Agree that prudence dictates a stop at Medford for a short charge before going up the hill. Since this is my first trip to the Central Valley in almost 2 years, thank you COVID, and with all the new superchargers on the I-5 corridor, I’ll be tracking energy consumption very carefully in both directions as I usually make this trip twice a year And will find it useful for future trips.
This is off topic, so please bear with me, but as you correctly point out, weather is the wildcard. This past March I almost had a heart attack because range suddenly started dropping like a rock.
Weather was low 50’s, & rainy with a little headwind. I normally charge at home but I had some expiring free miles I needed to use up so I decided to stop in Tumwater instead while running errands in Oly. So I left home with 61 miles of range for a 45 mile drive to the Tumwater supercharger. I noticed range was dropping faster than usual on this stretch of road I’ve driven a hundred times, but I still had plenty to get me to Tumwater.
Then, just before I got to the 101/I-5 interchange I had my wake-up call. Range was now only 6 miles with 5.5 to go and then it got real exciting because it suddenly started dropping FAST! While my eyes were glued to the range indicator, range INSTANTLY dropped from 6 to 4 miles and I still had over 5 miles to go per the Nav system.
I immediately reduced speed to 50 mph but range continued to tick down fast. Cold sweat broke out and I was forced to hit the emergency flashers while reducing speed to 30, and moving over onto the I-5 shoulder for the last 2.5 miles. Range was now at ZERO and it was now raining very hard. I finally got to the off-ramp and slowed even more but then faced the overpass standing between me and the supercharger and afraid I’d lose what remaining power I had within eyesight of the charging cables, but I made it and life was good again.
What I don’t understand and perhaps someone on the forum can explain, is how I could lose more than 15 miles of range in just 46 miles? That’s almost a 33% loss. And why the instantaneous drop from 6 miles to 4 miles of range at the snap of a finger?