foofighter
Member
- First Name
- timur
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2022
- Threads
- 1
- Messages
- 12
- Reaction score
- 40
- Location
- Seattle, Washington United States
- Vehicles
- 2023 Taycan GTS
- Thread starter
- #1
We got lucky to pick up our Taycan GTS from PEC LA right before the holidays. We have a newborn and brought her along with us. I used ABRP to sketch out the trip and PlugShare to check on chargers along the way. Being paranoid, I also signed up for EVGO, ChargePoint, and EVCS ahead of time just in case. We also packed a TeslaTap in case we needed to charge at a destination charger. Except for one, every place we stayed had AC chargers we could use overnight. The total trip was ~1300 miles, 3 nights (stayed near Santa Barbara; a little north of Santa Rosa, CA; and Bandon, OR).
TL;DR: We took 101 from LA to Astoria, OR. Then because of the ice storm had to take OR-30 to I-5 just north of Washington/Oregon border and I-5 all the way back. Surprisingly, we had no issues with Electrify America. We never saw a charge speed over 200kW, but with the baby we always ended up stopping for at least 30 minutes, which was plenty to get us to 85-90%. Most of the chargers put out ~100kW. There was one place where we only got 60kW, but it was still good enough for us to eat breakfast and make it to the next stop. We did check PlugShare and were a bit worried driving through the earthquake area around Eureka, but all was well.
Day 1: PEC LA -> Santa Ynez
PEC LA was great and I highly recommend it -- I'll need to make a separate post about that. We left around 2:30 pm from there to drop off the rental car and onto Santa Ynez. I thought the hotel there had EV charging, but they actually only had Tesla SuperChargers. Luckily, there was an Electrify America charger 14 miles away in Los Alamos and we went off there in the morning.
Day 2: Santa Ynez , CA -> Healdsburg, CA
We took 101 to San Jose, then 280 up to San Francisco, and back on 101 across the Golden Gate bridge after meandering through the city. We stopped to charge twice: Los Alamos in the morning and Salinas in the afternoon. At Los Alamos was our first time charging and we weren't sure what to do. We noticed that of the 4 chargers, we couldn't get more than 60kW from any of them. In retrospect, I wonder if our battery temperature had something to do with it. We settled on one of the chargers after trying all of them and charged to ~85% while eating breakfast.
At Salinas Walmart we managed to get close to 200kW and charged faster than we expected. We also learned that Walmart is great for diaper changes for the baby. The rest of the trip was uneventful and we charged overnight at the hotel in Healdsburg, CA.
Day 3: Healdsburg, CA -> Bandon, OR
We took 101 the whole way and planned to charge in Garberville, CA and Eureka or Crescent City. Unfortunately, there was an earthquake a couple of days before us and Electrify America app showed the chargers offline in both Eureka and Crescent City. We saw that someone reported both of them working 12 hours before us on PlugShare and decided we'll use Shell Recharge in the worst case.
The Garberville, CA charger worked well -- we got ~100kW and charged within 30 minutes, but unfortunately picked up a screw in the front tire there. We discovered that leaving the charging station and pulled over. Luckily, the screw plugged the hole and I could use the compressor to get it up to ~30 PSI and it held (phew!). There was no signal there and the closest reasonable town was 70 miles away -- Eureka. We hoped the tire would hold up and were impressed that it did. I really didn't want to use the tire plug approach, but at least it was an option.
All the tire shops in Eureka were slammed and we had to wait a couple of hours, but they squeezed us in and patched the tire (we were lucky the puncture was right in the middle). We left for Crescent City at 4:30 pm -- much later than anticipated and hoped to make it to Bandon by 9 pm. Stopped at the Eureka Walmart charger and two of them were actually working (so don't necessarily trust the EA app!). We charged one more time in Crescent City just in case there was an issue at the hotel. Made it there by 9 pm and no one was using the only hotel EV charger (woot!). We had about 40% battery at that point, but it was nice to start the next day with a 90% charge.
Here is the car at the tire shop. Still feel lucky it wasn't worse!
Day 4: Bandon, OR -> Seattle, WA
we planned to take 101 through Oregon to Washington and cut over to I5 by Olympia. We knew there is a snow storm coming down and we didn't have chains, so avoided taking I5 earlier through Redding. Most of the routes from the Oregon coast to I5 also go through higher elevation and would require chains. I hoped going up to Astoria would avoid all that.
We made it to Newport, OR without any issues and the EA charger there worked fine as well (again, ~100kW). Then we drove to Astoria and charged by Fred Meyer with the same result. We were hoping that would be enough to get home. Unfortunately, the bridge from Astoria was closed because it iced over. Then OR-30 was closed because of downed power lines and got reopened at 5:30 pm. It was a little icy/snowy, but we didn't have any issues despite only having all season tires. We did drive slower, but the car handled well. We charged one last time in Washington where we got ~200kW at an EA charger in Lacey and that was enough to get us home.
TL;DR: We took 101 from LA to Astoria, OR. Then because of the ice storm had to take OR-30 to I-5 just north of Washington/Oregon border and I-5 all the way back. Surprisingly, we had no issues with Electrify America. We never saw a charge speed over 200kW, but with the baby we always ended up stopping for at least 30 minutes, which was plenty to get us to 85-90%. Most of the chargers put out ~100kW. There was one place where we only got 60kW, but it was still good enough for us to eat breakfast and make it to the next stop. We did check PlugShare and were a bit worried driving through the earthquake area around Eureka, but all was well.
Day 1: PEC LA -> Santa Ynez
PEC LA was great and I highly recommend it -- I'll need to make a separate post about that. We left around 2:30 pm from there to drop off the rental car and onto Santa Ynez. I thought the hotel there had EV charging, but they actually only had Tesla SuperChargers. Luckily, there was an Electrify America charger 14 miles away in Los Alamos and we went off there in the morning.
Day 2: Santa Ynez , CA -> Healdsburg, CA
We took 101 to San Jose, then 280 up to San Francisco, and back on 101 across the Golden Gate bridge after meandering through the city. We stopped to charge twice: Los Alamos in the morning and Salinas in the afternoon. At Los Alamos was our first time charging and we weren't sure what to do. We noticed that of the 4 chargers, we couldn't get more than 60kW from any of them. In retrospect, I wonder if our battery temperature had something to do with it. We settled on one of the chargers after trying all of them and charged to ~85% while eating breakfast.
At Salinas Walmart we managed to get close to 200kW and charged faster than we expected. We also learned that Walmart is great for diaper changes for the baby. The rest of the trip was uneventful and we charged overnight at the hotel in Healdsburg, CA.
Day 3: Healdsburg, CA -> Bandon, OR
We took 101 the whole way and planned to charge in Garberville, CA and Eureka or Crescent City. Unfortunately, there was an earthquake a couple of days before us and Electrify America app showed the chargers offline in both Eureka and Crescent City. We saw that someone reported both of them working 12 hours before us on PlugShare and decided we'll use Shell Recharge in the worst case.
The Garberville, CA charger worked well -- we got ~100kW and charged within 30 minutes, but unfortunately picked up a screw in the front tire there. We discovered that leaving the charging station and pulled over. Luckily, the screw plugged the hole and I could use the compressor to get it up to ~30 PSI and it held (phew!). There was no signal there and the closest reasonable town was 70 miles away -- Eureka. We hoped the tire would hold up and were impressed that it did. I really didn't want to use the tire plug approach, but at least it was an option.
All the tire shops in Eureka were slammed and we had to wait a couple of hours, but they squeezed us in and patched the tire (we were lucky the puncture was right in the middle). We left for Crescent City at 4:30 pm -- much later than anticipated and hoped to make it to Bandon by 9 pm. Stopped at the Eureka Walmart charger and two of them were actually working (so don't necessarily trust the EA app!). We charged one more time in Crescent City just in case there was an issue at the hotel. Made it there by 9 pm and no one was using the only hotel EV charger (woot!). We had about 40% battery at that point, but it was nice to start the next day with a 90% charge.
Here is the car at the tire shop. Still feel lucky it wasn't worse!
Day 4: Bandon, OR -> Seattle, WA
we planned to take 101 through Oregon to Washington and cut over to I5 by Olympia. We knew there is a snow storm coming down and we didn't have chains, so avoided taking I5 earlier through Redding. Most of the routes from the Oregon coast to I5 also go through higher elevation and would require chains. I hoped going up to Astoria would avoid all that.
We made it to Newport, OR without any issues and the EA charger there worked fine as well (again, ~100kW). Then we drove to Astoria and charged by Fred Meyer with the same result. We were hoping that would be enough to get home. Unfortunately, the bridge from Astoria was closed because it iced over. Then OR-30 was closed because of downed power lines and got reopened at 5:30 pm. It was a little icy/snowy, but we didn't have any issues despite only having all season tires. We did drive slower, but the car handled well. We charged one last time in Washington where we got ~200kW at an EA charger in Lacey and that was enough to get us home.
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