Los Angeles to Paso Robles in the Solterra
Had company in from Texas, where they’re a wine club member of Graveyard. They wanted to visit the California location, which is in Paso Robles. It’s been a while since I’ve been up that far, and my Lab was craving a beach trip, and so I fired up A Better Route Planner‡ and it seemed feasible. The original plan is below. But, you know ...
Anyway. Some errands and a lack of EV charging availability at the local public garage had us starting the trip at 89% charge, estimated range 175 miles. We left at 9:22 a.m., instead of 8:45 a.m., because Daylight Saving Time threw off my normal wakeup time and neither of us thought to set an alarm. (No big deal, I built in buffers.)
Leg one was a straight shot up the 405 to the 101 to Hendry’s Beach, 98 miles, 1 hour 36 minutes expected travel time. We ended up arriving at 10:56, 1 hour 34 minutes later. Using adaptive cruise control in moving traffic, we averaged about 3.1 m/kWh for that leg, and arrived with 39% State of Charge (SOC) and 77 miles estimated remaining range (we’d traveled 95 miles and estimated range had gone done 98 miles).
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| My Labrador at Hendry’s Beach |
We were supposed to recharge to 80% at the Bank of America in North Santa Barbara, but we got there just as the last available spot was being filled. We paused for a few moments to figure out our next steps and while we were there three or four other vehicles took up waiting positions.
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| All four charging stations occupied |
PlugShare had us going to a charging station I was unfamiliar with, in Los Alamos, at The Depot Mall. There was a pretty gnarly hill climb up the 154 (~1600' elevation gain in a short amount of time, followed by an almost all downhill grade to about 600' above sea level), which made me a bit nervous, but the trip was only 41 miles and we had 77 miles estimated range remaining, so I decided to go for it. Stopped at the nearby McDonalds for a quick bite and then headed into the valley.
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| The 154 hill climb |
Climbing the hill we dropped as low as 1.6 m/kWh (cruise set at 60 mph, which was mostly keeping up with traffic, though we did use the passing lanes to let a few cars overtake), and ultimately we ended up near the tail end of a line of maybe a dozen cars, so we weren’t holding anyone up. This Leg 2 ended at The Depot Mall, where there were several Electrify America chargers, all of which seemed to have at least one side available, and there was only one other car. Eureka! We got there with 6063 on the odometer, 44 miles traveled, SOC 16%, estimated range 33 miles - exactly 44 miles less than the estimated range we started with.
We took on 42.9182 kWh at a cost of $24.02 ($.56/kWh) to recharge from 16% to 80%, and it took 36 minutes to do so. (We started around 87 kW, down to about 75 kW at 52%, and 45 kW at 80%.)
Now, on to Graveyard, a straight shot up the 101, 83 miles (actually 85), 1 hour 17 minutes, arriving at 3:09 p.m. We ended up getting there pretty much exactly then, and had an enjoyable tasting. Estimated range decreased by 1 mile less than what we actually traveled. Huzzah.
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| The Graveyard grounds are beautiful |
From Graveyard we headed over to Four Sisters around the corner, where my companion wanted to taste their orange muscat. We closed that place down and started plotting our dinner. We had originally planned to grab BBQ in Paso Robles and take the I-5 route home, shaving about a half hour, but between the frustrating app interfaces etc., we elected to pick an easy, known quantity route and return south on the 101, stopping at Mission Oaks Plaza to take on a partial charge, then we’d return to Los Alamos for dinner at Full of Life Flatbread (great food!), return to The Depot Mall to charge back up to 80%, and then head home.
Mission Oaks Plaza has, behind the 7-11, four Electrify America stations (one of which had both sides down; a 150 kW station had only one side working, but that was all we needed). There was one other vehicle there, a Porsche Taycan. This station started us charging around 75 kW, and took 12 minutes to charge us to 50% / 97 miles estimated range (15.3307 kWh, $8.56), and then we were on our way to dinner, arriving in 1 hour (19:03) after 68 miles.
After dinner, it was a few seconds down the street to The Depot Mall for our last charging session of the trip.
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| Charging in the surreal green glow of an Electrify America station |
I figured out how to use Room Mode and we ran the heater and heated seats while we were waiting for the car to charge, which of course increased the time but also made my companion much more comfortable. Even though I was planning to only use the heater sporadically, to bump the interior temperature as we traveled, I used the “climate control on” (“❆”) mileage range estimate and added 10% to give us what I was pretty sure would be a comfortable margin to get home on (and if it wasn’t, I was confident we would be able to find, near midnight on a Sunday night, available charging options in the San Fernando Valley as we approached the westside of Los Angeles), so we charged to 151 miles estimated range (84%) before heading out. Going from 14% to 84% took 41 minutes (47.6344 kWh, $26.65 at $.56/kWh). We watched Last Week Tonight on my phone (with this relatively inexpensive, handy mount) while we charged.
The trip home took us back up and down the 154 (~60 mph), and then down the 101 (~75 mph). I kept the cruise control set to safely keep up with traffic, but was prepared to back off a touch if range suffered too much. Even with all of that (outside temperature in the valley was about 46°F, the elevation change, the higher speed, using the heater a few minutes at a time periodically), we still averaged about 3.1 m/kWh for the return trip.
We arrived home with 15% SOC and 30 miles remaining range, and a 10.5 hour charge time (to 100%) on my 24A 240V Level 2 charger.
Overall, I’m getting a lot more comfortable with the EV, and getting a much better feel for how things like a hill climb will impact range. Aside from the at capacity charging location in Santa Barbara, the trip went off as we planned (well, as our plans were modified as we went), and I never felt any range anxiety.
ODO | miles | SOC | est. range | m/kWh | reduced range | offset
Start 5924 - 89% 175
Leg 1 6019 95 39% 77 ~3.1 98 -3
Leg 2 6063 44 16% 33 ~3.1 44 0
Charge 6063 - 81% 157 - - -
Leg 3 6148 85 37% 73 ~3.1 84 +1
Leg 3.5 6150 2 37% 72 - - -
Leg 3.7 6169 19 27% 53 - - -
Charge 6169 - 50% 97 - - -
Leg 4 6236 68 14% 26 ~3.1 71 -3
Charge 6236 - 84% 151❆ - - -
Leg 5 6371 135 15% 30 ~3.1 121 +14
Total miles: 447
Miles driven on DCFC power: 308
Energy cost: $59.23 (~105.8 kWh)
At $5.39/gallon for 87 octane for my Jeep (~107.80), driving the EV was about half the price, without factoring in the maintenance costs I’d have to amortize into the mileage cost for the Jeep (oil changes, etc). The ride was quieter, and overall a nicer experience. (And that’s using $.56/kWh fast DC chargers; on the Level 2 at home, off peak, that would be around $.22/kWh, the energy cost would be about $23.27, about 1/5th the price of fueling the Jeep!)
However, we did spend about 90 minutes total at charging stations, whereas stopping twice at a gas station in the Jeep (which has a range of ~300 miles on a 20 gallon tank) would have soaked up maybe 20-25 minutes. It wasn’t the end of the world; I returned a phone call during the first stop (which was exactly the length of the conversation), and we had a show to catch up with for the second. Definitely a trade-off. Other EVs charge faster and have better range, so you could shave some of those minutes (and likely wouldn’t have needed the 12 minute “top off” stop near Paso Robles), but, the Solterra is known for having lackluster range, and I got it knowing I had that trade-off. Still overall very happy with the thing.
Original plan: “90 minutes to the beach. Figure at least 45 minutes there. 3 hours to the winery, including charging stops. They're open until 5, but you'd want to arrive no later than 4 to make sure we have a decent time tasting. Other wineries in the area? Might have time for 1 or 2, if they're all relatively close together.
“So let's say we get up there at 1400. -3 = 1100. -.75 = 1015 arrive at Hendry's. -90 = 0845 on the road.
“Have dinner in Paso (Somm's Kitchen is amazing but expensive and probably not dog friendly... Ditto Il Cortile...) Maybe Jeffrey's Wine Country BBQ? https://www.bringfido.com/
“Anyway. Another ~3.5 hours back (we don't have to stick to the coast for the return trip), if we had dinner around 6, depart the area about 2000 (8 pm), that gets us home before midnight.
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| The original plan, courtesy A Better Route Planner |
‡ I’ve come to the conclusion that both ABRP and PlugShare kinda suck. ABRP won’t let me navigate to a charging station using my preferred app (Waze or Apple Maps); PlugShare can’t easily show me where the nearest charging stations are. Both have UX that are just, in my experience and opinion, not intuitive. Wonder if I can do better. Probably not. But maybe...
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