The impromptu EV road trip
My wife and I decided to take an impromptu road trip to visit our daughter at UC Davis. We were staying at the Oakland Marriot, which is only 70 miles from Davis. The return trip would only be 100 miles to our home near Stanford University.
This journey required a bit of planning because we were driving our all-electric Fiat 500e. With a driver and one passenger, this EV only has about 70 miles of range. Using air conditioning or headlights will also impact range. Finally, the 500e doesn’t come with DC fast charging capability, so fully charging will always take hours, not minutes.
Fortunately, I always keep a TurboCord and some adapters in the vehicle, so we’ll have three options to fully charge: in 3.5 hours (at 6.6 kW) on a public charge station, in 6.5 hours (at 3.8 kW) with TurboCord on a 240 Volt receptacle, and in 17 hours (at 1.4 kW) with TurboCord on a standard household receptacle (also known as trickle charging).
We’ll first plan for a rest stop to avoid driving in Davis with a depleted battery. There should be plenty of charging options on the way to Davis, and we’ll plan to visit relatives on the way home, with the option of spending the night. We’ll use ChargePoint and PlugShare apps to locate public charge stations.
First Leg: Oakland to Davis
The Oakland Convention Center parking structure has multiple receptacles per floor, so we were able to fully charge for FREE with TurboCord before departing. Although we had researched hypermiling, we decided to just drive along with traffic. We used cruise control, and we used the air conditioning sparingly.
STOP 1 — While in route, we noticed a tire pressure warning light. The ChargePoint app indicated a FREE charge station at Volkswagen of Fairfield, so we made an unplanned stop and charged while topping off the tire. We added 5 miles of range and were back on the road in less than 10 minutes.
STOP 2 — We proceeded to Vacaville for a planned stop at the outlet stores. We parked at a Blink station and scanned the QR code to charge as guest, but the charge didn’t start, so I called customer service. Two activation codes later, we got it working and did some shopping. We added 22 miles of range and were back on the road in an hour.
STOP 3 — We had extra range at this point and even used the air conditioning. We picked up our daughter with 34 miles of range remaining and drove 3 more miles to downtown Davis. With the rest of my family shopping and enjoying the farmers market, I looked for a place to park and charge. I found several FREE options on the PlugShare app, and chose the E Street Parking Plaza.
There was a Nissan Leaf in the one EV spot, but the dashboard lights indicated it was in the final stage of charging. I parked in another spot within reach, so I could plug-in my vehicle if the current charge finished before the Leaf owner vacated that spot. Waiting for this one spot to open-up seemed reasonable because charging there was FREE and this location was right where we planned to have dinner. The Leaf drove away in about 10 minutes; I re-parked and plugged-in. We all headed off for a walk through the UC Davis Arboretum and a visit to the stables. With 31 miles of range when I parked, the vehicle was fully charged when I returned from our walk in less than three hours.
Second Leg: Davis to Walnut Creek
After having a wonderful dinner in Davis, we picked up some groceries and dropped off our daughter. Back at her apartment, I located an outside receptacle and verified it worked for trickle charging. This option could be useful on some future trip.
STOP 4 — Walnut Creek was 60 miles away, and the Fiat displayed 93 miles of estimated range. Even with air conditioning and headlights on, we planned for a straight shot. We arrived at our destination with 9 miles remaining. With no 240 Volt receptacle available, we just used TurboCord to trickle charge until morning.
Third Leg: Walnut Creek to the Peninsula
After a good night’s sleep and 12 hours of charging, 9pm to 9am, we added 67 miles. The Fiat displayed 76 miles of estimated range, and home was less than 50 miles away, but first we headed out to get breakfast.
STOP 5 — We drove 4 miles to Cherubini Coffee House in Alamo. We spend an hour having breakfast but didn’t charge the vehicle. It would have been comforting to leave with more charge, but there are no public charging stations in Alamo. Now that we’ve figured out how to predict real-world range, we have more flexibility with where and when we stop. We arrived home with 16 miles of estimated range left.
Conclusions from this EV road trip
We had expected to pay for charging on this road trip, but we never did. Vacaville was the only place we stopped where charging wasn’t free, but the activation code provided by Blink customer service was FREE.
I’m looking forward to making another more aggressive EV road trip. I’ll bring my Quick 220, which can create a high voltage circuit to charge 3 times faster with TurboCord whenever an 6–20, dryer or RV outlet isn’t available. I’m also tempted to purchase a more powerful mobile charge cable for road trips, but that will take up more space and may be too complicated for the rest of my family to use, You must use caution when plugging a portable charge cable into a high voltage receptacle; using any mounted charge station is always very safe. I’ll continue to keep TurboCord in the back of the Fiat to “level up” during daily driving.
Finally, taking the Fiat 500e on a 170 mile road trip was a lot of fun. Driving an internal combustion vehicle can be so monotonous and boring when you only stop at dirty gas stations. Road tripping a low range EV uncovers fun places to stop along the journey; start out early and charge while having a wonderful breakfast and lunch along the way.
