip to Tail of the Dragon and would be ~8:30 just to get to Asheville from Atlanta, so probably would only work with a 2-day trip. Both of these trips get you up on the Blue Ridge Parkway, so make sure all the sections you'd be traveling on are open during winter through National Parks Service website road closures (they look open right now).

If you take the single-day route you'd get off I-85 first exit in South Carolina and take Cherokee Foothills Scenic Hwy 11, and then take 276 up and over Caesar's Head and through Pisgah National Forrest until you meet the Blue Ridge Parkway, and you get ~ 20 miles on the Parkway before hitting Asheville.

If you have the 93 kWh battery you can probably get to Greensboro on 2 charges, but you do need to be on I-85 until the SC state-line. You can see it's like ~2 extra hours of driving (and 30 more minutes of charging) but 90% of the extra driving is going to be on really fun mountain roads with beautiful scenery.

Also a footnote: The route planner kept trying to send me to the Electrify America in Greenville, SC (which makes sense because you'd be arriving to that charger with lower SoC and so the battery would charge faster, except its more time on I-85, which you're trying to avoid) so I manually removed it and forced it to charge in Commerce, GA. Even though it's saying to charge to 84% SoC I would probably charge a bit higher than that just to have some buffer (because it shows you getting up on the parkway with only 16% of charge, and you might start second-guessing why you chose that route , but you'll be going mostly downhill by then and you'll get some regen when you brake).

Other potential route is a bit more adventurous and would be a much bigger detour. But it's basically going up through NW Georgia however you want and try to charge as much as you can in Cleveland and/or Franklin NC, driving Tail of the Dragon in both directions and then heading back towards Asheville, taking a route that gives you 35 miles on the Parkway. This route assumes that the High Powered Charger at the Cherokee Reservation actually works, which I can't get any live status on through any of the apps I use.

Hope that helps and feel free to ask any more questions. And thanks @Genau for tagging me I had fun nerding out on the route planning !

 

[Nickatgt]

@amazing, thanks for your great post and research. That’s great information that will come in handy in a follow-on trip coming soon. @dflohr thanks for the recommendation.

I am going to post in a separate thread my terrible experience with charging and Electrify America.

I made it to Greensboro via North Georgia and Asheville on FrIday. I wanted to have some chance of driving on some mountain roads at speed. The Taycan performed like a champ. The road holding and power were incredible.

I ended up charging in Asheville (EA in Sam’s Club parking lot) and in Statesville (EA off of Highway 21)then on into Greensboro. More on my charging experience in another thread.

This was my first long trip and a great test of the Taycan. I’m headed back to ATL on Monday and will probably go back by way of I-85. I will report on my return trip next week.

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