Seattle to Santa Barbara Roadtrip

[Tacket]

Going to be taking my 60 from Seattle to Santa Barbara around the new year. Fairly confident about the Seattle to Grant Pass leg. Fairly confident about the Folsom to Santa Barbara leg. Less confident about the Grants Pass to Folsom part. It's been a while since I've travelled that part of I-5 so can't remember what the elevation changes are like. I'll most likely hit that area around 6pm, so also not sure how the evening chill is going to impact my drive.

I'll try to leave Grants Pass with a full charge (maybe even have a LONG dinner and range charge there?). Aside from the usual drive slower, use less heat, draft a semi (safe distance!) any other suggestions I should consider? I see there are a few L2s between Grants Pass and the border if worse comes to worse.

 

[Owner]

I haven't been to Grants Pass in years, but I regularly go to Ashland. You have the mountain pass between Ashland and California. If I remember correctly there is a point in there that is about 4,000 feet. Then you roll on down to California.

 

[ChadS]

Grants Pass (1000') to Mt Shasta (3500') is 117 miles, and goes over a 4,000' pass. Going up will use 30 miles, of which you will only get a few back. I would definitely do a range charge in a 60kWh, but if you stick to the speed limit I don't think it will be a problem. Heat shouldn't take more than 25 miles off your range for that distance. You'll still have a decent buffer to cover rain/snow and headwinds. If either is really severe, I would slow down a bit. Yreka has a Roadster charger if you have twin chargers and an adapter. If not, the West Coast Green Highway has a 30A J1772 in Ashland (right next to a 50kW CHAdeMO station you can't use because there's no adapter yet).

That's the toughest section. If you make that, you won't have any problem.

 

[Tacket]

Thanks for the stats Chad! You've helped put my mind at ease.

 

[SFOTurtle]

Check to see whether Vacaville is up and running before you leave. If it is, you can probably avoid Folsom altogether if you want to take a more interesting and scenic route. From Vacaville, you can stop at Gilroy for a 90% charge, then Atascadero. I've done Gilroy to Atascadero and you'll want at least 90% charge in a 60 if you want to drive at reasonable speeds through the Salinas valley.

 

[adiggs]

ChadS's the man with the info.

The one thing I would add is that although we think of heat as imposing a mileage penalty, remember that the heater is really consuming electricity at a reasonably constant rate based on time, not based on your speed. I mention that to say this - slowing down will help or at least be neutral on all of the other efficiency measures I can think of. But for heat, slowing down won't change the rate at which electricity will be consumed to produce heat. As best I can work out in my Roadster (and I haven't tried to be very precise), it's something on the order of 8-12 Ideal Miles per hour (2-3 kW draw), whether I'm moving or sitting and have the heater on. (Note that ChadS number of 25 miles looks like about 2 hours of heat, driving at 60 mph for 2 hours to cover 117 miles, with heat consuming around 12 miles of range each hour it is running).

I guess the takeaway is the "slow down a bit" - slowing down some will net you more total range with the heater on when the other factors are dominating your efficiency. But slowing down enough/too much with the heater on will have a net detrimental impact on total range.

I hope that was more helpful than painful


Edit: And have a grand ol' time! My road trip through there over the summer was when I made the mental conversion away from gas cars to EV's. You'll learn so much about your car, what you can reasonably (and unreasonably) do, and what the limits are - it's going to be good times.

 

[Tacket]

Check to see whether Vacaville is up and running before you leave. If it is, you can probably avoid Folsom altogether if you want to take a more interesting and scenic route. From Vacaville, you can stop at Gilroy for a 90% charge, then Atascadero. I've done Gilroy to Atascadero and you'll want at least 90% charge in a 60 if you want to drive at reasonable speeds through the Salinas valley.

Nice - I will have to keep tabs in the CA forum on it's progress. Sounds like it's pretty close to being done?

I guess the takeaway is the "slow down a bit" - slowing down some will net you more total range with the heater on when the other factors are dominating your efficiency. But slowing down enough/too much with the heater on will have a net detrimental impact on total range.

I hope that was more helpful than painful


Edit: And have a grand ol' time! My road trip through there over the summer was when I made the mental conversion away from gas cars to EV's. You'll learn so much about your car, what you can reasonably (and unreasonably) do, and what the limits are - it's going to be good times.

Great points. I don't mind wearing a cap, gloves, scarf when driving long distances in the cold. Wife on the other hand feels "ghetto" having to do that in an $85k car. I of course counter with "that's why we should have gotten an 85!" but then bite my tongue as I feel fortunate I was able to even get away with getting a 60!! I actually can't even explain how excited I am about this road trip! I'm much more of a "journey getting there" type traveler. Grand ol' time indeed!

 

[Vger]

One more recommendation-- watch the weather carefully. Those high passes can get wicked in bad weather. You are legally obliged to have winter tires on the car, and should really be carrying chains, just in case.

And as ChadS discovered last year, best to keep your regen set to "low" rather than standard. If you react to something unexpected and lift suddenly on an icy patch downhill, you can break the rear loose and worst-case spin your baby.

 

[Tacket]

One more recommendation-- watch the weather carefully. Those high passes can get wicked in bad weather. You are legally obliged to have winter tires on the car, and should really be carrying chains, just in case.

And as ChadS discovered last year, best to keep your regen set to "low" rather than standard. If you react to something unexpected and lift suddenly on an icy patch downhill, you can break the rear loose and worst-case spin your baby.

Duly noted. I've had bad experiences in the past, so a set of chains currently resides in my trunk. Had not thought about the regen. I suppose driving over the pass at night is less awesome than driving during the day time. Maybe I should rethink my hotel stop or maybe get an earlier start on that day.

 

[Discoducky]

I just did the trip in my 60 and can confirm that Chad is correct as Mt. Shasta is the toughest leg but we made it with about 35 remaining from a range charge.

 

[Tacket]

Not that anyone should care, but I am updating progress on my trip at twitter.com/tacketmusic.

 

[Bperry]

Have fun, i just got back from taking my 85 from Seattle to San Luis Obispo (just north of Santa Barbara). It's a fun drive, I'm compiling my stats for actual mileage consumption per leg now.

 

[ThortsMD]

Please post your findings and where you stayed, if you will, Bperry. I will be doing the same drive in the spring.

Have fun, i just got back from taking my 85 from Seattle to San Luis Obispo (just north of Santa Barbara). It's a fun drive, I'm compiling my stats for actual mileage consumption per leg now.