I took my Ioniq 5 on our first road trip this weekend. I've road-tripped my Tesla Model 3 many times - both shorter, local trips, as well as longer trips (Quebec, Texas, Florida, New England, etc.). So I have some idea of how to road trip an EV, but the CCS1 charging experience was going to be new for me. We went from Pittsburgh PA to Ithaca NY. Weather was right around freezing, and it was lightly snowing for the entire trip up. I planned to be fairly conservative on the way up - I charged more than ABRP suggested, and I charged at three locations instead of just the two it suggested.
Here's how it went.
Charging Stop #1: Electrify America, Erie PA
28 minutes, 38% to 90%
Stations #2 and #3 were listed as 350kW. I first tried plugging into station #2, and couldn't get it to start. The cords for station #3 were laying on the ground, so I assumed someone had done that because it wasn't working. The EA app listed station #4 as not working. So I moved to station #1, which was only listed as 150kW. But that worked well, and I got 129kW from that one.
This one was located in a Walmart parking lot, so that made for an easy bio break.
Charging Stop #2: EVolve NY, Salamanca NY (Shell Recharge)
34 minutes, 50% to 92%
This charging location wasn't available in the car's navigation, so I couldn't precondition. Charging started around 40kW, raised to 90kW after 10 minutes, then 130kW after 15 minutes.
This one was located in a parking lot of a small Bingo Hall/Casino. It was early morning, and it wasn't open yet. There was a McDonalds across the street, so that worked for a bio break.
Charging Stop #3: EVolve NY, Bath NY (Shell Recharge)
13 minutes, 49% to 74%
One station is listed as 350kW. I tried it twice, and it wouldn't work. I moved to a second station, and that one also didn't work. Luckily, the third station I tried worked for me. It was maxing out around 120kW.
The location was odd. It was a parking lot behind a lot of businesses. The one gas station with a convenience store nearby had lots of signs saying that bathrooms were for customers only.
Other points worth mentioning about this trip:
1. It's really disconcerting that one or two out of a total of four stations is often not working. And while the various apps will sometimes show you when a station is out-of-order, they often don't.
2. While at the third charging stop, I received an email from my credit card company about suspicious activity. They said I had five different $60 charges from "Zeco Systems" within the past hour! I told them I didn't recognize the charges, but I suspected it was some kind of a mistake. So they said my card would be "on hold" until I contacted Zeco Systems and either resolved the issue with them, or call Citi back and have them cancel my card and issue new ones. I called Zeco's number later that afternoon, and it was answered as Shell Recharge! Apparently, every attempt to charge - including when the station fails to start and I have to move to another station - results in them putting a $60 hold on your card. Then they are supposed to release that hold and charge the actual amount later. I wish I had known that ahead of time. It's now two days later. Shell Recharge has sent me emails with the amount I will actually be charged for my charging sessions, pretty much immediately after each charging session. But I still have all of those holds (six of them now) on my card, but no adjusted charges.
3. Between my conservative approach to charging, slower-than-expected charging rates, and having to try several stations to find one that works, this trip took a whole hour longer than ABRP predicted (7h10m vs 6h10m).
4. The car was performing a lot better than ABRP predicted. I consistently arrived with higher SOC than ABRP predicted. So that gave me confidence to ride the bottom-half of the battery on my return trip. That went more smoothly. I'll write a followup post with that experience.
5. I wish the car gave expected battery SOC upon arrival at each destination. This is a Tesla feature that I've found very useful over the years. It's like a last-minute ABRP calculation for each leg of the trip. It makes it easier to avoid charging more than needed at each stop.
6. One really annoying thing about the car: in near-freezing snow/rain, it builds up ice VERY quickly on the front end. This blocks the radar. When the radar is blocked, the car doesn't allow cruise control. There's not an option to have dumb cruise control. During this trip, I would clear the slushy ice from the front of the car at every charging stop, but the radar would disable as soon as 5 minutes into the next leg of the trip.
Here's how it went.
Charging Stop #1: Electrify America, Erie PA
28 minutes, 38% to 90%
Stations #2 and #3 were listed as 350kW. I first tried plugging into station #2, and couldn't get it to start. The cords for station #3 were laying on the ground, so I assumed someone had done that because it wasn't working. The EA app listed station #4 as not working. So I moved to station #1, which was only listed as 150kW. But that worked well, and I got 129kW from that one.
This one was located in a Walmart parking lot, so that made for an easy bio break.
Charging Stop #2: EVolve NY, Salamanca NY (Shell Recharge)
34 minutes, 50% to 92%
This charging location wasn't available in the car's navigation, so I couldn't precondition. Charging started around 40kW, raised to 90kW after 10 minutes, then 130kW after 15 minutes.
This one was located in a parking lot of a small Bingo Hall/Casino. It was early morning, and it wasn't open yet. There was a McDonalds across the street, so that worked for a bio break.
Charging Stop #3: EVolve NY, Bath NY (Shell Recharge)
13 minutes, 49% to 74%
One station is listed as 350kW. I tried it twice, and it wouldn't work. I moved to a second station, and that one also didn't work. Luckily, the third station I tried worked for me. It was maxing out around 120kW.
The location was odd. It was a parking lot behind a lot of businesses. The one gas station with a convenience store nearby had lots of signs saying that bathrooms were for customers only.
Other points worth mentioning about this trip:
1. It's really disconcerting that one or two out of a total of four stations is often not working. And while the various apps will sometimes show you when a station is out-of-order, they often don't.
2. While at the third charging stop, I received an email from my credit card company about suspicious activity. They said I had five different $60 charges from "Zeco Systems" within the past hour! I told them I didn't recognize the charges, but I suspected it was some kind of a mistake. So they said my card would be "on hold" until I contacted Zeco Systems and either resolved the issue with them, or call Citi back and have them cancel my card and issue new ones. I called Zeco's number later that afternoon, and it was answered as Shell Recharge! Apparently, every attempt to charge - including when the station fails to start and I have to move to another station - results in them putting a $60 hold on your card. Then they are supposed to release that hold and charge the actual amount later. I wish I had known that ahead of time. It's now two days later. Shell Recharge has sent me emails with the amount I will actually be charged for my charging sessions, pretty much immediately after each charging session. But I still have all of those holds (six of them now) on my card, but no adjusted charges.
3. Between my conservative approach to charging, slower-than-expected charging rates, and having to try several stations to find one that works, this trip took a whole hour longer than ABRP predicted (7h10m vs 6h10m).
4. The car was performing a lot better than ABRP predicted. I consistently arrived with higher SOC than ABRP predicted. So that gave me confidence to ride the bottom-half of the battery on my return trip. That went more smoothly. I'll write a followup post with that experience.
5. I wish the car gave expected battery SOC upon arrival at each destination. This is a Tesla feature that I've found very useful over the years. It's like a last-minute ABRP calculation for each leg of the trip. It makes it easier to avoid charging more than needed at each stop.
6. One really annoying thing about the car: in near-freezing snow/rain, it builds up ice VERY quickly on the front end. This blocks the radar. When the radar is blocked, the car doesn't allow cruise control. There's not an option to have dumb cruise control. During this trip, I would clear the slushy ice from the front of the car at every charging stop, but the radar would disable as soon as 5 minutes into the next leg of the trip.
