So, my kid's Scout Troop had a weekend camping trip planned at a National Park this past weekend, and this was the first long trip I've taken. From my door to the campsite was about 175 miles, and I was kind of nervous about taking a trip to somewhere that didn't have charging infrastructure available. So here are my impressions of the trip, with lessons learned.
Before the trip, I charged my Model 3 to 95%. Usually I only charge to 80%, but figured the extra range would come in handy.
There was an RV park near the National Park we went to, but unfortunately I should have called ahead by a few days and reserved a spot for a few hours to charge, as they were completely booked, so that was out. (Lesson learned, call a week or so ahead and verify a spot). Since the RV park was out as a charging source, we ended up stopping at a charging station on the way that was owned by a company called EV Trail (more on that later). That experience wasn't great. The DC fast charger they had was a CCS version, and I found that I was unable to use the adapter that came with my Tesla because of the way the plastic was molded on the end of the charger. This hasn't been an issue for me on other chargers, and weirdly enough, there were other reviews on Plugshare that showed Tesla owners using this particular charger, so I don't know what gives. Luckily, they had a couple of Level 2 chargers available, so we were able to charge there for about half an hour before continuing on our way.
We arrived at the camping spot at about the same time as everyone else, since we had left early. By the time we got to the camping spot, my car still had about 140 miles of range on it, which meant we'd have to do some charging on the way home, or find something nearby. Luckily, near the camping spot, and at the park, there was a small shop that sold drinks, coffee, and other stuff you might need on a camping trip. I struck up a conversation with the guy who ran the shop and asked if it would be possible to use his 110 V outlet to charge my car overnight. I offered him $20, and he was good with that. (Yeah, I know, I probably used only a couple bucks in electricity, but I figured what the heck.) We chitchatted a bit, and he asked some questions about the car and how it worked, and all that, super cool guy to talk to. I asked him if he'd thought about installing some L2 chargers at his shop, and surprisingly, he said that he had considered it, but that since his shop is located at a National Park, getting something like that approved would require going through mountains of government red tape and would take forever. He also mentioned that he'd seen people plugging in EVs at the visitor's center, but that the Park Rangers would issue a ticket to anyone who did this.
Anyway, I plugged my car in to let it charge overnight, until it started raining heavily. I know this is going to sound dumb, but I was worried that the portable charging unit would end up getting wet and shorting out or causing a fire or something, so I unplugged it. Luckily, it did stop raining later that night, and I went back and plugged the vehicle in. On the 110V outlet, the car was getting about 3 miles of range/hour.
The overnight charge gave me enough range that I was able to skip the EV Trail chargers on the way home, and stop in a city that had Tesla Superchargers available. We rolled into the parking garage with the Superchargers with about 17% charge remaining on the battery. Now, this was my first experience using a Supercharger, and I figured we'd have plenty of time to hit a local restaurant and grab lunch before heading home. We walked to a restaurant that was half a block from the parking garage. The car recommended charging to about 65% before continuing the trip.
The Supercharger hit that limit before the waitress had a chance to come and take our order. So, out of curiosity, I bumped the limit up to 85%, and it hit that charge level right about when our food came. Frankly, the charging went so fast that we could have just stayed in the car. I know this is probably old hat to most of you here, but I was astonished at how fast the car charged. The whole experience was great, I didn't even have to swipe a credit card, just plug the car in and walk away. Total cost for this was right under $20.
On the good side of things, the Energy Display screen did an excellent job of tracking energy usage on the trip, so I always had a really solid idea of how much power I was using, and how much range remained.
Now for the bad. As I mentioned earlier, we stopped at a charging station run by a company called EV Trail, and I was unable to use their L3 charger, and switched to an L2 charger for maybe 30 minutes or so. For that privilege, my credit card is now showing a charge of $40. Nevermind that the readout on the L2 charger only showed a charge of around $3. So, I'm not sure what the deal is. I'm thinking of reaching out to them to see if there's some kind of issue.
Even with the hiccups we encountered on our trip, I would say that the charging experience was not the massive hassle EV critics make it out to be, but it was still more complicated than stopping for gas, especially in places that don't yet have EV infrastructure built. It would be great if the National Parks Service would install chargers at National Parks, for one. Even if they were vendor based and you had to pay, I think it could be a nice little additional revenue stream for them.
"Tesla Supercharger" by Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine is marked with CC0 1.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
Before the trip, I charged my Model 3 to 95%. Usually I only charge to 80%, but figured the extra range would come in handy.
There was an RV park near the National Park we went to, but unfortunately I should have called ahead by a few days and reserved a spot for a few hours to charge, as they were completely booked, so that was out. (Lesson learned, call a week or so ahead and verify a spot). Since the RV park was out as a charging source, we ended up stopping at a charging station on the way that was owned by a company called EV Trail (more on that later). That experience wasn't great. The DC fast charger they had was a CCS version, and I found that I was unable to use the adapter that came with my Tesla because of the way the plastic was molded on the end of the charger. This hasn't been an issue for me on other chargers, and weirdly enough, there were other reviews on Plugshare that showed Tesla owners using this particular charger, so I don't know what gives. Luckily, they had a couple of Level 2 chargers available, so we were able to charge there for about half an hour before continuing on our way.
We arrived at the camping spot at about the same time as everyone else, since we had left early. By the time we got to the camping spot, my car still had about 140 miles of range on it, which meant we'd have to do some charging on the way home, or find something nearby. Luckily, near the camping spot, and at the park, there was a small shop that sold drinks, coffee, and other stuff you might need on a camping trip. I struck up a conversation with the guy who ran the shop and asked if it would be possible to use his 110 V outlet to charge my car overnight. I offered him $20, and he was good with that. (Yeah, I know, I probably used only a couple bucks in electricity, but I figured what the heck.) We chitchatted a bit, and he asked some questions about the car and how it worked, and all that, super cool guy to talk to. I asked him if he'd thought about installing some L2 chargers at his shop, and surprisingly, he said that he had considered it, but that since his shop is located at a National Park, getting something like that approved would require going through mountains of government red tape and would take forever. He also mentioned that he'd seen people plugging in EVs at the visitor's center, but that the Park Rangers would issue a ticket to anyone who did this.
Anyway, I plugged my car in to let it charge overnight, until it started raining heavily. I know this is going to sound dumb, but I was worried that the portable charging unit would end up getting wet and shorting out or causing a fire or something, so I unplugged it. Luckily, it did stop raining later that night, and I went back and plugged the vehicle in. On the 110V outlet, the car was getting about 3 miles of range/hour.
The overnight charge gave me enough range that I was able to skip the EV Trail chargers on the way home, and stop in a city that had Tesla Superchargers available. We rolled into the parking garage with the Superchargers with about 17% charge remaining on the battery. Now, this was my first experience using a Supercharger, and I figured we'd have plenty of time to hit a local restaurant and grab lunch before heading home. We walked to a restaurant that was half a block from the parking garage. The car recommended charging to about 65% before continuing the trip.
The Supercharger hit that limit before the waitress had a chance to come and take our order. So, out of curiosity, I bumped the limit up to 85%, and it hit that charge level right about when our food came. Frankly, the charging went so fast that we could have just stayed in the car. I know this is probably old hat to most of you here, but I was astonished at how fast the car charged. The whole experience was great, I didn't even have to swipe a credit card, just plug the car in and walk away. Total cost for this was right under $20.
On the good side of things, the Energy Display screen did an excellent job of tracking energy usage on the trip, so I always had a really solid idea of how much power I was using, and how much range remained.
Now for the bad. As I mentioned earlier, we stopped at a charging station run by a company called EV Trail, and I was unable to use their L3 charger, and switched to an L2 charger for maybe 30 minutes or so. For that privilege, my credit card is now showing a charge of $40. Nevermind that the readout on the L2 charger only showed a charge of around $3. So, I'm not sure what the deal is. I'm thinking of reaching out to them to see if there's some kind of issue.
Even with the hiccups we encountered on our trip, I would say that the charging experience was not the massive hassle EV critics make it out to be, but it was still more complicated than stopping for gas, especially in places that don't yet have EV infrastructure built. It would be great if the National Parks Service would install chargers at National Parks, for one. Even if they were vendor based and you had to pay, I think it could be a nice little additional revenue stream for them.
"Tesla Supercharger" by Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine is marked with CC0 1.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
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