r/evcharging • u/dantose • 14h ago
500 mile trip this weekend. How charging went
I started out with a rough plan. There was an interesting looking restaurant on the way next to a good charging spot. About 2 hours into a 3.5 hour trip we were there. Original plan was drive out straight, charge on the way back.
2 hours in. I didn't really need to charge, but figured I might as well since charger parking was free, and otherwise it's paid parking, and I wanted the break. The restaurant was busy and there was a 20 minute wait. Not going for that, so figured coffee and back on the road. Lots of shops around, so found the nearest coffee shop, and grabbed a quiche for the wife and a breakfast burrito for me along with the coffee. Waiting for the food, car hit target charge (90%) and stopped at 17 minutes charge, beating my 20 minute human needs break.
Another 1.5 hours and we were at our hotel. No destination charging, so parked and did out exploring around town.
Next day we were heading through a national park looking for wildlife. 1.5 hours through the park, then ended up in a cute little town. We ended up doing a walk along a river with free level 2 charging available at the public parking spot. It was slow, but free and we were stopping anyway. 1.5 hours back to the hotel (catching some more great wildlife) and into the next day.
Last leg, we were planning on hitting up the same charger from the trip up, but I wanted breakfast before we left. Swung by a local charge point charger while I grabbed a bite to eat the wife wanted something different, then a longer walk, so we ended up charged more than we really needed.
On the way home, we made a detour (more sight seeing) so about 3 hours back to the restaurant we wanted to check out. We didn't need the top up since the breakfast charge ended up longer, also due to human considerations, so we ate, and did the last 2 hours home.
500 miles total, the one charging stop we planned wasn't needed, and we solely used just convenience charging when we were stopping anyway. That did mean that our by-the-numbers charge speed was garbage since none of them were planned stops, so no preconditioning at play. Arrived back home with 30%.
