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6 month jubilee, road trip and 300 mile range

2K views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  mjmenhart 
#1 · (Edited)
I am starting my own thread because I'd be spreading this info over a bunch of threads, so bear with me.
For the impatient: We finally had a chance to take a longer drive. The car is an absolute joy for a road trip, and we got 300 miles of range on day 1 and 285 miles on day 2 on CA freeways, without hypermiling.

We had been tethered close to home because of a medical condition on my wife's part, but this weekend we finally had a chance to drive more than 50 miles at a time. It was also 6 months and 3 days into our ID4 ownership. My wife took the wheel both days (overjoyed to be liberated!), and drove the 180 miles door to door to our son's place in Ventura. It is even more apparent on a longer drive how incredibly quiet and comfortable the ID4 is. We arrived almost rested, without kinks in our backs, and fully ready to interact with our hosts.

We drove part of the way with Travel Assist, which generally worked really well, except on some of the less well marked freeways in the LA area, where we ping-ponged and switched back to manual steering. My wife became a huge fan of B mode on clogged LA freeways where traffic varied between 35 mph and 75 mph. Turns out she drives smoother than Travel Assist does - we call her the accordion preventer, referring to traffic behind us moving steady instead of chain reaction bulges. Also, with prolonged Travel Assist in very dense traffic she started getting queasy, one more reason to drive without help. But it is nice the be able to switch it up on a long drive. I should add that we drove the entire way in Comfort Mode.

On the way up we started with 100% battery charge, had moderate temperatures, and speeds mostly between 60 and 75 mph. After 180 miles we arrived with 40% state of charge left, i.e. an equivalent range of 300 miles. Those of you who live in Southern California know the roads aren't particularly smooth, and there is a decent coastal mountain range between LA and Ventura. Taking all of this into account, I'd say 300 miles of range is very impressive for the ID4.

At our son's we did not plug our Mustart Travelmaster into their 30A outlet, which avoided a cable run and trip hazard in their hallway. Instead we plugged into a 15A 120V socket in the garage, which gave us 12A sustained charge current. Since we started from 40% that was not a problem, and it put us at 83% state of charge after roughly 24h, more than enough for the return trip.

On the way down we had temperatures in the 80s and the air conditioning worked a bit harder. Also, there was more stop and go traffic through LA. As a result we drained the battery down to 17% over a slightly longer trip than 180 miles due to a detour for lunch. The car reported 3.7 m/kWh which gives a range of 285 miles. Still way better than EPA range, and a testament to the ID4's real world efficiency and my wife's smooth driving. She is not a timid driver, mind, but she also does not attempt to hypermile, she just has a great sense of traffic around her and a steady foot.

All in all, I am extremely impressed with how well the ID4 worked for us, and how easily we can cover the distance. I knew this from all of your reports here on the forum, of course. But experiencing it firsthand is a whole other thing. In the words of my wife: I really like this car!
 
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