First EV road trip - please walk me through

Factual Questions
1

I’m going to drive from Nashville to Knoxville next week. My car should be capable of doing the one-way trip. It has a range of 320 miles, and Knoxville is only about 180 miles away. I plan to use Eco mode and drive 70 mph. There is a Buck-ee’s at about the halfway point that is supposed to have level 3 chargers.

How exactly does this all work? I’ve only ever used the level 2 charger at home, which has more than suited my needs. I do have a level 1 charger in my frunk, which I plan to use while I am at the VRBO I’ll be staying at.

I am just anxious - I am the type of person who fills up at half a tank. I know this is not the correct mindset for an EV, but I really do not want to get stuck on the way home.

2

I think you need to get signed up for some of the charging networks. (Blink, Chargepoint, etc). Maybe you can charge without being a member, but if so, I’m sure it’s a hassle. Like you, I also don’t like driving with a low fuel supply, but after awhile I got used to the EV way of things.

I wouldn’t worry at all about getting 180 miles with a 320 range, but I would be a bit concerned about level one charging at your destination. That will be very slow. Like 60 hours to fill up. I’m sure there are options other than Buck-ees for high speed charging in the Knoxville area.

3

What type of EV and can you take advantage of the Tesla Superchargers?

4

When you stop at Buck-ee’s to pee and get a brisket sandwich, plug into a level 3 charger. You’re car won’t need it, but it will be good practice for next time. I expect you’ll be well over 50% state of charge, so don’t expect blazing fast charging speed, but may as well take whatever you can get while you’d be stopped anyway.

As recommended, before you leave sign up for any of the several different charging networks you’re likely to encounter, and add their apps to your phone.

I think more likely than needing to charge during the drive, you’ll need to charge at the destination, and possibly before you head home. The level 1 might not be enough to get you there, so use your in car nav, your preferred online map, plugshare, and the charging network apps to locate level 3 chargers near your destination.

The map in your car probably will tell you if you need to stop for charging, so put in your final destination. You don’t necessarily need to follow its exact advice—if it tells you to charge at a Walmart 30 miles past Buck-ee’s, but you’d rather stop at Buck-ee’s, just stop and charge there. If it tells you to charge 30 miles before Buck-ee’s, then you’ll have to use your judgement about making it to your preferred stop.

Assuming you have level 2 at home, charge as little as possible on the way home to save money. Level 3 on the road will be 2-5 \times as expensive as home charging. Unless there are special circumstances, pulling into your driveway with 5% SoC is fine.

Range anxiety can be tough, because it isn’t always rational. If you are at 30% SoC with only 100 miles of indicated range left you might be feeling nervous, but you could easily make it to a level 3 charger an hour away.

As for level 1 charging at the destination, unless you know there is a suitable outlet nearby, you might want to invest in a good 15 amp extension cord. Many “heavy duty” outdoor style extension cords are only rated for 12 amps.

If in Knoxville you plan to be parked anyplace for a long time, you should see if there are any level 2 chargers there. Even if you need to pay, it will probably be cheaper than level 3 charging, but not always. Even if good, they might also be in use, so don’t count on them, but they certainly can be nice if your other options are level 1 or a special stop for level 3.

5

IANA EV owner.

Only point I’ll make is that TN is fairly hilly. As such your consumption going outbound on your trip might be rather different than returning. If you burned e.g. 45% of your total range outbound that might not be enough to get back home with no other driving or charging while you’re there.

The same would be true in an ICE, but us ICE drivers are used to the consequences. And have lots more quickie refueling opportunities.

6

Hyundai Ioniq 6 SEL RWD. It’s supposed to be able to use the Tesla chargers, but I do not have an adapter.

I’m planning on using the level 1 charger to “top off” when I get there, assuming there is a convenient outlet. The Buck-ee’s is at about the halfway point between Nashville and Knoxville and will be a good place to stretch our legs a bit.

I’ve got Electrify America, EVgo, and PlugShare on my phone.

Thank you everyone.

7

Depending on the network, you may not need the app, either, though you may save a bit of money by using them. Last time I did an out of town trip, I would have been able to charge at the EVGo and ElectrifyAmerica stations I encountered without those. But one of the other benefits of the apps is getting realtime updates on current occupancy, which can be useful.

8

One other thing I would add is to make sure your destination has an outlet on a circuit capable of handling the charging. I’ve told the story before but when my wife bought her plug-in hybrid, we found out the hard way that our outlet in the garage was on the same circuit as our bathrooms. Whenever my wife would try to dry her hair when the car was charging, it would trip the breaker. We wound up having a dedicated outlet installed in the garage just for charging.

9

To be honest, I am not a fan of the body style of the Ioniq 6, though the ioniq 5 looks good.

10

I have Eco mode on my e-bike and understand how that works (less motor power output for each watt of my input than in a higher level), but our e-car doesn’t have an Eco mode. What does that mean on a car? Super slow accel?

11

I think.. maybe?

12

Eco mode will differ by car, but typically it means slower acceleration, a little more aggressive on regen, and a little less power to climate control.

13

The car will charge a lot fast at a lower charge. My Model 3 will charge at close to 1000km/hr when about 20% or lower, but drops radically as it approaches 80%.

Not sure what Ioniq does, but the goal would be to charge only enough to get to the next charger (with a comfortable cushion) rather than sitting the extra 20-30 minutes to get to 90%. Tesla with their charger network, the computer tells you the next charger and how much charge it thinks you will have when you get there. (you don’t see the slowdown with level 2, because it’s already as slower than a L3 charger will get to)

If Ioniq works with the Tesla system, I assume along with the adapter you would have to have your vehicle registered and create and account with Tesla, including a credit card to charge to. There is no means to “pay at the pump”. It’s plug and go, and the charger talks to the car to determine identity who to charge.

I saw a few of the newer Tesla chargers that have the multi-adapter - It has a built-in CCS adapter. you either pull out the whole cable end (CCS) or push a button and the Tesla NACS plug comes out of the adapter. Also, a number of Supercharger sites also have L3 CCS chargers (different payment network?) since they have to have CCS available too to get the installation subsidies. Can’t hurt to check these out if you are driving near a Supercharger.

Also, I assume you checked all this on PlugShare dot com.

14

This will be true of anything with a Lithium ion battery these days, whether your EV or your smartphone. Once it reaches 80% or so, it’ll slow down.

15

My recommendations :

  • Some days before you leave, locate a Level 3 charger close to Nashville, from the same network you expect to use at Buck-ee’s, and charge your car for 5-10 minutes to get a feel for the process, to confirm that the paperwork is in order, that you know how the Level 3 connectors work, etc.
  • The built-in navigation on a Hyundai can suggest chargers along the way, but only if it knows about them. Check if you can update the GPS map in your car, if it’s more than 1 year old. The streets and roads don’t change much, but the available chargers change every year.
  • Charge to 100% at home just before you leave.
16

Good plan, don’t be stumped miles from home not sure how to get your charger to work.

17

It’s a modern day XR4TI

18

That’s a good one! Yes it does have a passing resemblance to the Merkur XR4Ti of the late 1980s. I haven’t seen an XR4Ti, or a Merkur Scorpio, on the road out ‘in the wild’ in several years.

Before @Spidey’s post I came here to suggest what @Heracles suggested, to identify what charger types you will have access to along the way and at your destination, locate those same types where you live, and test charging there. Have at least two systems (or charging networks; note, IANA EV owner either), a primary and a backup, that you plan to use on your drive, and get set up for them now, at home, before you leave, and do actual charging tests on them.

Again, IANA EV owner but my brother is. He flew to Houston once on a quick trip and for his rental car he got a Tesla 3, the same car he owns. He figured he was in Houston, a large metropolis, so there should be plenty of charging stations there, you think, right? Well… no. He only thought about finding a charging station when it was time to get to the airport and return the car and catch his flight home. He had a very hard time finding a charging station and had to scramble and hustle to get charged up before returning the car. He did not want to pay the hefty charging fee from Avis. He barely made his flight.

Not the exact same challenges that you’ll have on your Tennessee road trip, but still, prepare, and test! If you do, you should be fine on your drive.

19

I too have rented a Model 3 several times. The problem is they have the L2 slow chargers in the Hertz rental spot in the airport, so you get the car say, 90% to 100% charged. Then they want it back 80% charged at least to avoid a ridiculous charging fee. Which makes no sense. Unlike a gas car, which an employee has to drive to a gas staion and fill, they just park in the right stall, right there, and it’s “full” in a few hours. They could even be cleaning it as it charges. Even at 20¢/kWh, it can be charged 0 to 100% for $14. (And odds are they would need a fraction of that - nobody returns a car at 0) yet they want to charge something like $35 for under-charged.

Meanwhile, Tesla has a very good charging network. For some airports (like Newark) it there is one conveniently located near the airport (the Outlet Mall). For other cities, the nearest one may be quite a ways from the airport - you need to plan.

20

A co-worker rented a Model Y from Hertz a few months ago. (This was late at night and the only alternative was a twelve-passenger van. But then he found that the charging adapter was locked in the glove compartment by a previous customer and Hertz had no way to open it. So he swapped the next day for a conventional gas car.