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Route planning: ABRP vs PlugShare vs ...?

10886 Views 49 Replies 23 Participants Last post by VW TECHNICIAN, Feb 8, 2022

nigela

Discussion Starter · Apr 13, 2021

I’ve used PlugShare for several years, and have just started playing around with ABRP (via the app and the web site). While both do a good job of routing the most direct trip from point to point ( though ABRP is, erm, quirky), neither of them appear to possess the flexibility to produce alternative routes (PlugShare will inconsistently produce an alternative route). If I’m planning a scenic trip, taking the interstate all the way may not be my preference.

I’ve tried adding waypoints that are on my preferred route, but both will create bizarre offshoot routes. This reminds me of Garmin software circa 1998.

Is there a way to coax either PS or ABRP to plan alternative routes, or is there a better method to achieve this ( e.g., create route in external app, import route)?

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egsell

· #2 · Apr 13, 2021

another question to ask might be what is the best routing tool overall and then see if there is a overlay in the Ven Diagram?I don't know myself, but it could be interesting, or it could be bunk.

ixlr08

· #3 · Apr 13, 2021

There is another post here discussing this. If I remember right ABRP was the favorite choice. But I have found it to be quirky and inconsistent. Although I have only used the web version and I have not signed up for the service. Based on the positive reviews I have seen, I am hoping if I signed up the results might be a bit better.

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theboomr

· #4 · Apr 13, 2021

I haven't actually used it for a road trip yet, but ABRP seems to be the much better option because it can take pretty much every single efficiency variable into account: extra weight, headwinds, weather/temperature, charger availability, elevation, car speed, charging speed and charging curve, preferring or avoiding certain charger networks, and more (generally the "live data" variables require the premium subscription, which seems fair to me).

From what I've seen, PlugShare doesn't take into account most of those variables, so if you try to calculate a long road trip with it you could get some incorrect estimates that don't accurately represent how far you can actually go between charges.

I imagine right now it's pretty tough to provide any kind of alternative route for EV road trips, since chargers are still relatively few and far between, not like gas stations where you can just decide in the middle of your trip "Hey, let's go off over there for a couple hours instead!" And you know you'll still find gas stations along the way.

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SunWizard

· #5 · Apr 13, 2021

I have found ABRP very good at providing alternate routes if there are any, automatically with no extra work needed to generate them. It shows them in grey, with an info box containing the extra time diff. I can choose between them by hitting the icon that looks like a turn off at the top of the list of stops. Here is a sample route, where it gave me 3 alternate routes from Denver to PA:
ABRP Den-PA

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nigela

Discussion Starter · #6 · Apr 13, 2021

I'm playing around with the desktop web site for ABRP, and it is much better than the app or mobile website for route creation, definitely offers up some alternatives. I suppose the workflow would be to plan and save on the website, then drive from the app.

ericy

· #7 · Apr 13, 2021

nigela said:
I'm playing around with the desktop web site for ABRP, and it is much better than the app or mobile website for route creation, definitely offers up some alternatives. I suppose the workflow would be to plan and save on the website, then drive from the app.

What I tried that seemed to sort of work as the last leg of this was to set up a route in ABRP, then "Share with map" on the phone, and this will push it out to Google maps in Android Auto.

ABRP does have a beta that supports Android Auto, but I found that it still seems like a work in progress. It wouldn't let me move the map with my fingers the last time I tried.

brulaz

· #8 · Apr 13, 2021

For my main route both ABRP and PlugShare are missing some high speed level 3 Chargers.

But I do use ABRP a lot comparing different vehicles at different temperatures and with different battery degradation over that route. Dunno how accurate it is, but it does provide some more info.

ericy

· #9 · Apr 13, 2021

brulaz said:
For my main route both ABRP and PlugShare are missing some high speed level 3 Chargers.

But I do use ABRP a lot comparing different vehicles at different temperatures and with different battery degradation over that route. Dunno how accurate it is, but it does provide some more info.

Just playing with it - picking some arbitrary somewhat far off destination, I see ABRP make poor choices sometimes. Telling me to charge to >90% is probably the worst sin, and that's when there are other chargers out there. When I was fiddling with it, I would let it auto-generate the route, and then fix the stops one by one to make them more sane, adding in amenity stops along the way (hotel with EVSE). Eventually with 10 minutes of refinement, I could get the plan down to something that on paper looked pretty reasonable.

But in real life, plans change, so you have to be prepared to alter the route as you go.

When I watch Kyle's roadtrip videos, he doesn't plan out the charging for the whole trip - he just charges enough to get to the next charger with whatever safety cushion he wants (using plugshare to verify the status of the next station ahead of time). The sweet spot in the charging curve is at lower SOC, so there isn't much point in charging more than you need unless you are a hotel EVSE. It seems like in the back of his mind, he has a rough idea where he wants to make meal and hotel stops, but beyond this, he doesn't seem to really have a really concrete plan at the outset.

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SunWizard

· #10 · Apr 13, 2021

A tip I learned with ABRP is to go into settings and set your battery degradation that defaults to 5% down to 0% for all of us with new cars

I also changed the charger max SOC from the default of 100% to 90% (very slow in that last 10%) It sure allows a lot of customization for those of us who care to experiment.

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theboomr

· #11 · Apr 13, 2021

SunWizard said:
A tip I learned with ABRP is to go into settings and set your battery degradation that defaults to 5% down to 0% for all of us with new cars
I also changed the charger max SOC from the default of 100% to 90% (very slow in that last 10%) It sure allows a lot of customization for those of us who care to experiment.

Yeah I was going to mention, it lets you set a global max charging SOC and that's a lot easier than manually tweaking every charging stop and can improve total trip time a lot, and you can also set your preferred minimum charger arrival SOC as well as final destination arrival SOC

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brulaz

· #12 · Apr 13, 2021

SunWizard said:
A tip I learned with ABRP is to go into settings and set your battery degradation that defaults to 5% down to 0% for all of us with new cars
I also changed the charger max SOC from the default of 100% to 90% (very slow in that last 10%) It sure allows a lot of customization for those of us who care to experiment.

Yeah the customization is great.
But I set battery degradation to 25% as I wanted to see, roughly, how the car would perform in 8 years or so.

theboomr

· #13 · Apr 14, 2021

brulaz said:
Yeah the customization is great.
But I set battery degradation to 25% as I wanted to see, roughly, how the car would perform in 8 years or so.

How many miles are you planning to put on the car? 25% seems a bit high to me, especially since we know the ID.4 has at least a 5 kWh buffer in the pack. Charger infrastructure will also be much more built out 8 years from now.

brulaz

· #14 · Apr 14, 2021

theboomr said:
How many miles are you planning to put on the car? 25% seems a bit high to me, especially since we know the ID.4 has at least a 5 kWh buffer in the pack. Charger infrastructure will also be much more built out 8 years from now.

Not that many miles, we just hold onto our cars for a long time.

Many EVs have about that size buffer. The Tesla S has a very good record for battery degradation, the Model 3 a bit less so far: a few reporting 12% loss in 3 years, many others less. Who knows how the ID.4 will behave?

Our use case is 90% long range Hwy driving with 75% fast Charging which can be hard on the battery.

Anyway, 25% in 8 years is a very worst case scenario and most manufacturers will replace the battery if it degrades more than 30% by 8 years.

I also set Winter temperature to -25C and overspeed to 115% in ABRP. Again, worst case scenarios. If it looks like the car will do what I want it to do under all these conditions, figure we'll be very happy for a long time.

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Andy at Ross-Tech.com

· #15 · Jun 16, 2021

FYI, Plugshare recently updated their Trip Planner feature and it now shows elevation data. Here's my commute to work:

I guesstimated 2268kg with 39.3m drop would be 0.243 kWh which would explain a 0.5 difference between a typical 3.3 drive to work and a 2.8 drive home.

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bluedanube

· #16 · Jun 24, 2021

ABRP just got an update

What’s New
Version History
Jun 23, 2021
Version 4.0.45
New plan options, live traffic re-routing. Lots of new goodies in this version!

Driving mode now displays alternative plans along the way, which update as you drive so that you can select other options and know the difference in total trip time
For our Premium members, ABRP now does real-time traffic re-routing, avoiding traffic jams, closed roads etc - available for selected countries/states
New planning settings have been added: Minimum number of stalls and the ability to ask for less chargers or shorter driving legs (more chargers). Both options are

"soft" settings meaning that we will not use them as hard requirements but as a preferred way of planning - in the end, we just want to deliver the best overall plan to you.

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gsconye

· #17 · Jul 14, 2021

And now ........... PlugShare just got bought by EVgo today so will it be as capable on all charging networks or not?

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JPWhite

· #18 · Aug 29, 2021

ABRP for Android Auto just came out of Beta and is available to all premium ABRP users.

The folllowing twitter post shows ABRP running directly on the ID.4 infotainment screen.

ABRP 4.0.49

VW TECHNICIAN

· #19 · Aug 29, 2021

Here is my opinion
ABRP is EV tool that every EV maker should benchmark against......it is best tool that EV driver will ever want.
Once they integrate obd2 dongle support this is going to be best tool in EV world period.

JPWhite

· #20 · Aug 29, 2021

VW TECHNICIAN said:
Here is my opinion
ABRP is EV tool that every EV maker should benchmark against......it is best tool that EV driver will ever want.
Once they integrate obd2 dongle support this is going to be best tool in EV world period.

WIth Android Auto support for ABRP the data from the car is available to ABRP negating the need for an OBDII dongle.

ABRP confirmed here that Android Auto provides this level of integration when someone asked a question regarding SOC.

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