Newbie Trip Planning

[mattpo]

I pick up my R1S next week and am in a little bit of panic mode. Let me explain...

A big reason for us getting a new vehicle is that my wife and I have been and hope to continue to be doing a lot of driving all over the state in the coming years for an organization we are involved in (OES if anyone cares).

We are in the state of Washington so distances can be as much as 500 miles or more...so a lot of highway driving and charging will be involved.

I was hoping that the trip planner would identify my charging stops and total travel time, but I need to do all this so that I hit my required arrival time (including traffic) within 30 minutes or so. The app trip planner doesn't seem to have an option for selecting the arrival time. I would also hope that if chargers are all being used, that the app would reroute me accordingly. I was reading a few posts about charging stations and almost died when someone mentioned they have experienced more than an hour wait just to get on a charger....and then you have to actually charge.

Eastern Washington has some significant charging deserts that can obviously be a challenge, but what do people do? Do you add hours of travel time just to be safe? Is there a combination of charging/navigation apps that work well for folks? I could see that after a few months we would get used to adding a certain amount of time for "travel" (just like we add time for gas stops, bio breaks and meals today), but I'm worried that a 4-hour trip may increase to 6 or more hours.

I guess more than anything I just need some reassurance that it's possible to plan a trip without getting to the location 2 hours early or 2 hours late.

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[tbinmd]

get “a better route planner” app also website. abrp for short. The app is great and really helps a lot with planning. You can also link it to your Rivian account. This allows the app to pickup the live data.

 

[Billyt1963]

Sorry, not much help, but will try to discuss some.

i have had one multi charge trip. The stops took an approximately 30 minutes for rest, food and charging. The first stop I grabbed lunch then headed to charge. I got the truck charging and ate while it charged, we both finished at about the same time. I only charged the truck to 80% since that is best for on the road due to the charge slowing down after 80%. Second stop was a similar experience, started the charge, headed for a rest/bathroom and by the time I was back the charge was almost complete. Granted I was traveling with someone who was in a wheelchair and needed assistance.

I second the comment about ABRP. I would mock up the trip there and it gives the amount of time needed for stops and travel. This would give you a good idea of the time,but there are many factors that could impact.

Feel free to ask questions, it is the only way to learn, I will try to give an answer.

 

[COdogman]

Hopefully some people who live or travel up there can chime in with real world experience using the chargers in the area, but you should still be ok if you plan your trips with ABRP and also check reviews for chargers on Plugshare.

It takes some practice using the apps to find what you need and not a bunch of extra info that doesn’t help, but in the beginning more info is better. For example, do you want to stop at a fast charger that adds more range quickly, but may not be near amenities, or would you rather stop at a level 2 charger that charges more slowly but might have restaurants, etc nearby.

Just do some extra planning and give yourself extra time and you will be fine.

 

[silkyjohnson]

500 miles? In WA? In one day?

 

[HaveBlue]

Seems like that is a one stop charge to destination unless you have a small battery. Plan on lunch but the nav is really bad at picking what I should eat so there's that.

 

[mattpo]

500 miles? In WA? In one day?

Okay, I might have exaggerated a bit, but Seattle to Spokane is 300 miles and we end up heading North from Spokane to Deer Park a bit...so there's another chunk. Some folks start in Port Angeles which adds another 100 miles. It's conceivable that there are times when we have to start even in Forks and get to, say, Waitsburg in a day. We have done a round trip to the Spokane area or Walla Walla from Seattle a few times so that's in the 600-mile range.

Obviously, we try to avoid these marathon drives, but they happen in the name of attending a 2-hour meeting somewhere when schedules don't allow for an overnight stay.

 

[HaveBlue]

The more trips you take, the less you'll be concerned. Take a Tesla adapter and do a bit of planning. It won't take much.

 

[mkg3]

I have done many long distance EV road trips since 2018 with Tesla and Rivian since 2023. There are two key factors to consider beyond the ICE vehicle planning.

1) Depending on the charging station you use or available, there is a great deal of uncertainty about the charger being available when you get there. There are several apps that can give you where the DCFC stations are and how many. The issue is, I've found, those apps are not always reliable and that its not a real time updates. In other words, you might show up thinking that there is 1 of 4 chargers available only to find that the one is available because its not working.

Solution to this is plan on charging at DCFC with large number of charging stalls. Even then, it's hit and miss, except for the Tesla Super Chargers. Tesla SCs typically have larger number of charger and is up almost 100% of the time. Electrify America is getting better, except that there are few car companies that included free charing sessions for period of time to their buyers. The result is it's always busy with all the stalls taken unless you happen to be in a very small EV community. If I were you, I would only plan to use Tesla SCs.

2) Charging times and frequency vs travel speed. You have to look at the total travel time and not just driving time. An example is if an ICE vehicle drive that takes you 6 hours at 80MPH, might take you 7.5 hrs if you drove the R1S at 80MPH because you have to stop twice to charge. You would be much better off driving at 65~70MPH and only making one stop resulting in the total travel time of 7 hours or something like that.

There is no formula since it is heavily topology dependent. EVs are much worse dealing with climbs, speed and environmental factors (e.g., rain, wind, temperature) than ICE vehicles. You will have to find out for yourself on your particular drives to determine what combination works.

The last thing I would say is that the 30min time window is very tight for ICE, let alone on an EV due to larger numbers of uncontrolled variables. Personally, you use case probably would have been better served from PHEV than a BEV but since you've made the decision to take delivery, just know that you have to do much more upfront planning. There is no app that can deal with what humans can for changing conditions. Use the app as the baseline, then allow for time margin and see how that works out for you.

Good luck and enjoy the journey

 

[Dave Cundiff]

Apple Maps says Washington's southwest-to-northeast diagonal (Cape Disappointment to Ione) is 519 road miles. It takes about 8.3 hours plus stops via I-90.

(UPDATE/CORRECTION: Metaline Falls WA is even closer to the northeast corner -- from Cape Disappointment to Metaline Falls is 530 road miles, 8.6 hours plus stops. You can see I don't know my opposite corner very well....)

I'm not giving @mattpo a hard time about "500 miles." Washington is a bigger state than many realize.

Best to all!

 

[VandalSibs]

Okay, I might have exaggerated a bit, but Seattle to Spokane is 300 miles and we end up heading North from Spokane to Deer Park a bit...so there's another chunk. Some folks start in Port Angeles which adds another 100 miles. It's conceivable that there are times when we have to start even in Forks and get to, say, Waitsburg in a day. We have done a round trip to the Spokane area or Walla Walla from Seattle a few times so that's in the 600-mile range.

Obviously, we try to avoid these marathon drives, but they happen in the name of attending a 2-hour meeting somewhere when schedules don't allow for an overnight stay.

I live in Spokane, and had to make an emergency trip up to Colville about a week ago. Left my house at 70%, drove up there and was at 51%. Drove home and arrived at about 28% (I went a little bit faster on the way home to pick up lunch for my wife).

While parts of Washington seem like a charging desert, it's really not that bad. There's plenty of charging along I-90, so crossing the state west/east is really quite simple (to the point that I've skipped planned charger stops the truck suggested to go to a cheaper location further along).

This image is from PlugShare, and shows all of Washington State:

Orange is Level 3/DCFC chargers, all of which work with Rivians (some would require the NACS adapter). Green is Level 2 chargers.

In other words, Washington is just fine, charger-wise.

 

[mkg3]

This image is from PlugShare, and shows all of Washington State:

Orange is Level 3/DCFC chargers, all of which work with Rivians (some would require the NACS adapter). Green is Level 2 chargers.

In other words, Washington is just fine, charger-wise.

This is misleading to someone who is trying to hit an ETA with 30 min margin.
Unless these orange markers are all Tesla SC, vast majority of them are 2~4 charging stalls with less than stellar reliability/running order.

I do agree that Washington is not exactly a charging desert.

Like I'd mentioned in my first post herein, charging time includes idle wait times if all chargers are in use; thereby, blows any planned charging time estimate.

This mao below are Tesla SCs available to all NACS partners. With Tesla SCs, there probably is no waiting for an open charger. And even if there was, it would be much shorter time than all others since there are more charing terminals.

The OPs issue is constrained by needing to arrive at a certain time +/- 30 min according to him.

 

[Mobilchuckje]

500 miles? In WA? In one day?

Right? Neah Bay to Walla Walla is still under 500 miles.

 

[VandalSibs]

This is misleading to someone who is trying to hit an ETA with 30 min margin.
Unless these orange markers are all Tesla SC, vast majority of them are 2~4 charging stalls with less than stellar reliability/running order.

I do agree that Washington is not exactly a charging desert.

Like I'd mentioned in my first post herein, charging time includes idle wait times if all chargers are in use; thereby, blows any planned charging time estimate.

This mao below are Tesla SCs available to all NACS partners. With Tesla SCs, there probably is no waiting for an open charger. And even if there was, it would be much shorter time than all others since there are more charing terminals.

The OPs issue is constrained by needing to arrive at a certain time +/- 30 min according to him.

I feel like limiting yourself to Tesla is well, a limit. Lots of EA chargers in Eastern Washington are just fine (my sister uses them all the time), and Avista Utilities (again, in E. Wa) installed lots of 150kw chargers thru various networks that work just fine.

 

[mkg3]

I feel like limiting yourself to Tesla is well, a limit. Lots of EA chargers in Eastern Washington are just fine (my sister uses them all the time), and Avista Utilities (again, in E. Wa) installed lots of 150kw chargers thru various networks that work just fine.

Agree that EA is getting better. The unfortunate part is that companies like MB, Kia/Hyundai and others have given their vehicle buyers free charging for 2 years or some period of time.

There is no EA charging stall that is working that's open (unless its a middle of the night) and there are cars waiting in line whenever I have had to use EA.

Again, OP has ETA constraint which changes things a bit in terms of selection.

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