Tuesday, July 19, I fulfilled a plan I have had since I placed my Leaf order last Fall, to drive it from Claremont, CA to visit friends who live near Hesperia in the high desert. This is the furthest from home I have taken my Leaf, and the trip involves substantial altitude gain and 90% freeway driving, with some risk of substantial wind. I did careful pre-planning and charge estimation, because I am not as brave as many of you folks, and I did not want to get stuck.
Route (location, mileage, altitude, charge):
Claremont, 0, 1.3Kft, 12bars
I-210 East to Fontana Nissan (for charge), 18m->0m, 1.5Kft, 9->11 bars
I reset mileage at Fontana, where I charged back to a full 11 bars.
Lytle Creek & I-15, 3.3m, 2.0Kft, 10 bars
CA-138 & I-15, 19.5m, 3.1Kft, 8 bars
Cajon Summit 23.9m, 4.2Kft, 7 bars
Destination, 30., 3.7Kft, 6 bars
Total of 48 miles 1-way
I was not sure how efficient the car would be going up a steep grade at freeway speeds, and my charge calculations turned out to be conservative. Taking advantage of the slow trucks, I kept the power level down to 4 positive circles (about 25 KW), driving at 50 mph. After CA-138 I did gun it to pass some trucks doing only 40 mph. I had plenty of power to pass. One part of me wanted to see how efficient I could be, and that part won-out this time. I would love to repeat the drive at maximum legal speed.
I could have made it without charging at Fontana Nissan, but I was not sorry I stopped there:
2 AV charging stations
shade for your charging car after ~ 3 PM
free chilled water
free popcorn
low-priced ice cream
clean rest-room
nice large window into service bay
I had confirmed that my friends had a 240V outlet in their garage. I used my Rev2 upgraded EVSE to charge back to 80% while I had dinner with them. I took abasile's advice and did not charge to 100% so I would have no risk of losing regenerative braking. If the connection did not work, my backup plan would have been to proceed further downhill to the Nissan dealership in Victorville.
My friends have a small wind generator. The shutter-speed was too fast to show its movement, but it was spinning at a good clip, so some of my charge was coming from their wind.
On the return trip I got some regen, of course, but I never got back a full bar. I did, however, go a full 25 miles on one bar, a personal best. I arrived home (41 miles) with 7 bars showing, 6 after shut-down. Just before I shut-down, I captured my "tree" display, which was also a personal best:
All in all, a very satisfying trip. The Leaf performed beautifully. I was grateful to have the peace of mind from the partial charge with my upgraded EVSE.
Route (location, mileage, altitude, charge):
Claremont, 0, 1.3Kft, 12bars
I-210 East to Fontana Nissan (for charge), 18m->0m, 1.5Kft, 9->11 bars
I reset mileage at Fontana, where I charged back to a full 11 bars.
Lytle Creek & I-15, 3.3m, 2.0Kft, 10 bars
CA-138 & I-15, 19.5m, 3.1Kft, 8 bars
Cajon Summit 23.9m, 4.2Kft, 7 bars
Destination, 30., 3.7Kft, 6 bars
Total of 48 miles 1-way
I was not sure how efficient the car would be going up a steep grade at freeway speeds, and my charge calculations turned out to be conservative. Taking advantage of the slow trucks, I kept the power level down to 4 positive circles (about 25 KW), driving at 50 mph. After CA-138 I did gun it to pass some trucks doing only 40 mph. I had plenty of power to pass. One part of me wanted to see how efficient I could be, and that part won-out this time. I would love to repeat the drive at maximum legal speed.
I could have made it without charging at Fontana Nissan, but I was not sorry I stopped there:
2 AV charging stations
shade for your charging car after ~ 3 PM
free chilled water
free popcorn
low-priced ice cream
clean rest-room
nice large window into service bay
I had confirmed that my friends had a 240V outlet in their garage. I used my Rev2 upgraded EVSE to charge back to 80% while I had dinner with them. I took abasile's advice and did not charge to 100% so I would have no risk of losing regenerative braking. If the connection did not work, my backup plan would have been to proceed further downhill to the Nissan dealership in Victorville.
My friends have a small wind generator. The shutter-speed was too fast to show its movement, but it was spinning at a good clip, so some of my charge was coming from their wind.
On the return trip I got some regen, of course, but I never got back a full bar. I did, however, go a full 25 miles on one bar, a personal best. I arrived home (41 miles) with 7 bars showing, 6 after shut-down. Just before I shut-down, I captured my "tree" display, which was also a personal best:
All in all, a very satisfying trip. The Leaf performed beautifully. I was grateful to have the peace of mind from the partial charge with my upgraded EVSE.
