Day Trip charging options in San Diego area?

[JetFalcon]

Going to San Diego for wedding in 4 weeks. But I'm trying to plan out when / where to charge. And I will be staying overnight at a hotel, so this will be a Sat-Sun day trip. This will be an OC to San Diego trip, so about 90 miles.

One option is the Tesla SuperCharger (I have to pay) near the church and another is a Blink public charger at the wedding venue.

My first option is to charge at the Mission Valley Supercharging station, which is 72 kwh, like one of those smaller stations at a mall. This one is near the church they will have the initial ceremony. We will have 2 hour layover period where there is nothing planned for the guests after this part. Which I could use maybe 40-60 minutes to super charge back up to 90 percent as its 5 miles away. Plus its on the way to the next venue anyways. And then have more than enough to local drive around San Diego and have enough to get back to OC. I estimate to be at 40-60% after driving from OC to San Diego.

The next option is to use a Blink Charger at the wedding venue in Balboa Park. But it's $0.49-$0.59 per KWH - Lowest rate members, then next rate non members. Which I heard is considered expensive / overpriced. Would these rates be more expensive than the supercharger? The time isn't an issue because I assume I can get a full charge from 40% in 5 hours we be at this venue. But if Tesla Supercharging is cheaper, I may rather go to that since there is downtime.

Or my very last option is to wait until Sunday to recharge, but I don't know how much battery I'll have if say I'd be at 30% by the end of the day.

I rather save money, and both these options are good to me. Plus if I go with Tesla Supercharger, I can at least try that one first instead of waiting to find out all the Blink Chargers are taken up.

 

[ewoodrick]

From OC to SD, round trip about 180 miles + local driving.

Let's see, there's probably a dozen Superchargers along the route. Honestly, you have so many freaking options that your question is a little hilarious. You must have severe range anxiety.

I don't have anywhere near that number of solutions around me and barely would think twice about the trip.

 

[MIT_S60]

Charge at San Clemente on the way down, and swing by San Clemente on the way back if you need additional range. You can find a hotel with charging, but the increased cost for one of the hotels will be more than Supercharging would be.

 

[crackers8199]

i'm guessing you're in a SR, because i've done something similar to this trip about a gazillion times in my LR without even charging to 100.

my recommendation: just drive until you need to charge and then stop at a supercharger. you're way overthinking this.

 

[Uncle Paul]

If you are going over Ortega, there are Superchargers on both sides of the mountain.

You have so many options also if you go up I-15 or I-215 and over 91 into North Orange County.

Even using Blink chargers it is only gonna cost you a couple $ extra due to their highter rates.

Your trip will be Supercharger rich no matter how you go.

With 2 hour layover you can take a nap or learn all the new features on your latest updates. Even play Cuphead or Beach Buggy 2

If you are single, maybe pick up a girl at the Wedding and take her for a walk around Balboa Park. (If married...take your Wife)

 

[crackers8199]

If you are going over Ortega, there are Superchargers on both sides of the mountain.

I don't see any reason why he would go Ortega from anywhere in OC. Just go down the 5...even if there's traffic Ortega isn't likely to be any faster considering the 15 will be slammed in Temecula like it is every Saturday afternoon.

 

[ReddyLeaf]

Use the Blink, assuming it’s working. It’s always better to charge where you’re spending time doing something else. 2nd option is a hotel overnight, but that can cost much more and can be difficult in high-EV areas like SAn Diego. 3rd, stop at a large SC along the route during a coffee break. 4th use a SC nearby, while doing nothing.

 

[JetFalcon]

i'm guessing you're in a SR, because i've done something similar to this trip about a gazillion times in my LR without even charging to 100.

my recommendation: just drive until you need to charge and then stop at a supercharger. you're way overthinking this.

I have Dual Motor, so long range 315 miles. But for some reason I think I'm getting less miles per charge. It's not significant, but enough for me to tell.

It shouldn't be a huge deal, but I wanna make the best use of my time when charging up.

I can supercharge the next day if the wedding day if charging up is too much hassle, as I should have 40-60% once I reach my destination. But I like killing two birds w/ one stone if I can.

 

[JetFalcon]

Use the Blink, assuming it’s working. It’s always better to charge where you’re spending time doing something else. 2nd option is a hotel overnight, but that can cost much more and can be difficult in high-EV areas like SAn Diego. 3rd, stop at a large SC along the route during a coffee break. 4th use a SC nearby, while doing nothing.

I rarely use supercharging. When I had 6 month free supercharging, I used it before I got my wall connector installed. And then just for fun because it was free and to feel futuristic and feel EV smug.

When you say coffee break, is 10-20 minutes usually enough to get the bare minimum to make it back from my trip I'm describing?

But only two occasions this year, I actually had to supercharge or not make it back. One was from OC to Santa Barbara round trip, had to charge at night on the way back for about 20 minutes, which kinda sucked b/c the mall was closed.

Another time was when I went OC to San Ysidro when I did a trip with a friend to Mexico. I tried charge the bare minimum to safely make it back home. And I had like 11% when I got back.

The few times I went to San Diego to visit college friends, I could usually make it back without charging. Assuming I'm not going to do much local driving. But this time, I want to have enough to do some local around driving and try to charge during the wedding day so the next day I can enjoy myself.

 

[cwerdna]

My first option is to charge at the Mission Valley Supercharging station, which is 72 kwh, like one of those smaller stations at a mall. ...

The next option is to use a Blink Charger at the wedding venue in Balboa Park. But it's $0.49-$0.59 per KWH - Lowest rate members, then next rate non members. Which I heard is considered expensive / overpriced.

Charge rate is measured in kW, not kWh. so when you're talking about the Supercharger, you meant 72 kW.

As for Blink, yes, they're crazy expensive (you got those units right) and not very reliable. Some of the L2 stations may not have had their faulty Rema handles replaced and thus have their output turned down to say 24 amps: While Under Threat From OEMs, ECOtality Turns Down The Output On Chargers To Avoid Failures.

Check Plugshare for other choices and for scores/recent check-ins of any place where you plan to charge. Some may be broken or not worth visiting. Have accounts and methods of payment on file for other charging providers who might be in the area (e.g. EVgo and ChargePoint, for example). That way, you can arrive and charge immediately, instead of wasting time on the phone/your phone.

 

[Dave EV]

The next option is to use a Blink Charger at the wedding venue in Balboa Park. But it's $0.49-$0.59 per KWH - Lowest rate members, then next rate non members. Which I heard is considered expensive / overpriced. Would these rates be more expensive than the supercharger? The time isn't an issue because I assume I can get a full charge from 40% in 5 hours we be at this venue. But if Tesla Supercharging is cheaper, I may rather go to that since there is downtime.

Tesla Supercharging is far cheaper than Blink - around $0.30/kWh compared to $0.50/kWh (just sign up for Blink, the membership doesn't cost anything, or at least it didn't last time I checked). That said, the extra cost to charge is only a few bucks, so the convenience of charging at Balboa and not having to stop on the way back is nice. The bigger issue is that in my experience those Blink stations are not always available - either busy or ICEd, especially on weekends, or not working.

So if it were me, I'd drive down, if you need to stop for a restroom or food/drink break, try to stop at one of the SCs on the way and top off there, failing that, try to charge at Balboa, failing that, charge during your break, or on your way home (just watch out for busy Superchargers on weekends when many people are traveling).

 

[ReddyLeaf]

.....When you say coffee break, is 10-20 minutes usually enough to get the bare minimum to make it back from my trip I'm describing?....

Or my very last option is to wait until Sunday to recharge, but I don't know how much battery I'll have if say I'd be at 30% by the end of the day.

I get about 2 mi per percent, you might get closer to 3 mi, so very few added miles will be needed. Plug your destination into the nav, check round trip, which should give you a rough guess at the number of miles or percent that you can use while in San Diego. With the LR AWD, I would think you could make the whole trip without charging, but that’s my PNW sedate driving, not southern CA craziness. Yes, 10-20 min should be plenty of time, especially if you charge on the way home, with a lower state of charge, and at a higher 150 KW SC, not a 72 KW urban SC (lots of those in San Diego it seems). A tenth of an hour (6 min) at 150 KW is 15 KWh or abou 60 mi added at 4 mi/KWh, theoretically. Factor in charging losses, slower charging, higher speeds, etc. and maybe it’s 40 mi.

Edit: Warning: Sunday afternoon can be a heavy SC use day, which can slow you down.

 

[Camera-Cruiser]

As others have said, this is easy peasy. Just convenience supercharge either going or coming. I can’t see it taking more than a few $ at a Supercharger and more than 20 minutes. It’s worth asking the hotel too. Maybe there is 110 outlet you can grab a few mile overnight if at a motel. Also, I know that there are many destination chargers at the higher end tower hotels.

Options galore on this route.

 

[Kuhz]

You’re overthinking this. There are so many charge options there that you should just roll with the flow..... even if you have to spend a few $$ to supercharge at some point.

 

[crackers8199]

With the LR AWD, I would think you could make the whole trip without charging, but that’s my PNW sedate driving, not southern CA craziness.

As I said in my post, I've done a similar trip / distance to this a ton in my LR RWD not only without charging, but without even starting at 100.

OP is way overthinking this. My guess is if he charges to 100 he can easily make the entire round trip without even having to stop anywhere to charge.

Edit: without knowing where exactly in OC the OP is, I just ran a trip thru ABRP from Yorba Linda to Balboa Park in a LR AWD, and it says you can do the whole round trip with no charging stops and roughly 20% to spare if you start at 100%. Variances in where in OC he is and a minimal amount of local driving shouldn't really vary that too much, not nearly enough to be this worried about it.

@JetFalcon again my advice to you is just charge to 100 before you leave, then just drive and don't worry about it. If there's a charger right at the church or at the hotel, plug in... otherwise it's not worth going out of the way to charge IMO. Just stop at a supercharger on the way home if you need to.

 

[gaswalla]

I've gone from SD to LA (120miles), drive around for errands, and back to SD (120 miles) multiple times in the LR without charging.. leave with a full charge to help you out. And if you get anxious, there are over 10 supercharging sites in OC and SD for you to stop for 15 minutes

 

[laxdad]

Beware of the San Clemente supercharger. It's the one we use and it can be expensive. It's located at an outlet mall, and I can never get out of there without the wife shopping and spending money.