The content of this post is actually the content of an email I sent to some state and federal employees when asked about truck charging after a recent trip. I think it’s easy to look at stats and charger maps and think a thing is doable, but then to actually do it is another. Also, starting a day with less than a full charge really makes long distance EV transit tough, and is also rare as you’d typically be charging over night. Find the content below:
So, as you know we already had a 16′ electric box truck by SEA Electric, we’ve had it for a year, it can only do L2 charging which has been fine for our application. We recently purchased a 2nd truck from SEA as well. The newer truck is capable of 100kWh DC fast charging. We had initially shipped it to Maine to a body manufacturer but when their timeline for completion got crazy long (10 months) we decided to use a different company in CT, so yesterday I drove up to Maine to get it and drive it to CT. So yesterday I drove up (in an electric car, using the Tesla supercharger network) and then drove back to MA in the electric truck using the DC fast charging that was available along the way. I didn’t know what the SOC was going to be on the truck when I got there, I was hoping it would be pretty full. I also put together a list of chargers to use on the way back down ahead of time. We picked up the truck at around noon and it had a 56% charge. It has a 138 kwh battery pack. With a body it consumes around 1mile/kWh, without the body (as it was yesterday) it got around 1.6-2miles/kwh.
The first charger I’d planned to stop at was 50kW and we missed the exit so I proceeded to the next one on my list which we had enough battery to make it to (not by much tho), it was a 100kW so it was my preference to hit that anyway due to the speed. That charger turned out have been put under maintenance a few hours earlier and was unavailable (EVgo in westbrook ME). I was at about 4% SOC at that point so I went to a nearby Chargepoint which was listed as L2, I figured I’d get a small slow charge to get me to a different EVgo in Portland Maine. That charger turned out to have been expanded and was now one L2 and two 62kwh DC chargers… but it wasn’t working right. I called my manufacturer and apparently on Thursday they’d learned there was some sort of standards issues with Chargepoint and my truck couldn’t talk to it. I tried the L2 just to be safe, but it also didn’t work. Parking was also dicey at that chargepoint (it was at a Hyundai/Ford dealership), the cable was short and it was mixed into the middle of a parking lot, it was not easy to even try.
So at 3% SOC I drove to the nearest 50kwh EVgo which was 5 miles away. I figured if I ran out of battery it’d at least be a shorter tow. I hypermiled it and kept my speed down and made it there with 2% SOC. That was at a supermarket and luckily nobody was on there and I could parallel park and get my charge port pretty close, it also had a decently long cable. It took some work to get it to charge, but eventually I was going at 50kwh. I did that for an hour (got a late lunch/early dinner) and left there with 35% SOC.
I then drove to a 100kwh EVgo at a Marketbasket 15 miles farther south. I did that for an hour and read a book. The highest it actually charged at was 65kwh which is interesting. It took a number of attempts with the app and the truck to get it to start but it ran. Parking was good there, 2 chargers, nobody nearby and I could parallel park. I left there with 76% SOC which at 2miles/kwh would give me 150 mile range at 50-55mph and the heat off, I had 90 miles left to do. I ran back to Arlington with the heat blasting, running on the governor most of the way at 67mph and got back with a 4% SOC and L2 charged it overnight.
So…
- Interstate travel involving 3 states, 4 chargers, only 2 of which I could use.
- I got unlucky and went to a dead charger
- I discovered a compatibility issue with a brand of charger
- I started with a half a battery spent 2 hours charging, 3 hours driving and drove 180-190 miles
- Speed accounts for a lot of consumption
- On a run with a load on it (with a body on the truck) I’d have needed twice as much charging, but would have likely started with a full battery.
- I got lucky with parking.
- 100kwh doesn’t always mean 100kwh. Depends on a variety of other details, likely battery temp, SOC, etc.
I’l be running it down to CT Friday to the new body factory, but that’s a shorter trip and won’t require DC charging on the way down assuming the factory can charge it.
NOTE: I ran it down to CT the next day, but it was a single day’s worth of miles, so uneventful, I left with 100% SOC. We’ll see what charging we need to do when I get it back in a few months.