Road Trip Report: Dallas <--> Nashville

[Elroy]

I took a trip this week out to Nashville to see Blondie at the Grand Ole Opry with a friend.

I had 5 charge stops to get there. While I had some trouble on the 3rd charge (note the extra overhead time) it mostly went smoothly. The real pain on this trip were multiple lengthy traffic jams (indicated by red pins.)

Stop 1 - Jefferson Park, Mount Pleasant TX - No issues

Had a good fast charge at full speed on a 350kW pump.

Stop 2 - Walmart, Hope, AR

Another great stop. No issues, I didn't max out the charge due to incoming SoC but it was all fine.

Stop 3 - Walmart - Little Rock, AR

This is where EA started to fail me. One of the 350kW pumps was blocked by a Bolt (facepalm) and the other was delivering only 6kW! I ended up taking a 150kW that was underperforming at just over 100kW.

Stop 4 - Walmart, Forrest City AR

Also a good stop with a nice fast charge. No issues.

Stop 5 - Sam's Club, Jackson TN

This was my final stop before the Opryland hotel. Another top speed great experience!

Once I landed at the Opryland hotel, there were multiple free destination chargers on site.
I selected the one furthest away from others, as I deemed it Porsche-safe.

Concert time!

Return Trip

I returned on the same chargers that I used coming out, and was surprised to find many of them performing markedly different.

Stop 1 - Jackson, TN

I used the same 350kW pump I used coming in, and while it started off delivering peak performance it petered out and died with an error halfway through. Attempts to restart were 6kW and useless, so I had to move to another pump.

Stop 2 - Forrest City, AR

This one went fine.

Stop 3 - Little Rock, AR

This time I was able to grab the 350kW pump the Bolt had previously, and unfortunately it was capped at 75kW making for a frustrating but serviceable charge. I was able to pass the time chatting with curious locals.

Stop 4 - Hope, AR

Probably the best charge of the trip, sparked right up at max speed, no issues.

Stop 5 - Mt Pleasant, TX

I went for the 350kW pump that did me right on the outbound trip, but it refused to start. I had to call EA and get them to restart the charger (first time I've ever had to do this.) That accounts for the very high overhead at this stop.

Epilogue

All in all the return went quicker than the way out, due to less traffic.

Derek,
Thanks so much for the trip journal. How many miles are you getting on a charge? Showing 285 mi at 100% on my MY2022 GTS. Know that we are back from Monterey Car Week, we need to connect here in N. Texas.
Heading to Choctaw tonight to see Black Crowes

 

[DerekS]

Derek,
Thanks so much for the trip journal. How many miles are you getting on a charge? Showing 285 mi at 100% on my MY2022 GTS. Know that we are back from Monterey Car Week, we need to connect here in N. Texas.
Heading to Choctaw tonight to see Black Crowes

It's really hard to say! My range has been destroyed with all the road tripping I've been doing.

As of today my 85% charge is down to 180 indicated (from ~235) and my max is something like 210 (from ~275.)

I am considering resetting the trip computer to see if it recalibrates the estimated range.

 

[Elroy]

It's really hard to say! My range has been destroyed with all the road tripping I've been doing.

As of today my 85% charge is down to 180 indicated (from ~235) and my max is something like 210 (from ~275.)

I am considering resetting the trip computer to see if it recalibrates the estimated range.

Have you gotten the most recent upgrades?

 

[DerekS]

Have you gotten the most recent upgrades?

Yep. My indicated range tanks every long trip, and takes quite a bit of "normal" driving to climb back up.

It was starting to recover from the June CA trip when I took a few Austin trips...then this one.

I just love driving the thing.

I do wish I had a way to check my battery "health" so I can feel assured the range drop is only temporary.

 

[Tooney]

Yep. My indicated range tanks every long trip, and takes quite a bit of "normal" driving to climb back up.

It was starting to recover from the June CA trip when I took a few Austin trips...then this one.

I just love driving the thing.

I do wish I had a way to check my battery "health" so I can feel assured the range drop is only temporary.

Range drop is because you do a lot of sports plus mode, petal to the metal type driving while on long trips? or something else about long trips themselves causes lower range?

 

[DerekS]

Range drop is because you do a lot of sports plus mode, petal to the metal type driving while on long trips? or something else about long trips themselves causes lower range?

I don't have Sport+ mode, and Sport doesn't do much. I generally drive in Normal mode, but on road trips my average speed is higher and braking less frequent so less regen.

It's pretty normal for EVs. City miles tend to outperform highway.

 

[Deleted member 6348]

I’ve been Bolt’d at more 350kw chargers than I have been ICE’d. It makes things really inefficient, because the Bolts occupy those chargers for an hour or more, when other users could be in/out and free it up for the next user very quickly.

I love the Bolt, but the lack of education on charging rates is a real issue.

 

[GTSCarLife]

Thank you for this! We are picking up my wife's 2023 4S Cross Tursimo from PECATL mid November, and driving back to Dallas. Still working out the advantages of taking the northern route versus the southern route. Of course she wants to stop at Graceland...

 

[Jrkennedy37]

Thank you for this! We are picking up my wife's 2023 4S Cross Tursimo from PECATL mid November, and driving back to Dallas. Still working out the advantages of taking the northern route versus the southern route. Of course she wants to stop at Graceland...

Sure would be nice to have DCFCs on I-20 between Birmingham and Dallas! Not a single one.

 

[GTSCarLife]

Sure would be nice to have DCFCs on I-20 between Birmingham and Dallas! Not a single one.

@Jrkennedy37 That’s a shame, but I do think we are going to see tremendous growth in chargers as electric car sales grow exponentially. Think about it - Tesla is about to sell more cars this year than any other other company in the world, and they only have electric! It’s coming.
Do you know if the Nissan dealers allow other cars to use their chargers? There are a few spots on the southernly route from Atlanta to Dallas that only have a Nissan dealer or Tesla
Thanks,

Thomas

 

[Jrkennedy37]

@Jrkennedy37 That’s a shame, but I do think we are going to see tremendous growth in chargers as electric car sales grow exponentially. Think about it - Tesla is about to sell more cars this year than any other other company in the world, and they only have electric! It’s coming.
Do you know if the Nissan dealers allow other cars to use their chargers? There are a few spots on the southernly route from Atlanta to Dallas that only have a Nissan dealer or Tesla
Thanks,

Thomas

I agree with you that it will likely change at some point. Teslas have many fast charge options on the I-20 corridor but I don’t know about the Nissan dealer chargers. I think your options are going down to I-10 or up to I-40 though admittedly I haven’t researched a ton, opting to drive our gasser for any destinations along I-20 east of Dallas.

 

[kort]

@Jrkennedy37
Do you know if the Nissan dealers allow other cars to use their chargers? There are a few spots on the southernly route from Atlanta to Dallas that only have a Nissan dealer or Tesla
Thanks,

Thomas

car dealerships rarely allow other brands of cars to use their chargers.

 

[Bill33525]

Nice app looking forward to you publishing it in the app store.
Bolts are nortorious for taking 350kW chargers. Don't know why but those drivers seem to think they get a faster charge from the higher power chargers.
Have seen the 150kW chargers deliver 100kW as well. I have the onboard 150kW/400V charger module.
Our trips in the Taycan RWD include Tampa Fl to Rehoboth De and Tampa to Key West. Have 10K miles and the car is only 9 months old. Love cruising around in the Taycan.

 

[X88]

Thanks! It's an app I am building called Chargey.

It tracks your charges at home and at DC chargers, and has a separate mode for tracking road trips. I probably have another few weeks left in development; I'm building some dashboard-type screens to show cost this month/year/all, etc.

I can make a separate thread about it but I want to be mindful/respectful of spam on the forum too. Will read the rules and see.



You got it!! I'm an iOS developer and when I started, all the classes were NS-this and NS-that due to the NextStep heritage.

I've met very few people who get it. I usually just tell them the NS means non-stop if they are normals.

normals

 

[DerekS]

Have seen the 150kW chargers deliver 100kW as well. I have the onboard 150kW/400V charger module.

Same - I've seen it used a few times on Francis Energy chargers in Oklahoma.

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