The following looks like a lot of mental work, but it's not what we do when we're on the road, I'm doing it here for illustration purposes.
We got to our hotel and the charger there was busy. That was fine, we had more than 30% charge, so we did our things, got dinner, went downtown, etc., and when we got to the hotel that evening, the charger was open. However its cost was high, so I did a quick calculation of how far I had to go to get to an Electrify America charger on the way home (less than half the price), and charged just enough to make it to the EA charger. I unplugged at 65%, ignoring my recommendation to everyone who will listen to charge to 100% when the time on the charger doesn't matter.
We grabbed breakfast with the people we were visiting and then headed home.
When we hit the road, I realized we were doing much better on efficiency than I'd estimated. Usually the return trip is lower efficiency because we drive into the wind. We decided to skip the first charger and go on to the second on our route. We got there with 13% charge. We went to the restroom, grabbed some snacks, were chatted up by a passerby about the truck and charging costs and etc., and by the time we were done, the truck was back up to 80%. This charge event was 44 minutes long, which is longer than we typically spend (25 minutes is our median time spent at a charger on a road trip). This was longer for several reasons. First, because we didn't charge to 100% at the hotel because I was being a miser If we had, we'd have had 35% more charge when we arrived at the charger and would have needed ~48% of the time to get to 80% (or ~21 minutes instead of 44). Second because we went beyond the first stop we'd planned and on to the second. Third because we got distracted by the conversation.
We got home with 7% charge. It had been a while since I ran the charge from low % to 100%, so I told the truck to run up to 100% and boosted the charger to work at 80A (19.2 kW). By the next morning it was full again.
No need to stop at a gas station at the town we were in. Doing so would have cost us at least 20 minutes to leave the hotel, find a gas station, refuel, etc. So we spent that 20 minutes on the drive home instead of taking time from our visit. That's not counting the 30 minutes it takes to go from our home to the nearest gas station and back. Total extra time refueling would be about 60-80 minutes. Not counting the refueling time on the highway there and back again.
Gas average on this route is about $3.50/gallon. Our 12 mpg truck would have required about $205 for the trip, only counting the miles on the highway and around town. For electricity, if we count the cost to fill up at home both before and after the trip, it's $0.035/kWh at home. To recharge our 131 kWh twice is $9.17 plus the cost to stop at DCFCs: $40.48+$24.37+$31.32 = $105.34. About half the price, even with the expensive charger at the hotel and even counting two fill-ups at home.
We got to our hotel and the charger there was busy. That was fine, we had more than 30% charge, so we did our things, got dinner, went downtown, etc., and when we got to the hotel that evening, the charger was open. However its cost was high, so I did a quick calculation of how far I had to go to get to an Electrify America charger on the way home (less than half the price), and charged just enough to make it to the EA charger. I unplugged at 65%, ignoring my recommendation to everyone who will listen to charge to 100% when the time on the charger doesn't matter.
We grabbed breakfast with the people we were visiting and then headed home.
When we hit the road, I realized we were doing much better on efficiency than I'd estimated. Usually the return trip is lower efficiency because we drive into the wind. We decided to skip the first charger and go on to the second on our route. We got there with 13% charge. We went to the restroom, grabbed some snacks, were chatted up by a passerby about the truck and charging costs and etc., and by the time we were done, the truck was back up to 80%. This charge event was 44 minutes long, which is longer than we typically spend (25 minutes is our median time spent at a charger on a road trip). This was longer for several reasons. First, because we didn't charge to 100% at the hotel because I was being a miser If we had, we'd have had 35% more charge when we arrived at the charger and would have needed ~48% of the time to get to 80% (or ~21 minutes instead of 44). Second because we went beyond the first stop we'd planned and on to the second. Third because we got distracted by the conversation.
We got home with 7% charge. It had been a while since I ran the charge from low % to 100%, so I told the truck to run up to 100% and boosted the charger to work at 80A (19.2 kW). By the next morning it was full again.
No need to stop at a gas station at the town we were in. Doing so would have cost us at least 20 minutes to leave the hotel, find a gas station, refuel, etc. So we spent that 20 minutes on the drive home instead of taking time from our visit. That's not counting the 30 minutes it takes to go from our home to the nearest gas station and back. Total extra time refueling would be about 60-80 minutes. Not counting the refueling time on the highway there and back again.
Gas average on this route is about $3.50/gallon. Our 12 mpg truck would have required about $205 for the trip, only counting the miles on the highway and around town. For electricity, if we count the cost to fill up at home both before and after the trip, it's $0.035/kWh at home. To recharge our 131 kWh twice is $9.17 plus the cost to stop at DCFCs: $40.48+$24.37+$31.32 = $105.34. About half the price, even with the expensive charger at the hotel and even counting two fill-ups at home.
