Also, so far, no waiting for a charger on this trip. Currently seven out of 10 chargers available.
Also, so far, no waiting for a charger on this trip. Currently seven out of 10 chargers available.
David S. Wallens said:Miami was fun and already on the way back. So far, smooth sailing. I'm currently at a Walmart in Ft. Lauderdale. Didn't need to fuel up but want to make a stop so fueling while checking something online.
I call that "opportunity charging". You're stopped anyway, why not plug in?
Well, when I left West Palm Beach with a full tank, it looked like it was enough to get me home.
Well, hello Cocoa! Based on the numbers I was seeing, it was going to be a photo finish. And I wasn't feeling that lucky.
Come see me at Sam's Club between floral and mixed nuts. We can hang for a few.
Okay, I am home.
Some TL;DR:
Yes, you can road trip an EV.
Yes, there might be some challenges.
Yes, we have come a long way in a relatively short time.
More to come once my phone syncs. :)
Also, I need to clean up the kitchen from dinner.
BRB.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Exactly.
Okay, some of the high points from the trip.
First stop on the way down was in Cocoa, so an hour south of us. It was time for a bathroom break, and I was getting hungry. Next charger isn't until Port St. Lucie, so almost another hundred miles.
The Cocoa EA charger is in a Sam's Club parking lot. Easy access from I-95.
Clean bathrooms and I think they had a bidet.
The cafe had just closed.
And not much to eat unless you're feeding an entire family.
Here's the bill:
Sam's Club isn't open 24/7, though, so that could impact your travel plans.
I was still hungry and not up for an entire rotisserie chicken, so I had to make a second stop for food (don't judge).
Next stop was in West Palm Beach. On the app, it looked like this charger was located in a shopping center. I wasn't sure how South Florida traffic was going to be, so I erred on the earlier stop.
This stop was a bit deluxe. The chargers were located in the lower level of a parking garage. Close to I-95 but took a few minutes to get there. 
I was the only one there charging.
Not much open at that time of night–it was a few minutes to 10:00–but Whole Foods hadn't yet closed. I grabbed dessert.
If Whole Foods was closed, not sure what was around for a bathroom. I saw people in sporting wear, so I'm thinking the gym was still open. Was it open to travelers? No idea.
My plan was to grab enough of a charge to get down to Miami and then a bit north for the drive home. I forgot to check regarding charging facilities at the hotel.
While waiting for the car to charge, I checked out the local sights.
The rest of the drive to Miami was rather uneventful. (The way I like it.)
What Google says takes 4 hours to drive actually took me 5.5. (I also stopped at a rest area for a minute.)
Now the drive home.
First, the hotel, while very, very nice, didn't offer charging. I asked, and they pointed me towards a 110 outlet. I figured that was a fool's errand.
My plan was to get past Miami traffic before stopping. There I could reevaluate everything for the rest of the trip. I also saw that the Port. St. Lucie chargers were currently down.
So, how about Ft. Lauderdale? This charger was at a Walmart and looked close to the I-95.
Being able to charge at the hotel would have saved this stop.
As promised, these chargers were close to the highway: 10 chargers and, again, no waiting.
I figured there would be more traffic as I continued north. How would that impact range? Honestly, I didn't have enough seat time to tell. So, I figured, I'd stop again in West Palm Beach. With Port St. Lucie down, it would be as far north as I could stop before leaving South Florida airspace.
During the daytime, West Palm Beach was happening. The parking lots were nearly full. No wait for a charger, though. 
Where some chargers were located in the corners of the various lots, these occupied rather prime real estate.
And maybe that's tied to something that I noticed here, and hopefully those with more EV experience can chime in: Is using the EV spots just to park a thing? Or do these Teslas have wireless charging?
I saw both owners park and leave. Then I realized that their cars weren't plugged in. The Model Y sat there for at least 25 minutes.
But, a bonus for me:
I just grabbed the car from David and plugged it in at my house. Nice of BMW to include a burly EVSE and adapters in the trunk--I'm currently charging at 11kw from a welding outlet in my shop. That's a good bit faster than the Level 2 EVSE in my front garage can put out.
West Palm Beach is about 205 miles from home. The range said that I could go 254 miles.
Could I really make it home from West Palm Beach to Ormond Beach without stopping? That did sound luxurious.
But I'd also be flying without a net as I had just the Cocoa stop between us. If I came up even just a mile short, I'd be SOL. 
If my math is right, the car is going to slurp down 40 kWh while I'm asleep tonight. That will cost me about $6 for the 117 miles of range added.
So, I watched the numbers and kept doing the math. As I reached Cocoa, it looked too close for comfort: I'd have 71 miles to go with 94 miles of range showing.
I admit, I just wasn't up for an adventure.
So, hello again, Cocoa.
I let this stop go a little longer as I felt the need to stretch my legs a bit.
And another free charge.
And from there, I was home in an hour. Thanks to traffic (and the stops), the drive up from Miami to Ormond Beach took 6+ hours.
Thanks for following, and let's discuss.
Thanks for the logging of information. Pretty interesting to read and seems to correlate with a lot of what I've heard and read from other folks. Seems like while they have come a long ways, the infrastructure still leaves a LOT to be desired. That seems to be the biggest sticking point, especially when you need to head out into the boonies.
I'm also curious to see what the long term reliability is on these things, as they start to age and acquire upwards of 100,000 miles and get to the 6-10 year mark, for the "average" buyer. Not just on the handful of outliers that have made it to the 200k-250k plus mark, with folks whom are *obviously* more diligent about such than the average user.... I want to see the real world owners who *aren't* as conscious about proper charging to extend battery life, doing the "proper" warm up cycles and such (you know, where it actually gets legit cold) Im curious how those will fair as they begin to age out. That's my biggest question on them, at the moment. Long term battery life.
Being said, I'd love to build an electric swapped hot rod / custom. AEM and others are doing some neat stuff. To say I'm curious about that end of things is an understatement.
One more observation about the BMW i4 to answer an earlier question: This car feels so much like a BMW that it's eerie.
Let me explain. If you handed this car to a friend and didn't tell them it was electric, not sure they'd know.
The throttle, for example, feels so much like an ICE car. It has that progressive feel that we all know. It doesn't have that instant-on found in some EVs. No weirdness, no "get used to it."
And, likewise, the car seems to "creep" away from a stop like a traditional automatic. When you take your foot off the brake, it doesn't just sit there.
The familiarity curve with the i4 was just instant, and I think that's a lot of the appeal.
In reply to GaryC83 :
One thing that I keep coming back to: I never had to wait for a charger except that one time in Jacksonville, and in the past week I drove all of I-95 in Florida.
Also, yeah, there's a difference between a road trip stop at a 24/7 Walmart or (insert your favorite travel plaza) vs. a Sam's Club or shopping mall that's closed for the night.
David S. Wallens said:In reply to GaryC83 :
One thing that I keep coming back to: I never had to wait for a charger except that one time in Jacksonville, and in the past week I drove all of I-95 in Florida.
Also, yeah, there's a difference between a road trip stop at a 24/7 Walmart or (insert your favorite travel plaza) vs. a Sam's Club or shopping mall that's closed for the night.
I wonder how that will be / if it will continue to remain that way, as more and more EV'S continue to populate the road. I can see that being the tipping point for people, if charging lags behind and you wind up having to wait a half hour, or whatever for an open spot, as more and more folks adopt EV platforms.
I hope the charging situation grows at the same pace as the amount of them on the roads are. Along with our E36 M3 infrastructure.... that needs a solid upgrade. But anybody with their eyes open and a functional brain can see the writing on the wall there.
I can see a proper gasoline or diesel electric performance hybrid being my own ideal, for the foreseeable future. As I travel off the beaten paths far too frequently. It's a shame, IMO, nobody has embraced that side of things, really. Maybe someday, but for now it seems lost to the typical Prius and the like.
In reply to GaryC83 :
There have been a number of studies done on the real world effects of lots of fast charging on the fleet. Turns out it's not as bad as you'd expect, to the point where it might be noise in the data. "Proper warming" isn't as much a thing on EVs as it is on ICE, so I don't think maintenance/use is going to have as big an effect on longevity as it does on liquid fuel vehicles. Turns out these things are pretty smart when when it comes to caring for their own batteries.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
Parking while not charging is what's known as a "dick move". Just like leaving your Camry at the only diesel pump while you go peruse the Slim Jim selection in the convenience store. There are shiny happy people everywhere.
I figured there would be more traffic as I continued north. How would that impact range?
Stop and go or varying traffic punishes an EV far less than an ICE as they don't need to idle and they can regen. To the point where Google is starting to calculate different "most efficient" routes for ICE vs EV - that's just rolling out now. So hitting traffic will not affect your range as much as you might think.
GaryC83 said:David S. Wallens said:In reply to GaryC83 :
One thing that I keep coming back to: I never had to wait for a charger except that one time in Jacksonville, and in the past week I drove all of I-95 in Florida.
Also, yeah, there's a difference between a road trip stop at a 24/7 Walmart or (insert your favorite travel plaza) vs. a Sam's Club or shopping mall that's closed for the night.
I wonder how that will be / if it will continue to remain that way, as more and more EV'S continue to populate the road. I can see that being the tipping point for people, if charging lags behind and you wind up having to wait a half hour, or whatever for an open spot, as more and more folks adopt EV platforms.
I hope the charging situation grows at the same pace as the amount of them on the roads are. Along with our E36 M3 infrastructure.... that needs a solid upgrade. But anybody with their eyes open and a functional brain can see the writing on the wall there.
I can see a proper gasoline or diesel electric performance hybrid being my own ideal, for the foreseeable future. As I travel off the beaten paths far too frequently. It's a shame, IMO, nobody has embraced that side of things, really. Maybe someday, but for now it seems lost to the typical Prius and the like.
I don't see that lag happening, or at least not for too long. Why? See my post about the cost of electricity at home and compare it to what David was paying at the public chargers. That's a BIG markup for a product that has almost zero logistics and staffing needs. I suspect companies will realize the money to be made and make it.
David S. Wallens said:During the daytime, West Palm Beach was happening. The parking lots were nearly full. No wait for a charger, though.
Where some chargers were located in the corners of the various lots, these occupied rather prime real estate.
And maybe that's tied to something that I noticed here, and hopefully those with more EV experience can chime in: Is using the EV spots just to park a thing? Or do these Teslas have wireless charging?
I saw both owners park and leave. Then I realized that their cars weren't plugged in. The Model Y sat there for at least 25 minutes.
But, a bonus for me:
In my experience, that's a classic Tesla move. Those things constantly block charging spots and don't charge. The EV equivalent of giant suburban with roof boxes, which are always parked at gas pumps not pumping.
I think that was the biggest disappointment of the entire experience: seeing other EV drivers treat the charger as their own front-row parking spot.
In reply to Tom Suddard :
That could be sheer numbers. If there's an EV parked anywhere, the odds are it's a Tesla simply because they make up such a large percentage of the EV fleet in the US.
Parking in front of the pump is an old move. It's just even more annoying for EVs because of the timeframes. The chargers will usually charge idle time if you stay plugged in after charging is complete, but if you're not plugged in nobody knows you're there. I don't have a good solution for this short of surveillance cameras with plate recognition - which is not a technical challenge, but until it starts to hurt the people who own the chargers there's no motivation to deploy it.
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