[Pictor]

I'm curious when people tend to plug-in when public charging (not at home) especially on road trips. I see lots of folks plugging in at sub optimal SoC that results in lower charging speeds. Do folks do this because of anxiety of being stranded or do you try and really stretch your charging stops?

[unfoundnemo]

Originally Posted by Pictor

I'm curious when people tend to plug-in when public charging (not at home) especially on road trips. I see lots of folks plugging in at sub optimal SoC that results in lower charging speeds. Do folks do this because of anxiety of being stranded or do you try and really stretch your charging stops?

For me, it's more about route planning... no issue going to 10% or below, but it's rare that it's in a location or at a time that I would want to stop.

Of course, charging is pretty sparce most of the places I'm driving as well. I have a station near my house, which doesn't do me any good unless I missed charging at home one night and was making a last-minute trip. The next one is about 50 miles away any direction, which doesn't really help either. After that, to get to my typical destination, I have a spot after another 150 miles, which is 100 miles before my destination and not another potential option until just before I get there, so I sort of need to stop there without going serverly out of my way, and I'll usually be around 30% when I do so. I'd absolutely love to stop when I was around 5 or 10, because then I could probably make it to my desination and back to that spot with no worries... but that's just not possible.

[ggalanis]

Originally Posted by Pictor

I'm curious when people tend to plug-in when public charging (not at home) especially on road trips. I see lots of folks plugging in at sub optimal SoC that results in lower charging speeds. Do folks do this because of anxiety of being stranded or do you try and really stretch your charging stops?

In my case, it varies a little depending on the drive. In some cases, i will be charging at near 50% because there are no chargers along a EV unfriendly route that I prefer to take (i.e. the 417/40 to go from Ottawa/Montreal). So I top up a bit before leaving to have enough to make it back home if my SOC when leaving is not enough like in the winter. Summer time I can probably do the round trip without charging.

In other cases I will target chargers at about 20% SOC. Mainly to give myself a buffer for if i am less efficient than expected or if the charger is slow or not working properly. If i stop elsewhere during a road trip for other reasons, like to eat, if i can charge at the same time I will pretty much regardless of the SOC. If I can i will keep an eye out on how busy the chargers are and if full I'd go check if there were people waiting to give them my spot if i had reached 80% or more already. Of course if i actually need the last 20% i will take it but that hasn't happened yet.

If i get familiar enough with a specific trip and charging locations along that route, i would target 10%. But I don't have any routine long trips that require DCFC stops for this to really happen.

[HybridLA]

On a trip now from Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon (via Las Vegas). First trip with the iX so being a bit conservative and charging around 30% up to 85%. In time I'm sure I will go down as low as 10% SoC.

[Kennethjk]

Just drove to NY from Fl.

I charged around 30-40%. Tried using EA and with their issues I figured if one didn’t Work I would just go to the next , basically my backup plan.