Trip Planning/Range Anxiety/Plugshare "trust"

I'll start off with saying, I'm nervous.

Vital Info: I have a 2015 SV Leaf I just purchased in December. I live in Wisconsin, lately the temperatures have ranged from blistering cold to nice and 60 degrees (impossible to predict what they will be on the dates in question)

Trip Planned: Going from Wauwatosa/Milwaukee to Lake Geneva, WI end of March and staying at the Grand Geneva Resort and Spa. Part of the reason why I chose this location was that they list electric car charging on their website. I find out today, they are listed as "Wall Outlet (120v), 2 Tesla HPWC (Model S)s " This was a bit of a shocker to me as I was planning on doing a little driving each day while I stay there (20-30 miles?) and even to get there I will be driving 50 miles (in possible super cold conditions being the end of March).

I am nervous about getting there: Not terribly nervous (I think I have enough range) but I haven't actually tested any of the charging locations on the way there so I'm nervous that if it is super cold and I run low, I don't know for sure if I stop, that I'll be able to charge. In my area of the country, most public car charging are dealerships. The other stations I see on plugshare.com are either Tesla (more than I would have expected... even the little cafe in East Troy?) or they haven't had someone "check in" in over 10 months so I'm leery that they might not be working.

Plugshare listing in Burlington, WI (3/4 of the way there): Think I can use this if needed?
Lynch Chevrolet GMC
Ports
EV Plug (J1772)
Custom Ports
220 volt J1772 EV Plug
Hours
24 hours - in front of dealership - labeled: Volt Parking

If anyone has time to consult plugshare and take a look at possible routes and advise me, that would be great.

I'm nervous about once I get there, pretty much needing to plug in my car immediately and probably having to sit it there for quite some time before I can leave the hotel and go anywhere. I feel like I will need their single charging station almost the entire time I am there.

Do you have an EVSEupgrade or portable EVSE of any kind?

There's a listing near the lake for someone with a 220V/50A outlet available, so you could charge there with the appropriate adapter. It is 9 miles away. Since this one is a residential shared listing, you could send the owner a message on Plugshare to ask what they know about the local charging situation.

Gateway Technical College has a Chargepoint EVSE, L2, and is 10 miles away at the intersection of 43 and 12. Since it's Chargepoint, you could call them and ask them to confirm that it works. It's 30A, so you can put your 6kW charger to use, gaining 20 miles per hour.

Another Gateway TC campus in Burlington, 11 miles away and on the way, could help you arrive at the hotel with a nearly full battery.

There are the other two dealership EVSEs in Burlington, you can call any of these locations to see if they know if the EVSE is operational.

I made a 320 mile trip from TN to GA. It took planning out the QC list and calling ahead the previous day to any dealerships along the route to make sure the QC was working. Plug share is very helpful for planning, but always verify first. Know your vehicle well before any long trips.

Unless the conditions are still winter, it should be an easy trip, even at 50 mi. Drive slow if you can, but don't obsess over it. Yes, plug in right away and keep it plugged in all the time you can, but especially overnight (you will get 1/2 the battery back). I doubt you'll be able to charge at the Volt dealership (this is from experience in "unfriendly to electric car territory"). Better locations may be the colleges (Elkhorn, Burlington). However, if conditions are horrible WI winter, then you will have a tough time. When new I've got 85 mi out of my 2011 in temps down to 25 F, below that however, range really seems to drop off (given reports from others). Search my name and "cold" for more threads. In any case, I still think 50 mi is doable, but as you said, then you'll need to recharge fully before leaving, and that doesn't leave many miles for traveling around the area. Good luck and let us know what you decide and how it went.

Well... I feel a little bit better now that I have at least confirmed with the colleges (Elkhorn and Burlington) that their electric chargers are working and are available to the public. So there is a sigh of relief there.

I will know a couple of people at the thing I'm going to in Lake Geneva, so I can probably get a couple of rides (if needed) from them.

I guess I am just more let down by the hotel itself... touting itself "Grand Geneva was the first Midwest resort to unveil an electric car charging station! Manufactured by Coulomb Technologies, the ChargePoint Networked Electric Car Charging Station is able to fully charge an electric vehicle overnight. Not only is the ChargePoint Station helping Grand Geneva reduce its carbon footprint, but this recharging service is offered free of charge to resort guests and the general public."

Advertising... bleh! "fully charge an electric vehicle overnight" isn't really true when it's a level 1 charger.

Inara220 said:

Well... I feel a little bit better now that I have at least confirmed with the colleges (Elkhorn and Burlington) that their electric chargers are working and are available to the public. So there is a sigh of relief there.

I will know a couple of people at the thing I'm going to in Lake Geneva, so I can probably get a couple of rides (if needed) from them.

I guess I am just more let down by the hotel itself... touting itself "Grand Geneva was the first Midwest resort to unveil an electric car charging station! Manufactured by Coulomb Technologies, the ChargePoint Networked Electric Car Charging Station is able to fully charge an electric vehicle overnight. Not only is the ChargePoint Station helping Grand Geneva reduce its carbon footprint, but this recharging service is offered free of charge to resort guests and the general public."

Advertising... bleh! "fully charge an electric vehicle overnight" isn't really true when it's a level 1 charger.

Click to expand...

I got curious based on that description being so wildly off for L1- Coulomb Technologies doesn't make wall sockets, they make EVSEs, and in fact has changed their name to ChargePoint. So I called the hotel. The parking guy told me that they have 2 Tesla stations, 1 EV plug, and normal wall plugs available. So it looks like you do, in fact, have L2 at the hotel. Hooray!

nedfunnell said:

Inara220 said:

Well... I feel a little bit better now that I have at least confirmed with the colleges (Elkhorn and Burlington) that their electric chargers are working and are available to the public. So there is a sigh of relief there.

I will know a couple of people at the thing I'm going to in Lake Geneva, so I can probably get a couple of rides (if needed) from them.

I guess I am just more let down by the hotel itself... touting itself "Grand Geneva was the first Midwest resort to unveil an electric car charging station! Manufactured by Coulomb Technologies, the ChargePoint Networked Electric Car Charging Station is able to fully charge an electric vehicle overnight. Not only is the ChargePoint Station helping Grand Geneva reduce its carbon footprint, but this recharging service is offered free of charge to resort guests and the general public."

Advertising... bleh! "fully charge an electric vehicle overnight" isn't really true when it's a level 1 charger.

Click to expand...

I got curious based on that description being so wildly off for L1- Coulomb Technologies doesn't make wall sockets, they make EVSEs, and in fact has changed their name to ChargePoint. So I called the hotel. The parking guy told me that they have 2 Tesla stations, 1 EV plug, and normal wall plugs available. So it looks like you do, in fact, have L2 at the hotel. Hooray!

Click to expand...

Per Chargepoint's website...

"Level 1, NEMA 5-20R, 1.9 kW"

Per Plugshare
Two Tesla HPWC units and one ChargePoint station (L1 120V outlet only) located in the valet area across from the main entrance. The Tesla HPWC's each have a 100A service, capable of delivering the full 80A for dual-charger equipped Model S's. See valet for assistance. Edit 2/18/14- Called and was told that an EV plug was added after the Tesla HPWCs were installed.

So I'm still not sure... maybe I can call back and be like "okay.. please walk outside, take a picture of the charging station and send it to me"

I figure about 6% per hour on L1 household outlet. So if you charge 10hrs first night, you'll have no problem driving 30 miles the next day.

Arrive in the evening and plug in overnight. Should be able to get you around 40 miles per day of driving around. And yes you may occupy that L1 near continuous while there.
The real question to ask the hotel is how often is it really occupied...

kikngas said:

I figure about 6% per hour on L1 household outlet. So if you charge 10hrs first night, you'll have no problem driving 30 miles the next day.

Click to expand...

It's 5% per hour. I use L-1 at home, and charge mainly with that.

LeftieBiker said:

It's 5% per hour. I use L-1 at home, and charge mainly with that.

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I was going to revise and say that with outdoor parking and temps that perhaps kick in battery heater it might be 5%. I charge at home in attached, but unheated, garage and have always been getting 6% per hour. I presume my battery is never actually getting cold enough to kick in the heater. And am also wondering if perhaps the 2015, with the new "lizard battery" chemistry might be drawing measurably more from L1?

I for one am delighted. I've been watching PlugShare and in the 6 months I've had my car a new QC site went in about 75 miles away (which will make it easy to go further west), and the month before a L2 site went in directly midway between here and there (which gets me to I-35 and makes it easy to go further north). Meanwhile the Twin Cities area now has 9 QC locations, as compared to zero shown last Dec. It will be my first QC! I'm almost ready to just drive over there just to use it! Spring has come and I might not even need the midway topoff.

Update!!!

So my trip was successful!

On the way there I was pretty anxious so I took the "eco" route on my car. I think this was a mistake though because there was a lot more stopping and starting than I was expecting. I arrived at the resort nearly in the "red" on the Guess-o-Meter. Valet at Lake Geneva helped me plug in immediately and I checked in.

I wasn't sure I'd have enough to make the round trip to the "convention" hotel so I called my friend and told him I had to wait a while to get more juice so I'd make sure I had enough to get there and back. He asked the hotel front desk if his friend could plug in her "chevy volt"(not sure why he said this since he knows I have a leaf but whatever... close enough!) and they said I could. So I ended up driving over and parking about 20 ft from the front door in "not a real parking spot" but plugged into the column of their main entrance.

So that was cool... I wish they would have just told me in the first place that I could charge there... but whatever. So, I pretty much was plugged in anytime I was at either hotel and I left Sunday morning with a 100% full battery.

I took the highway home, setting my cruise control at 55, no heat (it was about 30 degrees and raining lightly)... I get more than halfway there and realize that it was so efficient I was gonna arrive at home with half a tank... so I upped my speed to 60 and turned on the heat. Made it home with 33% of my battery (I didn't even need to plug in since I was just driving into work where I get free charging the next morning, 10 min from my house)

So a successful trip... thanks all for the tips and reassurance! I think I'm more confident about driving to Madison now this summer (70 miles away).

Thank goodness for LeafSpy... that also helped me more accurately gauge my battery and how efficiently I needed to drive to make it home with plenty of "range" to spare.

I am glad you made it! Was the hotel L1 or L2 after all?

nedfunnell said:

I am glad you made it! Was the hotel L1 or L2 after all?

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It was L1... actually it was "chargepoint station of L1 that they couldn't immediately open and even when they did, the plug of my charging cord wouldn't fit in there enough to actually plug in" so instead, they had an extension cord there already set up and they plugged me into an outdoor outlet in the landscaping next to the parking spot HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA On the weekend when it got busier, they put cones in the spot reserved for me so I never had to worry that I'd come back to the hotel and not be able to plug my car in. The service was excellent, now they just need to get the facilities right.

The valets and the valet manager seemed to think they would be getting L2 charging soon. I also put it in my "comments" survey about my stay that they really should. I mentioned that they don't need to put it in the primo parking spot right at the front desk and that most electric car users would be happy with an L2 spot even if it was at the back of the parking lot.

Btw... on my last day, I SAW A TESLA!!!! First time noticing a Tesla in person, and parked! Was so cool looking... maybe someday!