Planning Road Trips: Lessons from US2 Quick Charge Rally

[tomsax]

On Saturday, June 16, 2012, a dozen electric vehicles made the inaugural drive along US Highway 2 over the 4,061-foot summit at Stevens Pass utilizing the newly-installed quick charge stations. Most of these vehicles recorded data for driving and charging. Cathy posted a blog describing the experience and summarizing the data collected.

http://www.saxton.org/tom_saxton/2012/07/us2-dcqc-rally.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We used that data set to confirm and refine our energy use model for planning road trips over elevation in the Leaf. Our planning guide for the Leaf and comparable electric vehicles is here:

http://www.saxton.org/EV/energyuse.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We also learned some interesting things about DC Quick Charge stations and how to avoid some common pitfalls. The most important lesson is that the percentage value shown on AeroVironment and Blink DCQC station can not be used as an indication of the car's state-of-charge. More detail and tips are here:

http://www.saxton.org/EV/quickcharging.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Additional information and some graphs from our first quick charging experience are here:

http://www.saxton.org/tom_saxton/2012/06/dcqc-roadtrip.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[FairwoodRed]

Tom, I read your QC tips and here are a few thoughts. Feel free to use or discard them as you see fit.

I can not get a charge from AV QC unless I override my timer, after I connect the QC port.

Blink QC will ask you what percent you want to charge to: 40%, 60%, 80%, 100%

I confirm that Blink QC stations also show the car SOC.

 

[tomsax]

I can not get a charge from AV QC unless I override my timer, after I connect the QC port.

The AV stations are pretty weird in that you have to hit the Start button, but we've charged many times with our midnight-to-8 am 80% timer still active.

Blink QC will ask you what percent you want to charge to: 40%, 60%, 80%, 100%

I haven't had a chance to experiment with the Blink QC, but it can't possibly work. If it stops when the Leaf says the SOC is above 80%, that would be well short of an 80% charge.

I confirm that Blink QC stations also show the car SOC.

I've heard multiple reports that the Blink QC shows a percentage value that people think is the SOC (just like the AV stations), but we haven't observed it ourselves, yet.

 

[tomsax]

<thread moved to a more appropriate section>

 

[grommet]

Correct, Blink DC units display the (fake) SOC as told to it by the LEAF. So, setting a target for 90% on the Blink DC gets you close to LEAF 80%. Or just set the DC target to 100%, and let it behave like all the quick chargers that give you zero options...

Also, the timer settings are totally ignored when using your CHAdeMO inlet no matter which brand unit you are plugged into.