Long commute

Hi, I am looking into possibility of a long commute (sort of) - I have to drive 130 miles one way on Monday and Friday, the rest of the week is within 10-20 miles a day. What concerns me is driving in extremely hot weather (100 F or more) and recharging battery in that kind of temps. Time is not too much of my concern. I do have one SAE combo charger on my way (a bit of my route though) and quite a few 1772 chargers. Looking into buying a car this weekend. Any thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks

I think you will be fine doing the quick charge one day a week. If you can spend ~2+ hours charging, then a Level 2 charge will also be fine on the one long commute.

You are lucky to have any SAE Combo (aka CCS) quick chargers, let alone one in the middle of your long drive.

Well, unfortunately SAE combo is a about 40 miles from destination - so I will have to drive close to 100 miles to get to it. Perhaps I would need to stop at Level 2 for about an hour to make it. I will be at about 70-80% charge on the way back at SAE combo. Would it top it off in 1/2 hr so I can make it all the way back? I do not have a SAE combo close to the dealer I am planning to purchase the vehicle from so I can check how fast it charges after 80%. I understand that it charges close to 80% in 1/2 hr from empty. But my understanding is that after that charge slows down, but I could not find any info on how slow it gets.

Your driving profile seems to fit a phev more than a bev. You might want to look at the upcoming 2016 Volt with a 50 mile range or a bmw i3 with range extender. The Volt would be a real road car which could replace your current ICE while still having most of your driving electric, particularly if you can charge at work. The other approach would be to wait for a 200 mile bev, the Bolt or Tesla Model 3 although that will be into 2017 or later. Maybe an upgraded egolf a year around 2019. Still, a couple of years isn't much when it comes to car ownership

Ron

When new, an e-Golf can do 100 miles at a steady 62mph without A/C or heat. Driving slower will improve efficiency and reduce your total travel time. It will probably also eliminate your need to charge until you get to the fast charger. A commercial charging station will probably be 208VAC at 30 amps. That will probably net you 21 miles of range per hour of charging.

With all that said, I would be hesitant to buy the e-Golf for this routine use. Maybe I'm not understanding your situation. Are you commuting 130 miles from a weekend house to a weekday place, working locally during the week and then returning 130 miles back to the weekend house? That is better than doing 260 mile round trip twice a week. Even doing the 260 mile round trip only once a week, you will probably drive 18k-20k miles per year. That will probably make leasing un-economical.

My primary concern would be the reliability of the fast charger. If you are planning on a 30 minute stop to get you to your destination and find the station is broken, you'll be stuck there for 2 hours just to gain 40 miles of range. I would not like that at all.

Weekend house and weeklong at work with some short 5-10 mile drives at work. Lukely I am not concern with my schedule in either direction, so 1/2 hr or 2 hrs would not make much of a difference again in both directions. Going with plug-in hybrid somewhat defits the purpose - why have an ICE and try to stay full electric? I would stay ICE all the way - cheaper, more reliable over life of the vehicle. I just want to switch and never look back. just love a change!

Going with plug-in hybrid somewhat defits the purpose>>>

If you rarely take 200 mile or more trips such that you can rent an ice, you can get by with a bev but a lot of people don't have that kind of driving profile and need a road car. Either an ice or phev. I have the egolf for the 85% and an ice for the 15% but if I could only have one car, it would have to be a phev, as 15% is too inconvenient and expensive to rent
Ron

I have read somewhere that BMW gives owners of i3 a 3-series loaner for situations when you need an ICE. The only problem - price of i3 would kill any average person's budget. Anyway - looks like I will be waiting for a 200-mile e-golf. Thank you for your advice.

Might try posting a message on the Leaf forum, they have a lot more drivers out there. Could be there's someone who's driven the long route of yours, and could give advice from direct experience. True, Leaf's use CHAdeMO instead of CCS, but that might be irrelevant if the chargers used aren't far apart.

I have a long frequent commute myself -- it's not as lengthy as yours, but during the winter required a long stop at an L2 charger. I have no problem sitting in my car reading, taking a walk, or whatever. It's only if I need to make the trip quickly that there's an issue, then it's time to use my dad's ICE. Do you have any friends or relatives with a suitable ICE that would jump at a chance to swap cars (that could be trusted ) to drive your e-Golf?

Anyway, with travel time not an issue, I would gladly add another L2 stop to my trip to avoid ICEing.