My 70-something parents have decided to take another long distance road trip in their ID.4

[BLND1]

With an ICE you'd actually have to make a trip to the station to fill up before you leave, and you'd have to do the same when you get back whereas the EV starts full and can arrive back at home empty but fill overnight - that's two fuels stops added back into the ice trip.

( people always seem to forget about these and the other 52 trips a year they make to fuel weekly)

I've been taking EV trips for over a decade now. I trade pick up truck usage for Ev loans with other employees.
My most common Route is Grass Valley to LosAngeles about 470 mile trip.
With any of the long range teslas my trip isn't impacted at all based on the way I travel.
I stop 2-3 times for a few minutes on a trips this long regardless of cars energy source.

That grass valley/LA drive is among the most EV friendly on the planet for a good portion (I’m assuming you take the 5 and not 99).

So much so that it’s almost silly to compare EV infrastructure on the 5 corridor between Grapevine and Tracy to any other route in the country.

 

[ammolab]

Sounds like the folks are always on the interstate and near many handy charing points. If they ran thru N Mexico anywhere off of our two interstate highways they might have a tougher go of it. Not all of the USA has chargers lined up for ya!

 

[wemay]

Good for them. I hope they have a fantastic time once again.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Sounds like the folks are always on the interstate and near many handy charing points. If they ran thru N Mexico anywhere off of our two interstate highways they might have a tougher go of it. Not all of the USA has chargers lined up for ya!

Very true. I was at our place in Petaluma (Wine Country) this morning; there are only 2 good sized Supercharger locations. As I get closer to home, chargers are all over the place. I stopped in San Bruno for a 5 minute top off. 250kW baby! 800 mph charging...

 

[demarpaint]

190 to 200 miles is a decent drive for one day for an elderly couple, even with a vehicle with lane keeping and mostly highway driving.

I can understand them not having any problem with charge times if they are ready for a rest or good meal while the vehicle charges.


One thing they should consider is that heating the cabin area in cold weather will reduce the range. Maybe as much as 20%. That could change their plans, if they do not take that into consideration in advance. OP, you might pass that along to them.

They aren't that old. 190-200 miles a day, they'll be old when they get to their destination at that rate of travel.

 

[ammolab]

Very true. I was at our place in Petaluma (Wine Country) this morning; there are only 2 good sized Supercharger locations. As I get closer to home, chargers are all over the place. I stopped in San Bruno for a 5 minute top off. 250kW baby! 800 mph charging...

View attachment 186456

Nothing like this picture exists in New Mexico…even right off of the interstate. My granddaughter runs from Austin to Albuquerque (Tesla Model 3) which is a 11-12 hour drive. Her best time to date is 18 hours.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Nothing like this picture exists in New Mexico…even right off of the interstate. My granddaughter runs from Austin to Albuquerque which is a 11-12 hour drive. Her best time to date is 18 hours.

Tesla adds supercharges based on demand. As the other EV makers adopt the Tesla charger, we can expect charger growth to accelerate. Can't sell cars if ya can't fuel 'em up.

It is clear to me that I live in an EV bubble.

 

[Brons2]

Anecdotal: when I-5 at the grapevine was closed by CHP for more than 12 hours earlier this year there were numerous Teslas and other EV’s stuck that required towing.

A few other vehicles as well (poorly maintained vehicles likely) but I’ve always been leery of the Tesla method of route planning. It’s very efficient until it’s not. And when it’s not (I-40/10/80 shut down because of life flights or other environmental hazards and the “just in time” method of Tesla/ev charging can go to hell quickly.

I have quite a few friends with EV’s and as a whole, for around town they are great. On longer trips and non home range excursions i definitely get the sense that the trip becomes more about the charging challenges than the actual travel. New will always attract the tech savvy and early adopters may even LIKE that aspect, but for most folks the flexibility simply isn’t there yet. It likely won’t be for a long while on non-local trips even with a massive charger overhaul unless new battery and ev tech comes online.

All good points. That said I think we've (in my family) all dealt with the west coast mountains enough to know to keep a close eye on the weather. Been personally stuck northbound at Siskyou Summit on I-5 in a gas car for many hours with a range anxiety inducing quarter tank. "But Medford is just over the hill!" famous last words. Thankfully didn't get stuck, the gas held out in the snowstorm turning the engine off and on when we got cold.

The only time we ever got stuck on the Grapevine was in the summertime at 100+F in 1978. Our 1970 Chevelle Station Wagon blew the radiator cap off right as we started climbing the pass. Thankfully nobody got scalded because the antifreeze was all over the passenger side of the windshield. My then-youthful dad had to walk down the hill back to Buttonwillow or whatever it was at the bottom of the pass on the north side. He was able to get a new cap and some anti-freeze and we continued on to LA without further incident, although we sat there on the side of the road waiting for my dad for what seemed for a long time while an endless stream of trucks went by laboring up the pass. Was my dad's youngest brother graduation from UCLA as I remember. I was 7 at the time.

 

[Brons2]

Nothing like this picture exists in New Mexico…even right off of the interstate. My granddaughter runs from Austin to Albuquerque (Tesla Model 3) which is a 11-12 hour drive. Her best time to date is 18 hours.

Ah yes this stretch was the only time my parents ever had a problem on the prior trip. There are no DC fast chargers in Lubbock and one is needed to bridge the gap between Amarillo and Sweetwater, if you are taking the direct route to Austin. If you stay on US287 to Fort Worth there is a DC fast charger a few miles off the route in Oklahoma according to ABRP. That's not a direct route but probably faster than waiting all afternoon on a slow charger.

Anyway they ended up spending an afternoon in Lubbock on the slow charger. After it got to 60% they took off for Sweetwater with the AC off at a low rate of speed to ensure they'd make it, IIRC they were doing 60mph.

Supposedly there are now 4 Superchargers in Lubbock but no CCS/DC Fast chargers otherwise.

 

[BLND1]

All good points. That said I think we've (in my family) all dealt with the west coast mountains enough to know to keep a close eye on the weather. Been personally stuck northbound at Siskyou Summit on I-5 in a gas car for many hours with a range anxiety inducing quarter tank. "But Medford is just over the hill!" famous last words. Thankfully didn't get stuck, the gas held out in the snowstorm turning the engine off and on when we got cold.

The only time we ever got stuck on the Grapevine was in the summertime at 100+F in 1978. Our 1970 Chevelle Station Wagon blew the radiator cap off right as we started climbing the pass. Thankfully nobody got scalded because the antifreeze was all over the passenger side of the windshield. My then-youthful dad had to walk down the hill back to Buttonwillow or whatever it was at the bottom of the pass on the north side. He was able to get a new cap and some anti-freeze and we continued on to LA without further incident, although we sat there on the side of the road waiting for my dad for what seemed for a long time while an endless stream of trucks went by laboring up the pass. Was my dad's youngest brother graduation from UCLA as I remember. I was 7 at the time.

Of course, weather was just one part of it. The times I’ve been stuck for significant periods was actually for non-weather related issues (a shooting on grapevine earlier this year, several life flights on 40/15 headed out to desert, etc.

Run the heater in your Tesla while stuck in traffic a couple tantalizing miles out from your destination after using the “just enough” Tesla charging strategy and you’ll be envious of those folks that can fill up with a gas can or any hole in the wall flyover town.

 

[Brons2]

Run the heater in your Tesla while stuck in traffic a couple tantalizing miles out from your destination after using the “just enough” Tesla charging strategy and you’ll be envious of those folks that can fill up with a gas can or any hole in the wall flyover town.

They are pretty conservative with their charging strategies, they take it to 100% every time on the road trip (with the above noted exception) and rarely below 30% if they can avoid it. But yes I will remind them that with the weather colder they need to be more careful and watch their usage of the heater.

 

[UncleDave]

That grass valley/LA drive is among the most EV friendly on the planet for a good portion (I’m assuming you take the 5 and not 99).

So much so that it’s almost silly to compare EV infrastructure on the 5 corridor between Grapevine and Tracy to any other route in the country.

Its is now, but it wasn't ten years ago.

I find I tend to stop at the same places whether using gas or electricity.

 

[The Artillerist]

The exact point of this thread is to refute viewpoints like this. They did an even longer road trip to LA, SJ, Oregon and Washington in June for the US Open in LA, then visiting relatives and friends up and down the left coast. So this is not new for them or their vehicle

Do have a link to that thread?

 

[The Artillerist]

No, they are not significantly limited in any way. I'll refrain from using that term in the future.

“Elderly” just means “being past middle age”. Not more, not less. For Christ’s sake…

 

[vavavroom]

Very true. I was at our place in Petaluma (Wine Country) this morning; there are only 2 good sized Supercharger locations. As I get closer to home, chargers are all over the place. I stopped in San Bruno for a 5 minute top off. 250kW baby! 800 mph charging...

View attachment 186456

Did you get a pie or anything at Lunardi's? I enjoy their burnt almond cake a couple of times a year.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Did you get a pie or anything at Lunardi's? I enjoy their burnt almond cake a couple of times a year.

I was only there for 5 minutes, so no I didn't. But hanging a left outta the parking lot and ending up back on 280 was such a nice surprise.
Next time for sure. I wanna surprise wifey; she's super adventurous and will get a kick outta the little diversion.

 

[bigjl]

So to all you EV luddites, my elderly parents will be driving their EV from the Austin suburbs to San Jose, CA, yet again. This is a minimum 3,416 mile round trip using mostly Interstate highways, not counting driving around at the destination and so forth, plus getting to charging stations and hotels and so forth. Distince calculated using Google Maps from their actual home address to the nearest relative home address in the Bay Area, and using the I-5 route instead of the Coast route to get from the Los Angeles area. The whole trip will probably be closer to 4000 miles and that's assuming they don't head up into Oregon to visit friends, or take the coast route to visit their nephew/my cousin.

I, personally, would probably fly as there is direct service from AUS-SJC on multiple airlines, but hey they are retired and have the time, and they love road trips. Having school age children, that pretty much dictates when I can go, but my parents have no such constraints.

It will be colder this time as compared to when they drove out west in June, so that will be interesting how it effects their effective range. At home they charge to 80% but on the road they were charging to 100% every time last time, even though it wasn't strictly necessary to reach the next stop on many of their drive intervals. They were just more comfortable spending the extra time to charge to 100% every time.

They got 3 years free charging at Electrify America up front with the purchase of the vehicle, so I would expect they'd use that for the vast majority of their charging. Max DC fast charging rate on the ID.4 is 135kwh for all models, so it's a little slower than the Tesla max rate at superchargers.

They also have an adapter for the Tesla destination chargers at hotels and so forth.

Vehicle in question is a 2022 VW ID.4 Pro S RWD, battery capacity 82KWH, 201 HP, 229 lb ft. All specifications:
https://media.vw.com/assets/documents/original/15190-2022ID4TechSpecsFinalnoMPGe.pdf

If you have the time to waste charging then nothing wrong with doing an EV roadtrip.

I can think of nothing worse than doing any form of long journey in an EV

There is no point

But if it makes those who have drunk the EV KoolAid feel better about their fast depreciating EV then you crack on.

 

[Kira]

Thanks to our modern freeway system you can travel anywhere while experiencing nothing.

While I enjoy most "Twainesque" sardonic commentary, people should remember that any highway 'system' has as its first goal establishment of a uniform transportation facility.
You can exit highways and see sights.

How highway networks amplify the node settlement patterns (think Von Thunen and Crystaller), kill small towns and increase the cost of services which need to be brought in, is something we can discuss.

Two people making another cross-country trip in a conveyance with which I have no personal experience is interesting.

I'd hope the travelers can chat with folk they meet at stops along the way. However, I'm aware that a group of people at the edge of the Grand Canyon watching a sunrise might be more prone to socialize than a random group who just witnessed a fight at a charging station.

 

[Leo99]

While I enjoy most "Twainesque" sardonic commentary, people should remember that any highway 'system' has as its first goal establishment of a uniform transportation facility.
You can exit highways and see sights.

How highway networks amplify the node settlement patterns (think Von Thunen and Crystaller), kill small towns and increase the cost of services which need to be brought in, is something we can discuss.

Two people making another cross-country trip in a conveyance with which I have no personal experience is interesting.

I'd hope the travelers can chat with folk they meet at stops along the way. However, I'm aware that a group of people at the edge of the Grand Canyon watching a sunrise might be more prone to socialize than a random group who just witnessed a fight at a charging station.

There is a road, no simple highway
Between the dawn and the dark of night
And if you go, no one may follow
That path is for your steps alone

-Robert Hunter

 

[Torrid]

If you have the time to waste charging then nothing wrong with doing an EV roadtrip.

I can think of nothing worse than doing any form of long journey in an EV

There is no point

But if it makes those who have drunk the EV KoolAid feel better about their fast depreciating EV then you crack on.

You were doing fine until that last line. Unnecessary.