Santa Clara to Santa Clarita

[Sparklebeard]

Ok actually it’s San Jose to Burbank, but that doesn’t sound as cute.

I am planning to bring the Handsome Boy 1.1 down to SoCal on vacation some time this summer to see friends. I know the e-Golf isn’t exactly the most well suited vehicle for this but I would like the adventure.

I’d love some help planning the route, based on some more local knowledge of the route. There’s another thread talking about the drive over the Grapevine not being a good idea. I’ve done it a number of times in an ICE so I can imagine how fast the battery would drain up that grade....

I have friends in Bakersfield who I would like to see, so I would be able to easily plan to spend an overnight charge there. By my basic route planning on PlugShare I think I could get to Bakersfield with just a single DCFC in the Central Valley, but I’d love to hear from anyone else whose done it.

 

[JoulesThief]

If it's the 2019, and if you slow down... like 55 mph, and get a fresh, full 100% charge in Bakersfield overnight, I'd say it's doable. On the downside, near Castaic Junction there's a free charging station at Wayside Honor Rancho, that you could stay at for maybe 75 to 90 minutes that would get you to Burbank, where you can again charge overnight.

You will need to find somewhere on i-5 or 99 to get a DCFC to get you to your friends house in Bakersfield.

Driving CA speeds on I-5 will suck your range down... I'd plan on just buying time drafting behind a big rig in the slow lane doing 60 to 65 mph, to save your battery, but you'll need to be on your toes if he hits the brakes hard.

A lot will depend on how much AC you run and how fast you drive, what your range will be. I would strongly suggest you slow way down on some surface streets a few miles before you reach that DCFC, so that your battery cools off a bit from load, and is able to take more kw while recharging.

Scout it out on PlugShare. Open an account there. Once you sign on, upper left hand corner, click on the 3 bars there and set up "filters". At the bottom of the filters is a new feature called "Trip Planner". Use it.


You should probably stop in Gilroy and find somewhere with a ChargePoint 100 that charges at up to 24 kWh rate and get a full recharge there, before you go up and over the grade to the San Joaquin Valley, because you'll want it to get to Coalinga, that's the longest leg of the trip without a recharge.

There seems to be a DCFC at a Chevron Station in Coalinga that will give you what you need to get to Bakersfield. Doubt it's going to be cheap for that electricity there. From there to Bakersfield, where I assume your friend has an L2 EVSE unit at their home that you can use to charge again to 100%

LA County Sheriff Pitchess Detention Center just east of Castaic Junction is a free place to recharge. 90 minute there, about 9 or 10kW added for free should get you to Burbank, no problem, at least with the way I drive.

If you are in Burbank,just down the road a short ways is the Los Angeles Zoo. A GreenLots app there will get you a free DCFC, but plan on waiting in line, perhaps, depends on time of day you use it. 30 min charging limit, that should get you close to 20 kw added, if you are pretty low on your battery state of charge when you plug in, say 25 to 30% SOC when you start.

I absolutely prefer using L2 charging though.

If you are traveling in the Valley there, it's going to be very, very hot temps, and will not at all be good for your battery in that heat, using DCFC. Just a fact of the San Joaquin Valley in the summer time, 3 digit temps, it's why everything looks dead there, plant wise.

Just myself, I might be outdated, but for my needs I carry a ChargePoint and Greenlots app. YMMV, though I'd think with you being so close to ChargePoint HQ, you already have a card, the app, and an account with them.

https://na.chargepoint.com/dashboard_driver

 

[Sparklebeard]

Thanks for those suggestions, I appreciate it.

I do currently have PlugShare and ChargePoint etc all set up, and I regularly use the trip planner function in PlugShare. But the trip planner doesn't do a good job of taking into account grade climbs, and has no notion of local knowledge of what to "really" do, vs what looks good on paper.

I am cautious of truly drafting behind a truck, as that's a great way to end up in a collision. Perhaps I'll experiment with setting the ACC to the closest follow distance and see what that's like behind a truck doing 55. I wouldn't want to be closer than 100 feet! I don't mind a slower drive as a trade off for taking the EV. I'm also fairly comfortable using AC sparingly. I grew up in Australia before air conditioning was commonplace in every car so I'm used to driving with the windows cracked in 100F temps! Charging at those temperatures does give me pause, however.

The suggestion of 24kWh DCFC isn't a bad one in terms of protecting the battery however I have had nightmarish experiences trying to use those ChargePoint units and I have had a 100% failure rate on every single one I've tried. I recognise that this is confirmation bias on my end, but it makes me apprehensive to rely on one during the trip!

I also agree with the idea of exiting the freeway early to give the battery a chance to cool down; in fact if there were a highway that ran parallel to I-5, just with a 50mph speed limit I would probably just take that the whole way.

 

[miimura]

There are two new ChargePoint DCFC stations on I-5 that are mostly installed but not online yet. They are located at Buttonwillow near the Tesla Supercharger and Tejon Ranch, also near the Supercharger. This will make the trip down I-5 very easy. However, until then, you're better off taking CA-99 due to charger spacing unless you already want to stop in Bakersfield. Until the new stations are online, you can't make it with DCFC staying on I-5 from Harris Ranch over the Grapevine to Santa Clarita.

ABetterRoutePlanner has pretty good terrain and vehicle drag models for all the cars in its database. It is most refined for Tesla vehicles because they are able to download data from the cars directly to build the simulation models.

https://abetterrouteplanner.com/

 

[JoulesThief]

Bakersfield is at about 400 ft elevation. I'd think she has a full charge if she overnights at her friends in Bakersfield. Tejon pass is about 4400 feet. 4000 ft gain, about 2 kwh lost per 1000 feet. They will be gained back at 80% going down into Castaic Junction. Keep your speed at 55 going downhill too, to get regen energy back into the battery. Bakersfield to Castaic Junction is 76 miles. Add 10 kw there in about 90 minutes. Castaic Junction to Burbank is 27 miles.

Having 125 miles of estimated range is a healthy addition to the e-Golf. Slowing down and getting 5.5 miles per kwh x 30 usable is 165 miles. I'd fully trust my ability to get there, without too much stress or worry. 250 to 300 miles should be doable with just one DCFC, and a level 2 overnight charge at the friends, with a full charge stop somewhere near Gilmore or point further south and east, but before Bakersfield.

I don't see it as any problem on a fresh 2019, probably not even a well taken care of 2017 that's lost some range by now, either.

 

[JoulesThief]

https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=5227d2ee-1d8d-4a01-ab29-bfa6e9347daa


https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=b83b2b5a-d9a8-466b-8af1-84e8ab5f4199


https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=f771f044-20e2-4d68-93c8-20e0fc185c8e



Theoretically, you can make it from Bakersfield to Burbank on a full charge, and have 11% left, but I don't like running my battery that low.

 

[Sparklebeard]

Thanks for those, that’s great

 

[JoulesThief]

Let us know how the trip planning went, vs what actually happened with charging adventures, with some feedback.