travel ccs charging california

[egolfEr]

Can anyone share their experience traveling from nor cal to so cal in an egolf within a day or two. are ther ccs fast chargers ? i don’t see many in plugshare app?

 

[JoulesThief]

Adjust your settings to Chademo and CCS, 1773 and pay to charge. There's a bunch of them on 101 Charge Point has a lot of them. Look also for Greenlots. King City, Paso Robles, Goleta, and Los Angeles Zoo are some suggestions. Keep in mind VW recommends every fast charge be followed by a J-1773 charge.

Get yourself a ChargePoint account first, and a Chargepoint card, and the app, before you start the trip and preload it with $50 of credit for electricity.

You can fast charge 2x in a row... IF YOU TOP CHARGE EVERY FAST CHARGE up to 90% and then top off with a J-1773 charge to a full 100% complete recharge.

Another very important suggestion.... you will get much more miles per recharge if you can hold your top speed to 55 mph for the whole drive home. The car can discharge the battery much faster than it can recharge, by the time you exceed 55 mph, such that more time is lost charging than driving faster. You'll lose time driving faster.

I would also do a slow completely full overnight charge at a j-1773 charger, where ever you end up spending the first night. If you drive slower, at 55 mph the whole trip, you should be able to easily get 160 to 175 miles per recharge.

Driving fast on 101 with a small battery like on the e-Golf will drain it's capacity fast. Drive 75 mph and with nothing on, you'll be looking for a recharge every 90 to 100 miles, and waste more time recharging.

Almost 4 years of owning my 2015 SEL has taught me that going fast isn't worth the increase in recharging time or expense. Conservation of energy and controlling ones max speed with use of modest cruise control will save you... be the tortoise, not the hare, and get home sooner.


Hanlee to Salinas, Harden Ranch. You'll spend an hour at least , charging at that one. about 114 miles

Coast Nissan in San Luis Obispo, you might be able to get a free fast charge there, but I'd offer to pay.
at the
Or use a free J-1772 charger at the shopping centers on east side or Home Depot on west side of road, if you are over nighting there in San Luis Obispo motel 6 san luis obispo south. Should drive slow to get the 129 miles you need for this one. That's 240 miles down. Sunday is a new day.


There is a Greenlots charger in Goleta at the Costco... low rates for a 55 kWh charger. 92.7 miles

Next stop Los Angeles Zoo, you need a Greenlots account and app for this free fast charger. Get it set up in advance. Also make sure on Plug share that this CC is working, it tends to get abused a lot. 112 miles to this charger. There are also J-1773's to recharge here.

If you drive slow, no more that 55 mph with a full charge, you can make San Diego and home from here and just plug in overnight in your garage as soon as you get home. you will add about 4 miles range per hour with the 10 amp 120v charger the new car comes with. Put it on at least a dedicated 15 amp circuit with nothing else running to recharge, always.

 

[egolfEr]

Thanks for the detailed reply and the tip. I found some shippers for $400...might take that option. As I have an added complexity of finding CCS chargers at or near locations of Tsla chargers.

Sounds like you have a lot of experience driving this route.

 

[JoulesThief]

Thanks for the detailed reply and the tip. I found some shippers for $400...might take that option. As I have an added complexity of finding CCS chargers at or near locations of Tsla chargers.

Sounds like you have a lot of experience driving this route.

If your time is worth big $$$, get a shipper to deliver... If you want a road adventure, drive it yourself. Your tesla driver can haul ass and find any Tesla chargers they want, they have double the range that you do. So it's no big deal for them to get a charge. Nothing says you have to drive back with them, just meet somewhere for the night.

If you arrive late at night in SLO, finding a charger for free with a short walk or a ride from your Tesla friend is easy

The route I have provided is most economical from POV of cost of electricity, only.

 

[RonDawg]

Adjust your settings to Chademo and CCS, 1773 and pay to charge. There's a bunch of them on 101 Charge Point has a lot of them. Look also for Greenlots. King City, Paso Robles, Goleta, and Los Angeles Zoo are some suggestions. Keep in mind VW recommends every fast charge be followed by a J-1773 charge.

Uncheck CHAdeMO (and Tesla Supercharger) in PlugShare. The former won't work at all (plugs are different, and no there's no adapter) and the latter only works with Tesla cars starting with the Model S.

And it's J1772 for L1 and L2 charging.

Get yourself a ChargePoint account first, and a Chargepoint card, and the app, before you start the trip and preload it with $50 of credit for electricity.

If you have an RFID-enabled credit card, or Apple Pay/Android Pay, no need. Waving one of these in front of the reader unlocks the charging handle and bills that card accordingly. AFAIK there's no benefit to having a ChargePoint account other than to get your own RFID card, as each station's pricing is different, as opposed to EVgo which does offer a monthly subscription plan which is a better value for those who frequently charge there.

 

[johnnylingo]

Be wary of Chargepoint DCFCs on 101. I made that trip last summer and found the ones in Paso Robles and Salinas were both broken. They have both been fixed after several months of downtime, but that hardly inspires confidence. Even if they are working, don't expect more than 20 kW

There are some affordable L2 chargers in PR at the bus station and SLO at the Marsh street parking garage. I'd recommend planning an overnight charge at either so you're not relying on the ChargePoint DCFC's only to get an unpleasant surprise. Definitely sign up for an EVgo account and map out the ones in SLO, Salinas, and Watsonville in advance

 

[miimura]

Until the new Corridor DC Fast Chargers are complete on the I-5 corridor and US-101 corridor, everyone with an EV with less than 200 miles of range should be using the CA-99 route between Nor Cal and So Cal. There are EVgo chargers spaced very well on that route. 101 has a large gap of reliable chargers. The CCS-only stations in King City and Paso Robles are not reliable, primarily because the equipment sucks, but also because there is a single machine at the site and no backup without detouring to a J1772 AC charging station. There are new multi-station 50kW DC Fast chargers on I-5 at Santa Nella and Coalinga (Harris Ranch) but the one in Wheeler Ridge (Tejon Ranch) is not open yet. It's waiting for its utility connection. There will be an additional site in Buttonwillow but it's not known to even be under construction yet. The trip is possible on I-5 but you have to detour over to 99 to charge at the Walmart in Bakersfield to make it, so you might as well go all the way down 99.
Electrify America and Recargo are supposed to be building DC fast charging stations on the 101 corridor. Maybe they will be open by the end of this Summer.

You also didn't mention if you have a 2015/2016 e-Golf or a 2017+ model. The bigger battery in the newer cars makes a big difference on a trip like this.

 

[johnnylingo]

you might as well go all the way down 99.

Yeah but I'd rather spend 3 hours in Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo, Pismo Beach, or Paso Robles than 15 minutes in Fresno, Modesto, Merced, or Chowchilla :lol:

Electrify America and Recargo are supposed to be building DC fast charging stations on the 101 corridor. Maybe they will be open by the end of this Summer.

Yep I see one is already scheduled for the Wal-Mart in Salinas. Santa Cruz/Watsonville have 3 allocated but I don't know if they've chosen locations yet.

 

[Sparklebeard]

I'm curious about the Bakersfield to Los Angeles segment. If one left Bakersfield with 100% battery in a 36kWh e-Golf would one be able to make it over the Grapevine without having to stop to charge or things getting scary? All I remember is that its just a LOT of steep climbing in both directions. I'm assuming staying with the trucks doing 55mph in the slow lane is the move here, for sure.

 

[f1geek]

I agree highway 99 has the most DCFC stations. You will probably shorten your trip (by spending less charging time) if you slow down a bit - say drive at 60 or 62 mpH instead of 65 or 70 mph. I have found this has enabled me to stretch the range of the e-Golf significantly and doesn't add that much driving time.

You can try www.abetterrouteplanner.com, for more estimates about energy usage, etc.