Driving a Leaf from L.A. to San Diego: recommendations?

I apologize if this is already covered in detail elsewhere, but can anyone share some real-world experience details of a trip between Los Angeles and San Diego in a Leaf (either direction)?

I have a 2014 Leaf (w/ QC and 6.6kw). (brand-new so no degradation yet). I live in Woodland Hills (western San Fernando Valley) in L.A. and have lots of family in East County of San Diego (El Cajon). I have an ICE car for the occasional trip to SD to see family, but have a foolish urge to attempt the trip in the Leaf some time, just for kicks. The distance between origin and destination is 155 miles.

I have scoped this out on plugshare.com. Using the famous "Range Chart" and assuming a 70 mph freeway cruising speed with my new battery, I should be able to get 68 miles of freeway range from a 100% charge, and 55 miles from an 80% charge (assuming that's what I'd leave with from a quick charger). So ideally I should be able to do this by only stopping to charge twice. Traveling from Woodland Hills, I would aim to stop at Schneider in Huntington Beach, and then again at the Outlet Mall in Oceanside, both of which seem to have functioning quick chargers.

But members of this forum have real-world experience, which is better than "should be able to. .." ideas.

-How many charging stops did you end up actually having to make between the L.A. and S.D.?
-Any particularly good (or bad) charging stations along the route to recommend?
-How long did it end up taking you? (between what origin and destination?)

It's pretty easy these days even with my degraded 3 yr old battery, assuming you have QC on your car. The one indispensable stop from either direction is EVoasis at Residence Inn in San Juan Capistrano. If Plugshare shows that down - which is rare - then you might think about the gas car or Amtrak instead. They recently reduced their rates.

It takes me two charging stops to drive to LA downtown from San Diego @ 56. There are quite a few charging choices now at Nissan dealers and EVgo so you can plan a route with stops that are convenient for you, keeping in mind alternates if needed. Plugshare will show you several other QC stations too. If you're registered with EVgo, even if you don't pay a subscription you get better prices, and you get email bulletins when stations go down and up. Especially if you're going in this hot weather you should check the status since it seems like the stations are more prone to breakdown in the heat.

One thing to watch out for is the carpool lanes. When the regular lanes are at a standstill it's very tempting to use your sticker to bypass it all in the carpool lanes. But since there are only a few very widely spaced entrances and exits to those lanes, and since the carpool lane typically flows at 75 MPH and faster, it's easy to burn through a lot of battery very quickly. You can want to skip around a 3 mile jam but end up driving 10 miles or more at 80. You really have to think about whether it's worth it.

Enjoy your smooth quiet trip.

When I had no capacity bar losses. I did from Lake View Terrace to the quick charger at McDonald's in Riverside, to the Quick Charger at the Best Western in Escondido to Lakeside. Charged as full as the car would quick charge at the McD's and took it very easy on the freeway drafting behind semi's as possible and hit low battery at Escondido. At the time those were the only two quick charge options available so if either was down I was in trouble. But it worked out just fine.

On the way back I charged at Mossy Nissan, and Tustin Nissan, and one more quick stop at the Mateo St Blink charger to pick up a couple extra miles.

-Matt

Disclaimer: I haven't made this trip before, but I have spent some time planning trips along the similar route for when time allows.

Personally, I'd probably opt to err on the side of caution and do the following: Drive at 65 mph instead of 70 mph and plan on 60 miles for your first QC stop instead of 65 and 50 miles on a 80% QC. At least for your first trip - subsequent trips you should have a better idea of the margins you might have. As others mentioned the biggest issue is reliability and availability of QCs, so you should always have a backup plan to get you to the next QC.

On the way to El Cajon:

61 miles from Woodland Hills gets you to Tustin Nissan (eVgo).

5 miles farther gets you to Woodbury Town Center and another 5 gets you to Quail Hill Center for backup. Note that these two are only 20 kW stations so you will have to charge longer. The up-side is that there is more to do at each location as they are at shopping centers.

55 miles from Tustin gets you to Carlsbad Premium Outlets (eVgo). If you're worried about making it there, you can stop at San Juan Capistrano (Chargepoint) for a quick topup which is nice as you are charged by the minute. Drawback is that it's a 25 kW station, but only a factor when charging from low SOC. If you get to Oceanside and are worried getting to Carlsbad, there are a bunch of L2 stations at Oceanside Transit Center (Blink). I personally wouldn't use Oceanside Nissan as it's out of your way.

On the way back to Woodland Hills:

This is a bit trickier because 60 miles leaves you in the middle of no-mans land in Pendleton, so you have two options:

1. Stop at 38 miles in Carlsbad.
2. Go 71 miles to San Juan Capistrano.

I personally would probably opt to stop at Carlsbad, charge to 85-90% and aim for Tustin (55mi) and then top off a bit at either Toy Lofts/Urban Radish or Nissan Universal City.

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing all!

Remember the Leaf-rule anytime when you need to stop for charging: The slower you drive the quicker you reach your destination.

Going between 70 and 60, might save you 10 minutes, but it will suck up more than 10 miles of range and you will end up staying at the charger more than you saved.

Now that EvGo has taken over the Nissan DCQC's in San Diego and other places you will need to be subscribed with them or pay a large fee to use. If you are like me, and only use charging stations away from home when out of the home range, and not that often, then a subscription is too expensive.

We took one trip during our second month of ownership for a "Day Trip" adventure. However, we would never use the Leaf like that again. When the electricity was free our only cost was the extra time the drive took (both going at a slower speed on the freeway and the recharging time). Now with the EvGo single use charging rate the electricity is more expensive than the gas would be with our ICEv. Not to mention that our time is much more valuable that that.

With your ICEv your trip will take 2 hours at the speed you were talking about and use 1/2 tank of gas. With the Leaf the charging would be around $30 ($10 x 3 QC's) plus about two hours EXTRA time (4 hour trip). Another cost to consider if you are leasing is that every mile you drive over the allowed mileage of the lease cost you $0.15. In our case we are on track for using the 15,000 per year allowed. If we were to take more trips with the Leaf we would need to consider this extra mileage cost, which is about the same as the cost of gas for us, maybe more since we get about 30mpg on the freeway.

If you get 50 miles on a QC for $10, that is $0.20 per mile. If you get 25mpg and gas $4/gal, that is $0.16 per mile with the extra cost of 30 minutes or more of time lost. In the past I have spent 30 minutes or more driving out of my way to get "free" electricity that at my home garage only cost me $1.00. Never again, unless I need the extra charge just to get home. In that case the time spent at the charging station must be less than the time lost waiting on the tow truck to get me and pull me home.

I hope this helps to understand the full cost of taking a trip in the Leaf. The Leaf was not designed for taking long trips, it was designed for a daily commuter vehicle. And for that purpose it is WONDERFUL.

Not sure if you are aware, but there are also several apps based on the range charge; for the iPhone / iPad, there is "LEAF Energy".

This type of trip is very easy to do, however I recommend three stops of only charging up to about 50%-60%. The charge rate will diminish above that. Also, slow down for lowest overall time. I'd use 55mph and travel with the trucks.

So, start with a full 100% charge for any trip like this, drive slow at 55mph and only charge to about 50% for each successive charge. That will absolutely be the quickest overall time for the journey. You may need 3 or 4 charge stops, but each stop will be relatively short.

And now for a plug for EVOasis, now operating at:

Residence Inn
1-949-443-3600
33711 Camino Capistrano
San Juan Capistrano, CA



and in July 2014, at:

Courtyard by Marriott
Irvine Spectrum
7955 Irvine Center Drive
Irvine, CA

Graffi said:

With your ICEv your trip will take 2 hours at the speed you were talking about and use 1/2 tank of gas. With the Leaf the charging would be around $30 ($10 x 3 QC's) plus about two hours EXTRA time (4 hour trip). . . .

If you get 50 miles on a QC for $10, that is $0.20 per mile. If you get 25mpg and gas $4/gal, that is $0.16 per mile with the extra cost of 30 minutes or more of time lost. In the past I have spent 30 minutes or more driving out of my way to get "free" electricity that at my home garage only cost me $1.00. Never again, unless I need the extra charge just to get home. In that case the time spent at the charging station must be less than the time lost waiting on the tow truck to get me and pull me home.

I hope this helps to understand the full cost of taking a trip in the Leaf. The Leaf was not designed for taking long trips, it was designed for a daily commuter vehicle. And for that purpose it is WONDERFUL.

Click to expand...

All very good points, and well taken. The idea of taking the Leaf on a trip to San Diego would be more as a lark. Something to do once and probably never again, just to see what it would be like.

We'll see if I actually end up doing this. In reality most of the time when we are driving to/from San Diego I've got my wife and two young kids with me in the car. So turning the now 2.5 hour trip into a 4 hour trip "just cause" is already probably not going to go over very well.

That said, we often drive down to SD on early Saturday mornings when you can fly the whole way at 70-75 with no traffic. But the return trip from SD to L.A. is usually on Sunday afternoon or evening when there does tend to be a lot of traffic in North San Diego County and the west side of L.A.. For that slower return trip, the drive tends to be ~3 hours 15 minutes anyway. Maybe in that case using the leaf might not be as big an impact, since driving slower traffic speeds could extend my range, and we might actually want a break at the charging stations. . ..

TonyWilliams said:

So, start with a full 100% charge for any trip like this, drive slow at 55mph and only charge to about 50% for each successive charge. That will absolutely be the quickest overall time for the journey. You may need 3 or 4 charge stops, but each stop will be relatively short.

And now for a plug for EVOasis

Click to expand...

Good tips, and the EVOasis stations are best for short top-offs. Need more stations like that!

Nobody's mentioned this yet, but one way to potentially damage the battery is to drive on the freeway, quick charge, then drive on the freeway. If you bought the car and are not leasing, it might be wise to keep that in mind.

I've actually never QC'd before, despite having one at my workplace (I work in Woodland Hills - it's the charging station next to the Baja Fresh on Canoga and Burbank).

Just my $0.02 as someone who also purchased the car.

Cheers,
Tal

Trip Report: Los Angeles to San Diego

Background: Drove down to SD and back twice over the holidays, (two round trips). I logged data for 3 out of the 4 legs.
Actually it was from Woodland Hills (western San Fernando Valley) to El Cajon (east county San Diego), a distance of 155 miles via the 101, 405, 5, and 8 freeways. My actual distance driven was a few miles more due to driving to the charging station locations.
Most charging was done for free at participating No Charge To Charge CHADEMO stations.

1st Leg: December 20, Woodland Hills to El Cajon 160.3 miles:
(Drove 70-75 mph most of the way, except for a patch of traffic where I was going ~30 mph for 20 min or so, south of San Juan Capistrano)

* Departed Woodland Hills @ 7:47 am with 100% State of Charge (SOC)

* Used 73% to go 52.7 miles (SOC: From 100% at home down to 27% at Westminster mall.)
* Stop 1 Westminster Mall NRG evGo: Charged 61% in 30 min (27% to 88%) on CHADEMO.
Charged 1% in 6 min (88% to 89%) on level 2.
* Used 43% to go 31.3 miles (89% to 47%) (Westminster to Residence Inn San Juan Capistrano.)
* Stop 2 Residence Inn San Juan Capistrano: Charged 45% in 36 min. (47% to 92%)
* Used 60% to go 44.8 miles (92 to 32) from residence inn to flower hill promenade.
* Stop 3 Flower Hill Promenade: Charged 24% in 7 min. (32% to 56%)
* Used 42% to go 31.5 miles (56% to 14%)

* Arrived El Cajon @ 12:15 pm with 14% SOC.

* Overall, used 218% to go 160.3 miles. Took 4.5 hours total. Required three stops. Fuel cost: $5
(Residence Inn Chargepoint station cost $5 for QC. All others were free via NCTC.) . Technically possible with only two stops, but charging station locations make that difficult given 40ish mile gap around Camp Pendleton.

Trip Report: San Diego to Santa Monica

December 22, El Cajon to Santa Monica 145 miles:
(Drove 70-75 mph most of the way, except for between Carlsbad and Westminster where I tried to "draft" behind trucks and probably traveled 60 mph most of the way.)

* Left El Cajon @ 4:00 am
* Used 55% to go 42.3 miles to Carlsbad premium outlet (100% to 45% SOC)
* Stop 1 Carlsbad Premium Outlet: Charged 46% in mins (45% to 91%) (to 70 in 10 min, to 80 in 15 min, to 91 in 30 min)
* Used 79% to go 64 miles to Westminster Mall. (91% to 12%) ("drafting" 2.5 car lengths behind trucks, no heat)
* Stop 2 Westminster Mall: Charged 41% in 30 mins (45% to 86%)
* Used 48% to go 40.3 miles to Santa Monica (86% to 38%)
* Arrived Santa Monica, @ 7:52 am.

* Overall, used 182% to go 146.6 miles. Took 3 hrs 52 min total. Required two stops. Fuel cost: $0
(Both NRG evGo were free via NCTC.)

Trip Report: Long Beach to San Diego (El Cajon)

December 23, Long Beach to El Cajon 116 miles (assuming no stops):
(Drove ~30 mph in traffic the first leg, then ~70 mph the rest of the way.)

* Departed Long Beach @ 5:44 pm (SOC 91%)
* Used 42% to go 38.9 miles (91% to 49%) to Shops at Mission Viejo. Arrived 6:55 pm, so average speed was 30.3 mph.
* (Considered trying to make it all the way to Carlsbad Premium Outlets without stopping at Mission Viejo, which would have meant trying to drive 78.1 miles with 91% charge. Guess-o-meter said 47 miles when I got to Mission Viejo, and it was only 39.2 miles remaining. Decided not to risk it and stopped at Mission Viejo.)
* Stop 1 Shops at Mission Viejo: Charged 42% in 30 min (49% to 91%). Took another 20 min at the mall shopping. Left at 7:45.
* (Passed Carlsbad Premium Outlets charging station on freeway with 43% remaining. So only would have had ~2% left if I hadn't stopped at Mission Viejo. Perhaps better I didn't risk it.)
* Used 61% to go 50.3 miles (91% to 30%) to flower hill promenade.
* Stop 2 Flower Hill Promenade: Charged 62% in 30 min (30% to 92%). (and did some shopping at Whole Foods)
* Used 40% to go 30.4 miles to El Cajon. (92% to 52%)
*Arrived El Cajon at 9:15 pm.

* Overall used 143% to go 119.6 miles. Took 3 hrs 31 min total. Required two stops. Fuel cost: $0 . (Took 3 hrs 11 min if you subtract the extra 20 min I spent shopping in Mission Viejo after my car was already done charging.)
(Both NRG evGo were free via NCTC.)

Efficiency: 1.2% per mile.