Road trip to Joshua Tree - 512 miles driven this weekend

[Pigwich]

As requested by another use, our report:

We did a nice road trip this weekend, from LA to the Salton Sea, Salvation Mountain, then back through Palm Desert to Joshua tree, and back to LA via Palm Springs for lunch. All in all, the Bolt performed admirably. A toddler, a four month old, two adults, and all our crap for 2 nights. We did 512 miles, averaging 4.0 miles/kwh all told, which seems pretty good!




And nevermind the car, the kids only had ONE major meltdown the entire trip!!

Friday, drove to Salvation Mountain from the east side of LA, with a stop at Civic Center Park in Palm Desert to use the fast charger and run the kids at the playground, only to discover the terrible, terrible truth about EVGo's half hour session cutoff and per-session charges the hard way.......by returning to my car almost an hour later to find that it had't been charging, and the first session only added a little more than a third to the battery. Thanks for the advanced warning on that one EVgo, It would have been nice to know that I have to babysit the charger, and to add insult to injury, pay another $20. Bastards.

The drive to the Salvation Mountain was beautiful. It was a weird, overcast day with no need for crazy air conditioner use. Got within 50 miles of the Mexican border. Went through the border patrol check point, made it through with a nod and a wave, despite the new world order and my half Mexican wife riding shotgun. Returned home via watching the sun set over the Salton Sea (kinda funky smelling, but worth a visit)

We made our way back up to Joshua Tree via a DIFFERENT EVgo station in Palm Desert, only to find out that it too had the stupid half hour policy and per-session charging fees, but at least this time, I didn't need the crazy mileage to get to where we were going, so I got away with one session.

We drove another hour to an AirBnB in Joshua tree down a long set of dirt roads. The house had an outside 110V outlet that was for charging. All I can say is that using the portable cord with the Bolt is PAINFUL. I plugged in, and it said "Charging complete by 2:30 AM" but it would take further digging in the menus to see that it meant 2:30 AM on MONDAY. HA!! It was a nice little cabin though, so we spent plenty of time there. There are no other chargers in Joshua Tree, although apparently there's a solar powered CHADEMO system in the next town over.

Saturday was a drive in to the actual Joshua Tree park. Lots of climbers, very busy, the oldest daughter scaled a few boulders herself. The Bolt had AWESOME headlights, great for those big, dark open roads at night.

Charged up to about 75% on the 110V cord, and headed home on Sunday with stops in Palm Springs, then the Desert Hills Premium outlets for one last stab at EVGO, which predictably sucked and cut out after 30 minutes. Fail, but I did get some new flipflops.

Stopped by the McDonalds in Banning to change a diaper and to check the status of THEIR fast charger, which was a Greenlots EFACEC 50 KW, and it ran great. Put in 14kwh, which I didn't technically need, but rest assured, the McDonalds in Banning will be my spot in the future, and at 28 cents a kwh, it's not that bad a price, plus it's all wind power....maybe, and I let it go past 30 minutes to see what happened, and wouldn't you know it, it kept charging, SHOCKER!!

Weekend total? 512 miles, 127 kwh of juice, and a newfound love of the desert, and a freshly kindled hatred of EVGO.

I will say this - It may pay to get some kind of hacked together crazy 220V contraption to charge out of whatever power you can find, because using the portable cord is INSANITY. Yes, it works, but if I didn't have all the long hours at the rental house, I'd have been screwed. Three days to charge the car is a LONG time. Also, J-tree, this town is CRAWLING with hippies, shouldn't you get a couple DC chargers and a few J1772 plugs at the grocery store and restaurants?

Good times all around however. Coyotes,

 

[SeanNelson]

Sounds like you had a nice trip - thanks for the great narrative.

...using the portable cord is INSANITY. ... Three days to charge the car is a LONG time.

It should take less than 2 days (about 42 hours, in fact) to charge on 120V AC power, as long as you're charging at 12 amps. But the default is 8 amps, which will take 50% longer. So for faster 120V charging times when you're away from home you have to remember to go into the charging settings and change it to 12 amps. This is assuming, of course, that the circuit you're plugged into can handle that load for days at a time.

 

[EldRick]

Glad to hear the headlights work well.
How are they at cornering - does any light make it to the sides and into corners (unlike my SparkEV)?

 

[jjr]

Thanks so much for sharing - to be honest, the charging while out and about is one of my biggest concerns while I wait for my Bolt.

However, most of my driving will be to and from my home base where I'll have a level 2 EVSE and can charge overnight so it won't often affect me.

 

[GetOffYourGas]

Thanks for the great write-up. I'm jealous of your EV adventure! That's a great looking car (and a cute kid). The charging situation should start to accelerate now that Bolts are out and about, using the chargers.

 

[Pigwich]

It should take less than 2 days (about 42 hours, in fact) to charge on 120V AC power, as long as you're charging at 12 amps

Hi Sean, you're completely right, it should take less than 2 days at 12 amps. The electric meter sure will suck up 60kwh in that time, but it's not a 100% efficient process (the battery charging part) and then there's an efficiency penalty for the boost converter in the charger that steps the 120V up to 380V or whatever, and then there's overhead for pumps and fans, which may or may not be running during low power charging. Another thing about those boost converters is that generally speaking, the more they need to step up, the worse the efficiency. I don't know the specs on the charger on the Bolt, but it could be around 90% (which is apparently what the Manzanita Micros get) which doesn't sound awful, but it all adds up. Also, let's not forget any battery heating or cooling that might happen throughout the day and the night. Long story short, even 42 hours is a LONG time to charge. Make sure you set the car to 12 amps people!

Oh and another thing, extension cords. All I can say is that I dropped a hundred bucks on a 50 foot long 10/3 cord, only to pull out the portable cord and see that it's 18 AWG. I know about voltage drop and ampacity, but seriously GM - walk the walk if you're gonna talk the talk about straining the wiring.

 

[Pigwich]

Glad to hear the headlights work well.
How are they at cornering - does any light make it to the sides and into corners (unlike my SparkEV)?

The lighting in cornering seems fine. In my opinion, the spread on the Bolt seems pretty wide. Definitely use high beams in those dark places. The vertical cut-off is so sharp that you really lose distance, especially when driving in to dips in the road, for example, across washes.

I can't say the performance is that great off-road - There was about a quarter mile soft sand leading up to our house. It makes it and I was never afraid of getting stuck, but it's no jeep.

 

[SeanNelson]

It should take less than 2 days (about 42 hours, in fact) to charge on 120V AC power, as long as you're charging at 12 amps

Hi Sean, you're completely right, it should take less than 2 days at 12 amps. The electric meter sure will suck up 60kwh in that time, but it's not a 100% efficient process....

OK, I just wanted to make sure you knew to select 12A since it's not the default for "away from home" charging.

 

[rfenchel]

Great post...appreciate the charging details.

I am attempting a long distance trip (Los Gatos to Truckee, CA) in the next month or so (weather window closed out this week) and will post details. Yes, as posted before, EVGO is notorious for their 30 minute session and $10 fee per session. Fortunately/Unfortunately, EVGO has some nicely placed DC faster chargers along my route to Truckee, CA on I-80. SparkE also mentioned good things about GreenLots charging stations.

I think there is another forum post about Bolt owners writing to EVGO's leadership. I am going to write a letter (yes, people read them and it has worked before) to the COO Glen Stancil urging him to tweak charge cut-off times for Chevy Bolt owners. Handwritten addressed envelopes helps too...so rare these days people open them up.

https://www.evgo.com/about/leadership/

https://www.evgo.com/contact-us/

Cute kiddo too!

RBF

 

[Anonymous]

Hey There - re: taking along apparatus to charge with, years ago when I bought a Coda EV ( just got a Bolt LT), I got a Juicebox Charger which plugs into a 220V outlet such as a dryer outlet or one you might find at an RV park. I also put together a heavy gauge extension cord and a few adapters to allow the charger to be used with various types of 220 outlets.I've used it to charge from a dryer outlet but so far not at an RV park but using an RV parks seems like a way to increase the number of charging possibilities when out in the boondocks -cheers -Dave

 

[Anonymous]

Nice trip; great photo and maybe most impressive: two adults, two children and all their luggage! I would have liked to see a photo of how you packed the back of the Bolt EV!

We had our own overnight trip this weekend to visit family in Northern San Diego County from Valley Village (North Hollywood/Studio City). Mileage was never an issue, butI wanted to test out charging just in case.

We stayed overnight at the Lawrence Welk Resort in Escondido after 122 miles of driving. I knew from Plugshare that they had only 110V outlets for electric cart charging and they recommended bringing an extension cord. I purchased a 25' "heavy duty" cord at my local True Value, rated at 15 amps.

I also previously purchased the AeroVironment TurboCord Dual 120 and 240-Volt EV Charger to carry at all times in the Bolt EV and I have a collection of 220V adapters from my Volt days for when I come across various 220V outlets.

At the Welk Resort, I parked behind the Lobby and successfully used the extension cord to reach the outlets for 12A charging. I charged for 17.5 hours and reclaimed about 76 miles of capacity. The extension cord was not even warm. NOTE: I had used duct tape to tape the cord along, so that it would not represent a hazard in any way.

The next day, we visited family in Fallbrook and I checked out their dryer outlet in their garage and sure enough, my adapters would have allowed me to use the TurboCord at 220V charging while we visited there.

We then drove back through Oceanside and next to Camp Pendleton with a stop at an EVGo DC Fast Charger in Anaheim and discovered to my great chagrin for the second time the 30 minute limit! We met a friend for dinner in Buena Park and then drove back home to Valley Village.

Today, we brought take-out lunch in to Keyes Chevrolet in Van Nuys while we used their Fast Charger to bring the Bolt EV back up to 200 miles and then back to home where the 110V charger topped it off!

 

[gpsman]

Nice trip report.
I am planning trips like this soon.

I have no problem driving 55 mph to extend my range. Has anyone drained their battery top to bottom at 55 mph? Bet you get 238.

 

[GetOffYourGas]

Hey There - re: taking along apparatus to charge with, years ago when I bought a Coda EV ( just got a Bolt LT), I got a Juicebox Charger which plugs into a 220V outlet such as a dryer outlet or one you might find at an RV park. I also put together a heavy gauge extension cord and a few adapters to allow the charger to be used with various types of 220 outlets.I've used it to charge from a dryer outlet but so far not at an RV park but using an RV parks seems like a way to increase the number of charging possibilities when out in the boondocks -cheers -Dave

Wow, a former Coda owner? Cool! I nearly forgot those existed, they didn't last long. Although at the time, they broke the mold with great range for the price. I'm sure you're loving your Bolt in comparison, though. Do you still have the Coda? Someday, I imagine seeing those in car shows as a relic/curiosity. They're certainly a lesser-known part of the EV revolution!

 

[Anonymous]

I sold the Coda a couple of years ago on Ebay to a collector. It was an interesting car - 100 mile range or so, weird braking feel, not great build quality all of which were OK and bearable but with no service backup and no diagnostic codes available, it didn't make sense to keep it - and then an unexpected glitch one day where it suddenly,completely went down but luckily came back up - that's the short story. - Dave

 

[Anonymous]

Nice trip report.
I am planning trips like this soon.

I have no problem driving 55 mph to extend my range. Has anyone drained their battery top to bottom at 55 mph? Bet you get 238.

My guess is that in California, it would be easily above 238!

I hypermiled 196 miles to Paso Robles up (and then down) through the Grapevine from Los Angeles on Interstate 5 to Hiway 46 as a test and the gauge said I still had 70 miles left and the Energy Used was only 44.5 KWh!