[Islander]

We are about to take our ID.4 on our first serious road trip, from the Seattle area to L.A., almost entirely on I-5. Plenty of EA chargers along the way. I’ve plotted the route and saved it in the A Better Route Planner on my iPhone. Love this tool! I’ve got PlugShare ready to rate my choices of charging stations along the route.

But I’m not sure what to do along the route. The ID.4’s infotainment trip planning tools look too awful to consider. ABRP’s integration with CarPlay also seems worthless. I don’t have a dongle or other automatic way to communicate real-time driving and consumption data with ABRP. I have the premium ABRP, but don’t know if or how it communicates weather changes or other information in real time while on route. What if I stop early to charge, or charge past the stopping point it recommends? What if a storm unexpectedly comes up? Or, road closures or other conditions create an in-route need to change plans?

Should I simply create a new ABRP route plan at every stop to let the app know where things stand and get the latest update on the best way to proceed? How do the experienced road trippers here do their on-route planning?

 

[Nai3t]

My first experience with ABRP was on the first leg of a road trip.

I don't recommended doing that!

If you can, do a few drives to get a feel for how it works. See if your real life battery consumption matches ABRP's projections. Adjust the vehicle efficiency in the ABRP Settings menu accordingly.

You can replan at any time, even in route, and also look at alternate routes. You can share the current destination with Waze or Maps, run that through AA or Car Play, and keep ABRP up on the phone.

I was doing this as a solo driver, broken charger, speed-limited legs due to range to the next charger, and I initially felt a bit task saturated. I'd have done myself a favor by using ABRP even for a short trip, just to begin to understand it.

 

[ericy]

We are about to take our ID.4 on our first serious road trip, from the Seattle area to L.A., almost entirely on I-5. Plenty of EA chargers along the way. I’ve plotted the route and saved it in the A Better Route Planner on my iPhone. Love this tool! I’ve got PlugShare ready to rate my choices of charging stations along the route.

But I’m not sure what to do along the route. The ID.4’s infotainment trip planning tools look too awful to consider. ABRP’s integration with CarPlay also seems worthless. I don’t have a dongle or other automatic way to communicate real-time driving and consumption data with ABRP. I have the premium ABRP, but don’t know if or how it communicates weather changes or other information in real time while on route. What if I stop early to charge, or charge past the stopping point it recommends? What if a storm unexpectedly comes up? Or, road closures or other conditions create an in-route need to change plans?

Should I simply create a new ABRP route plan at every stop to let the app know where things stand and get the latest update on the best way to proceed? How do the experienced road trippers here do their on-route planning?

If you watch Kyle's roadtrip videos, he really only plans a stop or two ahead. Yeah, he has the general outline of the route in his head, but when he stops to charge, he mainly looks at what will it take to get to the next charger, and checks to see if the next charger seems to be working. So he basically charges enough to get to the next charger with a safety margin, sometimes even leapfrogging chargers.

Actually finding the next charger can be done with the EA app - that now supports CarPlay and Android Auto. So you can use it to select a charger and tell it to navigate. That app will hand the destination to the maps app on the phone for actual navigation.

 

[raadsel]

I would loosely make a plan based on ABRP. Then, I'd use CarPlay (either Apple Maps, Google Maps, or Waze, whichever you prefer) to navigate to the first charging location. Once the car is charging at that first charge stop, I'd pull up ABRP and determine what my next destination should be, then pull it up on CarPlay. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.
Though, to be fair, I don't have my car yet so can't speak from experience.

 

[bluedanube]

I've done most of your route (SF to Seattle and back) Honestly I didn't overthink it too much. Just stopped at the spots outlined by ABRP before leaving. The weather was fine though, other than some wildfire smoke on the way up. I suppose severe weather could throw things off.

 

[JPWhite]

We are about to take our ID.4 on our first serious road trip, from the Seattle area to L.A., almost entirely on I-5.

Have you tested that you can activate an EA session using your EA app and that it goes through free of charge. Worth testing prior to launching on your road trip.

 

[ericy]

Have you tested that you can activate an EA session using your EA app and that it goes through free of charge. Worth testing prior to launching on your road trip.

There are multiple ways that start charging, and you can get hung up if accidentally go down the wrong path.

 

[Islander]

Thanks all! There's really good advice here, and I appreciate hearing how others approach this planning. I've been practicing at local EA chargers, and I know how to commence a charge with the EA app in CarPlay or by swiping or phone-tapping (not that it always goes smoothly). I like the approach of planning a relatively conservative route, using ABRP to map out a plan in advance, and revising the plan from stop to stop. I'm a fan of Kyle's videos too, and we plan to make our own to show how aging newbies can EV from border to border without great drama. Thanks again.

 

[IDaction]

I recently completed a 600mi road trip from Florida to Georgia. Similar situation, mostly I-75 and a decent amount of EA chargers (every 50 to 90mi) along the way. I planned the route with ABRP. Since this was my first road trip in the ID.4, I also created a simple backup plan. For that, I built a spreadsheet with every convenient EA charger along the route, the distance between them, and the percentage charge needed to drive between them. I used ABRP at 75mph to calculate the percentage required. I printed out this backup plan and kept it handy. Having the backup plan turned out to be very helpful, especially when we had to make a detour due to an accident (which threw the original ABRP plan out the window!). The backup gave me the extra confidence to be able to quickly predict making the next EA location, as I approached/passed one. I recommend "looking ahead" to the next EA charger and then checking the EA app to make sure chargers are available. If you see a problem you can quickly make the decision to stop at the one you're about to pass. The EA app is very reliable for checking whether chargers are working and available. Most importantly, enjoy the trip. I found the ID.4 to be effortless and comfortable to drive long distances.

 

[Nai3t]

Ultimately it boils down to 4 ABRP usage cases:

1. Advanced trip planning. Can my car do this trip?
2. Next charger planning. I'm here; where should I charge next?
3. Real time drive monitoring. Is my battery performance as expected? Is it going to make it to the next charge stop? Do I need to slow down or replan?
4. Navigation.

1. Is great because right away ABRP determines if there are any constrained legs. If there are no range-critical legs, ABRP can probably be put back in the box and the trip can be accomplished with the usual nav apps.

2. Is helpful because ABRP might indicate, in its list of options, that if you drive conservatively, you may be able to stretch it just a little further. And of course, if a charge stop is out of service, hopefully it shows up here.

3. Eases anxiety when driving a range constrained leg, because if the car's battery state of charge is tracking ABRP's prediction, there's good confidence that all is well. And maybe if the car is exceeding expectations, replan for a more distant stop.

4. Is kind of awful. It works, but I really hated driving through urban highway interchanges. The nav / next turn interface is cluttered and unclear. Thankfully ABRP allows easy exporting of destinations to Waze and Maps. Let ABRP monitor the drive, leave the nav to the Pro apps.

 

[gorj]

We are about to take our ID.4 on our first serious road trip, from the Seattle area to L.A., almost entirely on I-5. Plenty of EA chargers along the way. I’ve plotted the route and saved it in the A Better Route Planner on my iPhone. Love this tool! I’ve got PlugShare ready to rate my choices of charging stations along the route.

But I’m not sure what to do along the route. The ID.4’s infotainment trip planning tools look too awful to consider. ABRP’s integration with CarPlay also seems worthless. I don’t have a dongle or other automatic way to communicate real-time driving and consumption data with ABRP. I have the premium ABRP, but don’t know if or how it communicates weather changes or other information in real time while on route. What if I stop early to charge, or charge past the stopping point it recommends? What if a storm unexpectedly comes up? Or, road closures or other conditions create an in-route need to change plans?

Should I simply create a new ABRP route plan at every stop to let the app know where things stand and get the latest update on the best way to proceed? How do the experienced road trippers here do their on-route planning?

At 76 years old I may be a little less technical than many (but I am a retired IT) I have ABRP, Waze, and others, but before a long trip I use Google maps to plot my trip and find the EA chargers along the way. I make a print out of the EA addresses and the miles and times between each charger. Then I use the ID4's nav and determine how much charge I need to get to the next charger - that cuts down on how much time I spend charging. I have taken two long trips and this has worked well for me. I have the latest Pixel phone, but I do not use Car Play, because I rarely use my phone as a computer! I like a big screen and a keyboard!

 

[epl]

I took a quick trip from SF to LA and back. Down 101 / 1 and up I5. I earlier had done a 101/1 fa to Santa Barbara.

my recommendation is to play it safe and not assume that any given station will work. Or give yourself extra time to try different chargers in a station

you may also look for free chargers at rest stops. They are beginning to show up. They are not as fast as EA but there free and an unexpected bonus

 

[gorj]

I took a quick trip from SF to LA and back. Down 101 / 1 and up I5. I earlier had done a 101/1 fa to Santa Barbara.

my recommendation is to play it safe and not assume that any given station will work. Or give yourself extra time to try different chargers in a station

you may also look for free chargers at rest stops. They are beginning to show up. They are not as fast as EA but there free and an unexpected bonus

That is a very good suggestion.

 

[GrayEagle61]

Is the paid ABRP app worth it or is everyone using the free version? The paid app is a subscription so you are paying for it month after month whether you are using the ID4 for road trips or not. I'm trying to decide it the added benefits are significant enough to warrant the cost.

 

[gorj]

Is the paid ABRP app worth it or is everyone using the free version? The paid app is a subscription so you are paying for it month after month whether you are using the ID4 for road trips or not. I'm trying to decide it the added benefits are significant enough to warrant the cost.

ea
I think ABRP is over rated. I use Google Maps to find EA chargers and plan my route. Then program the location into the ID4 GPS and it has work very well for me.

 

[Nai3t]

Whether ABRP is worth it depends on a few factors, mainly boiled down to how range-critical is your drive?

If you have dozens of charging stops to choose from, you can do without.

On the other hand, if:

• You're out in the middle of nowhere, cross-country style, with few charging options
• You want to travel well in excess of the speed limit
• You plan on carrying extra cargo
• You want to stretch it to the next charging stop, on the margins

ABRP is good at:

• Planning, before the trip
• Suggesting reduced speed or speed restrictions to travel further to a more distant charger
• Forecasting weather impacts on range
• "Real time" tracking battery performance to know if predicted range is matching up with reality
• Looking up ,/ displaying charger status at intended stops

I found the full version invaluable for driving across Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona in my range-limited i3, but I'm not sure I'd bother with it for trips up and down California, unless I really needed to stretch out a leg.

However, if I'm in a situation where I think I could benefit from ABRP, I would re-subscribe for that trip to because I found the added features useful. But I won't maintain a month to month sub, I don't use it enough to justify that.

 

[JPWhite]

Is the paid ABRP app worth it or is everyone using the free version? The paid app is a subscription so you are paying for it month after month whether you are using the ID4 for road trips or not. I'm trying to decide it the added benefits are significant enough to warrant the cost.

The paid version allows you to get real-time data from your car, where supported. WIth Tesla it works well, I don't think VW have opened up the API to third parties like ABRP. The annual subscription is $50. I paid for a year for use with my Tesla and to support the developers. It is handy for planing on the couch, it identifies lower speed rapid charging in areas where high speed rapid charging isn't available.

 

[GrayEagle61]

Whether ABRP is worth it depends on a few factors, mainly boiled down to how range-critical is your drive?

If you have dozens of charging stops to choose from, you can do without.

On the other hand, if:

• You're out in the middle of nowhere, cross-country style, with few charging options
• You want to travel well in excess of the speed limit
• You plan on carrying extra cargo
• You want to stretch it to the next charging stop, on the margins

ABRP is good at:

• Planning, before the trip
• Suggesting reduced speed or speed restrictions to travel further to a more distant charger
• Forecasting weather impacts on range
• "Real time" tracking battery performance to know if predicted range is matching up with reality
• Looking up ,/ displaying charger status at intended stops

I found the full version invaluable for driving across Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona in my range-limited i3, but I'm not sure I'd bother with it for trips up and down California, unless I really needed to stretch out a leg.

However, if I'm in a situation where I think I could benefit from ABRP, I would re-subscribe for that trip to because I found the added features useful. But I won't maintain a month to month sub, I don't use it enough to justify that.

Thanks all good advice, much appreciated.

 

[Evillen]

I just happened upon this thread and so maybe someone's already suggested this idea in another area or thread, but What would be really cool is if there is some sort of public database such as a Google drive (or something similar) where folks who've completed a trip from destination A. To Destination B. And then within it, put info on where they started, the battery % started with, charging stops etc. It would obviously rely on self reporting so it would have limitations, but still could be useful for folks looking for information about longer distance trips. Could easily filter make it filterable in something such as an excel document and could filter by let's say city/state of destination A, and city/state of destination B etc.

There would be no way to 100% control for every variable, but there could be an optional area for comments about things such as weather, road conditions, and other things people can think of that would be useful info to have when starting a longer trip.

 

[JPWhite]

I have the latest Pixel phone, but I do not use Car Play.

You are in good company. No one uses Car Play with a Pixel phone ;-)