Road trip charging strategy

Can anyone share a plan for driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco in a 2018 Leaf (155 mile range) on highway 101?
Thanks

Use plugshare.com to plan, and the plugshare app during the drive. If at all possible leave yourself a buffer for every stop so that a broken or in-use station doesn't become an emergency and you have plenty of range to get to an alternate (even if it's L2).

Have you played with https://abetterrouteplanner.com/ I highly suggest it.
For your trip that should be good enough.
Plug share recently added a route planner as well.

For really tight trips you might consider Power Cruise Control if you have an android phone or are willing to pick one up for cheap and an OBDII dongle. The advantage of power cruise control over the above is that it has real time data of your battery capacity and driving like do you have climate control on, are you driving fast or otherwise aggressively or conversely are you good at hyperlinking. With this feedback every so many minutes you can make adjustments to your plan. I like to go in the mountains and low population areas so I like this software. If you are not going to cut it close abetterrouteplanner or plugshare should be fine. As you are in California I expect few problems. Also with plugshare look for checking problems for chargers so you can skip the bad ones and adjust your plans for it.

I would use ABRP but ABSOLUTELY use Plugshare to check all reviews and ratings on ALL CHAdeMO that you might visit. Make sure you have PLENTY of backups. Make sure you sign up for accounts on all charging networks (e.g. EVgo, EA, ChargePoint, Blink, etc.) you might use along the way and login to their apps. Register method of payment, as well. If you have time, also get their RFID cards and activate/link to your accounts.

If you're going to use any Electrify America, use their app, not a CC. And, they'll only have 1 CHAdeMO plug per site, because they suck and are stacking the deck in favor of their own (VW AG) vehicles (e.g. VW, Audi, Porsche, etc.)

I don't recall about 101 but 99 is probably preferred due to the # of stations along 99.

Make sure you get https://insideevs.com/news/342372/nissan-has-software-fix-for-leaf-rapidgate-issues/ applied unless you want to be in a world of pain after your 1st DC FC. EPA range rating on '18 Leaf was 151 miles on a full charge (https://fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=39860).

+100 on Nubo's advice.

Agree with the above. The bare minimum is a combination of PlugShare so you can check station reliability and A Better Routeplanner to calculate energy consumption.

As noted, 99 has better station coverage though 101 is getting better with the EA station in Pismo Beach and Paso Robles. But EA has only ONE CHAdeMO per station and that's not good for Leaf drivers. Generally I recommend that Leaf drivers don't plan on using EA stations for that reason. It's OK if you know what you're doing and have backups, but 101 has skimpy coverage since Recargo lost its contract by failing to perform.

Paul

fledermaus said:

Can anyone share a plan for driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco in a 2018 Leaf (155 mile range) on highway 101?
Thanks

Click to expand...

Avoid it! It's bad enough relying on finding a QC available here SoCal, given the number Uber/Lift drivers in the last few years.
Now with my 40 kWh Leaf, I only need to charge at home. No need to plan and hope to find an available QC anymore.
My 2013 Leaf is now just used for local driving. My ICEVs provide for my 101/I5 trips to the San Jose area without any anxiety.

That is a short trip. All i would say is to find and choose a number of Nissan dealers along the way.

call them up and confirm that the chargers are working and where they are. Also, if they are QC chargers.

That's it..

powersurge said:

That is a short trip. All i would say is to find and choose a number of Nissan dealers along the way.

call them up and confirm that the chargers are working and where they are. Also, if they are QC chargers.

That's it..

Click to expand...

Key Points:

1. Given the route distance, terrain changes, using the 150 mile range estimate will be problematic.
2. Relying on Nissan dealers, some of which don't have QCs, to provide charging is naive.
3. If the trip is absolutely necessary, then allow at least a day or more for the trip, and plan on having
a range reserve of 25-35 miles upon reaching each planned charging location.
4. Always have alternate charging locations for each planned stop.
5. Accept the fact that your Leaf must be driven very conservatively, typically below the speed limit,
to achieve the GOM range.

lorenfb said:

1. Given the route distance, terrain changes, using the 150 mile range estimate will be problematic.

Click to expand...

That's the advantage of using ABetterRoutePlanner, as it takes elevation changes into account when planning the route. It started off as Tesla-centric, but they've put a lot of work into supporting other EVs.

(I extensively use ABRP for any trip and have donated to the authors several times)

Keep things simple, but plan for contingencies. I would drive no more than an hour and a half between charges and expect that at least once you'll end up having to L2 charge.

That strategy will help to mitigate rapidgate issues and will likely result in less charging overall as the pack should charge faster if you keep the SOC mostly between 20% and 90%

Absolutely agree with lorenfb, esp. on #2. Do NOT depend on Nissan dealers to DC FC.

Leave home with a full charge, drive at least 100 miles before your first stop.

Charge to no more than 70-80%. Less is better. I charge to the knee which is the point when the charge rate starts dropping.

Plan on 3 stops. You can make it in less but that makes your charge stops much longer and spendy.

Review your planned charging stops with bathroom breaks and meal stops in mind on Plugshare. I only use stations that have recent successful charges.

Plan extra time for the drive. Getting in a hurry will only lead to disappointment. Remember Rapidgate on the 40 kwh slows the initial charge rate. FYI; Rapidgate on E Plus has improved mostly because you still get the full charge rate initially but the knee happens earlier. IOW; you "could" manage it by simply making more but shorter stops.

For me; Rapidgate moved my knee from ~ 70% SOC to the mid to upper 40's %. Since I have an E Plus, this still gave me over 100 miles of range so I simply charged a few minutes past the knee and ran my SOC from 50% to zero. Sounds risky but actually quite easy to do with LEAF Spy which will quickly advise you have up to 20 miles of range with careful driving when the GOM craps out.