Completed 7300 mile cross country trip in my new Cross Turismo

[MarkSCville]

Hello Everyone, I recently completed a 7300 mile cross country trip in my new Cross Turismo. I have tons of information/thoughts on how things went and was wondering if people thought it would be useful for me to document/explain it on here. We did the trip in 15 days and started in Virginia and went to San Diego and then up to Oregon and then back through the rockies. If people are interested I am happy to share our findings..

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[Administrator]

Interested! Sounds like an epic road trip.

 

[MarkSCville]

Thanks. I will work on this and try to have it posted by Sunday. It was an awesome trip.

Mark

 

[masmole]

Excellent! Looking forward to your documentation... especially thoughts/experiences about finding fast charging stations throughout your trip.

 

[satchurator]

Looking forward to this…

 

[RBGtaycan]

Hello Everyone, I recently completed a 7300 mile cross country trip in my new Cross Turismo. I have tons of information/thoughts on how things went and was wondering if people thought it would be useful for me to document/explain it on here. We did the trip in 15 days and started in Virginia and went to San Diego and then up to Oregon and then back through the rockies. If people are interested I am happy to share our findings..

hell yes!!!

 

[DerekS]

Following. I love EV road trip reports!

My only regret is not finishing my Chargey app in time for you to have taken it on that epic journey.

 

[XLR82XS]

Interested to hear about the state of Electrify America stalls and charging success rate from coast-to-coast.

 

[4SJB]

hell yes!!!

X 2

 

[B61]

Looking forward to this…

+1.
Hopefully with (lots of) photos

 

[MarkSCville]

Oh yes, I have lots of stats and photos..

 

[ciaranob]

Most def interested!

 

[MarkSCville]

Hi there. So I figured I would start the story off with telling you about my car. I ordered it Jan. 4, 2022 and took delivery Aug. 26, 2022. It is a 2022 CT4 in Volcano Grey and Standard Int. in Black/Limestone Beige. It is a pretty well optioned car with the main options being: 21" CT Design Wheels w/AS tires, Race Tex roof lining, Sport Chrono with Compass, Night vision assist, Inno-drive with ALK, Thermal and noise insulated glass, Premium Pkg, Technology Pkg, Massage seats, and Matrix lights. There are a few other options that brought the MSRP up to a little over $125K. I was incredible lucky/fortunate that the car showed up with everything (including the latest software updates) and we did not have to wait once it was at the dealer. As far as the dealer, I can't say enough about how awesome they were. We bought the car from Euroclassics Porsche in Richmond, VA which is about an hour from our house. My SA was helpful throughout the process and I learned they are one of the last independently owned dealers in the country.

Ok so the trip... My husband and I planned the trip so we could go to the Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, the Fully Charged Live show in San Diego, see some family and friends up in the NW and just see the country. It was the two of us and our 10 yr. old 55lb dog. Overall the trip was awesome, and the car did an incredible job. We left on the 3rd of September and got home on the 18th..
Summary stats: Total mileage - 7367.6, Average consumption - 36.7 kWh/100 miles, Overall average speed 56 Mph. I would usually drive between 6-8 mph over the limit and that ranged from 65-85 depending on the state. I would say 75-80% of our driving was on major interstates. Our route took us out I-40 to Flagstaff (3 day stop there to see the Grand Canyon and do some other fun stuff there) then we took 95 down through Joshua Tree and then I-10 and I-15 down to San Diego (3 day stop in SD for the show and other stuff). Once we left San Diego we headed north to Sacramento to see some friends via I-5 and 99 some. We continued on I-5 up into Oregon to see family and friends and then headed east via I-84 along the Columbia River. Once we got to Salt Lake City then it was I-70 through the rockies into Denver, then a slight north turn up to I-80 to go see some family in the Omaha area. Once we left Omaha, we were homeward bound in two days.. Given the lack of chargers in WV we had to head back down to I-40 then back up I-81 to home. Range of course varied depending on speed and elevation. Our low was around 205-210 while in the rockies to a high of around 260-265 in the flat sections or while driving between 50-60 mph on side/rural roads.

Charging experiences.. Overall I was surprised with the availability of EA chargers and we had only a few issues along the way. Nothing that kept us from charging but we had to call once to have the charger rebooted and we had to wait about 45 min in AZ due to a line and two charges out of four not working. One thing we realized was the east-west interstates have chargers spaced out nicely, BUT trying to go north-south between some of them is a bit a challenge. One example is between Omaha and Kansas City, there is only one DC charger and it is a slow one. We charged up to 95% in Omaha and drove straight to KC. We would usually go around 140-180 miles between charges with a few 200 mile stretches and never felt concerned. The car estimated the range pretty accurately. For locating chargers and seeing which were working or available, we learned that you need to check both Electrify America and Plugshare. We found that the rating on Plugshare is not always correct and you need to read the comments.. Also the EA app proved useful to verify charger status. The car's system and App was good to find chargers and send them to the Nav. We also used the app to start charging some, but since EA was doing upgrades during this trip, most of the time it would just start charging. As far as Plug and Charge, I have not found it reliable and just use the app to start charging. We saw charging speeds ranging from 75KW-260KW. We used the 350KW chargers when we could but found the 150KW ones to be pretty good and would put out 175KW often. As we moved west the heat and grid issues did slow the charging some. In NM,AZ, and CA we noticed the best speed we could get was around 150KW. I assume this was the heat and read that CA in particular was throttling things. All things considered by the time we plugged in, let the dog out to run around, went inside to use the restroom and get food, the car was ready most of the time. We would usually charge up to about 80-85% unless we needed some extra. The entire trip cost us out of pocket about $48 in charging, since we used EA almost all the time. We did charge at two of the hotels but one was free.

Car experiences and best features/options... Overall the car was rock solid and we had no software or mechanical issues. It is a great road trip car and we had plenty of room for all of our stuff in the back seat and the dog had the entire back to herself. Some features to consider if you plan to do long road trip: The compass with elevation was useful, the massaging seats are nice, night assist went off once for an animal, the matrix lights are nice, and my husband did like the passenger screen (part of the technology pkg.) I think the insulated glass makes a big difference for noise and the car did stay cool even in the AZ sun. The Inno-drive was fine and the ALK seemed to improve over time.

Summary... I am really happy we did the trip and we were never anxious about charging or range. The scenery was amazing and it was really interesting to see and experience the diverse communities across the country.

I have attached a bunch of photos from the trip and am happy to answer any questions people may have. Hope this post is not too long. .

Thanks Mark

 

[proficient_mathematician]

Thanks for the write-up. The scenery looks dreamy!

 

[ciaranob]

Great stuff and something my wife and I will be doing possibly next year albeit obviously a slightly different route!

The north-south driving issue indeed seem a real one in regards station frequencies and have had to weave some itineraries to accommodate but sounds like you guys managed it well enough.

My personal experience with PnC has literally been 100% perfect after almost one year and about 6 longer trips using multiple EA stations BUT all within TX - your comment re PnC reliability - was that applicable to the trip in general or perhaps specific to western States where indeed many forum members have had bad experiences?

Thx for sharing,
Cheers, C.

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