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MotorTrend | Our Volkswagen ID4 Teaches Us the Right Way to Road Trip With an EV

1416 Views 13 Replies 7 Participants Last post by p__x, 6 d ago

7S POWER

Discussion Starter · 9 d ago (Edited)

We learn the hard way how to make the most of 275 miles of driving range.

Edward Loh | Writer MotorTrend Staff | Photographer
Apr 19, 2023

We took a road trip in our 2022 Volkswagen ID4 Pro yearlong tester over the holidays to see family in Sacramento, California. The drive from Los Angeles usually takes around six hours in a gas-powered vehicle, but we knew going in we'd be making at least one stop since our trip was approximately 380 miles—or about 100 miles beyond the estimated range of our ID4.

We charged the battery to 100 percent the night before leaving and cruised at 80 mph up Interstate 5 to our first charging stop, 209 miles away. Eight Electrify America charging stations sit in the parking lot of the famed Harris Ranch Restaurant, 190 miles shy of Sacramento and a stone's throw away from one the first and most popular stops on Tesla's Supercharger network.

We arrived with 9 percent left on our battery, highlighted in a mildly disconcerting red on the instrument cluster, and with 22 miles of estimated range remaining. Unfortunately, all the Electrify America chargers were occupied, so we consulted a couple of different charging apps for other options, and behold, less than a mile away across the freeway, were three ChargePoint fast chargers. When we pulled up, only one was occupied, by a Polestar 2.

We soon realized why: All were broken, as confirmed by the departing Polestar driver. A few feet away, however, were two small, pathetic-looking level 2 6.2-kW chargers. Hungry and a bit frustrated, we plugged in, ate some sandwiches, and evaluated our options. Clearly, charging on the 6.2-kW stations would not work; at 20 miles of range per hour, it would take us at least 8 hours to acquire the range to make it to our destination—and we'd still have to drive to it.

"I guess this is why our next EV should be a Tesla," my wife, Julia, said, noting the banks and banks of Superchargers available under well-lit awnings.
We ultimately decided to go back to the Electrify America chargers to wait it out and scored a 350-kW Level 3 charger as soon as we pulled up. Any guilt jumping on to it, despite our ID4's maximum charge rate of 135 kW? Nope. In the following ten minutes, two other chargers would free up, only to be snagged by others waiting. During our roughly 40-minute charge, I noted six EVs pulling up to wait at this bank of chargers—one Chevrolet Bolt EV, one Kia EV6, two Rivian R1Ts, and two Hyundai Ioniq 5s.

Nobody had to wait very long, but Julia made another observation: "This is one of the busiest highway travel corridors in the state with the highest concentration of EVs in the U.S." It was also during one of the most travelled holiday weeks of the year, and her point was more than valid.

In all, our stop was a full 90 minutes: 43 minutes spent on the charger (pushing the battery to 90 percent state of charge) and the rest spent bopping between charger, eating, bathrooming, entertaining our 2-year-old, and mildly panicking.

On the way back to Los Angeles from Sacramento, we debated trying the alternate route, State Route 99, a considerably less travelled, three-lane highway that runs roughly parallel to Interstate 5. But a check of the available EV chargers made this idea a non-starter. Instead, we opted for a two-stop strategy.

We didn't have to wait for any chargers, and each stop was shorter than the one long stop we made on the way up. However, with snacks, shopping, charger hunting, and traffic, what was normally a six-hour trip ended up being over eight. But it wasn't wasted time. We learned three things:

Tip 1: Trust (But Verify) The Route Planning.
One of the key mistakes made in our road trip was a basic one. We decided not to follow the route guidance from the ID4's route planner, buoyed by charging our battery to 100 percent and the boost in range the charge provided. We pushed too far and stopped to recharge too late, which limited our options.

2022 Volkswagen ID4 Pro charger plug in 1

Tip 2: More, Shorter Stops.
Maxing out the range and making a single long stop may sound like a good plan, but it's a rookie move. Consider shorter, more frequent charging stops—and do so well before your miles remaining runs into single digits. This will give you more flexibility on your journey in case chargers are broken or there are long wait times. This is what the ID4's route planning software recommended, but we ignored it.

Tip 3: Slow Down.
Just as you'll achieve your best fuel economy in an internal combustion car when you're traveling closer to 55 mph than 85 mph, you're better off keeping your highway speeds closer to the legal limit when driving an EV. This is especially important if you're carrying anything on the roof, climbing a mountain, or towing.

2022 Volkswagen ID4 Pro Specifications
SERVICE LIFE	7 mo/8,736 mi
BASE/AS TESTED PRICE	$42,525/$42,525
OPTIONS	None
EPA CTY/HWY/CMB FUEL ECON; CMB RANGE	116/98/107 mpg-e; 275 miles
AVERAGE MILES/KWH	3.9 mi/kWh
ENERGY COST PER MILE	$0.07
MAINTENANCE AND WEAR	$0
DAMAGE	$0
DAYS OUT OF SERVICE/WITHOUT LOANER	None
DELIGHTS	A trip planning app.
ANNOYANCES	Range and charge speed could be better.
RECALLS	None

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Our Volkswagen ID4 Teaches Us the Right Way to Road Trip With an EV

Road-tripping your new EV? Here are three simple tips to get the most out of your EV driving range.

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p__x

· #2 · 9 d ago

Everybody's gotta learn sometimes, but seriously, so many mistakes there as they noted:
80MPH vs 70MPH probably 30% difference in energy use and 40 minute difference in travel time. Closer to 0 minutes difference if it eliminates an extra charging stop.

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GrandpaJim

· #3 · 9 d ago

Your experience confirms what we have learned over the last 15 months with our ID.4, including many long road trips. Our standard practice on such a trip is to

Charge to 100% the night before.
Drive at the speed limit (65 in the northeast).
Scope out the DC fast chargers along the route, using PlugShare.
Stop at one of these chargers every two or three hours to charge, rest, exercise, eat, and drink.

This encourages good mileage, discourages range anxiety, and makes for safer driving.

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Dougie01

· #4 · 9 d ago

Agree except in my opinion it’s not worth charging to 100%.

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p__x

· #5 · 9 d ago

Dougie01 said:
Agree except in my opinion it’s not worth charging to 100%.

Why? A few times won't degrade your battery and that's about 50-60 miles extra range which is nearly an extra hour of driving. My strategy is to charge to 100% and stretch the first leg of the trip to 3-4 hours because nobody's tired, hungry, annoyed yet. Give it a low-stress start, and then after the charging break you have much more control over the speed and all.

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nyevshopper

· #6 · 8 d ago

On an optimistic note - no complaints about ID 4 or it’s charging rate. Interesting that in practice all the non-Tesla EVs suffer from similar limitations.
I hope the common experience will drive critical mass needed to fix these problems.

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rcppharmd

· #7 · 8 d ago

p__x said:
Why? A few times won't degrade your battery and that's about 50-60 miles extra range which is nearly an extra hour of driving. My strategy is to charge to 100% and stretch the first leg of the trip to 3-4 hours because nobody's tired, hungry, annoyed yet. Give it a low-stress start, and then after the charging break you have much more control over the speed and all.

I instead try to figure out what my SOC will be at my first DCFC stop. If I can charge to 100% and stretch to a stop that leaves me around 15% I’ll do that. If it projects me arriving at 40% then I would rather leave at 80%. In my experience the time it takes to charge from 15 to 80 is about the same as charging 35 to 80. So I would rather maximize my time/free charging at the DCFC station.

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ga2500ev

· #8 · 7 d ago

Dougie01 said:
Agree except in my opinion it’s not worth charging to 100%.

Starting out? Of course it is. There's no possibility of recovering that 20% from 80-100 while out on the road. It provides flexibility once you leave the in the morning that's not easily recoverable later in the day.

I find this fear of charging up to 100% for a road trip to be borderline insane. While I understand not needing to be at 100% on a daily basis for local travel, modern EVs have those extra batteries and extra range precisely for doing road trips. Why would one not take advantage of it?

Unless you're talking about charging to 100% out on the road. Now, then I'm in complete agreement with you unless the next charging station requires it.

ga2500ev

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ga2500ev

· #9 · 7 d ago

The only real problem that the article noted is that there are not yet enough charging stations out there to support the demand during busy times. If EA had a 40 dispenser station at Harris Ranch, or even if the ChargePoints had been online, it would have been a non-story.

This is the advantage that the NEVI stations are going to bring as they come online. With stations every 50 miles along the highway, the pressure to stop and charge at a particular spot will be greatly lessened.

ga2500ev

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7S POWER

Discussion Starter · #10 · 7 d ago (Edited)

One can also use the Tesla Superchargers, as there are more TS than any other EV charging stations out there.

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7S POWER

Discussion Starter · #11 · 7 d ago (Edited)

GrandpaJim said:
Your experience confirms what we have learned over the last 15 months with our ID.4, including many long road trips. Our standard practice on such a trip is to

Charge to 100% the night before.

Drive at the speed limit (65 in the northeast).

Scope out the DC fast chargers along the route, using PlugShare.

Stop at one of these chargers every two or three hours to charge, rest, exercise, eat, and drink.

This encourages good mileage, discourages range anxiety, and makes for safer driving.

Agreed.

IMHO, like the ICEV, 60-65 mph is the sweet spot for maximum mpg, and that's the Hwy's speed for BEV's optimum range too. So, there's no need to be faster than 65 mph.

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Dougie01

· #12 · 7 d ago

ga2500ev said:
I find this fear of charging up to 100% for a road trip to be borderline insane.

I’m happy to have the label “borderline insane.” We will continue this discussion in a decade.

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ga2500ev

· #13 · 7 d ago

Dougie01 said:
I’m happy to have the label “borderline insane.” We will continue this discussion in a decade.

You somehow believe that your EV's battery isn't going to degrade over the course of a decade because you didn't charge it to 100% a couple of dozen times over that period?

Go back and read the research. The #1 predictor of degradation isn't SOC, or cycles. It's age. Batteries degrade because they get old regardless of how much you baby them. I cannot put my hands on the paper at the moment, but the experiment was to charge a battery to 50% SOC and let it sit for a year in perfect temperature conditions with no cycles. It was then tested. It still degraded over that period of time.

Of course it's your car. Do what you want. But IMHO after years of the EV community screaming about range and range and range and range to deliberately leave 20% of range on the table for the specific need that it's there for is nonsensical to me. I suspect these theories come from the cell phone and RC battery world. But thermally controlled large format EV batteries are a completely different animal.

ga2500ev

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p__x

· #14 · 6 d ago

7S POWER said:
Agreed.

IMHO, like the ICEV, 60-65 mph is the sweet spot for maximum mpg, and that's the Hwy's speed for BEV's optimum range too. So, there's no need to be faster than 65 mph.

It's also the speed with the lowest wind noise. It's just an amazing car for conversations on the go.

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