First long range trip (SC to MN)

[SCarolinaM3Guy]

Will be driving up to MN next weekend and this will be my first long range trip in my Y that was purchased back in September. I have the LR with inductions. Curious if anyone here had done the stretch of highway from Asheville to London, KY. Our plan is to drive from West suburbs of Charlotte to Rockford, IL our first day. The only stretch that has me concerned is that stretch from Asheville to London. It’s 190 miles. Was planning on charging back to 95% in Asheville to have a little extra juice depending on how the conditions are between those two chargers. Estimated time with charging at Asheville, London, Louisville, Lafayette and then Rockford. We’ll hit a couple of chargers in WI on our way to MN the next.

Any experience with range along those stretches would be appreciated.

 

[Dandesy]

Totally clueless, but I’m going to Nashville from Minneapolis next month (via Kansas City and Memphis). So I’ll be reading about your trip for sure!

 

[Dandesy]

Stupid question, but have you mapped your trip with ABRP? It’s pretty good at figuring out your stops.

 

[Rocky_H]

The only stretch that has me concerned is that stretch from Asheville to London. It’s 190 miles. Was planning on charging back to 95% in Asheville to have a little extra juice depending on how the conditions are between those two chargers.

I don't think I would bother trying that in one shot, especially if you're having to charge up as high as 95%. That gets really slow and inconvenient. If you can keep your charging only going up to about 60-80%, the charging power stays really high and doesn't taper down as much, and this slightly more "short hopping" works out faster overall. The routing I see even from basic Google Maps (and www.evtripplanner.com) takes you over to Knoxville anyway, and then up to London, KY. I would probably just use that as the route. The Supercharger is a bit West of Knoxville, so a bit out of the way, but it'll make the stop pretty quick to stretch your legs and get a coffee or something so you don't have to do a long 95% charge.

Oh, and another helpful tip for a long trip that's going to have multiple Supercharger stops like that is to sometimes try to alternate short/long/short/long for your Supercharging breaks. So let's say approximately 2 hour driving segments. You make the longer stops, about 4 hours apart, as your meal breaks. You sit a bit longer, the car fills up even higher than just what's needed, but you're not waiting for it. Then, at the next stop, it has some leftover, so it can be a quicker refill, like 15 minutes. Then the next may be time for food again, etc.