[Steve Seidensticker]

After a few weeks of beating around San Diego my niece and her two babies needed a ride to Van Nuys on the north side of Los Angeles. I decided to see what a longer distance and fast charging was all about. The distance from my house to Van Nuys is about 140 miles so I knew that I would have to charge the car on the way home. I thought surely that with the data and communication capability that this car has that there would be a display that would show me a map that had the nearby fast charging stations on my route. I searched the user manual thoroughly, but could fined no such display.

So I decided to do some homework. Boy, did I get an education! Here is some of the stuff I learned.

You can’t just plug any charging station cord into the car. It’s not like a gas station where all pump hoses and gas receptacles are universal. There seem to be at lease three connector standards. Arg!

You can’t just pay cash or put a credit card into a reader at a charging station. You have to have an account with the company that owns/runs the charging station. Arg!

Smartphone apps are the key. They have the maps that I was looking for. They show icons representing charging stations. The icons have different shapes, are different colors, and have numbers on them. I could not find a legend that defined the shapes, colors, and numbers but after some deductive reasoning figured out which ones had the right connectors, had the fast charging capability, and were in service and available.

You can’t get these maps onto the Bolt display because the apps are not Car Play compatible. Arg!

So I set up accounts with Chargepoint and EVgo, they seemed to have most of the charge stations in southern California. So armed I set out for Van Nuys. Made it fine. On the way back I thought it best to charge sooner than later. The nearest charger I could use was on Hollywood Blvd in Hollywood. I should have known better. I found the Hard Rock Cafe, Grauman’s Chinese Theater, and thousands of tourists wandering the street, but no sign of the charing station. It may have been inside a hotel parking garage but no hotel or garage entry was obvious. Another station was only a few blocks away on the map, but the address was to a locked apartment garage.

With still ample milage available I headed south on I-5. After about 30 miles I decided to try for an EVgo station on Firestone Ave near Saber Springs. The EVgo app gave me directions to a hotel, but there was no sign of a charging station. As I drove around the back of the hotel I noticed an industrial building with a big parking lot. On the far side of the lot I saw about half a dozen white cars parked. Sure enough there was the station. There was another Bolt already connected to the fast charger but I noticed a second cord attached to the charger. I unreeled it an attempted to connect it. Oops, wrong connector type. Arg!

By that time I had wakened a young man dozing in his Bolt. He still had a half hour to go on his charge. He was a local and sent me to another station about six miles north of I-5. It was not on the way but according to the app it was available. This time it was in a large shopping center and the EVgo app directions led me right to it. I plugged in and started charging. The display said it would be an hour to get the charge to 80 percent. By this time it was getting late and I did not want to wait for an hour. My navigation system said I only had 105 miles to home. I watched the charging display gradually “fill the tank”. I stopped the charge after 33 minutes when the available range read 130 miles thinking I had a reserve of 25 miles (130-105). I headed south on I-5 and set the cruise control for 75mph.

I watched the distance-to-home number and the available range numbers thinking that they would stay about 25 miles apart. They did not. The available range was dropping faster than the distance-to-home number. I was losing the reserve. After some quick mental calculation I figured I would have to find another charge station or do something else. Knowing that higher speed require more energy, I started slowing down. When I got to 60mph the numbers stabilized with a difference of about 10.

When about five miles from home the available range just said LOW and said I should find a charge station NOW. A few minutes later a PROPULSION POWER REDUCED message appeared, but the Bolt responded as before and maintained speed until I got home a few minutes later. It took two and a half days to get a full charge using my 120 volt home system.

I love my Bolt, but General Motors and the whole charging infrastructure still have a long way to go before EVs become popular.

Steve

 

[dbostrom]

Nice writeup-- worthy of Farley Mowat, or S.J. Perelman.

Yeah. It helps to be a GA pilot, or even better a sailor of sailboats. "What's my alternate? What do I do if the wind dies?"

 

[NoMoPetrol]

...I decided to see what a longer distance and fast charging was all about...I love my Bolt, but General Motors and the whole charging infrastructure still have a long way to go before EVs become popular

Steve

Thank you for driving home the point I made in another thread. The next wave of EV adopters will be far less forgiving than Steve. They will want a car that 1) will get them from Point A to Point B, and 2) can be "refueled" conveniently while making that trip.

The auto makers who are tethered to the CCS standard for DC fast charging need to get their act together on this issue and find a way to display the availability of suitable charging stations. My recommendation would be an industry-developed app that could be made available either on a Smart Phone or tablet or, heaven forbid, even via the onboard display. And this app needs to be considerably more robust than Plugshare when it comes to current availability status.

 

[psyflyjohn]

Living in San Diego, I've contemplate a round trip to L.A. many times. The experience that Steve had convinced me not to make the trip. Sad situation for electrics when we can't even easily find an open charger for this simple trip. Yes, we have a long way to go....

 

[Bolterado]

Nice writeup-- worthy of Farley Mowat, or S.J. Perelman.

Yeah. It helps to be a GA pilot, or even better a sailor of sailboats. "What's my alternate? What do I do if the wind dies?"

No kidding, oh the stories I could tell about people and their sailboats...

 

[jasony]

My charging experience in LA is mixed. I could use a topoff while visiting USC. and I planned to use the L2 charger at California Science Center in the Exposition Park. However once I arrived I found the parking fee is $12, a bit too expensive since I only planned to stay for an hour. so I drove around and came to a parking structure at 3667 McClintock Avenue Los Angeles CA (As a side note, in plugshare the location of this structure is incorrectly marked as 941 W 35th St, which I just fixed) . There is no attendant, but a good fellow driver told me there are EV chargers in this structure. When I finally found them, a car just pulled into the last available charger The driver directed me to a public charging station. However, Google map kept directing me to dead ends blocked by constructions. Frustrated, I gave up on the idea of charging and just parked anywhere I can find, which happened to be lot 2 in front of the Grace Ford Salvatori Hall. To my surprise, there is a DCFC station on the side. excited, I quickly pulled out the plug, only to find a ChedMo! Disappointed no CCS is present, but hurrying to join my family who I dropped off earlier, I dutifully paid the hourly parking fee and walked away. Now here is the kicker: after returning from this trip, I found both plugshare (marked as restricted) and chargepoint indicated there are 2 L2 chargers in the same parking lot (lot 2), and parking is free while charging, according to chargepoint! I could have saved on parking fee while getting some needed electric juice.

In the end, I charged at Westwood Village where a BMW i3 didn't move after completing charge. I managed to squeeze in. First 2 hours parking is free in this garage, which is a pleasant surprise.

 

[GregBrew]

Thank you for driving home the point I made in another thread. The next wave of EV adopters will be far less forgiving than Steve. They will want a car that 1) will get them from Point A to Point B, and 2) can be "refueled" conveniently while making that trip.

The auto makers who are tethered to the CCS standard for DC fast charging need to get their act together on this issue and find a way to display the availability of suitable charging stations. My recommendation would be an industry-developed app that could be made available either on a Smart Phone or tablet or, heaven forbid, even via the onboard display. And this app needs to be considerably more robust than Plugshare when it comes to current availability status.

I responded to a survey from GM that leads me to believe that they are considering being a one-stop shopping multiple charge network aggregator.

 

[Vertiformed]

I responded to a survey from GM that leads me to believe that they are considering being a one-stop shopping multiple charge network aggragator.

Were you trying to spell aggregator or aggravator? With GM, it could be either.

 

[NoMoPetrol]

I responded to a survey from GM that leads me to believe that they are considering being a one-stop shopping multiple charge network aggragator.

That would be a pleasant surprise. I wonder if GM is planning to develop it in conjunction with other manufacturers or whether they will use it in a more proprietary manner as a way to separate them from the other EV competition.

 

[Vertiformed]

Thanks for sharing your account, @Steve Seidensticker. For the future, it really helps if you mention battery percentages, miles driven and kWh used.

The myChevrolet app will help you a good deal with route planning (see the “Energy Assist” route planner) and works well with CarPlay. It shows you a more detailed battery percentage than the car's gauge. It would probably have told you that your planned drive home was pushing the envelope, because its range estimates are based on a specific route, unlike the car's GOM (Guess-O-Meter).

The GOM just says “if you keep driving like you've just been driving, here's how far you might get”, which is going to be wrong if you've been driving downhill and are about to drive up, wrong if you've been driving in a city and are about to get on the freeway, and wrong if you've had a tailwind and are about to have a headwind, and wrong if you've not needed to run the heat and now turn the heat on.

Energy Assist will auto-pick a charging station for you, but not necessarily a good one. But you can usually see from just that app whether a location has multiple charging stations. When I tried it, I quickly found an EVgo location in Torrence that'd be on your route home (which I could check on PlugShare, but although you can see a good score, not one single person checking in or taking photos contributed anything very useful). Energy assist told me that you'd have 15% battery on arrival and would need to charge to 63%. Assuming that this is 125A charger, it'd take you about 42 minutes to charge that much (50 minutes if it's a crappy 100A charger). Unfortunately, this is one area where Energy Assist falls down. It often guesses the charging speed of different chargers and tends to overestimate how long you'll need to stop — it thinks you need 1 hour six minutes to get to 63%, which is bogus. But it seems clear to me that if you'd used Energy Assist, you'd have known that charging for half an hour wasn't really enough.

In addition to Energy Assist, PlugsShare will help you check that given locations have good ratings and have multiple charge stations.

Overall, I couldn't agree more, the experience could be a lot better. But some of your unfamiliarity could equally well apply to gas cars. There are a lot of spouses who prefer to let their partner fill the tank, and are confused by the order of steps (do I pay first, or fill then pay) and the choices (regular, mid-grade or premium). Some people even try to put gas in diesel cars or vice versa, something only stopped by nozzle size (diesel in gas car) or clever interlock mechanisms (gas in diesel car).

 

[Bolterado]

Its sounds like the OP took the most direct route home, down the 5, so going to Torrance would have been way off track. However, it seems like he could have stopped in San Clemente for a top off when things starting looking bad. That site has good ratings.

https://www.plugshare.com/location/82985

 

[AEALESSANDRA]

Sometimes I avoid the I-5 and loop around on the I-405. I found a good CD fast charger in the lower level of the parking structure at Whole Foods in Redondo Beach. A few blocks from the beach---plug in, get a quick bite, walk to the beach, look at the ocean, walk back, drive home. Yes, I know it's out of the way if you're on the I-5 corridor---but, it works....

 

[Sean Nelson]

Yeah. It helps to be a GA pilot, or even better a sailor of sailboats. "What's my alternate? What do I do if the wind dies?"

If you've ever run out of gas in an ICE vehicle then IMHO you have no business being a pilot, and you should steer clear of the current generation of electric vehicles and their charging infrastructure.

 

[Steve Seidensticker]

Nice writeup-- worthy of Farley Mowat, or S.J. Perelman.

Yeah. It helps to be a GA pilot, or even better a sailor of sailboats. "What's my alternate? What do I do if the wind dies?"

Thanks for the complement. BTW, what is a GA pilot?

Steve

 

[dbostrom]

"General Aviation," Steve. Operators of airplanes subject to vagaries of weather, squirrels chewing magneto wires etc.

 

[GregBrew]

Were you trying to spell aggregator or aggravator? With GM, it could be either.

I choose C.) All of the above


Oops! Fixed.

 

[nautilus]

My charging experience in LA is mixed. I could use a topoff while visiting USC. and I planned to use the L2 charger at California Science Center in the Exposition Park. However once I arrived I found the parking fee is $12, a bit too expensive since I only planned to stay for an hour. so I drove around and came to a parking structure at 3667 McClintock Avenue Los Angeles CA (As a side note, in plugshare the location of this structure is incorrectly marked as 941 W 35th St, which I just fixed) . There is no attendant, but a good fellow driver told me there are EV chargers in this structure. When I finally found them, a car just pulled into the last available charger The driver directed me to a public charging station. However, Google map kept directing me to dead ends blocked by constructions. Frustrated, I gave up on the idea of charging and just parked anywhere I can find, which happened to be lot 2 in front of the Grace Ford Salvatori Hall. To my surprise, there is a DCFC station on the side. excited, I quickly pulled out the plug, only to find a ChedMo! Disappointed no CCS is present, but hurrying to join my family who I dropped off earlier, I dutifully paid the hourly parking fee and walked away. Now here is the kicker: after returning from this trip, I found both plugshare (marked as restricted) and chargepoint indicated there are 2 L2 chargers in the same parking lot (lot 2), and parking is free while charging, according to chargepoint! I could have saved on parking fee while getting some needed electric juice.

In the end, I charged at Westwood Village where a BMW i3 didn't move after completing charge. I managed to squeeze in. First 2 hours parking is free in this garage, which is a pleasant surprise.

Next time you're in the area try the Shrine lot on the north side of USC's campus (Jefferson). There are 32 Chargepoint charging stations in that structure.

 

[dbostrom]

There are 32 Chargepoint charging stations in that structure.

Just look for the nuclear plant containment dome-- when you see it you'll know you're there.

 

[jasony]

Next time you're in the area try the Shrine lot on the north side of USC's campus (Jefferson). There are 32 Chargepoint charging stations in that structure.

Thanks. That might be where a local driver was trying to direct me to (I remember he mentioned Jefferson). But Google map is not up to date with the local ongoing constructions and failed me.

 

[cyaopec]

Thanks for sharing your account, @Steve Seidensticker. For the future, it really helps if you mention battery percentages, miles driven and kWh used.

The myChevrolet app will help you a good deal with route planning (see the “Energy Assist” route planner) and works well with CarPlay. It shows you a more detailed battery percentage than the car's gauge. It would probably have told you that your planned drive home was pushing the envelope, because its range estimates are based on a specific route, unlike the car's GOM (Guess-O-Meter).

The GOM just says “if you keep driving like you've just been driving, here's how far you might get”, which is going to be wrong if you've been driving downhill and are about to drive up, wrong if you've been driving in a city and are about to get on the freeway, and wrong if you've had a tailwind and are about to have a headwind, and wrong if you've not needed to run the heat and now turn the heat on.

Energy Assist will auto-pick a charging station for you, but not necessarily a good one. But you can usually see from just that app whether a location has multiple charging stations. When I tried it, I quickly found an EVgo location in Torrence that'd be on your route home (which I could check on PlugShare, but although you can see a good score, not one single person checking in or taking photos contributed anything very useful). Energy assist told me that you'd have 15% battery on arrival and would need to charge to 63%. Assuming that this is 125A charger, it'd take you about 42 minutes to charge that much (50 minutes if it's a crappy 100A charger). Unfortunately, this is one area where Energy Assist falls down. It often guesses the charging speed of different chargers and tends to overestimate how long you'll need to stop — it thinks you need 1 hour six minutes to get to 63%, which is bogus. But it seems clear to me that if you'd used Energy Assist, you'd have known that charging for half an hour wasn't really enough.

In addition to Energy Assist, PlugsShare will help you check that given locations have good ratings and have multiple charge stations.

Overall, I couldn't agree more, the experience could be a lot better. But some of your unfamiliarity could equally well apply to gas cars. There are a lot of spouses who prefer to let their partner fill the tank, and are confused by the order of steps (do I pay first, or fill then pay) and the choices (regular, mid-grade or premium). Some people even try to put gas in diesel cars or vice versa, something only stopped by nozzle size (diesel in gas car) or clever interlock mechanisms (gas in diesel car).

It's easy to go from LA to San Diego. I've done it four times from Northwestern LA County right down to Coronado Island. I spend 45 minutes at the EvGo charger in Carlsbad on the way down and the way back. I do 65 the whole way and make it just fine. I would suggest stopping to DCFC charge around Long Beach/South of Long Beach. I think the key is to always do the speed limit.