GaslessInSeattle
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- May 6, 2011
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Here’s my trip review for a jaunt to Portland from Shoreline WA (just north of Seattle) via the West Coast Green Highway DC QC charging network.
As many of you know, Tony Williams, recently drove his Leaf from Baja Mexico to British Columbia (BC to BC) http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtop...t=british+columbia+to+Baja+California#p198034. A couple of Leaf owners, including myself, came together to relay his car back home to San Diego, CA from Seattle WA beginning June 24th 2012. johnysebring provided me the ride back home to Shoreline from Portland in his Leaf. If you are interested in the actual time/temp/gid stats, there are posted here: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=9170&hilit=bc+to+bc+return+trip
Trip time: 6 hours 26 minutes
Return trip time: 6 hours 27 minutes
Total round trip distance: 380 miles
I’m writing this trip report to illustrate how valuable quick charging is. Thanks to the quick charging network that is complete along the northern part of the West Coast Green Highway in the Pacific Northwest, we have a great deal of new found freedom. This corridor allows 100% electric vehicle travel as far north as Vancouver BC, East along RT 2 to Wenatchee, WA and as far south as the California border, without using a drop of gas. It does require more stops and takes longer than driving a gas car, but driving electric and taking breaks along the way is actually quite enjoyable and relaxing… and being apart of this historic shift away from fossil fuel is just plain exhilarating.
John drove down from Seattle to Portland the day before to give me and my nephew a ride back after dropping Tony's car off, erring on the side of caution against doing the round trip of quick charging all in one day. It was very nice having his lead, given the need to accurately coordinate the timing of handing off Tony’s car to it’s next driver at Union Station without unexpected delays. From our experience, it appears that a round trip between Portland and Seattle in one day is quite doable, though a break of at least a few hours to let the battery cool would likely be required. Driving 300+ miles in a day seems quite within the Leaf's capabilities.
Consistently between the 3 trips (John’s round trip and Tony’s car one way) Shoreline to Portland takes about 6 hours 30 minutes with no traffic. It seemed to make virtually no difference to range that on the way down we had two passengers in the car and on the way back we had 3. With ambient temps between 50 and 70 F, and moderate speeds averaging between 50 and 70 miles an hour, battery temperature warmed moderately from 5 bars to 7 bars over 193 miles and 4 quick charges (the 4th being in Portland). John and I were pleasantly surprised to see that quick charging all the way to Portland can be done without seeing high battery temps, especially considering the concern about heat and battery capacity loss lately. Also worthy of note for those battery capacity nail biters :~), after a full charge and balancing overnight before I left, Tony’s Leaf battery pack measured 279 gids at 50 degrees even after all the hot charging (10 temp bars… don’t try this at home kids, unless you are leasing
and charging and driving from BC to BC… looks like all that quick charging may have had little if any effect on the battery!
Each of the stations is conveniently located fairly close to a freeway exit with easy access to restaurants. Most of the charging can easily be done with only charging to 80%, taking 30 minutes or less. On the way down only the Centralia/Ridgefield section requires a longer time waiting for a 100% charge. On the way back two 100% charges are required between Ridgefield and Centralia, and Tumwater and Shoreline). It’s fairly imperative to know the actual driving directions to the stations, which I have written down for everyone at the end of this report… map quest can send you on a little bit of a goose chase which can be pretty nerve wracking when you are cutting it close. I was told by someone that the previous day a guy in a Leaf had turned west instead of east at the Ridgefield exit and ran out of juice trying to find the station and had to get towed just a mile or two to the station, something to avoid!
Overall, it was a glorious feeling to be able to drive all electric to one of my favorite city’s in the US. We truly are blessed to have such an extensive network of Quick Chargers in Washington and Oregon (CA has some catching up to do!). While the drive is longer than usual in a gas car, I found the experience quite relaxing. John and I both remarked at how smooth, quit and relaxing the drive was compared to driving a gas car which can be more fatiguing due to it being loud and the vibrating. While driving round trip in one day was a bit of a shlog, I very much look forward to doing the trip again with the whole family and staying for the weekend in Portland visiting friends. While I do think it’s important to understand that battery warming can accumulate both from fast discharging and or fast charging, it does appear to be quite manageable, at least at moderate temps and speeds with minimal to no climate control use. I don’t have a good sense of just how much further beyond Portland I could have driven and charged before the battery temp would have gotten too high for comfort but I can say that driving between cities is quite doable. I encourage folks to get out on the open road and try out these new stations, it's really quite inspiring and will change the way you think about your car!!
Driving directions to the QC’s between Seattle and Portland:
Tumwater: Take exit 102, go East on Trosper road (from I-5 southbound take a left, from I-5 northbound take right) turn Right at Capital BLVD, go about .5 miles, turn Right into Shell Station, the QC is visible from road at the south end of the Shell station parking lot.
(21 miles between Tumwater station and Centralia Station)
Centralia: Take Exit 82, go East on Harrison AVE (from I-5 southbound take left, from I-5 Northbound take right), turn right onto High Street, then left into Wendy’s. The QC stations is in the Wendy’s parking lot.
(69 miles between Centralia and Tumwater)
Ridgefield: Take Exit 14/WA 501, go east onto Pioneer (from I-5 southbound take a left, from I-5 northbound take right), Take left and pull into “Country Café”. The QC is in the back parking lot.
(24 miles between Ridgefield and Portland)
As many of you know, Tony Williams, recently drove his Leaf from Baja Mexico to British Columbia (BC to BC) http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtop...t=british+columbia+to+Baja+California#p198034. A couple of Leaf owners, including myself, came together to relay his car back home to San Diego, CA from Seattle WA beginning June 24th 2012. johnysebring provided me the ride back home to Shoreline from Portland in his Leaf. If you are interested in the actual time/temp/gid stats, there are posted here: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=9170&hilit=bc+to+bc+return+trip
Trip time: 6 hours 26 minutes
Return trip time: 6 hours 27 minutes
Total round trip distance: 380 miles
I’m writing this trip report to illustrate how valuable quick charging is. Thanks to the quick charging network that is complete along the northern part of the West Coast Green Highway in the Pacific Northwest, we have a great deal of new found freedom. This corridor allows 100% electric vehicle travel as far north as Vancouver BC, East along RT 2 to Wenatchee, WA and as far south as the California border, without using a drop of gas. It does require more stops and takes longer than driving a gas car, but driving electric and taking breaks along the way is actually quite enjoyable and relaxing… and being apart of this historic shift away from fossil fuel is just plain exhilarating.
John drove down from Seattle to Portland the day before to give me and my nephew a ride back after dropping Tony's car off, erring on the side of caution against doing the round trip of quick charging all in one day. It was very nice having his lead, given the need to accurately coordinate the timing of handing off Tony’s car to it’s next driver at Union Station without unexpected delays. From our experience, it appears that a round trip between Portland and Seattle in one day is quite doable, though a break of at least a few hours to let the battery cool would likely be required. Driving 300+ miles in a day seems quite within the Leaf's capabilities.
Consistently between the 3 trips (John’s round trip and Tony’s car one way) Shoreline to Portland takes about 6 hours 30 minutes with no traffic. It seemed to make virtually no difference to range that on the way down we had two passengers in the car and on the way back we had 3. With ambient temps between 50 and 70 F, and moderate speeds averaging between 50 and 70 miles an hour, battery temperature warmed moderately from 5 bars to 7 bars over 193 miles and 4 quick charges (the 4th being in Portland). John and I were pleasantly surprised to see that quick charging all the way to Portland can be done without seeing high battery temps, especially considering the concern about heat and battery capacity loss lately. Also worthy of note for those battery capacity nail biters :~), after a full charge and balancing overnight before I left, Tony’s Leaf battery pack measured 279 gids at 50 degrees even after all the hot charging (10 temp bars… don’t try this at home kids, unless you are leasing
and charging and driving from BC to BC… looks like all that quick charging may have had little if any effect on the battery!Each of the stations is conveniently located fairly close to a freeway exit with easy access to restaurants. Most of the charging can easily be done with only charging to 80%, taking 30 minutes or less. On the way down only the Centralia/Ridgefield section requires a longer time waiting for a 100% charge. On the way back two 100% charges are required between Ridgefield and Centralia, and Tumwater and Shoreline). It’s fairly imperative to know the actual driving directions to the stations, which I have written down for everyone at the end of this report… map quest can send you on a little bit of a goose chase which can be pretty nerve wracking when you are cutting it close. I was told by someone that the previous day a guy in a Leaf had turned west instead of east at the Ridgefield exit and ran out of juice trying to find the station and had to get towed just a mile or two to the station, something to avoid!
Overall, it was a glorious feeling to be able to drive all electric to one of my favorite city’s in the US. We truly are blessed to have such an extensive network of Quick Chargers in Washington and Oregon (CA has some catching up to do!). While the drive is longer than usual in a gas car, I found the experience quite relaxing. John and I both remarked at how smooth, quit and relaxing the drive was compared to driving a gas car which can be more fatiguing due to it being loud and the vibrating. While driving round trip in one day was a bit of a shlog, I very much look forward to doing the trip again with the whole family and staying for the weekend in Portland visiting friends. While I do think it’s important to understand that battery warming can accumulate both from fast discharging and or fast charging, it does appear to be quite manageable, at least at moderate temps and speeds with minimal to no climate control use. I don’t have a good sense of just how much further beyond Portland I could have driven and charged before the battery temp would have gotten too high for comfort but I can say that driving between cities is quite doable. I encourage folks to get out on the open road and try out these new stations, it's really quite inspiring and will change the way you think about your car!!
Driving directions to the QC’s between Seattle and Portland:
Tumwater: Take exit 102, go East on Trosper road (from I-5 southbound take a left, from I-5 northbound take right) turn Right at Capital BLVD, go about .5 miles, turn Right into Shell Station, the QC is visible from road at the south end of the Shell station parking lot.
(21 miles between Tumwater station and Centralia Station)
Centralia: Take Exit 82, go East on Harrison AVE (from I-5 southbound take left, from I-5 Northbound take right), turn right onto High Street, then left into Wendy’s. The QC stations is in the Wendy’s parking lot.
(69 miles between Centralia and Tumwater)
Ridgefield: Take Exit 14/WA 501, go east onto Pioneer (from I-5 southbound take a left, from I-5 northbound take right), Take left and pull into “Country Café”. The QC is in the back parking lot.
(24 miles between Ridgefield and Portland)
