Range Anxiety disappearing for me

[Dr Andy]

I'm in Victoria, TX on a multi-day road trip. Superchargers are non-existent in Victoria and the two hotel chargers I tried weren't working. Starting to panic, I googled "EV chargers in Victory." There's a law office in downtown that has a home charger on the outside wall of their office. If they are not using it, they make it available for anyone to use. I'm getting 11 miles an hour from the kindness of new friends while walking main street Victoria and eating along the way.

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[DeafPug]

If you don't have it already, download the Plugshare app on your phone. Plugshare is the go-to source for information on public charging. Besides the iOS/Android apps, their information is also available at plugshare.com. This is a crowd-source information source for all publicly available charging stations.

In Victoria, they list both the Kia and Nissan dealers towards the north end of town have 25 kW CCS charging available for no cost. Plugshare also lists a couple slower J1772 stations (charging $0.25 to $0.50 per kWh) at hotels and one at a business (no cost) available with prior contact.

 

[Dr Andy]

Thanks. I stopped in the Kia dealership, but they said “no.” That’s when I found this kind private person sharing their charger in downtown Victoria. And thanks for the advice- I just downloaded plugshare.

 

[ThumprMN]

Disappointing that the KIA dealership said no. Hope they change their attitude to support the overall electric vehicle adoption. They have a vested interest in EV’s being successful.

 

[Writemax]

I wish charging infrastructure was better and had more options. That would help with range issues.
I'm glad for apps like PlugShare, but the lack of fast charging in many areas limits when I'll take my R1S.
eg, Reno to Vegas in our CRV 7 hours in the Rivian almost 11 hours, with two long charging sessions.

 

[DeafPug]

Thanks. I stopped in the Kia dealership, but they said “no.” That’s when I found this kind private person sharing their charger in downtown Victoria. And thanks for the advice- I just downloaded plugshare.

Interesting that the Kia dealer said no to you for charging. In this month alone, check-ins on Plugshare include a Lightning owner that charged there twice and a pair of Bolt owners who also charged there. I wonder what was the difference between those people and you.

When I took that screen grab of the map, I had Home chargers filtered for some reason - apparently, Plugshare saves per-device (web vs phone app) filters instead of sharing that across your account. Enabling home chargers, they show 4 home chargers (a 14-50 outlet, a Tesla wall connector, and a pair of J1772 stations) in town, so nice coverage from the home users for situations like yours, where the car dealer wasn't willing to help.

Small towns off the Interstate system are where using charging stations at private homes becomes more useful. In 6 years with the Model 3, I did that one time when visiting my great aunt in rural Iowa for lunch on the way home from the fly-in up in Oshkosh, WI. I had made plans a couple weeks ahead of time to charge at the person's house for a couple hours while I had lunch with the family. The person who let me charge was a pilot, so I brought a 6-pack of Spotted Cow beer (favorite of pilots everywhere due to being the "default" beer while attending EAA AirVenture in Wisconsin). They loaned me their SUV while my Model 3 charged. My family got a kick out of someone I had just met loaning me their car while mine charged in their garage. In the intervening years, several more Supercharger stations along I-80 and I-35, so it's much easier to make the diversion off the Interstate system to this small town without being so concerned about range.

I've had my home charger listed for 10 years on plugshare. It's in the garage, so not the most convenient for other people to use. In that time, I've been called twice asking about a getting a charge. Both times, I was away from home, so couldn't help out. Luckily, for both of them, there's a public charging station only 6 miles away and they had enough range to make it there.

 

[emoore]

I wish charging infrastructure was better and had more options. That would help with range issues.
I'm glad for apps like PlugShare, but the lack of fast charging in many areas limits when I'll take my R1S.
eg, Reno to Vegas in our CRV 7 hours in the Rivian almost 11 hours, with two long charging sessions.

I wish charging infrastructure was better and had more options. That would help with range issues.
I'm glad for apps like PlugShare, but the lack of fast charging in many areas limits when I'll take my R1S.
eg, Reno to Vegas in our CRV 7 hours in the Rivian almost 11 hours, with two long charging sessions.

You only hit 50kw chargers?

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