How often have you charged away from home?

[91040]

In almost 5 months of ownership:
18 times at Charge points
1 QC at Mitsubishi
At least 9 times at other locations (dealers, family, parking structures)

 

[TangoKilo]

+1 Charging away from home is the quickest medicine for "range anxiety" and other "stay at home" ailments... :mrgreen:

 

[KeiJidosha]

~10% of my trips and 20% of my 43,000 miles included public charging. It would have been higher with a back seat. A 6.6kW charger will set you free.

 

[ElectricVehicle]

I updated my original post with a couple important charging stops I needed:

Update: I charged 3 days in a row at SAP Labs, Palo Alto, while I was attending the Charged 2011 Plug In Vehicle conference, just getting an extra hour of L2 charge made the round trip to San Jose in the commuter lane no worries, when it otherwise would have been at the limits of the range and I would have had to drive 55 instead of 65. I also like arriving home with 2 or 3 bars, it's a bit conservative, but I've never been stranded and it leaves a little more leeway in case you have to detour a few miles around an accident, make a wrong turn, whatever.

 

[TangoKilo]

KeiJidosha, I stopped by Mitsubishi HQ's DC quick charger. Very fast....

 

[Valdemar]

KeiJidosha, I stopped by Mitsubishi HQ's DC quick charger. Very fast....

Where is it exactly? Is it accessible after hours and on weekends?

 

[KeiJidosha]

KeiJidosha, I stopped by Mitsubishi HQ's DC quick charger. Very fast....

Envy. The closest I get is 12kW in Goleta. I can only imagine…

Where is it exactly? Is it accessible after hours and on weekends?

6400 Katella Ave. Cypress, CA 90630, No, and No. Mitsubishi Motors QC in Cypress

 

[TangoKilo]

I was there Thursday afternoon. It's behind the main building. Enter off Holder St. Read my entry on Recargo and CarStations apps. The people there are very friendly.

 

[Valdemar]

KeiJidosha, I stopped by Mitsubishi HQ's DC quick charger. Very fast....

Envy. The closest I get is 12kW in Goleta. I can only imagine…

Where is it exactly? Is it accessible after hours and on weekends?

6400 Katella Ave. Cypress, CA 90630, No, and No. Mitsubishi Motors QC in Cypress

Bummer, if it were it would have nicely solve my "how to get to El Dorado Park from West San Fernando Valley and back on a Sunday in October" dilemma (Leaf or ICE). Also if it were located 30 miles or so more South trips from LA to San Diego would be possible. Oh well, some day...

 

[SanDust]

Other than at the dealer when I picked up the car, never in six months and seven thousand miles. I probably could have used a public charger, they are around, and in fact I've been next door to the dealer several times, but I take another car if I think range will be a problem and I'm not that curious about what a public charging experience might be like.

 

[Boomer23]

About 11 times in six months, mostly for fun and convenience, or at meetings that were a little far, but doable without charging.

Seven times were at Charge Point sites. One was at the grand opening event of Seal Beach's Charge Points. Once at a Charge Point at the AQMD headquarters in Diamond Bar for a meeting. The rest of them for convenience in Laguna Beach and Newport Beach.

Twice at Nissan Dealers during local group meetings or at my own dealer's.

And once at the AQMD at Level 1 during another meeting.

And once at Mitsubishi's Quick Charge station in Cypress, just "because I could".

 

[Randy3]

In 8+ months and 7,500 miles, I've charged away from home:

Twice at the RV park near Los Banos (82 miles from home)
Once at my sister's house in Morgan Hill (54 miles further from home than Los Banos)

4 times at an RV park in Oakhurst for trips to Yosemite
Once at an RV park in Coarsegold (emergency -- I when too far enjoying the drive)

Twice at Nisan of Visailia, about 50 miles from home
Five times at Fresno/Clovis Nissan dealers. Normally needed after driving out of town.

In a side question, I'd like to know how far away from home LEAFers have traveled. My record is 264 miles round trip.

 

[GaslessInSeattle]

7 times in 6 months, most were for novelties sake and to show support for public charging.

 

[wsbca]

5x in 7000 miles:

2x in Balboa Park
3x at friend's houses (L1)

None were essential, though to have avoided one of the L1's, I probably would have arrived a bit later after topping up a bit at home before heading over that day (after returning from another trip), and one of the Balboa park charges created an opportunity for an extra errand on the way home since we (intentionally) didn't start that trip full.

 

[TomT]

Three times in 7 months and 8,000 miles.

Two because I had to to get home (both were L1) and once because I wanted to try the QC at Cypress.

 

[palmermd]

Never charged away from home. Lots of 75-95 mile trips and no need to charge, but QC at some of these destinations would be nice. We're usually only at the destination for an hour or so, so charging at L1 is almost useless and L2 is not much better. My fiance has driven it to work half a dozen times (95 mile round trip on I-5). L1 or L2 would be helpful in this situation, but there are none nearby. And her employer (UPS) is not willing to help out.

Same is true for my other EV I've been driving since 1995. I've charged away from home about 5 times total in that car.

 

[GPowers]

Charge (L2 & L1) at work 3 or 4 days a week.

Charged (L1) at Skyline upholstery when the interior was being redone.

Charged (L1) once at a friends house.

Charged (L2) at metro Nissan.

I have checked out a few public charging stations but have not use them yet.

 

[camasleaf]

I never "had to" until last weekend. I charged once in downtown Portland at PGE because I needed to park for a about 1.5 hours. Second time I charged at OMSI under the solar panels, did not have to but ... it was solar.

Last weekend I was about 22 miles from home and had somewhere between 2 and 3 bars. I believe I would have made it, avoiding freeways and some hyper-milling. I decided to make 12 miles detour to try the Eaton QC in downtown Portland. So I stepped on it to burn as many electrons as I could, and show off. When I got there the charger was not working . I drove 10 miles (half city and half freeway) to IKEA L2 chargers on I 205. I only had one bar and 7 miles with 8 miles to home but 3 had to be on freeway. I charged for 30 minutes on L2 and left with still one bar but 13 miles. The range dropped to 7 miles after the first 3 freeway miles (up hill). I started hyper-milling for the rest of the city street driving and got home with still one bar, 6 miles left, and 7.2 m/kWh average (I did a reset after the freeway)

Total for that day: 99.1 miles on a full charge and 30 minutes L2 with about 70% freeway at about 60mph.

 

[ElectricVehicle]

Never charged away from home. Lots of 75-95 mile trips and no need to charge, but QC at some of these destinations would be nice. We're usually only at the destination for an hour or so, so charging at L1 is almost useless and L2 is not much better. My fiance has driven it to work half a dozen times (95 mile round trip on I-5). L1 or L2 would be helpful in this situation, but there are none nearby. And her employer (UPS) is not willing to help out.

Same is true for my other EV I've been driving since 1995. I've charged away from home about 5 times total in that car.

You might try working poiltely with some of the UPS corporate green types. I know in my area they do so some neighborhood deliveries in some open bed utility cart type vehicles to cut the oil consumption. With some of the progressive things they are doing for the fleet, it seems like a good time to enable their employees to use less oil getting to their jobs at and for UPS. Of course the oil expense of commuting to work doesn't come out of UPS' budget, so you have to help them see the value! If they're worried about employee perks, maybe it needs to be a networked charger with payment system via Blink, ChargePoint, whatever and they charge $0.50/hour. OR $1/hour, but any contribution from the employee will ease the "special perks" jealousy.

Offer them the use of the story in their annual stockholder report and annual green report / audit to boost their green cred based on real actions that help employees reduce oil consumption and carbon emissions getting to work. That's cheap advertising.

 

[davewill]

Let's see:

3 times at Balboa Park, twice because I could, and once because I needed it.
Once at Torrey Pines, just to try it.
L1 at an appointment, because I really needed it.
During an overnight trip with the family to OC, once each at Laguna Beach, Fashion Island, and South Coast Plaza, plus overnight L1 at the hotel all needed to make the trip work.

I could really make use of charging at work and at the local shopping centers. There have been about three times where I've had to resort to our ICE because I didn't have enough juice to get through a busy day, plus a couple of times where an 80% charge didn't prove adequate because of unplanned trips.