My EV6 (matte gray FE) and I just completed a two-week round trip from Seattle to northern New Mexico. Following are a few notes that might be helpful or of interest, particularly to first time EV drivers.
Let me get this out of the way: this country is BIG!! And much of area I traveled through is sparsely populated (e.g., central Oregon, southern Idaho, SE Utah, northern New Mexico, SW Colorado) so the ABRP app was quite helpful in plotting a course that was both interesting and new to me (i.e., secondary roads when possible) while being actually feasible with today’s charging infrastructure.
Planning: I spent many hours with ABRP looking not only for routes and charging stops, but also for backup stations in case the planned ones didn’t work out. The bad news was that I could rarely find backups when traveling off the main highways, meaning that if one station was out of order, I was screwed – a single point of failure. The good news was that this never happened! The Electrocute America and ChargePoint apps gave accurate information on status, and every stop had at least one working charger. I never had to wait, and only occasionally did I even run into other EVs. Carrying a portable level 2 charger w/ a 120 V adapter also helped my peace of mind. I made good use of this at one Inn I where I stayed for 5 days.
Charging: At the EA stations I was very happy with the charging speeds – topping out at around 230 kW when the temperature was warm enough. I rarely spent more than 20 minutes at these stations, and sometimes left before cars that had been there when I arrived. Unfortunately, their locations were often in the far corner of Walmart parking lots, or in odd out-of-the-way locations several miles off the beaten track or next to stores long closed (thanks, Covid). I visited more Walmarts in two weeks than I have in my entire life, but their restrooms were always clean and in the front of the store, so it could be worse. ChargePoints were the only choice in smaller towns, and were often in odd and lonely locations while their speed varied a good deal. However, they were critical to going off the beaten track and I was always glad to see them. I don’t know what the charging situation is on East Coast, but these locations leave much to be desired. It sounds like Europe will continue to be well ahead of U.S. in this regard.
Driving: the EV6 was simply outstanding in most every way. Simply accelerating to pass a truck on a two-lane highway was a real pleasure – several times I would look at my speed, 85+ mph, and be stunned since it felt like I was going 60. I didn’t put it through its paces on the “Million Dollar Highway” going across two 10,000 ft passes north from Durango, CO though – there are no guardrails, and it was somewhat terrifying! The HDA2 and smart cruise control reduced many of the fatiguing aspects of driving, and on slower roads and towns, the auto regeneration was so smooth and predictive that it seemed like it was reading my mind. The seats were very good (although not great like my previous Volvo) and never felt uncomfortable.
Navigation: This trip forced me to become more familiar with the navigation system, which in the end worked very well. I used ABRP to tell me about where the next stop was, and then used voice to simply say “directions to ___ (town)”. Then, when I got close to the town, I touched the “search for stations” button and the station I was looking for (almost) inevitably popped up first on the list. Easy-peasy. The nav map isn’t very detailed, so I also used google maps (through carplay) to get more detail. On the road, it was fun to select satellite view in gmaps to get beautiful view of the country I was going through, whether mountain ranges, canyons or agriculture.
Surprises: I didn’t think much about wind before this trip, probably because I haven’t spent much time in this part of the U.S. There was one longish (163 mile) uphill stretch with absolutely no stations that originally ABRP estimated would be no problem. On the morning of the drive however, it said I would have to reduce my speed to 50 mph to arrive with 19% charge because of headwinds. I confess to drafting behind some trucks and busses, and made it no problem. A bigger problem was a 30-50 mph crosswind the day before which created an hour-long sand/dust storm I had to drive through. After babying my matte finish for three months, this was quite a bummer. When I stopped and took a look that night, I feared I’d have to repaint the whole car, it looked so bad. I took it to a touchless car wash in Moab (don’t judge me!) and to my surprise it came out in very good shape. Thanks ceramic coating (Feynlab). I did some touchup with Dr. Beasley’s final finish and it was almost as good as new. (A few microchips on bumper/hood still serve as a remembrance.) Lessons learned: be sure to take into account net elevation gain and wind strength/direction in your plans!
Efficiency: With highway speeds ranging from 65 – 74 mph, I averaged 3.3 mi/kWh going down and 3.2 on the return, or about 240-250 mile range. However, the daily efficiencies ranged quite a bit due to net elevation gain, average speed and wind, so plan accordingly for scheduling charging stops. I emphasize net elevation gain since ups and downs didn’t matter much given the effective regeneration.
TL;DR: What a fantastic car! Long rural trips are definitely feasible, but plan well. An overall average of 250 miles can’t necessarily be relied upon for certain driving segments. Fast charging speeds (when warm enough) can be relied upon at EA stations. Between finding a restroom, planning the next stop, catching up on emails/texts, and eating snacks, the car was often ready to go before I was.
After this trip, I named it “Silver” after the Lone Ranger’s horse (courageous, steadfast, speedy and good looking) and have put it out to stud.
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Let me get this out of the way: this country is BIG!! And much of area I traveled through is sparsely populated (e.g., central Oregon, southern Idaho, SE Utah, northern New Mexico, SW Colorado) so the ABRP app was quite helpful in plotting a course that was both interesting and new to me (i.e., secondary roads when possible) while being actually feasible with today’s charging infrastructure.
Planning: I spent many hours with ABRP looking not only for routes and charging stops, but also for backup stations in case the planned ones didn’t work out. The bad news was that I could rarely find backups when traveling off the main highways, meaning that if one station was out of order, I was screwed – a single point of failure. The good news was that this never happened! The Electrocute America and ChargePoint apps gave accurate information on status, and every stop had at least one working charger. I never had to wait, and only occasionally did I even run into other EVs. Carrying a portable level 2 charger w/ a 120 V adapter also helped my peace of mind. I made good use of this at one Inn I where I stayed for 5 days.
Charging: At the EA stations I was very happy with the charging speeds – topping out at around 230 kW when the temperature was warm enough. I rarely spent more than 20 minutes at these stations, and sometimes left before cars that had been there when I arrived. Unfortunately, their locations were often in the far corner of Walmart parking lots, or in odd out-of-the-way locations several miles off the beaten track or next to stores long closed (thanks, Covid). I visited more Walmarts in two weeks than I have in my entire life, but their restrooms were always clean and in the front of the store, so it could be worse. ChargePoints were the only choice in smaller towns, and were often in odd and lonely locations while their speed varied a good deal. However, they were critical to going off the beaten track and I was always glad to see them. I don’t know what the charging situation is on East Coast, but these locations leave much to be desired. It sounds like Europe will continue to be well ahead of U.S. in this regard.
Driving: the EV6 was simply outstanding in most every way. Simply accelerating to pass a truck on a two-lane highway was a real pleasure – several times I would look at my speed, 85+ mph, and be stunned since it felt like I was going 60. I didn’t put it through its paces on the “Million Dollar Highway” going across two 10,000 ft passes north from Durango, CO though – there are no guardrails, and it was somewhat terrifying! The HDA2 and smart cruise control reduced many of the fatiguing aspects of driving, and on slower roads and towns, the auto regeneration was so smooth and predictive that it seemed like it was reading my mind. The seats were very good (although not great like my previous Volvo) and never felt uncomfortable.
Navigation: This trip forced me to become more familiar with the navigation system, which in the end worked very well. I used ABRP to tell me about where the next stop was, and then used voice to simply say “directions to ___ (town)”. Then, when I got close to the town, I touched the “search for stations” button and the station I was looking for (almost) inevitably popped up first on the list. Easy-peasy. The nav map isn’t very detailed, so I also used google maps (through carplay) to get more detail. On the road, it was fun to select satellite view in gmaps to get beautiful view of the country I was going through, whether mountain ranges, canyons or agriculture.
Surprises: I didn’t think much about wind before this trip, probably because I haven’t spent much time in this part of the U.S. There was one longish (163 mile) uphill stretch with absolutely no stations that originally ABRP estimated would be no problem. On the morning of the drive however, it said I would have to reduce my speed to 50 mph to arrive with 19% charge because of headwinds. I confess to drafting behind some trucks and busses, and made it no problem. A bigger problem was a 30-50 mph crosswind the day before which created an hour-long sand/dust storm I had to drive through. After babying my matte finish for three months, this was quite a bummer. When I stopped and took a look that night, I feared I’d have to repaint the whole car, it looked so bad. I took it to a touchless car wash in Moab (don’t judge me!) and to my surprise it came out in very good shape. Thanks ceramic coating (Feynlab). I did some touchup with Dr. Beasley’s final finish and it was almost as good as new. (A few microchips on bumper/hood still serve as a remembrance.) Lessons learned: be sure to take into account net elevation gain and wind strength/direction in your plans!
Efficiency: With highway speeds ranging from 65 – 74 mph, I averaged 3.3 mi/kWh going down and 3.2 on the return, or about 240-250 mile range. However, the daily efficiencies ranged quite a bit due to net elevation gain, average speed and wind, so plan accordingly for scheduling charging stops. I emphasize net elevation gain since ups and downs didn’t matter much given the effective regeneration.
TL;DR: What a fantastic car! Long rural trips are definitely feasible, but plan well. An overall average of 250 miles can’t necessarily be relied upon for certain driving segments. Fast charging speeds (when warm enough) can be relied upon at EA stations. Between finding a restroom, planning the next stop, catching up on emails/texts, and eating snacks, the car was often ready to go before I was.
After this trip, I named it “Silver” after the Lone Ranger’s horse (courageous, steadfast, speedy and good looking) and have put it out to stud.
