kirby said:
JoulesThief said:
Drive not over 60 mph and do45 or 50 up the grades and you should make it if you are fully charged. Drive faster, and forget it on one charge.
That's interesting, I wasn't sure I could make it at all!
JoulesThief said:
Time for you to get the Plugshare app on your phone and check your settings for a J1772 connector. Start playing with it to find locations near you that will be open. Did your dealership give you a Chargepoint card and activate it for you while you were there?
I have all that setup and working. My question about charge stations was more "are they any insider tips from folks that regularly charge in those areas?" rather than "where are there charge stations?". At least on this side of hill, ChargePoint stations are in use a lot of the time so I was hoping for better information from a local.
You live in the electric car hotbed of the USA, free chargers are where you find them. If you want to be brave, use the Residential setting, call someone up on your phone that has one in their garage, make an appt to charge at their home, flip them some money for electricity, slightly more than the local going rate per kwh, or explain you just bought an electric and are "learning the ropes" on getting a charge, and most of them will be pretty nice to you.
Another option is to get to Capitola, and most of the way back home, find a Residental with a 240V 1772 EVSE, and charge there, say at or near the crest of the grade on 17 heading north for an hour or hour and a half, say near Scotts Valley.
Better yet, Visit Chargepoint Headquarters on the way back home, in Campbell, with your Chargepoint card, and try your first Level 3 CCS recharge in 30 minutes.
Since you are new to this, you probably already know this, but when you pull up to charge, you are at a charging station, it's not a parking lot for you to park your car for as long as you please. You wouldn't park at the pump at the gas station would you? Do your charging business and be gone. If you can do a little bit of shopping/eating without overextending your stay, have at it. Most have 2 hour charging time limits, exceed it and they penalize you heavily per minute for every minute you are late, misusing a charging station as a parking lot.
Welcome to planning all your slightly longer trips, with practice and time, it gets much easier. Watch your tank needle first, then watch the range remaining. Range remaining also called the Guess-o-Meter, is greatly affected by how fast you drive, or how slow, and headwinds, air temps, tailwinds, going up hill or down hill, are you running the heater or AC, etc, etc, etc, there are a myriad of variables. The "cleaner" you run your car by not using accessories, the longer the range of the battery between charges. It's up to you how sloppy or how efficient you want to be to get added range. I strive to run almost no accessories if possible, in my car, short of the fresh air fan. I dress accordingly, temperature wise, for driving, as if I was going to be outside in the weather and temps
Last tip, and a big tip... Free charging attracts all the leeches, make them pay for electricity, and the spot will most likely be vacant. Adjust your settings on Plugshare, and if you find a place to charge with J-1772 for $ 0.15 kw, it will probably be vacant. EVgo's are middle of the road in price, most of the time, and anything Blink is very expensive, and almost always available, as a result of their pricing schedule. A visit to the local Nissan or VW dealerships in Santa Cruz or Capitola might net you free charge also, if you are there during normal business hours only, or maybe get 1 to 1.5 hrs worth to get you back home with a margin.
