From Los Angeles to ???? - Road trips w/ 1 hr stop to charge

I'm curious about the type of trips out-of-town that are possible from the LA area with our RAV4EVs. Ideally, with only 1 hour-long charge each way. Any more than an hour and it would probably be better to take an ICE.

Would a trip to Big Bear Lake fit this description? I assume it would be necessary to charge before starting the incline. What charge level at the base of the mountain would be required to make the trip up the Lake area.

Any other suggested destinations along with strategies for getting there (ie. J1772 charger or Tesla HPWC-compatible outlet locations) would be greatly appreciated.

Steve

No EVs are practical for cross-country. Everyone fancies themselves doing road trips, but at least I never do. Should I want to, I would rent a car for it. Just factor that into the electric car lifestyle.

I live in the South Bay and traveled 120 miles to SD on a single charge averaging 3.8 mi/kw (between 55-60 mi/hour) with 13 miles remaining. despite my GOM showing 119 miles at the start of the trip.

On the way back, I made some detours and stopped by Tony's place (and Legoland). At around San Juan Capistrano, I realized that I would need to pull over to charge and did that at Irvine Spectrum (GE Wattstations). We were there for an hour, which was just enough to get home with LO displaying on the GOM.

On an extended charge, I could have made the trip back in one trip.

I would love to travel to big bear and on an extended charge, it might work, but I'm just worried about where to charge it once up there. Also, during winter, if you need to use the heater, it would take a toll on your range as well.

Using Tony's chart, you can figure out how far you can go based on your driving efficiency. With a 30-Amp public charger you can probably recharge about 15-20 miles in an hour depending on the voltage (and other things).

You can also use the chart to figure out the drain that elevation will have. Big Bear Lake elevation is about 6750 feet. Add about 2kW for ever 1000 ft climb so 13.5kW will be used just to climb the mountain. From highway 330/210, the distance is 32 miles and the average speed will be around 30 miles/hour and will use another 6-10kW (I can't tell since Tony's chart doesn't go that low). On an 100% (extended charge), that leaves you with about 41.8 - 13.5 - 10kw = 18.3 kW left just from the base.

Depending on where you are at, you can figure out if this is enough juice or if you need to charge it.

reeler said:

No EVs are practical for cross-country. Everyone fancies themselves doing road trips, but at least I never do. Should I want to, I would rent a car for it. Just factor that into the electric car lifestyle.

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He's not asking about any kind of cross-country road trip. LA to Big Bear is 95 miles, well within the range, but there's a huge change in elevation as you climb the mountain (to 6750 feet).

Supposing you wanted to drive from Denver to Colorado Springs, how much would the climb impact your range?

Steve, I've never been, but I would imagine you'd want to charge (if necessary) around San Bernardino (apparently there's a charging station at City Hall). As Khaihon points out, charging to get back down would be the tricky part.

sminx said:

I'm curious about the type of trips out-of-town that are possible from the LA area with our RAV4EVs. Ideally, with only 1 hour-long charge each way. Any more than an hour and it would probably be better to take an ICE.

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Santa Barbara is 100 miles each way from downtown LA.

You can drive down PCH at 45-55 mph, and have 50-ish miles remaining when you get to SBA.

Charging for 90 minutes at the Rabobank in Goleta (70 amp/240 volt) will give you about 45 additional miles, and will almost get you home.

Alternately, you can charge at the many stations through Malibu or Ventura for a bit, too, while enroute.

BloomRAV4_EV said:

reeler said:

No EVs are practical for cross-country. Everyone fancies themselves doing road trips, but at least I never do. Should I want to, I would rent a car for it. Just factor that into the electric car lifestyle.

Click to expand...

He's not asking about any kind of cross-country road trip. LA to Big Bear is 95 miles, well within the range, but there's a huge change in elevation as you climb the mountain (to 6750 feet).

Click to expand...

Well, certainly you'd have to describe practical. If driving a Tesla Model S or X from Supercharger to Supercharger seems too difficult, I doubt we will ever adopt EVs!!

Big Bear is 135 miles from my house, with 6000 feet elevation gain. I did 151 miles with 4000 feet elevation gain this summer, from Orland, CA to Yreka, CA.

With the increase in elevation, I'd estimate another 4kWh burned, which at 4 miles per kWh is 16 miles... 151 miles - 16 = 135 miles! It would be really, really close. If you look on Plugshare, Andrew in Running Springs will gladly help you out if you're close to not making the summit.

Getting home is easy from 6000 feet, but you'll need some juice somewhere. For me, this is 4-5 hours of charging somewhere.

Supposing you wanted to drive from Denver to Colorado Springs, how much would the climb impact your range?

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Not much... it's only 700 feet higher.

reeler said:

No EVs are practical for cross-country. Everyone fancies themselves doing road trips, but at least I never do. Should I want to, I would rent a car for it. Just factor that into the electric car lifestyle.

Click to expand...

I'm not looking to travel cross country. I'm thinking more along the lines of driving to a destination with one hour-long stop to charge along the way, then staying at the destination for a night or two (presumably with access to charger or electrical outlet -- would be nice for hotels to provide chargers). And then another stop to charge on the way home. It sounds like a trip to San Luis Obispo is possible with a sufficient charge pit-stop at the Rabobank in Goleta.

TonyWilliams said:

You can drive down PCH at 45-55 mph, and have 50-ish miles remaining when you get to SBA.

Charging for 90 minutes at the Rabobank in Goleta (70 amp/240 volt) will give you about 45 additional miles, and will almost get you home.

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OK, I'll bite. How do you get 70 amps into the rav4ev!?!

occ said:

TonyWilliams said:

You can drive down PCH at 45-55 mph, and have 50-ish miles remaining when you get to SBA.

Charging for 90 minutes at the Rabobank in Goleta (70 amp/240 volt) will give you about 45 additional miles, and will almost get you home.

Click to expand...

OK, I'll bite. How do you get 70 amps into the rav4ev!?!

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You don't. I think Tony's point is that this is an "above average" public charger. Most are 30A/208V, so that converted Tesla Roadster charger is 50% faster charging a RAV4 than other common public chargers. Not all the Rabobank/Tesla chargers are installed on 240V either. Some are installed on 208V.

Ask Tony again when he's done with his charger project!

miimura said:

occ said:

TonyWilliams said:

You can drive down PCH at 45-55 mph, and have 50-ish miles remaining when you get to SBA.

Charging for 90 minutes at the Rabobank in Goleta (70 amp/240 volt) will give you about 45 additional miles, and will almost get you home.

Click to expand...

OK, I'll bite. How do you get 70 amps into the rav4ev!?!

Click to expand...

You don't. I think Tony's point is that this is an "above average" public charger. Most are 30A/208V, so that converted Tesla Roadster charger is 50% faster charging a RAV4 than other common public chargers. Not all the Rabobank/Tesla chargers are installed on 240V either. Some are installed on 208V.

Click to expand...

occ said:

OK, I'll bite. How do you get 70 amps into the rav4ev!?!

Click to expand...

Well, you could add a second Tesla 40 amp charger, or a Brusa 30 amp charger.

Even on the public 70amp Clipper Creek Tesla branded charging stations, many if not virtually all will only be 208 volt, instead of the 240 volts you have at home.

Miles Gained per Hour Charging
Amps/Volts -- Where ---- City Drive ----- 65mph

12 / 120 ------- Any ------ 2.8 miles ------- 3.5 miles (supplied cable with car)
16 / 208 ------ Public ----- 7.5 miles ------- 9.5 miles
16 / 240 ------ Home ----- 8.9 miles ------ 11.2 miles
20 / 208 ------ Public ----- 9.4 miles ------ 11.9 miles
20 / 240 ------ Home ---- 11.0 miles ------ 13.9 miles (Clipper Creek LCS-25)
30 / 208 ------ Public ---- 14.8 miles ------ 18.7 miles (typical public Blink, ChargePoint, etc)
30 / 240 ------ Home ---- 17.1 miles ------ 21.6 miles (typical home Blink, etc)
40 / 208 ------ Public ---- 18.5 miles ------ 23.4 miles (just the public Tesla branded ones)
40 / 240 ------ Home ---- 22.7 miles ----- 28.5 miles (at home, RV parks w/ NEMA 14-50 plug and appropriate UMC, very few public Tesla ones).

I've taken mine to Palm Springs a couple times, including later today. No problem getting there or back with plenty of miles left if full when you leave. I usually don't even have a low battery warning yet, but I drive the speed limit both ways with cruise control. Typically 65 on the 91/60 and 70 mph on the 10.