[shepdave]

I drove my Bolt today from Fairfax County, VA, to Thomasville, NC, a journey of 331 miles.

I had to stop twice for charging, since charging stations in the mid-Atlantic region are still few and far between. Spacing was weird. If the first station had been a bit farther down the line, I probably could’ve done it on a single charge en route.

I drove in L mode for about the first two-thirds the trip. Then I tried D for awhile, and that seemed to increase my battery range a bit (though it may have been my imagination).

I’m thrilled to have convinced myself I can do a road trip. I appreciate Electrify America for putting at least a few chargers along Interstate 95 (the Main Street of the East Coast) south of DC. I look forward to more in the next couple years. (Are you listening, EVgo?)

The Bolt is now in my mother’s garage, charging on my OEM 110 volt cable. Fully charged by tomorrow night.

It can be done!

 

[LittleRock]

That’s awesome! The Bolt does great on trips. I’ve now done a couple 1,000 mile road trips. With planning, yes, it can be done!

 

[ZoomZoom]

I'm still not there for road tripping but seeing more and more do it might convince me someday to try it. How long were your two stops? How long did the trip take with the Bolt and had you driven a traditional car, how long would it have taken? Did you find yourself driving slower in the Bolt than you would have otherwise?

 

[desiv]

Great trip!
I've only had the one 300+ mile trip myself (Well, 600+ as I had to drive back too).
Especially with the new EA locations, I think the Bolt (in my area at least) is perfect for trips that only require 1 charge stop.
30+ minutes while you eat or take a break. It's a stop I would make anyway, so it's easy..
In fact, as I charged while I ate, it was technically a shorter trip than if I also had to stop to get gas. ;-)

I was able to destination charge so getting back was the same one stop during lunch thing.

I'd say for 300-400(+-) miles, the Bolt can be just as simple as any car. (Depending on charger location)

When you add a second stop, you start adding time. My guess is, that wouldn't bother me at all either. Only adding an extra 20-30 minutes to the trip... I probably would have stopped for a stretch/snack/restroom break anyway.
So I would imagine trips up to 500-600(+-) would be fine too.

When I hear about about 1000 mile trips, I wonder how I would do/like those.... ;-)
Kudos to you!
We will do one of those so we can see... ;-)

As I think about future trips (and the one I did), I do start looking for hotels with destination charging. I think that will be a bigger and bigger selling point for that industry.. ;-)

desiv

 

[Fivedoor]

Great trip!
I've only had the one 300+ mile trip myself (Well, 600+ as I had to drive back too).
Especially with the new EA locations, I think the Bolt (in my area at least) is perfect for trips that only require 1 charge stop.
30+ minutes while you eat or take a break. It's a stop I would make anyway, so it's easy..
In fact, as I charged while I ate, it was technically a shorter trip than if I also had to stop to get gas. ;-)

I was able to destination charge so getting back was the same one stop during lunch thing.

I'd say for 300-400(+-) miles, the Bolt can be just as simple as any car. (Depending on charger location)

When you add a second stop, you start adding time. My guess is, that wouldn't bother me at all either. Only adding an extra 20-30 minutes to the trip... I probably would have stopped for a stretch/snack/restroom break anyway.
So I would imagine trips up to 500-600(+-) would be fine too.

When I hear about about 1000 mile trips, I wonder how I would do/like those.... ;-)
Kudos to you!
We will do one of those so we can see... ;-)

As I think about future trips (and the one I did), I do start looking for hotels with destination charging. I think that will be a bigger and bigger selling point for that industry.. ;-)

desiv

When you do a 1000+ mile trip, you divide it into more than one day. Driving 600 miles or less in a day is my goal with 500 miles in a day being the "ideal" day. Fastest travel method is drive with traffic at normal highway speeds and do between 100 and 150 miles per leg (other than first "full charge" leg of around 180 miles)... so a 400 mile day is only two charging stops and then charge over night at hotel / friend / relative and start the next day to with a full battery. A 600 mile day ends up being 4 charging stops in the trip before stopping for the night... I prefer to do 500 a day but finding hotels / friend / relative where you can crash for the night and charge makes how far you drive in the day less than ideal sometimes. Some stops are 20 min, some stops are 45 min unless you are really unlucky on spaceing and have to do a full charge to shoot a gap you aim to never charge for more than an hour... so figure an "average" stop is 40 min. So, a 400 mile day will take you one hour and twenty min more than it would in a gas car, and a 600 mile day will take you two hours and forty min more than it would in a gas car.

Later,

Keith <---- does lots of road trips thanks to Electrify America

 

[shepdave]

I'm still not there for road tripping but seeing more and more do it might convince me someday to try it. How long were your two stops? How long did the trip take with the Bolt and had you driven a traditional car, how long would it have taken? Did you find yourself driving slower in the Bolt than you would have otherwise?

This is a trip that used to take me about seven and a half hours with leisurely stops on the way, including a meal break. With the Bolt it took me eight and a half.

I had to stop twice, because the first appropriate stop was too close to my start, and then there was a very long stretch until my destination. If there had been an EVGo or Electrify America closer to my halfway point, I would’ve stopped once.

My first charge took 40 minutes to get to 80%. The second took an hour to get from 20% up to 80%. I combined a lunch break with the first session. I did a little light shopping and a long phone call during the second stop.

I’ll be doing the return trip on Sunday. It’ll probably go quicker, since I won’t be futzing around with the chargers for the first time this trip.

Meanwhile, the car’s on my mom’s 110 volt outlet, slow-charging at 8 amps. I hooked up to a free ChargePoint while we were out at dinner this evening. I’ve got about 100 miles of range right now, and I’ll have more when I hit the road in a couple of days.

I am now absolutely ready to do similar trips now, as long as there is some fast charging on the way.

As to speed, I was generally doing 65-70 mph most of the way. And I only ran the heater very sporadically to keep the windshield clear.

 

[Paul Gipe]

That’s awesome! The Bolt does great on trips. I’ve now done a couple 1,000 mile road trips. With planning, yes, it can be done!

I agree, the Bolt can be used for road trips. Of course we used a 2015 Leaf for road trips too, so we're "flexible." The most we've done yet is 750 miles round trip. Most road trips are 500 miles round trip where we charge once on the road going and coming.

Paul

 

[Paul Gipe]

This is a trip that used to take me about seven and a half hours with leisurely stops on the way, including a meal break. With the Bolt it took me eight and a half.

I had to stop twice, because the first appropriate stop was too close to my start, and then there was a very long stretch until my destination. If there had been an EVGo or Electrify America closer to my halfway point, I would’ve stopped once.

My first charge took 40 minutes to get to 80%. The second took an hour to get from 20% up to 80%. I combined a lunch break with the first session. I did a little light shopping and a long phone call during the second stop.

I’ll be doing the return trip on Sunday. It’ll probably go quicker, since I won’t be futzing around with the chargers for the first time this trip.

Meanwhile, the car’s on my mom’s 110 volt outlet, slow-charging at 8 amps. I hooked up to a free ChargePoint while we were out at dinner this evening. I’ve got about 100 miles of range right now, and I’ll have more when I hit the road in a couple of days.

I am now absolutely ready to do similar trips now, as long as there is some fast charging on the way.

As to speed, I was generally doing 65-70 mph most of the way. And I only ran the heater very sporadically to keep the windshield clear.

Thanks for the trip report. Keep them coming. I've posted several of our road trips on this and other sites. It helps others get over their range anxiety to know that it can be done.

Paul

 

[surgeonFWW]

I’ll be doing the return trip on Sunday. It’ll probably go quicker, since I won’t be futzing around with the chargers for the first time this trip.

Meanwhile, the car’s on my mom’s 110 volt outlet, slow-charging at 8 amps. I hooked up to a free ChargePoint while we were out at dinner this evening. I’ve got about 100 miles of range right now, and I’ll have more when I hit the road in a couple of days.

AC Level 1 charging at 12 amps will get you 48 more miles in 48 hours of being plugged in, than charging at 8 amps.

 

[shepdave]

AC Level 1 charging at 12 amps will get you 48 more miles in 48 hours of being plugged in, than charging at 8 amps.

Indeed it will. However, like a responsible guest, I took a look inside my mother’s circuit breaker box and saw not a single breaker rated for greater than 10 amps.

I thought a slow trickle charge was probably better than overheating the outlet in the garage. ?

Edit: Sorry, don’t mean to be snippy. I actually set the Bolt to charge at 12 amps for a couple of minutes, then went over and opened up the breaker box to take a look. When I saw that all the circuits were 10a, I switched the charging back to 8.

 

[surgeonFWW]

Indeed it will. However, like a responsible guest, I took a look inside my mother’s circuit breaker box and saw not a single breaker rated for greater than 10 amps.

I thought a slow trickle charge was probably better than overheating the outlet in the garage. ?

Edit: Sorry, don’t mean to be snippy. I actually set the Bolt to charge at 12 amps for a couple of minutes, then went over and opened up the breaker box to take a look. When I saw that all the circuits were 10a, I switched the charging back to 8.

A wise and considerate son you are. I did the same (check breaker box) at my sister's house, plugging in a garage outlet. Her circuit was high enough to carry 15 amps continuous. Little did we know that a family room (two rooms away from the garage) outlet was on the same circuit. She plugged her iron in and it "popped". I unplugged until she was finished, then used 12 amps for the next 28 hours.

 

[shepdave]

Trip recap: I just got home after my long(er) round trip. Total miles traveled over the long weekend were 696. Overall efficiency on the trip was about 3.5 miles/kWh. I had to fast charge twice on the way down and twice on the way back. (If there were a charger exactly halfway along my route, I might have been able to do a single charge en route, but it would have been very close.) I left my mom's house with a full charge, thanks to a couple days of 8 amp level 1 charging at her house.

Some things I observed/learned:

• It was important to put the location of my destinations (particularly chargers) into my Apple Maps navigation. I had a constant indication of miles left to my destination. I figured out that as long as the minimum miles on my guess-o-meter were greater than the miles I needed to go, I had no need to worry. I, of course, always had more miles available than that minimum, but it kept my mind at ease.
  
  
• Cruise control works fine when driving in L mode. I used that all the way back home today. My minimum miles available actually increased steadily for the first couple hours of the trip, and my trend line went into the green for at least a half hour on the interstate this morning (probably due to slowly descending terrain).
  
  
• An Electrify America charger got me from 14% to 80% in about 65 minutes today. Since I was still having lunch with my kids in a restaurant a few miles away, I decided to let it keep charging (slowly) after hitting 80% just to see what would happen. I got to a full charge (87%, as I have it set on the Bolt) in one hour and 20 minutes. I didn't incur any late fees.
  
  
• The East Coast needs a lot more fast charging stations along the major interstate highways. In particular, I-95 from northern New Jersey down through North Carolina (and probably on down the coast) seems radically under-served. Where are you, EVGo? I shouldn't have had to run the battery down to 14% in order go get from one charger in Henderson, NC, to the next one in Richmond, VA. I was very glad for Electrify America on this trip.
  
  
• Longer road trips can be done with the Bolt quite easily. I will do it again, as long as I know there are fast chargers at least every 115 miles or so along my route. Destination charging helps to get started on the return trip, but regularly-spaced DC fast chargers on the way are essential.

 

[staBOWlator]

I recently drove from Syracuse,NY to Boston, MA (330mi) and back. Due to the availability of fast chargers along the Mass Turnpike I was able to take advantage of charging taper to keep costs down.

. It was advantageous to stop more often and get a faster charge with the current pricing of EVgo and EA. The gamble with this style of travel was the reliability of the DC fast chargers on the route. My backups were often lvl 2 chargers but happily I didn't need them. It is great to see more DC fast chargers available.

 

[GetOffYourGas]

I made the trip from Syracuse NY to Newport, RI two years ago, along much of the same route (I-90 as far as Auburn, MA). At the time, I was frequently stopping above the taper, and charging to very full (85-90%) just to make it to the next charger. Things have really improved along I-90 in that time!

 

[eljefe]

In my relatively recent experience we did our first road trip over 1300 miles through some mountains in cold weather using heat. I found that the average charge length to 80% was a good hour and sometimes tried to get 90% which was 1.5 hours as Northwest not great availability of chargers. I used mostly electrify America and charge stalls were min 150kw but car rarely took 50kw. Was frustrating. In all took two days and over 12 hours in charging alone. My personal view that's very high and hopefully the tech gets to the point where charge ups take mins.

 

[GetOffYourGas]

In my relatively recent experience we did our first road trip over 1300 miles through some mountains in cold weather using heat. I found that the average charge length to 80% was a good hour and sometimes tried to get 90% which was 1.5 hours as Northwest not great availability of chargers. I used mostly electrify America and charge stalls were min 150kw but car rarely took 50kw. Was frustrating. In all took two days and over 12 hours in charging alone. My personal view that's very high and hopefully the tech gets to the point where charge ups take mins.

This is a pretty extreme edge case. One for which the Bolt is ill suited, as you say. I haven't done the math, but I would wager a Tesla with well-placed chargers would cut the charging time down to 3-4 hours. That's getting much better, and would be acceptable to more (but not all) people.

 

[LectricBill]

I'm amused at all the angst over how much longer EV trips need to be than ICE trips. We modern folk are in such a hurry.

When I first got an electric motorcycle in 2013, I decided to go from San Francisco to Ventura CA to get a custom seat made. I traveled back roads at 40 mph. Ride for an hour, charge for two. Took me 2 and 1/2 days.

I could have been in an ICE vehicle on I5 at 75 mph staring at the bumper in front of me. Instead I got to see a baby fox at dawn in the Santa Cruz mountains and beautiful farming countryside.

I remember having the thought, as I bounced along a poorly maintained narrow road (clearly made for wagons before asphalt shoulders were laid down), between San Juan Bautista and Salinas, that my grandfather, who was a harness maker, would have been absolutely thrilled to be able to make this trip in 2-1/2 days, averaging about 15 mph., without sweating or shoveling horse manure.

Me? I'm impatient when my coffee takes longer than 1 min in the microwave.

 

[GJETSON]

I'm amused at all the angst over how much longer EV trips need to be than ICE trips. We modern folk are in such a hurry.

When I first got an electric motorcycle in 2013, I decided to go from San Francisco to Ventura CA to get a custom seat made. I traveled back roads at 40 mph. Ride for an hour, charge for two. Took me 2 and 1/2 days.

I could have been in an ICE vehicle on I5 at 75 mph staring at the bumper in front of me. Instead I got to see a baby fox at dawn in the Santa Cruz mountains and beautiful farming countryside.

I remember having the thought, as I bounced along a poorly maintained narrow road (clearly made for wagons before asphalt shoulders were laid down), between San Juan Bautista and Salinas, that my grandfather, who was a harness maker, would have been absolutely thrilled to be able to make this trip in 2-1/2 days, averaging about 15 mph., without sweating or shoveling horse manure.

Me? I'm impatient when my coffee takes longer than 1 min in the microwave.

Yes! I could do that along Highway 1 on my electric assist cargo bike in two days. I have done a 203 mile day on a single charge, averaging 18.7 mph, with about 27 miles of charge remaining. It was sublime. Life is about the journey. Don't be in a hurry. The destination is the grave.

 

[sly]

Trip recap: I just got home after my long(er) round trip. Total miles traveled over the long weekend were 696. Overall efficiency on the trip was about 3.5 miles/kWh. I had to fast charge twice on the way down and twice on the way back. (If there were a charger exactly halfway along my route, I might have been able to do a single charge en route, but it would have been very close.) I left my mom's house with a full charge, thanks to a couple days of 8 amp level 1 charging at her house.

Some things I observed/learned:

• It was important to put the location of my destinations (particularly chargers) into my Apple Maps navigation. I had a constant indication of miles left to my destination. I figured out that as long as the minimum miles on my guess-o-meter were greater than the miles I needed to go, I had no need to worry. I, of course, always had more miles available than that minimum, but it kept my mind at ease.
  
  
• Cruise control works fine when driving in L mode. I used that all the way back home today. My minimum miles available actually increased steadily for the first couple hours of the trip, and my trend line went into the green for at least a half hour on the interstate this morning (probably due to slowly descending terrain).
  
  
• An Electrify America charger got me from 14% to 80% in about 65 minutes today. Since I was still having lunch with my kids in a restaurant a few miles away, I decided to let it keep charging (slowly) after hitting 80% just to see what would happen. I got to a full charge (87%, as I have it set on the Bolt) in one hour and 20 minutes. I didn't incur any late fees.
  
  
• The East Coast needs a lot more fast charging stations along the major interstate highways. In particular, I-95 from northern New Jersey down through North Carolina (and probably on down the coast) seems radically under-served. Where are you, EVGo? I shouldn't have had to run the battery down to 14% in order go get from one charger in Henderson, NC, to the next one in Richmond, VA. I was very glad for Electrify America on this trip.
  
  
• Longer road trips can be done with the Bolt quite easily. I will do it again, as long as I know there are fast chargers at least every 115 miles or so along my route. Destination charging helps to get started on the return trip, but regularly-spaced DC fast chargers on the way are essential.

Looking on PlugShare, there seems to be many EA and ChargePoint sites between D.C and Chapel Hill. I wouldn't hesitate to make that trip. It seems that there are many charging options.

 

[GJETSON]

I shouldn't have had to run the battery down to 14% in order go get from one charger in Henderson, NC, to the next one in Richmond, VA.

We should have enough chargers, so if the weather changes for the worse, we don't end up on the side of the road. But as a general rule, it is faster overall to run it down, at least, to three bars for speed of charging. There are videos from major road trippers like Eric Way in his Bolt, and Ben Rich in his Model 3, demonstrating this as standard practice.