Driving an EV pickup

[sly_karma]

Long highway trips are a tougher assignment for an EV truck, the aerodynamic drag of a constant 100-110 km/h is really noticeable. My Lightning is returning 31 kWh/100 km in that cruising range. An ER battery has 131 kWh available, so the theoretical range there is (131/31)*100 = 422 km. Mountains eat up power, and regen down the other side returns only about two thirds of that, and you'll want a safety margin. Should be able to make first stop Cache Creek, where you charge to 80%, because even on a DC fast charger, that last bit from 80% to 100% takes ages. So now you have only 337 km to work with, but really you don't want to push into the last 10%, same as you try to avoid that with gas or diesel truck. So 300 km takes you to Williams Lake. Hopefully. But maybe the losses from climbing onto the central plateau eat into that, or there's a headwind. So possibly you're stopping at 100 Mile. From the Puddle to PG should be doable, but from 100 Mile you'll probably need a quick stop in Quesnel.

So it's 2 or 3 stops, which over 800 km is nothing awful. You would have made at least one fuel stop anyway, which would also mean washroom, coffee, food, etc. You might add an hour at most to the trip, which for occasional trips is no big deal. If this was your work commute once or twice a month, different story - but we'd be suggesting not to get an EV yet for that kind of use.

With my gas half ton I was making 40-45 gas station visits a year, highway trips or not. 10 minutes at the pump x 42 = 7 hours of holding a gas nozzle. So the wait time on an occasional road trip seems minor. And of course when I charge at home, my 'tank' fills itself while I'm asleep.

 

[sly_karma]

My oldest ebike that my wife uses has some degradation but if we are going far I can bring the charger or just take the new bike. Nice thing is if we run out we just keep pedalling just slower. A battery upgrade is expensive but I think we may see battery service centres replacing bad cells in the future for cars at least.

Those ebike batteries are pretty basic. Most that I've seen have no heat management system (fan/s). That and always charging to 100% will cause them to degrade more quickly.

 

[kaelc]

Those ebike batteries are pretty basic. Most that I've seen have no heat management system (fan/s). That and always charging to 100% will cause them to degrade more quickly.

Maybe some of the Chinese “direct” ones? My Giant (Yamaha) and Felt (Bosch) both have a bms.

 

[Alex_c]

Long highway trips are a tougher assignment for an EV truck, the aerodynamic drag of a constant 100-110 km/h is really noticeable. My Lightning is returning 31 kWh/100 km in that cruising range. An ER battery has 131 kWh available, so the theoretical range there is (131/31)*100 = 422 km. Mountains eat up power, and regen down the other side returns only about two thirds of that, and you'll want a safety margin. Should be able to make first stop Cache Creek, where you charge to 80%, because even on a DC fast charger, that last bit from 80% to 100% takes ages. So now you have only 337 km to work with, but really you don't want to push into the last 10%, same as you try to avoid that with gas or diesel truck. So 300 km takes you to Williams Lake. Hopefully. But maybe the losses from climbing onto the central plateau eat into that, or there's a headwind. So possibly you're stopping at 100 Mile. From the Puddle to PG should be doable, but from 100 Mile you'll probably need a quick stop in Quesnel.

So it's 2 or 3 stops, which over 800 km is nothing awful. You would have made at least one fuel stop anyway, which would also mean washroom, coffee, food, etc. You might add an hour at most to the trip, which for occasional trips is no big deal. If this was your work commute once or twice a month, different story - but we'd be suggesting not to get an EV yet for that kind of use.

With my gas half ton I was making 40-45 gas station visits a year, highway trips or not. 10 minutes at the pump x 42 = 7 hours of holding a gas nozzle. So the wait time on an occasional road trip seems minor. And of course when I charge at home, my 'tank' fills itself while I'm asleep.

Wow great informative, and comprehensive reply. Our drive usually includes one stop at the puddle for gas and we usually pack a lunch. So the 800 km trip takes 8.5 hours at the very least. Adding another hour to that isn’t a big deal. At 15-17L/100 km, and current gas prices, that works out to be more than $500 in fuel return. Realistically, if we took my lifted 1989 F-250, that gas bill would be pushing $700. I don’t know about you, but my time
is definitely worth less than $500/hr .

 

[kaelc]

Wow great informative, and comprehensive reply. Our drive usually includes one stop at the puddle for gas and we usually pack a lunch. So the 800 km trip takes 8.5 hours at the very least. Adding another hour to that isn’t a big deal. At 15-17L/100 km, and current gas prices, that works out to be more than $500 in fuel return. Realistically, if we took my lifted 1989 F-250, that gas bill would be pushing $700. I don’t know about you, but my time
is definitely worth less than $500/hr .

I think gas stations without a restaurant will soon start to disappear. With California hitting 25% and BC 20% EV sales, the revenue stream of food and charging is going to be needed, if you lose 20-25% of your sales.

 

[CIVANO]

There is a very nice hotel and restaurant in Coalinga Calif. It is half way between Los Angeles and San Francisco. They have 98 Tesla charging stations and most are full during lunch and dinner hours. Only downside is all stations are powered by diesel generators. But their business is booming!

 

[Alex_c]

An outfit that installs fast charging packages at existing roadside restaurants along major travel routes might be a viable business idea. Would be a huge draw for established spots, and provide much needed shoulder season revenue for eateries in small towns that rely heavily on summer traffic volume to pad their sales

 

[Fishalot]

Agreed great information from real world use. I will be most interested in winter performance

 

[ChilliSpoons]

We just did a drive to a family cabin just outside of 100 Mile House. We chatted about the idea of an electric truck after reading this thread. And then we remembered 2 years ago when the atmospheric river hit and our family group was stuck on hwy 7 on a return trip from the cabin overnight after what is normally a 4 hr drive that took 9 hrs. Then stranded between slides needing a helicopter rescue after a stressful night stuck in their truck. Clearly a unique situation but one that wouldn’t be ideal in a battery powered vehicle.

 

[sly_karma]

We just did a drive to a family cabin just outside of 100 Mile House. We chatted about the idea of an electric truck after reading this thread. And then we remembered 2 years ago when the atmospheric river hit and our family group was stuck on hwy 7 on a return trip from the cabin overnight after what is normally a 4 hr drive that took 9 hrs. Then stranded between slides needing a helicopter rescue after a stressful night stuck in their truck. Clearly a unique situation but one that wouldn’t be ideal in a battery powered vehicle.

The critical issue for any vehicle in an unexpected road closure situation is how much energy do you have on board. You've got all the options when your tank is full and a lot fewer when it isn't. Same for an EV.

If I topped up in Merritt and left for Hope with 80% battery, and then got stuck in a snow closure on the Coq, I'd be better off than a guy in a gas truck. All my vehicle has to do is run a bit of heat. Takes about 2 kW to run cabin heating. 70% of my battery is 70 kWh, divide by 2 kW and you get 35 hours of heat - if I ran it continuously. Most people wouldn't, of course, you'dcycle it on and off to conserve. And if happened to be on my own, I would mostly just run the heated drivers seat and occasionally the steering wheel, keep just me warm rather than full truck. Could a gas truck idle for 35 hours?

If you have stop/start traffic, the energy used to inch along is as low as it gets for EV, but very hard on fuel for gas or diesel.

Sensible winter practice has been to never let gas tank drop much below half. I see every reason to continue this practice in my EV through winter. Fits into the EV highway practice of more frequent short charging stops anyway.

 

[sly_karma]

An outfit that installs fast charging packages at existing roadside restaurants along major travel routes might be a viable business idea. Would be a huge draw for established spots, and provide much needed shoulder season revenue for eateries in small towns that rely heavily on summer traffic volume to pad their sales

I think the return of the roadside diner is imminent, in a 21st century form of course. A 20 minute meal is what fits most charge stops. Take a look next time you're in a Chevron gas station that has a Triple Os fast food in it. Most of them now have EV chargers on the same property. Parkway is protecting its investment in the convenience store/ burger joint model. And with the average charge stop being a bit longer than gas stop - and EV drivers not standing around holding a nozzle - there's more opportunity to spend money.

 

[kaelc]

There is a very nice hotel and restaurant in Coalinga Calif. It is half way between Los Angeles and San Francisco. They have 98 Tesla charging stations and most are full during lunch and dinner hours. Only downside is all stations are powered by diesel generators. But their business is booming!

Has anyone at all been there in the last 8 years and seen diesel generators running other than in a brown out? I read the article that quotes one guy from 2015 seeing a backup generator from the great news source and it reminds me of the affiliate marketing articles about Pam Anderson that the neverblue types used to run. https://jalopnik.com/tesla-supercharger-location-diesel-generator-report-1850804146

Harris Ranch superchargers powered by diesel generators??? Really?

Hi folks. Saw this story pop up on my feed. Seems weird. We have been to Harris ranch a number of times and I don’t recall seeing a diesel generator powering the superchargers. Has anyone noticed this? Is it maybe for general back up power for the service station etc? Here’s the link...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[Alex_c]

I think the return of the roadside diner is imminent, in a 21st century form of course. A 20 minute meal is what fits most charge stops. Take a look next time you're in a Chevron gas station that has a Triple Os fast food in it. Most of them now have EV chargers on the same property. Parkway is protecting its investment in the convenience store/ burger joint model. And with the average charge stop being a bit longer than gas stop - and EV drivers not standing around holding a nozzle - there's more opportunity to spend money.

I have a computer engineering degree, and know a few people with electrical engineering backgrounds. I’m going to be doing some more research on this.

 

[tubber]

I have a computer engineering degree, and know a few people with electrical engineering backgrounds. I’m going to be doing some more research on this.

I have a BPE and my son is a biomedical engineer. We don't need to research if we like burgers - we do.

 

[Alex_c]

I have a BPE and my son is a biomedical engineer. We don't need to research if we like burgers - we do.

I meant more the business side of building and installing level 3 fast chargers

 

[onefish]

How To Charge The Ford F-150 Lightning: Everything You Need To Know

We go into detail explaining how to charge the Ford F-150 Lightning. We detail the levels of charging and how long it takes to charge the F-150 lightning.

insideevs.com

A good video for those novices like myself who may be thinking about what it takes to get set up for an EV such as the lightning.

 

[sly_karma]

There is a very nice hotel and restaurant in Coalinga Calif. It is half way between Los Angeles and San Francisco. They have 98 Tesla charging stations and most are full during lunch and dinner hours. Only downside is all stations are powered by diesel generators. But their business is booming!

Is there a diesel generator anywhere on the planet that could make a continuous 30 megawatts? You're up into the output level of a small hydro dam or coal fired power plant there.

 

[sly_karma]

Road trip to Sun Peaks over the weekend, with various stops and deviations from the direct route. Ideal weather for an EV road trip: dry roads, minimal wind, temps 14-18°C. The truck averaged 25 kWh/100 km, which I thought pretty impressive considering it has very few concessions to aerodynamics. I credit the slightly lower speed limits found in the north Okanagan and Shuswap; mostly 80-100 km/h. On a freeway at 110 kmh, my use looks more like 30-32 kWh/100 km.

One objective was to use a charger from the Electrify Canada network, as there are none in my area. This mission was accomplished at Salmon Arm Canadian Tire, quick 10 minute topup that wasn't otherwise necessary. Four chargers installed; first 150 kW charger I've used that actually delivered 150 kW. On the minus side, this is one of those locations not friendly to a trailer or boat rig. You could connect without unhitching, but you'd block access to the entire charging site.

Destination charging at the Grand in SP worked fine but was exxy. $25 PLUS the normal $15 per night parking fee. They refer to it as valet parking, but I had to park it myself then leave key with the front desk. I guess they want to be able to move vehicles around once charged. Anyway in the morning it was at 100% and good to go.

The community chargers near the skating rink are pretty crap, as I found out back in August. 5 kW shared between two, so if a second vehicle plugs in you get 2.5 kW each. Would not have been fully charged overnight. This time I knew to use the hotel.

I'm enjoying the ease and comfort of the big Ford as a touring machine. Wind and tire noise are minimal, and the lane keeping system and adaptive cruise are well developed. The constant background drone and vibration of an engine doesn't seem like much, until it's gone. Definitely reduces driver fatigue.

 

[sly_karma]

Forgot to mention fuel costs.
Electrify Canada $7.16
Petro Canada $6.70
Sun Peaks Grand $25
Home charger 67 kWh @$0.11 = $7.37
Total $46.23

Distance driven 640 km.
Unit cost of 7.2 cents/km. This is indicative of the higher cost of public chargers compared to home charging, where my cost is 2.5 cents/km. Just as cooking at home usually is a lot cheaper than eating out. Of course sometimes there is free charging at an overnight destination, lots of hotels and air BNBs offer it, or friends let you plug in to a 110 outlet.

My cost was pretty skewed by the hotel "valet charging", but was ok. There's no gas station at all at Sun Peaks, and definitely no one offering to drive to the nearest, fill up, park for the night and pull it around to the front of the hotel ready for you to leave in the morning. Or maybe it could be done, hotel concierges will do all kinds of stuff if you tip well enough.

 

[kaelc]

$46 doesn’t gets you a breakfast for two at most resort towns in North America. For “expensive” parking and charging that’s pretty good. I was wondering what charge rate was at Woss where I almost ran out of diesel and paid $2.50 a litre. Three different charging stations at 50kw max.

25kw at the Taylor Arm rest stop on the way to tofino and 50kw at the info rest stop at the Uke/Tofino junction.

Sounds like the infrastructure is there for cars. As more Tesla semis roll out we should have good infrastructure for your truck pulling a boat to charge at without unhooking?