You'd get back a lot of what you put in to getting up to that elevation, but New Mexico is also fairly high altitude as well. Regardless, at this time, I believe you have to take the southern route. The gap between DC fast chargers in Flagstaff and Moab is 323 miles, so unless you planned to spend the night in Tuba City, AZ or Bluff, UT you'd be adding several hours to your trip using L2 AC.
Maybe true, but you gain a lot of range on the downhill stretches and the scenery is breathtaking.
And my experience contradicts everything you have said. I have driven my Bolt from Arkansas to the east coast (North Carolina) and far south east (Coco Beach on the Florida Atlantic coast) the gulf coast of Texas (Corpus Christi) up to Chicago, over to the mountains (Colorado City Colorado) and out to Phoenix AZ with virtually no problems other than one failed charging stop back in 2017 on our first road trip to Florida. I am planning on driving out to Chula Vista California to visit my wifes family if that state ever leaves lock down. There are areas that would be a pain the the butt to reach (southern Mississippi, gulf coast of Florida, etc.) and that I would probably take the Miata instead... but even those location are reachable with time and a plan.
Yup. My experiences pretty much mirror yours. For whatever reason, EA's chargers in Arizona in particular appear to be very unreliable. I can't say from personal experience because all of my trips out to Arizona in my Bolt EV pre-date the Electrify America network. I'd like to visit the Grand Canyon again sometime soon, but with everything that's going on, I'm sticking closer to home.
It's just over 140 miles from Glendale to Flagstaff, so even with the elevation gain, it shouldn't be an issue. I agree about leaving on a full battery, but I would expect at least 20% to 25% left in the battery by the time I arrived in Flagstaff. I drove from Needles to Williams on a single battery charge in my 2017 Bolt EV without much issue. I plugged into my motel before driving up to Lowell, but I could have made it to Flagstaff either way.
I always reset it after a charge because my "consumption limit" will be different from one stop to the next, so I need a reset to give me data for that leg of the trip. I only use this if I am limited on how much power I can use before my next charging stop.
I know you asked Eric, but to answer the question... any DCFC is capable of charging to 100%, but the time to charge from 80% to 100% is the same as the time to charge from near zero to 80%. So, going from near zero to 80% will take you about 1 hour... to go from 80% to 100% will take you another hour...
Electrify America will charge the Bolt EV to full. I know that it's not supposed to affect DC fast charging; however, I've noticed that with Hiltop Reserve on, my Bolt EV will stop DC fast charging at 92-93%.
Agreed. I had noticed on their screen shot that the route was estimated to be started at 90% SOC, with the charge at 11% SOC upon reaching the stop, with the speed limited to 56 mph. It's what had me recommending to get the car to 100% charge before leaving. That extra 10% would eliminate the limitation on the speed to Flagstaff, and give them some added buffer for the hill. I'm one of those who are not keen on driving down to the -- on the distance to dead with the car begging me to stop and charge.
It is a net elevation gain (about 5-6K feet), but not 100% uphill. A few valleys along the way (Verde Valley for example). It is only about 140 miles, so well within Bolt range. I wouldn't be too concerned about that leg. I have driven that route hundreds of times over the years (in ICE), and there is DC charging towards the south end of Flagstaff.
My dealer's manager laughed when we were finalizing the deal. He said, we normally send people off with a full tank, I guess we can't do that in your case.
Go for it. Its easier than this thread makes it sound!
