Los Angeles to Las Vegas and back in a non-Tesla.

[Lee Vining]

Waiting list/wait time is very long for the Tesla we want. We have several high-mileage cars in the family that are tired oil users. Reliable as a hammer but they are about to tap out. Hundreds of thousand of miles, don't have a dime of repairs in any of them.

We bought a Kia EV6 as a start. You can walk-in and just buy one. Shopping around we found what we wanted and for MSRP. (Laura at Kia Valencia). Twin Motor, everything but the sunroof.

We have a Tesla Solar power system for the house and cranks out up to an amazing 9.5 KW.
Hung a hard wired, 60/48 amp dedicated wall charger in the garage.

It's a new era, get with the times. Wife drives 100 miles day, lets skip gasoline and burn sunlight instead:

Headed to ‘Vegas from Los Angeles this morning. Visit to help Grandma run errands, Dr. Appts and favors.
301 mile range on the car we could do it in one leap but in case we got stuck in 109F traffic we needed the extra "top off" charge in route. We also wanted to check out a few non-Tesla charging situations so we made extra stops for that too.

First stretch/check/charge stop was the Boron Rest Area and to check out the Cal Trans EV charger just to see if it worked and if was really free as reported.

Couldn’t get it to work. Tried all the trick to convince it to.

Acted like it wanted to work but nope. No way, pure hate.

So back on the I 58, next charging attempt would be the Electrify America at the Barstow Ca Walmart Super Center. Wife gets free charging at EA chargers.

First 3 chargers we tried did not work.
25 min on the phone finally Customer service answered and together we tried activating a couple more chargers,,, no luck.

Then a EV pulled out of a spot and still on the phone with Electrify America and several reboots later in 109F heat we got a charger to start:

Going to be an hour charge so we walked over to the Pit Stop Tavern for a burger. Excellent. Serious kitchen. Outstanding.

Ok on to Vegas

Baker Ca: A huge Tesla Super charging station. Also a Electrify America Station with SAE J1772 chargers. The sign said it was all solar/power bank powered. Damfino, that's what the sign said. 10' tall berm behind the fence stretching for several acres. perhaps the solar panels were there.

20 SAE 1770 chargers - only 4 that work:

I can visualize non-Tesla owners having both range anxiety and broken, dysfunctional charger anxiety.


Cruising around Vegas for a few days we needed to recharge to head back to Cali. BTW: Garagemahall at the Circa has no EV Chargers.

Electrify America station Maryland and Flamingo. Police were leaving as we arrived. Thieves stripped two chargers of their metal internals. Simply unlocked it, unplugged it, gutted it - closed it goes the tale we were told.
Note: Security cameras top of pic:

Heading back home we re-charged once again at the Baker Ca J1770 station and were able to make it back to our garage near Los Angeles.

In route home we stopped off at the Comfort Inn in Mojave Ca to check out their Elect America charging station. Not ready yet:

More and more Comfort Inns have chargers or at least a 14 50 NEMA plug.

 

[Need]

How's your Est Range used compared to actual miles driven or if you are paying any attention to it. For our Model 3 and X, it is always about 20% less than Est Range. I think to get Tesla's EPA range, we have to drive 65mph, which we don't. With average 75 to 80, it is normally 20% less range. I thought all EVs are like that. But my sister has the Mach-E, and my brother just got the Mazda MX-30. They both said the actual range is very close to the Est Range even when driving around 75. I am thinking other manufacturers sandbag their EPA estimates where Tesla maxed it out.

 

[Lee Vining]

How's your Est Range used compared to actual miles driven or if you are paying any attention to it. For our Model 3 and X, it is always about 20% less than Est Range. I think to get Tesla's EPA range, we have to drive 65mph, which we don't. With average 75 to 80, it is normally 20% less range. I thought all EVs are like that. But my sister has the Mach-E, and my brother just got the Mazda MX-30. They both said the actual range is very close to the Est Range even when driving around 75. I am thinking other manufacturers sandbag their EPA estimates where Tesla maxed it out.

Its really close. Even closer if using the very precision one pedal driving.
We'll be figuring our range and recharge stops based on a 20% give or take reckoning margin.

Wife gets in the car with Key #1 and it'll say up to 320 miles range on a full charge. Me with key #2 it'll default to around 277 miles.
I think it figures in your past driving history and drive mode.

Wifie drives on eco mode, I like normal and sporty mode.
Wife is a super cautious driver.
Traffic has to be clear from Honolulu to Jerusalem before she'll proceed in a left turn.

BTW:
I have a inverter generator in the back of our truck. Cheap-O Harbor Freight.
It does support an EV charge at a 24 amp rate. I've tested it and it works. Yeah defeats the purpose but the J1770 charger network is a decade away from being reliable and available.
If we get stranded someplace with no chargers available we'll shoot the kids a pin location and they can come meet us.

Unlikely, but J1770 chargers are highly unreliable even if an owner does find them.

 

[Cosmacelf]

You know, with all the broken DC non-Tesla chargers, batteries that catch fire, recalls, and other assorted non-perks (like no OTA updates), the non-Tesla EV industry seems like it is still in the 2008 era when Tesla started shipping Roadsters. CCS capable Tesla Superchargers can't come soon enough!

 

[Lee Vining]

You know, with all the broken DC non-Tesla chargers, batteries that catch fire, recalls, and other assorted non-perks (like no OTA updates), the non-Tesla EV industry seems like it is still in the 2008 era when Tesla started shipping Roadsters. CCS capable Tesla Superchargers can't come soon enough!

Yep I agree.
Electrify America seems to work maybe 30% of the time, EVGo though their chargers are brutally beat up and shopworn they are reliable and never a fussy charge, Almost plug and play. You identify yourself and they start charging. No tantrum a pleasure to serve you.

Chargepoint we've given up on. Blink another fussy fit charger with confusing instructions and agonizing slow screen changes. So slow you think it broken like the rest out there.

Wife uses the EV mostly around town and to work and back so non Tesla fit our immediate needs with home charging.

Portable cables and adaptors we carry on the road:

Home Solar Car charging a big reason to go EV:

Harbor Fright, (That what I said fright), generator in case we get stranded someplace:
.

Disneyland Parking chargers are only 35 Cents a KWH.
They get ya back at the bar with the $15 twelve oz Bud Light Draft.
BTW: My non-drinking wife is always the DD.

 

[cwerdna]

Did you check Plugshare before visiting any of these stops?

"20 SAE 1770 chargers" is incorrect. I'm guessing you're referring to SAE Combo aka J1772 CCS aka Combo1 flavor of CCS aka CCS1.

There is J1772 for level 1 and 2 AC charging but that's slow (usually no more than 6 or 7 kW in public a max of ~19.2 kW, provided one's OBC even can go that high).

FWIW, I've not gone on many road trips on my native CCS cars and LA to Vegas is 270 miles, one way. I did a 350 mile each way trip from the Bay Area to Torrance, CA in my 80% capped former '19 Bolt (by software, can't go higher than that, was related to the battery recall which is a long story) in Dec 2021. I took highway 99 and had to DC FC at least 5 times in each direction and had no significant issues. The biggest was that only 1 of 4 DC FCs at Tejon Pass Rest Area - Southbound | PlugShare (which is free) works and it is still that way, months later. And yes, I reported it to Caltrans and someone there did get back to me.

I recall using EA only twice throughout the whole trip (once when I arrived in Torrance Del Amo Fashion Center - Old Navy | PlugShare and once before I started up Grapevine at Walmart Supercenter | PlugShare). I did a bunch of sightseeing in So Cal before returning home via another 350 mile drive. Almost all of my EV juice to and from was free partly thanks to New Electric Vehicle Fast Chargers Now Available Along State Highways in Central California | Caltrans + free L2 at numerous places I was visiting (e.g. 3 museums + 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica).

At end of Jan 2022, I had to drive a '22 Niro EV 450 miles one way from the dealer in Carlsbad, CA to home that I began leasing that day as the auto broker I worked with doesn't ship. I had to DC FC 3 times (took highway 99) and don't recall any problems. Only used EA once (Walmart Supercenter | PlugShare). The other 2 sessions were free (Industrial St Parking Lot | PlugShare that was free but isn't now + Madera Maintenance Station | PlugShare).

I never followed this person's trip posts but ARob's Spring 2022 Cross Country Bolt Trip Thread has a summary of his over 7000 mile trip in his Bolt which included 61 EA sessions.

Between March 2020 and around June 2021, I used public CCS DC FCs quite a bit, esp. when I was getting free juice via DrivetheARC (now over) which was on a VERY limited subset of EVgo DC FCs in certain parts of CA.

Most of my DC FCing on EA has been for free when they've had announced and unannounced complimentary sessions.

As I posted publicly before (not sure if here or chevybolt.org), every single time I've gone to an EA site with the intent to pay to charge or get free juice (if during one of the above periods), unless the site was full (rare), I was always able to charge. If one station was broken or the plug damaged (e.g. tang broken off), I was always able to find another one that worked at that site.

EVgo on the other hand has been hit or miss. I've known of EVgo sites where both DC FCs are down from actual usage and calling CS to confirm. They were able to see if anyone was able to succeed in DC FCs in on the CCS handles of the chargers there.

 

[cwerdna]

Unlikely, but J1770 chargers are highly unreliable even if an owner does find them.

Are you talking about J1772 for level 1 and 2 AC charging or for J1772 CCS aka SAE Combo aka CCS1 aka Combo1 for DC charging, usually fast? Visual aid is at What is CCS charging?.

As for highly unreliable, I've not found that to be the case as long as I check Plugshare first before going to unknown to me sites.

I've been driving BEVs as my primary car for nearly 9 years and have used plenty of J1772 AC public charging (for a few months almost every weekday + sometimes on weekends between 2013 and 2019), a bit of CHAdeMO (16 times in a 2 year span) and a countless number of CCS1 sessions. Plugshare helps a lot.

 

[Lee Vining]

Are you talking about J1772 for level 1 and 2 AC charging or for J1772 CCS aka SAE Combo aka CCS1 aka Combo1 for DC charging, usually fast? Visual aid is at What is CCS charging?.

As for highly unreliable, I've not found that to be the case as long as I check Plugshare first before going to unknown to me sites.

I've been driving BEVs as my primary car for nearly 9 years and have used plenty of J1772 AC public charging (for a few months almost every weekday + sometimes on weekends between 2013 and 2019), a bit of CHAdeMO (16 times in a 2 year span) and a countless number of CCS1 sessions. Plugshare helps a lot.

Yes j1772 the edit feature defaults off after a few minutes.
I stand corrected if that’s important to you. Get over it, get ahold of yourself.

We use the very helpful Plug Share and have experienced the opposite. You can read our latest experiences in post #1 at the top of this thread.

They are typical and the average experience of others we read on Plugshare at the same chargers.

I’ve been rolling with EVs since our RAV 4 18 years ago. We owned 4 with our company and they solar charged too BTW.

Back then no public charger worked. They were at the commuter train stations and libraries and a few police stations here in LA. Put in place with no maintenance plan.
It has improved in that respect. Tesla proved it can be practical in spite of that fiasco.

For now j1772 chargers are coin toss.

I digress from this thread.

 

[cwerdna]

Yes j1772 the edit feature defaults off after a few minutes.
I stand corrected if that’s important to you. Get over it, get ahold of yourself.
....
For now j1772 chargers are coin toss.

Still not sure what you're trying to correct to.

J1772 is for AC level 1 and 2 charging, like at home.

Looks like you on the road at EA sites and Boron tried to use SAE Combo/CCS1 DC fast chargers, sometimes also aka Combo1 and J1772 CCS NOT J1772 for AC charging.

There is a huge difference between the two.

On road trips or any driving that might require use of CCS DC fast charging, I've never carried any EVSE, adapters nor generators. I've never had any such adapters nor a generator.

The last time I made an excursion that required use of public DC FCing, I used Lodi Park & Ride | PlugShare (a pretty desolate location with "urban outdoorsmen") and it worked fine. Was only about 270 miles roundtrip, almost all highway and I had plenty of other backups along the way.

Besides the 3 EA DC FC sites near home that I've used a bunch of times and was always able to eventually charge on if something was down, I've used other EA DC FCs on excursions like:

Napa Premium Outlets - Skechers | Napa, CA | EV Station

Find EV charging stations with PlugShare, the most complete map of electric vehicle charging stations in the world!Charging tips reviews and photos from the EV community.

www.plugshare.com

Novato Fair Shopping Center | Novato, CA | EV Station

Find EV charging stations with PlugShare, the most complete map of electric vehicle charging stations in the world!Charging tips reviews and photos from the EV community.

www.plugshare.com

Safeway | Pacific Grove, CA | EV Station

Electrify America - South end of parking (3 chargers), one towards the Safeway entrance.

www.plugshare.com

Gilroy Premium Outlets (3) | PlugShare - forgot about having used this on a road trip while returning home

 

[Y-Jim]

Waiting list/wait time is very long for the Tesla we want. We have several high-mileage cars in the family that are tired oil users. Reliable as a hammer but they are about to tap out. Hundreds of thousand of miles, don't have a dime of repairs in any of them.

We bought a Kia EV6 as a start. You can walk-in and just buy one. Shopping around we found what we wanted and for MSRP. (Laura at Kia Valencia). Twin Motor, everything but the sunroof.

We have a Tesla Solar power system for the house and cranks out up to an amazing 9.5 KW.
Hung a hard wired, 60/48 amp dedicated wall charger in the garage.

It's a new era, get with the times. Wife drives 100 miles day, lets skip gasoline and burn sunlight instead:

Headed to ‘Vegas from Los Angeles this morning. Visit to help Grandma run errands, Dr. Appts and favors.
301 mile range on the car we could do it in one leap but in case we got stuck in 109F traffic we needed the extra "top off" charge in route. We also wanted to check out a few non-Tesla charging situations so we made extra stops for that too.

First stretch/check/charge stop was the Boron Rest Area and to check out the Cal Trans EV charger just to see if it worked and if was really free as reported.

Couldn’t get it to work. Tried all the trick to convince it to.

Acted like it wanted to work but nope. No way, pure hate.

So back on the I 58, next charging attempt would be the Electrify America at the Barstow Ca Walmart Super Center. Wife gets free charging at EA chargers.

First 3 chargers we tried did not work.
25 min on the phone finally Customer service answered and together we tried activating a couple more chargers,,, no luck.

Then a EV pulled out of a spot and still on the phone with Electrify America and several reboots later in 109F heat we got a charger to start:

Going to be an hour charge so we walked over to the Pit Stop Tavern for a burger. Excellent. Serious kitchen. Outstanding.

Ok on to Vegas

Baker Ca: A huge Tesla Super charging station. Also a Electrify America Station with SAE J1772 chargers. The sign said it was all solar/power bank powered. Damfino, that's what the sign said. 10' tall berm behind the fence stretching for several acres. perhaps the solar panels were there.

20 SAE 1770 chargers - only 4 that work:

I can visualize non-Tesla owners having both range anxiety and broken, dysfunctional charger anxiety.


Cruising around Vegas for a few days we needed to recharge to head back to Cali. BTW: Garagemahall at the Circa has no EV Chargers.

Electrify America station Maryland and Flamingo. Police were leaving as we arrived. Thieves stripped two chargers of their metal internals. Simply unlocked it, unplugged it, gutted it - closed it goes the tale we were told.
Note: Security cameras top of pic:

Heading back home we re-charged once again at the Baker Ca J1770 station and were able to make it back to our garage near Los Angeles.

In route home we stopped off at the Comfort Inn in Mojave Ca to check out their Elect America charging station. Not ready yet:

More and more Comfort Inns have chargers or at least a 14 50 NEMA plug.

Thank you for sharing your LA-to-Vegas charging experience as it helps us tesla/EV newbies considering this same trip.