SF to Disneyland - Easy Drive @65

[gpsman]

SF to Disneyland is an easy Drive in the Bolt at 65 MPH. I left home with battery (97%).

I drove 70 MPH from SF area to Salinas for a DCFC.
I drove fast because this was a short segment of 100 miles, with no range anxiety. Charged for 45 min to almost top off. $9.95 flat fee.

I drove 65 MPH from Salinas to Buellton because it was a longer segment of 190 miles. Here I charged for 88 minutes while I had a nice meal and short walk.
$23.53 (10% to 88%)

I then drove 65 MPH the final 175 miles to Disneyland. Arrived with (15%).
About a 9.5 to 10 hour trip.
A pleasant trip.

465 miles in 1 day : 133 minutes charging.

But 60 of those minutes were spent eating - something I would do in a gas car, so this trip was only about an hour, to hour and a quarter longer than a gas car trip.

 

[oilerlord]

Good job.

It will be a good day when DCFC infrastructure like you have becomes a reality for more people. It could be a decade or longer before our province gets serious about it. I've been invited to speak with members of our city government about solar & how our city can become more EV "friendly". Members on council that are 100% opposed to "subsidizing EV's" with the proposed installation of a few dozen L2 charging sites aren't helping. Yeah, those 10 cents of taxpayer kWh's going into an EV owner's car while they spend $50 for lunch at a local business is definitely a terrible deal for the city.

Sorry to hijack, just venting about crap we're dealing with here. Just jealous of what you have.

 

[siennared]

Good details. May be useful for us later this year. Did you take 101? Not many options on 5 as best as I could tell.

 

[Anonymous]

Those cities are clearly 101 and yes, no DC Charging infrastructure available yet on Interstate 5 for that trip!

Salinas is just inland from Monterey and Buellton (home of Andersen's Split Pea Soup) is just north of Santa Barbara.

Once he arrived in Los Angeles, he would switch from the 101 to either the 405 in the San Fernando Valley (to ultimately the 5 in Orange County) or the 5 directly just past downtown in Boyle Heights to complete his trip to Disneyland.

 

[GetOffYourGas]

Thanks for sharing. I can't wait for the day when such trips are so mundane that it would be laughable to share them on a forum. In the meantime, you provide a great example of a long trip which only took 10-15% longer than it would have in a gas car. Bravo!

 

[SparkE]

SF to Disneyland is an easy Drive in the Bolt at 65 MPH. I left home with battery (97%).

I drove 70 MPH from SF area to Salinas for a DCFC.
I drove fast because this was a short segment of 100 miles, with no range anxiety. Charged for 45 min to almost top off. $9.95 flat fee.

I drove 65 MPH from Salinas to Buellton because it was a longer segment of 190 miles. Here I charged for 88 minutes while I had a nice meal and short walk.
$23.53 (10% to 88%)

I then drove 65 MPH the final 175 miles to Disneyland. Arrived with (15%).
About a 9.5 to 10 hour trip.
A pleasant trip.

465 miles in 1 day : 133 minutes charging.

But 60 of those minutes were spent eating - something I would do in a gas car, so this trip was only about an hour, to hour and a quarter longer than a gas car trip.

Amusingly, I looked at the exact same route yesterday evening, as I am considering driving down to Ventura in April. People may have noticed that I have a certain ... distaste of EVgo.

I'm wondering why :
1) You didn't use the free DCFC in Salinas at Harden Ranch Plaza. I could understand if you were charging from a very low SoC, but based on your description, most of your charging would have been around 22-24 kW anyhow (over 70% SoC) and the little part that wasn't would have charged at a rate in the mid-35kW range (over 50% SoC). Where did you charge in Salinas?

2) Did you charge at one of the two 50kW DCFCs at the Marriott in Buellton? How was it? (easy to find? Clean?)

 

[gpsman]

The Harden Ranch Charger in Salinas is/was out of service. I went there first. (North side of Salinas)

The other DCFC is an EVGo at Nob Hill on the South Side of Salinas. I was happy (and surprized) that this location did not have a 30 minute time limit. I stopped the session at 45 minutes. It didn't stop me.
One $9.95 charge. (Shhhh.... if this was in error... keep it a secret....).

Marriott in Buellton is a great place to stop.
Lots of food and drink within walking distance.
And because its ChargePoint, no time limit.
Just don't use Apple Maps to find it.
Apple maps thinks it is on the 101 North on ramp.
It is of course on the frontage road, go behind the hotel, between the hotel and the 101.

 

[SparkE]

The Harden Ranch Charger in Salinas is/was out of service. I went there first. (North side of Salinas)

Thx. At the time I posted, there weren't any recent reports on PlugShare of problems (last one was back in Jan) and I wanted to make sure you knew about it. There are now two posts about a problem with the charger (altho one of the people waited a week before posting a 'problem' note - problem on 3/24, post made 3/30).

Did you have any difficulty FINDING the (broken) unit in Salinas? (Just curious - if you haven't been there before, it might be an issue.)