|
On Friday, March 16, 2012, ODOT (Oregon Dept of Transportation) officially
opened the first stretch of the West Coast Electric Highway, a series of 8
DC Fast Charge electric car charging stations spaced about every 25 miles
from Cottage Grove (just south of Eugene) to Ashland (15 miles from the
California border). DCFC (50kW, 480V) charging stations will charge up a
Leaf from 10% to 90% in about 20-25 minutes, vs 5 hours for a Level 2 (3.3kW,
240V) charging station - a vast improvement that makes cross country (between
cities) travel practical.
A call was issued for EV drivers to attend, and I couldn't pass up this
opportunity! With the support of my employer, Peak Internet (which gives
time off for community service activities), I drove my Leaf down to the event:
knowing that Ashland is so close to California, I looked up the first interchange
inside CA, and it looked like that was at the inspection station, about 21
miles from the Ashland fast charge station - quite doable even with the
Siskiyous in the way. To California and back, here I come!
I apologize for the quality of the dash pictures - my Nikon L24 has a hard
time focusing on the high constrast dash at night...
|
| |
|
Ashley Horvat, ODOT Transportation Electrification Project Manager, got me
an access fob for the charging stations and we both planned to drive our Leafs
down Thursday afternoon, as the event started in Central Point Oregon at 11am
on Friday.
Originally, the station at the Brownsville exit (20 miles north of Eugene) was
hoped to be installed in time to be used, but alas, while the preparations were
complete, the equipment wasn't arriving until Monday...
Even so, I left Corvallis with a full charge at about 2pm Thursday, actually
hoping to make it all the way to Cottage Grove (the first operational station),
65 miles, on one charge. Unfortunately, Thursday was one of the stormiest
days we've had this winter, and, while the headwinds weren't as bad as I
thought, driving 65 with the rain and heater (it turned out I *had* to use the
defroster with all the rain)... not a chance, as I knew
Cottage Grove was into the start of the mountains and it would be a climb
from Eugene.
Ashley had sent out her plans, which included a stop at a Fred Meyer store just
off Beltline that had L2 stations, so I headed there thinking our paths might
cross. I got there at 3pm with 11 miles range showing (2 bars State of Charge);
from I5 I had 20 miles to go and 16 showing... I planned on charging for 2 hours
(L2 charges at about 10 miles/hr, assuming the car will be traveling at freeway
speeds, and with the amount I already had, that would make a good buffer - I
thought). I looked around the store, then got a coffee cake at
the Starbucks and read for a while.
Around 4, Ashley texted asking about an L2 charging station at Coburg - apparently
they hadn't quite charged enough at Linn Benton. I looked on plugshare, but it said
there was only L1 (i.e. regular 110V outlet) there. She called Shorepower and they
said they'd had an L2 there, but it wasn't working and had pulled it out (temporarily,
I think). Coburg is 10 miles from the Freddies, which is about how much range she had
showing, so I suggested she drive 45 and she should be able to make it.
|
| |
|
After a while, I went out to the car to read and wait for Ashley; around 5, I was ready
to leave and went in for a pit stop. I noticed there was a white ODOT Leaf charging
next to me - apparently Ashley had arrived and not noticed I was in the car ;-) After
looking around in the store (apparently they were at the Starbucks and I didn't see them,
I guess we're even!), when I came back, I ran into Ashley going out to her car for something and
we chatted in the rain for a while, and took pictures of each other being drowned rats ;-)
|
| |
|
I think it was three stops before my coat dried out ;-)
|
| |
|
After chatting and getting drenched, I headed off with 6 bars/43 miles - it turns
out it was a good thing we chatted for a while - it made for almost 2 1/2 hrs
charging, and with the rain, heat and hills...
|
| |
|
...I made it to Cottage Grove
(dashcam approach video)
with only 1 bar/2 miles showing (more on how I could
do that comfortably in a little bit, but I think I was only doing 60 or less
most of the way). I realized on the way back north, that since Freddies is
5 miles from I5, it takes an *hour* of L2 charging *just to pay for the
excursion itself*, as well as nearly half an hour getting there, fiddling around and
getting back to I5. L2 charging really sucks. I texted Ashley to warn her
to make sure she had a full 6 bars...
|
| |
|
...on the other hand, these AeroVironment charging stations are *really* nice!
The green light in the top spends its idle time going slowly in circles
(video
showing idle state), but
it's not just a pretty light - when you plug in, it changes to just a light
or two zipping around in circles quickly while it's talking to home and the
car, then, a solid arc shows the state of charge when it starts charging,
with the last light in the arc blinking while charging
(video
showing charging status), until it completes
the circle at 80%. This makes it really easy to tell the status from, say,
a warm restaurant or motel lobby...or even your car, which you couldn't do
otherwise unless you have *really* good eyes to see the screen or turn your
car dash on...
Unfortunately, the L2 charger on the left is a standard simple AV L2 charger,
but you *know* that one's going to take forever, so unlikely to be anywhere
near anyhow...
|
| |
|
The display is really nice too, showing clearly state of charge and how much
energy has been stuffed in. You swipe your fob in front of the black box to
the right (the red light blinks when it reads the card), the display says
"Verifying user 5-90 seconds" (and in the pouring rain, it was all too often
closer to the latter!) while it makes a wireless connection home (probably cell,
but they didn't specify when they were talking about it at The Event). You can
call the 800 number above the display if you
don't have your fob and they'll activate it for you too. Then you plug in and
it spends another "5-90 seconds" communicating with your car, after which you
press the green button to start the charge (another nuisance in the pouring rain -
a couple times, I got back in the car while it was doing its thing). But I'll
accept the nuisance simply to get the ability!
|
| |
|
Happily charging away, I headed into the Vintage Inn for a dinner of fish & chips
(not too bad, standard diner fare).
|
| |
|
After about an hour for dinner, I went out to find it had gone all the way up to
89%. It's only supposed to do 80% when you start out <50% but usually seems to do 90%...
|
| |
|
Even with 90%/10 bars, it still only showed 52 miles range - the range guesser
does adapt to recent driving conditions, though still tends to be optimistic
usually. Also, going from <20% to 90% on the fast charge caused the battery
temp gauge to go up a bar...
|
| |
|
Next stop on the way was the Motel 6 in "Oakland"
(dashcam approach video)
- actually Rice Hill, but apparently
it's officially Oakland. This will likely be confusing to drivers, as Oakland is actually
somewhat farther south and off the freeway. The Leaf nav system was a little confused
for a different reason too: it wants you to go to the next exit and double back. Fortunately,
the AV location list included the freeway exit numbers and I could see the Motel 6, so took
the right exit (148), upon which the nav system said "insufficient data" and the proceeded to show
me the right route, which loops around to a freeway underpass to get over to the businesses.
Just after you turn onto the loop back to the freeway underpass, there's a lone Drive-In on
the west side of the freeway that I didn't notice until watching the dashcam video, but two
people mentioned it as "must do" ice cream stop when I told them one of the charging stations
was in Rice Hill...
A note here: the charging station is across from the motel lobby, but with angled parking
aimed for outgoing traffic - to get in, pull through the covered loading area at the
front door, then U-turn to get to the charging stall...
Arrived there with 4 bars/16 miles left. I had a moment of fear as the "nozzle" of the
charging station took a little tugging to get loose here - texted Ashley so she could let
the AV people know...
From 10 bars/52 miles to 4 bars/16 miles - this is why you have to be very careful using the
range guesser, as well as the bars: I consumed 36 miles of "range" for 27 miles actually
travelled. And the 6 bars consumed could be anywhere from just over 5 bars to just under 7
bars - a huge variable. Someone has built a kit to tap into the CAN bus (the standardized
internal controller network the car uses) to get at the actual digital value for the state
of charge and I really ought to get it and install it. And Nissan should add that value
to the display...
I generally have two modes of operation, depending on how far I'm going and circumstances.
In both cases, program the destination into the nav system, not for directions but because
it shows how far you have to go yet.
1. Make sure the range shows twice what I actually need - this is especially true if I've
been driving around town and about to go on a highway trip. Then drive so it stays at twice
the range needed to get there. I also use this mode when I'm pushing the range to the utmost,
as you can follow this down to the bottom, as I did getting to Cottage Grove, and later, to
Ashland.
2. Make sure the range shows 10-20 miles more than I actually need. This is the mode I
normally go in when I know the range guesser has a good idea of the driving conditions.
One thing in particular to note though: this sort of thing was moot for most of the trip.
I knew the stations were close enough that range just wasn't an issue and I didn't really
pay attention to the range on most of the legs, just curious what it said when I got there.
The only periods of "range anxiety" were getting to/from Cottage Grove, getting to Ashland
(more on that later) and going up the Siskiyous (more on that later too, but that one was a
complete unknown, so couldn't gauge anything - I was paying attention out of curiosity,
rather than having a clue what it meant at the time).
|
| |
|
In the dark, the AV stations really show up. This shows the full circle
that appears at 80% full.
|
| |
|
I chatted with the gal at the Motel 6 a bit, then headed out when it hit 80%. At this
point, I thought it had finished, not realizing the full circle meant just 80%.
|
| |
|
It didn't take long to finish at 90% though...
|
| |
|
At this point, the range guesser was getting a clue as to the crappy driving
conditions, and the 10 bars of charge only counted for 45 miles, which is
probably about right. You could probably skip a station if you turned the
heater off and drove slow, but the 25 mile spacing of these stations is about
perfect... Also, only charging 6 bars worth didn't heat up the battery so
much this time - it stayed at 6 bars. Ready to go in 20 minutes... It's now
7:45; I'd hoped to be in Ashland around 8pm. So much for that! The 3 hour
detour in Eugene pretty much killed that idea...
|
| |
|
Half an hour later, and I made it Brutke's Wagon Wheel in Roseburg
(dashcam approach video)
- with 5 bars/27 miles
remaining - this leg didn't take so much out of it.
|
| |
|
Starting the charge at about 50%...
The restaurant was closed already, but the
"lounge" in back was open. I didn't really want to drink, so dropped a dollar in
a "video lottery" machine. I'd never played them before - they used to call them
"video poker", but they're slot machines plain and simple.
Ashley texted back that they were having problems with the Cottage Grove station -
the connector wouldn't work for them, but didn't say what the problem was. I couldn't
do much but continue on and hope she could get a tech quickly...
|
| |
|
And finishing at about 90% again - must've just been under 50% at the beginning...
|
| |
|
Another 20 minute stop and ready to go again with 9 bars/57 miles! Though it didn't
quite get all 10 bars this time, the increased range estimate reflects the easier drive
from Rice Hill to Roseburg...
Also, as I was leaving the lounge, a couple guys were headed in. They saw me charging
and it turned out they were AV techs who had setup the machine. When I arrived, this
one still had an "Opening Soon" banner on it that I had to work around, and they had
just removed it ;-) They were heading down to Medford for the opening as well...
Note that the battery temp bumped again here...the charge at Rice Hill probably took it
halfway up and this finished the bump...
|
| |
|
Next stop: 7 Feathers truck stop
(dashcam approach video),
arriving with 5 bars/22 miles. Apparently,
being government funded, the casino up the street a bit wasn't a permissible
location, but a restaurant with slots in the back is ok ;-)
The location of the station wasn't obvious, as 7 Feathers is a bit sprawled out, as most
truck stops are for obvious reasons. I drove into the gas pump area and asked where the
charging station was. I have to admit enjoying that part ;-) He pointed me over to where
it is - bit out of the way and in the Employee Parking area. One issue here is that I had
a black coat and black pants - invisible at night in the best of circumstances, much less
a wet rainy night, and a large, open, apron to cross to get to the facilities there (a
restaurant and mini-mart). Be *very* careful there! I have pictures of the area on the
trip back in the day that show how to safely cross: There is a cross-walk where they've
narrowed the traffic area with concrete barriers where you can safely cross over to the
sidewalk.
Again, only used about half a charge to get here - I think in the summer it'll be possible
to skip stations, though I'm not sure if that will be better or worse for battery temps.
Probably worse - better to do several light charges spaced out...
Ashley reported that she was still stuck at Cottage Grove - something about the lever being
stuck and AV techs on the way...
|
| |
|
The AV station at the start, just under 50%...
|
| |
|
...and all done at 89% again.
|
| |
|
Ready to go again after 25 minutes, showing 9 bars/49 miles range at 90%...
After I got done charging, I made sure I could get the connector back out of the
station - I wasn't sure what problem Ashley was having, but I really hoped I hadn't
something to screw them all up! Everything looked ok, so I let her know and then
moved on...
|
| |
|
Got in to Wolf Creek at 10pm with 4 bars/26 miles left. The station is in the back of the
Wolf Creek Inn.
It was really helpful having the station all bright green - it made it really easy to find
at night, despite being in the back.
Wolf Creek Inn is a National Historic Site and used to be a stagecoach stop.
Keeping up with the times while still providing the same traveling needs!
Ironically, the station going in at the Brownsville exit north of Eugene is
right in front of a display with an 1899 vintage Studebaker wagon (I had no
idea Studebaker was that old!). Pairing the old with the new is a nice match
though...
Unfortunately, by 10pm, the inn was closed for the night. Since I didn't
need a room, I didn't bother them.
|
| |
|
The usual 89%...
|
| |
|
20 minutes, 89%, 9 bars/60 miles - the trip to Wolf Creek must have been an easy
one, as the range guesser is giving us more ;-)
More concerning - the battery temp was up to 8 bars! I was starting to hope I wasn't
going to have to sit somewhere for an hour to let the batteries cool down!
|
| |
|
The trip to Grants Pass is a lot of downhill - only used 4 bars to get there!
However: The nozzle at GP was firmly entrenched and I could not get it out for the
life of me. It's at the Chamber of Commerce, which was closed, and I needed to make a
pitstop, so I drove to a nearby gas station with the intention of limping to Medford,
as it relatively level and I *should* be able to make it, but knew that I'd just come
down a long hill and couldn't trust the guesser. So I drove back over to the CofC and
tried it again, and this time, with a firm but gentle ;-) tug, it finally came loose
and I was able to charge (a really good thing as it turned out!).
Ashley texted back that they were leaving Rice Hill, so they'd gotten their problems
resolved. Apparently it was an issue with the fast charge port on their car rather
than the connector itself.
Ashley also talked to the gal at the Motel 6 there, who was all excited
about people actually coming through and using the station ;-)
|
| |
|
I think I must have been a little over 50% at Grants Pass, as it kept going, headed for
100%. I'd intended to stop it at 80% to keep from heating the batteries more, but was
reading and missed it. When I stopped it, it had gotten up to 94% - another good thing
as it turned out!
|
| |
|
When you manually stop, the display gives red Charge Stopped message instead of the
green Charge Complete message...
|
| |
|
11 bars, 70 miles and 9 bars battery temp! This is the highest
temperature they've ever been to, and hopefully I can keep them from
doing it ever again - heat is a real problem for batteries... I would
*think* it would translate into summer range though, but for some reason
it didn't seem to work that way, though I have to believe it helped...
This was about a 40 minute stop because of the fussing at the beginning...
|
| |
|
When I got to Central Point (just short of Medford), the station was all blocked off.
It was the station where the big opening ceremony was to be and they had a tent and
barricades and all set up for that, so I couldn't charge there. If I'd skipped Grants
Pass, I'd have been staying at the Super 8 next door and California would have been
safe ;-)
I knew it was all flat to Ashland, so using the 2-1 mode, made it there with 1 bar and
2 miles around 12:30am. In fact, I was able to turn the heat back on
and speed up a bit toward the end...
I'd fiddled around Grants Pass for 20-25 minutes before I was actually able to charge,
so if I could've made it to CGrove without stopping, and not had the problem at GP, it
would have been about 9pm - 7 hrs for the 240 miles instead of the normal 4, a little
less that the double I was expecting and completely practical, if not for the impatient.
As I write this, the Carwings data is in - 75kWh for about 3kWh/mile. $9 worth of
electricity (at the high, wind power, rate I'm paying) vs $38 for the 9.6 gallons my
25mpg RAV4 would have consumed, or the $20 a Prius would have spent. Dollars that aren't
going to the middle east, oil speculators on wall street or oil companies with profits
larger than the GNP of many countries...
|
| |
|
Oddly enough, with 1 bar showing, it still thinks I have 22% remaining, confirming something
I've suspected from seeing how much it took to charge in the past: there's a reserve at the
bottom. Not an unreasonable thing to do actually, and the question also is "how much will they
actually let you use?" It may turtle at 10%, so there wouldn't really be a reserve then. I
haven't wanted to deal with a dead car, so haven't pushed it that far though ;-)
|
| |
|
I let it token fast charge while I checked into the Rodeway Inn next door. I'd planned
to go to the Super 8 across the street, but I wanted to make the loop into California in
the morning, and with the Siskiyous being an unknown quantity for the car, wanted a 100%
charge. Plus, with the batteries being so hot, I wanted to charge at L2 to be easier on
them. With the Rodeway right there, I wouldn't have to schlep bags very far at all, and
it had the advantage of being about 2/3rds the price.
By the time I got checked in and back, it had already gotten it up to 41% before I stopped
it and switched to L2.
|
| |
|
Oddly enough, it still only showed 3 bars/18 miles after the fast charge said it was
at 41% (a number it gets from the car), showing how hard it is to gauge anything
with this thing.
|
| |
|
With a 45 minute drive, a half hour recharge (more like an hour for breakfast while
charging) and another half hour drive, I knew I needed to get up at 8am if I wanted
to make the event at 11am. Of course, going to bed at 1am and knowing I have to get
up in the morning...the end result was it was really hard to get to sleep. I think
I finally got to sleep around 2 or 2:30 and then some truck started unloading
something at the restaurant next door at 7am. Uggh.
Surprisingly, I felt ok though. Seeing $4.10 gas at the place where I'm charging my
electric car probably helped...
|
| |
|
The battery's cooled down to normal, and, showing 56 miles with 100% charge,
the range guesser has a pretty good idea of range in these conditions! At
least the conditions I *had* been driving... Which made me a little nervous,
as I had planned a 42 mile round trip with the longest, steepest hill I've
ever taken the Leaf on (actually one of longest, steepest hills I've taken
*any* vehicle on ;-) ) in the plan. But, I figured, worst come to worst, I
could turn around at the ski area just before the border, so off I went. I
wasn't *really* worried, however, knowing that really, I only needed to make
it to the top - I was going to be recharging on the way back, not consuming...
|
| |
|
I'd planned on turning around at the inspection station, but it was down a steep hill
on the California side, and while I knew the "26 miles" the range guesser said was due
to the hill I'd just come up, when I saw that
Hilt
was just inside the border and had an
interchange, I decided to wimp out and take it. Besides, that way I can say "I took it
to the Hilt!" ;-) It was fun regenerating for 7 miles back down into Ashland, but was
disappointed that it wasn't enough to bump me up a bar of charge - almost though! Carwings
reported recovering 2.3kWh on the 30 mile trip, the most I've ever done, and at about 10%
of the capacity of the pack, it nearly got me a bar! I should have powered down at the
top, so Carwings would record up and down separately - with an average of 3.5 miles/kWh, it was
really sucking it going up (in fact, as I recall, it was using 40kW those 7 miles with a
55mph speed limit, compared to a typical 18kW on the level at 65).
In any case, I made it back with 5 bars/47 miles left - plenty to spare and could easily
have gone on with the original plan. But I made it to California!
|
| |
|
Filling up for the trip to the Big Event!
|
| |
|
The end of the Rodeway I stayed in; my room was just to the left behind the restaurant
that is the near building on the left. I had breakfast there while charging - not a
bad place - typical diner fare.
|
| |
|
I should have taken more pictures of the locations... This is the Ashland Texaco...
|
| |
|
Starting at 53% and taking a long breakfast, it was headed for 100% I think
it actually stopped on its own just after I took this, at 98%, rather than
going all the way...
|
| |
|
That got a bump in the battery temp, and with all the down hill, the range guesser
went back to "you can go 105 miles!" Uh huh. Sure...
Being a little after 10, it should be about 10:30 when I get to Central Point -
perfect timing!
|
| |
|
And lo! People and Cars ;-)
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
Gary Graunke and Patrick Conner, from OEVA. They cheated ;-) and drove a plug in Prius
down from Portland this morning rather than Leafing it yesterday.
|
| |
|
Everyone loved having an electification ceremony at a gas station with $4.10 gas...
|
| |
|
The Mitsubishi Miev. Nice little car, but I like the Leaf better...
|
| |
|
A Chevy Volt - first time I've seen one of them for real too. Not as ugly as I
feared, looks like a nice option. I told the guy (from the Chevy dealership) that
I was going to get one until I found out they were doing the fast charge network.
He said "You'll be back!" ;-) Glad he's optimistic ;-)
|
| |
|
Ashley is the 2nd from the left...
|
| |
|
Ashley's ODOT Leaf
|
| |
|
Justin Denley is a featured local Leaf driver - fun to talk to and another
computer guy! ;-) His wife, Ariana, is the gal to the left of him - they're
planning a trip to Portland in their Leaf in a couple weeks and we talked
about how to get there without fast charge stations north of Brownsville...
Another thing we talked about was how I used less getting from Central Point
to Ashland than the reverse. He noted that while it looks flat, Ashland is
several hundred feet higher.
I talked briefly to someone else (Bruce) planning the trip also, and then got
pulled aside to be interviewed(!) for the ODOT website. I'd been expecting
something like that to happen, and trying to think of things to say, but of
course, was completely unprepared for it when it happened. Maybe they'll let
me redo it ;-)
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
The Mayor of Central Point as I recall...
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
Ashley Horvat and Art James, of ODOT - the ones responsible for this. Big hand for them!
|
| |
|
Wahid Nawabi, from AeroVironment. Apparently they worked with GM on the Impact, the
predecessor to the EV1, so they've been around a while (and it shows in their gear).
Even when Ecotality finally gets around to installing Blinks between Corvallis and
Portland, I'll probably take 99 so I can use the AV stations instead, as I'm expecting
them to be more reliable.
|
| |
|
I forget his name, he was from the Mitsubish dealership touting the Miev...
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
Justin got a chance to speak and was pretty good. Glad it wasn't me ;-)
|
| |
|
Jeff Allen, of Drive Oregon
had lived in the area and mentioned coming down to get pears from time to
time. I didn't even know they grew pears around Medford... I meant to get
one before I left, but forgot.
|
| |
|
After everyone gave their speeches and after people packed up their locally produced
pears, Nissan shopping bags with goodies in them (there were only a few of the latter
and they went fast ;-) ) and nibbled on some Harry & David truffles, many of us headed
off to Grants Pass for the next ceremony. After all the sitting around and a token
charge to 80% at Central Point, the batteries had dropped back down a bar in temp, and
I made it to Grants Pass showing 4 bars and 29 miles.
80% - airplane pilots say that you can't use fuel on the ground or runway behind you.
EV drivers driving cross country need to remember that...
|
| |
|
At Grants Pass, they had things set up there too, and I thought it was a better do.
One cool thing was they had this old turn-of-the-century (20th, not 21st ;-) ) EV
prototype there. Turns out the grandson of the inventor was there and
talked
about it.
|
| |
|
These are the two AV techs I met in Roseburg tne night before, with their test gear
in the back of a Leaf they borrowed from Nissan in Eugene (they'd flown up from
California, apparently having a heck of a time with cancelled flights)...
I mentioned that the connector had been sticky the night before and they said they'd
take a look at the shims after the event. Not sure if they got to it, as they were
gone to Wolf Creek before I got to try using the charging station. Wish they'd still
been there!
|
| |
|
The city of Grants Pass uses these cute little EVs from
T3 Motion for the police. The guy
on it was friendly and talked all about it.
|
| |
|
The sun actually almost came out for part of the event! A nice change from
yesterday!
|
| |
|
The place was packed...
|
| |
|
...I and several others had to park in the neighbor's lot...
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
The Mayor of Grants Pass: "Since none of the other mayors are here, I can say that
Grants Pass is the Jewel of Southern Oregon!" ;-) Meanwhile, Art is getting ready
for the
ceremonial
plugin in the background...
|
| |
|
Ceremony accomplished, time for some more speeches
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
Patrick gave a great speech here...
(YouTube
He ended with this great note:
42 year ago on July 20th 1969, Neil Armstrong took "One Small Step"
into history. What you may not know, is that two years later, Apollo
missions 15, 16, and 17 took lunar rovers to the moon. And because
there is no atmosphere on the moon, internal combustion could not be
used. So the rovers were electric vehicles. This is the 40th
anniversary of those lunar rovers being on the moon. That means that
for 40 years, 100% of the vehicles on the moon have been electric.
Today's event gives the earth a chance to start catching up.
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
48V, 3HP, 19mph ;-)
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
As we were getting ready to leave, it turned out there were a number of Leafs heading
to Wolf Creek for the third and last ceremony. Ashley said there were a bunch of kids
from a charter school there who had been studying up on EVs and the history of Wolf Creek
and it sounded like it would probably be the most fun of the events. She was going to
have me charge next, but there were 3 others who were parked in a location that made them
more logical, as they were right there and I was across the street. By the time it got
to me, I was going to be late already, and then disaster: the guy in front of me in line
didn't park quite close enough and tugged a little too hard on the cable and pulled it
out of the station (the yellowish ring is supposed be flush with the silver ring bolted
to the black plastic). It didn't look like it pulled anything loose, but when he went to
charge, it errored out on "communicating with vehicle". The Mitsubishi guy tried the Miev,
but it had the same problem. They gave up and left and, being local, just went home.
I tried, and got the same result.
It's hard to see how it's supposed to fit, and I know these sorts of connectors are often
problematic, but it's a little disappointing in an otherwise great station, to find it this
easily put out of whack: it shouldn't have been possible to pull the cable out by hand...
Having only charged to 80% back at Central Point, I was kinda stuck - it would be iffy getting
back to CP to do a full quick charge, which might get me to Wolf Creek if I were careful. Or
spend a couple hours slow charging and miss everything. I tried the slow charger to maybe get
a little bump get back to CP and then on, but it wouldn't work either. Aggh! What do I do now?!?
I called AV and he tried resetting the station, while I tried the L2 again. This time I did the
fob in the right order, and it worked properly. Phew! I can move on even if I miss the fun
stuff! The AV tech had me take this picture and email it to him, then I read for a while. And,
to top things off, about the time the line of charging started, it started raining. And of course,
they were tearing down the setup for the event, so the rain shelters went away too ;-)
|
| |
|
After a while, I looked at the distance to Wolf Creek - only 16 miles, and decided that even
with a hill, a half charge should be enough and I might still make it there while people are
having lunch afterwards. So, finally, a little over an hour after the event was to start,
I headed off with 6 bars/42 miles at 55...
|
| |
|
I had arrived in GP with 4 bars/29 miles, so I probably could have made it,
and certainly could have left a half hour earlier, but for all the adventuring
I do, I'm actually pretty conservative about it ;-) Leaving GP with 6 bars/42
miles, and arriving at WC with 2 bars/13 miles is about right when I'm not sure
of things like the hill between GP and WC...
When I got there a little after 4pm, everything was, as expected, all over, but
there was another blue Leaf charging - it was nearly done though. I was going to
plug in the L2 in the meantime, but then noticed *it* was plugged in too. Bruce,
who has the unusual Leaf that *doesn't* have a quick charge, was using that.
So I went in to see who was left. I didn't see the ODOT Leaf, so was surprised to
see Ashley there - many were just finishing lunch. She'd given it over to Art so
he could have a chance to drive it back and was gassing it back home ;-)
I swapped cars with the ones whose Leaf had just finished, then went back in and
we talked about what had happened a bit, then most left. I was going to get lunch too, but
it turns out they close for lunch at 4pm and don't open for dinner until 5! The chef
had left, but they still had soup and salad and stuff, so they gave me a bowl of clam
chowder which was *huge* and more than filled me up. Quite tasty too...
Bruce was the sole straggler, as he had another couple hours to wait with the slow charger
and wanted to talk some more about getting to Portland. He's way more adventurous than
I am, taking a trip like that with only L2 capability! The fast charge ability, and the
infrastructure to support it, was the thing that swayed me over from the Volt. I gave him
some suggestions, and then it was time for me to start making my way back home.
|
| |
|
90% and away we go!
|
| |
|
7 bars of additional charge, 1 bar of temp, leaving with 9 bars/68 miles...
|
| |
|
...arriving back at 7 Feathers with 4 bars/32 miles...
|
| |
|
It's nice getting pictures charging with $4 gas in the background ;-) But
another point of this picture is that the restaurant/mini-mart are way over
to the left of the gas pumps. You can see the huge open area you have to
cross and risk getting run over...
|
| |
|
The fast charge station is in the Employee Parking area...
|
| |
|
They have a bunch of concrete barriers that narrow the traffic area towards the back
where the trucks are. This makes a spot narrow enough to safely cross and they have
a crosswalk there. The charging station is just to the left of this picture.
|
| |
|
...and the crosswalk is just to the right of this picture, and takes you up to the
sidewalk in front of the restaurant.
|
| |
|
I decided to take it easy on the batteries and stopped the charge before it got to 90%,
which at this point, I was thinking was where the battery heating was happening. After
writing this stuff up and reviewing the various states, it's clear that it's the amount
of charge that is doing it, though I think over 90% is worse than staying under it (which
is why they normally stop there). It's something to watch for though...
|
| |
|
Leaving 7 Feathers after only 15 minutes! with 9 bars, 70 miles and still only 6 bars temp.
|
| |
|
Back in Roseburg with 3 bars/20 miles
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
I went ahead and let it go to 89% here, as I spent the time cleaning up the
nav system address book: I'd programmed in the station locations as I went to
each one on the trip down, then when you start charging, it goes "Oh! A new
charging station! I'll add it!" So I had a bunch of duplicates with addresses
for names and went through deleting and renaming to the actual business names.
That took long enough to kill what remained of the 25 minutes I was there,
leaving with 9 bars/57 miles and still only 6 bars temp.
|
| |
|
Arriving back at Rice Hill with 6 bars/31 miles.
|
| |
|
and 54%...
|
| |
|
I had a nice chat with the lady at the Motel 6 who I think might have been the manager.
She liked the charging stations etc, but thought they were too far from anywhere for
them to be for her. For people that do a lot of travelling, that's probably true, though
in the vast majority of families with more than one car, one of them could be a modern
EV with no problem.
Starting over 50%, I had to stop this one also, and didn't get to it quite as soon as I
intended. At this point, I only had one more fast charging station to go, and *did* want
that one to fill up so I could shoot for making it all the way home without a 3 hr stop in
Eugene again. So I did intentionally let it go a little farther here, to shorten the time
in Cottage Grove.
|
| |
|
Leaving Rice Hill with 8 bars/57 miles and 7 bars of temp too - yes, going
over 90% is a facter.
|
| |
|
This let me arrive in Cottage Grove with 6 bars/37 miles left...
|
| |
|
...and 56%. This would let it charge to 100%, so I started it and went in for
a snack and to read in the restaurant. I wasn't that hungry after the huge bowl
of chowder at Wolf Creek, and ended up bringing much of it home...
|
| |
|
OK, it stopped at 98%. Close enough, let's give it a shot...
|
| |
|
Arriving at 8pm and leaving at 9pm, mostly because it just takes that long to get
served, eat a bit and the check etc. I don't think it took that long to charge,
but gave the batteries a chance to cool a bit hopefully. Anyway, they were still
at 7 bars temp, phew! Left Cottage Grove at 9pm with 12 bars/77 miles...
|
| |
|
...and arrived home in one shot! 1 bar/6 miles, driving 55 w/no heat. Fortunately
didn't need to defog the windows much and just turned it on for a few seconds to clear
the window, then off again, when needed. I was running in the "10 mile surplus" mode
all the way. Actually, it's downhill from CGrove to Eugene, so the range actually went
up and I had a 20 mile surplus for a while, but it gradually dropped when I got back on
relatively flat ground (though it's still slightly downhill from Eugene to Corvallis).
I was watching it drop, but it was doing it so gradually, I was pretty sure I'd make it
ok, and in fact, when I got off the freeway, I was doing well enough to speed up a little
and even turn the heat back on for the last few miles. Surprisingly, though it was cold
outside, it wasn't that bad in. Maybe the battery heat was helping ;-)
|
| |
|
So...505 miles in two days. The return trip only used 67.5kWh, and that includes
the excursion to California - 255 miles at 3.8miles/kWh. Aside from better weather,
I realized that overall, it's downhill from the top of the hill out of Grants Pass
to Corvallis, which obviously makes a difference.
It was a fantastic adventure, and I plan to repeat it sometime this summer, finding
a weekend with some plays I want to see and making my way back down. I'll take a day
to go each way instead of an evening, but it'll be worth it to avoid sending my money
to unstable regimes in the middle east to consume the last bits of a dying resource
just to spew it into the air...
I just can't wait for the ones north of me that I'll use a *lot* more than once every
year or two ;-)
|
Stats:
The trip down:
- Leav Corvallis: 2pm
- Arrive Eugene: 3pm, leave 5:20pm - 47.8 miles, 13.1kWh
- Cottage Grove: 6pm, leave 7pm - 25.2 miles, 7.8kWh
- Rice Hill: 7:26pm, leave 7:45pm - 26.7 miles, 9.2kWh
- Roseburg: 8:17pm, leave 8:35pm - 23.9 miles, 7.5kWh
- Canyonville: 9:10pm, leave 9:34 - 25.6 miles, 8.7kWh
- Wolf Creek: 10:05pm, leave 10:26pm - 23.0 miles, 8.7kWh
- Grants Pass: 10:51pm, leave 11:28pm - 18.2 miles, 5.8kWh
- Ashland: 12:24am - 45.0 miles, 14.5kWh
Total: 75kWh
The trip back:
- Leave Ashland: 8:32am
- Ashland: 9:10am, leave 10:08am - 30 miles, 8.6kWh
- Central Point: 10:30am?, leave 12:30pm? - 18.4 miles, 4.3kWh
- Grants Pass: 12:49pm, leave 3:42pm - 25.4 miles, 6.4kWh
(10.7 total from Ashland, vs 14.5 to go the other way)
- Wolf Creek: 4:03pm, leave 5:06pm - 18.4 miles, 6.0kWh (vs 5.8kWh)
- Canyonville: 5:32pm, leave 5:49pm - 23.2 miles, 6.5kWh (vs 8.7kWh)
- Roseburg: 6:16pm, leave 6:42pm - 25.3 miles, 7.1kWh (vs 8.7kWh)
- Rice Hill: 7:09pm, leave 7:29pm - 23.2 miles, 7.1kWh (vs 7.5kWh)
- Cottage Grove: 8:01pm, leave 8:57pm - 26.3 miles, 7.2kWh (vs 9.2kWh)
- Corvallis: 10:16pm - 64.4 miles, 14.3kWh (vs total of 20.9kWh and 73 miles)
Total: 67.5kWh
Grand total: 142.5kWh
It's interesting to note that aside from generally using quite a bit less energy
to go north, it also tends to be a bit shorter. That's because of the different
freeway exits used...
For this 500 mile trip, my RAV4 would have used 20 gallons of gas, a Prius about 10.
At $4/gal, that's $80 and $40. I'm paying $0.12/kWh (with the renewable and salmon
features added in), or about $17. Rounded to the nearest 15 minutes, I spent 8 hours
charging on the trip (at the fast chargers, 1/2hr at each, each way, though actually,
I think that's high - some of them were more like 15 minutes). If they charge $10/hr,
it will cost the same as my RAV4, if only $5/hr, then same as a Prius.
NOTE: this is
only for cross country driving - the vast majority of EV driving will be local where
you're charging up at home and only paying your electric rate, which puts it at about
1/3rd the cost of a Prius for fuel... And whatever you're paying for it, your money is
staying relatively local and not going to the middle east, you're not consuming an
increasingly limited resource, you're vastly reducing your pollution and all the other
benefits that come with driving an EV.
I can't wait for the next phase to be rolled out!
|
|
