My NDEW Trip

So, my local Drive Electric Week event was on Saturday, September 12. It was in Cranberry, which is 47 miles away. I kept a log of my driving and charging. Here it is below:

1. 47.1 miles from home to Eaton, arrived with 4 bars, 13 miles RR.
2. Quick charged to 72%, consuming 7 kWh and taking 12 minutes 22 seconds. Left with 12 bars, 44 miles RR.
3. Drove 14.3 miles, trip odometer at 61.4 miles. Back at QC with 8 bars, 35 miles RR.
4. Quick charged to 80%, consuming 4.2 kWh and taking 12 minutes, 23 seconds. Left with 14 bars, 57 miles RR.
5. Drove 28.9 miles, trip odometer at 90.3 miles. Arrived at my friend's level 2 with 5 bars, 24 miles RR (40% SoC).
6.Charged to 61% at friend's level 2. Left with 10 bars, 40 miles RR.
7.Drove 18.9 miles, trip odometer at 109.2 miles. Arrived at home with 5 bars, 20 miles RR (34%)

Total miles driven was 109.3 (ticked up another tenth of a mile after turning the car around in the driveway last night before charging).
Total energy consumption was 28.22 kWh (11.2 kWh of that from quick charging).
Average mi./kWh was 3.87. Most of the trip was on the highway at 65 MPH average in the rain.

Being that it was 60 F outside and that I have the vent set to send air to the battery, I was able to keep the battery pack below 82 F most of the day. It shot up to 88 F during the first quick charge, but came down rather quick (probably bus bar heating from 125 amps). It barely warmed up during the second, slower quick charge. The AC didn't engage on the second QC, but the fans were running. This new pack has lower cell resistance and was able to take the full 125 amps for a bit longer than the original pack. Sorry, didn't have my obdlink with me, so no CaniOn shots. The 12 minute quick charge to 70% put me back on schedule as I was running rather late that morning.

PV1, thanks for the details. See that you were maximizing "opportunity" charging - hence, zero 'range anxiety' and only 'range awareness'. 65mph in the rain can quickly gobble up RR. Nice to see your pack not heating up much.

Did you have to pay for any of your DCQC and, if so, how much?

Nope. Quick charging (and the level 2) was all free. Eaton has a large presence in the EV world around here (almost all charging stations are Eaton), so they offer free charging at their facility in Cranberry.

When I first got on the highway, I was going at it at 70 MPH, but then I backed down to 65 MPH, going down to 60 MPH during the heavier rain and following traffic. I've done the trip before, so I'm getting comfortable with the range. I wasn't sweating it, knowing I could slow down more if needed or dive off onto the main road. With the nav going, I could see how many miles I had left on the highway. By that point, it's only another two miles at 35 MPH to the charger.

If I would've stayed until 100% for the second quick charge, I wouldn't have needed the hour or so on level 2, but I was stopping there anyway.

It's exciting to see the range increase as time goes on with charging expansion. I might be making my first i-MiEV venture into Ohio in a couple of weeks, using this same quick charger. This, plus the quick charger at Ginger Hill Tavern in Slippery Rock, PA, opens up a lot of the north for me...once they work the bugs out of the Signet units (Ginger Hill and most Nissan dealers have Signet, the Cranberry unit is Eaton).

PV1,

I'm curious... what was the rider response? Do you have any advice? We are doing our NDEW on the 16th? I am SO hoping this leads to DCQC along our I-94 corridor... We'll see.

I gave two or three rides, everyone seemed to like the car. As per usual, nobody knew Mitsubishi made an electric car. I also took my friend's older cousin and his wife for a ride. They are in need of a car and wanted something affordable. I'm talking with them now about a used i-MiEV for sale about two charges away.

As for advice, at least get people to sit in the car and realize it's not a cramped little econobox. Getting people to ride along and they almost forget they're in a little car.

There is another EV event this weekend that is unrelated to Drive Electric Week. This will be a 58 mile trek up into the mountains (roughly 2,500 ft. climb). It's been tight for the last two years heading there, but with a new battery, this trip should be a bit easier, except for a 2 mile detour. I drove out last night to where the road is closed. Heavy rain a few months ago washed out a culvert pipe and collapsed half of the road. From what I saw, it should be passable in the i-MiEV, but I don't know if there is another spot down the road that is totally washed out.

Since this was a 50 mile round-trip to check the road and I left with 80% charge, I practiced my hypermiling skills. For a total distance of 76 miles driven yesterday, I used 15.77 kWh, and achieved a wall-to-wheels efficiency of 4.82 miles/kWh. Not quite a personal best (a quick check of my log shows 4.91 mi./kWh on August 11, 2015), but still pretty good despite the speed and terrain (45-50 MPH and hilly). I did set a personal best with 50 miles RR at 8 bars, beating my old record of 44 miles at 8 bars. My full charge RR was matched with my old record of 90 miles RR.

I should have CaniOn working on the trip to this event, but I'll keep a charge/drive log as I did last weekend as well.

Ok. After some head-scratching trying to figure out my usage, here's the log. All charging was done at level 2.

1. Drove 57.1 miles to Seven Springs. Arrived with 3 bars, 11 miles RR, Battery at 23.5%.
2. Charged to 89%, consuming 12.54 kWh. Left 7 Springs with with 15 bars, 61 miles RR.
3. Drove 34.6 miles, trip odo at 91.7 miles, back at Seven Springs with 7 bars, 29 miles RR, battery at 48.5%
4. Charged to 98%, consuming 9.48 kWh. Left 7 Springs with 16 bars, 67 miles RR.
5. Drove 59.2 miles home, arrived with 4 bars, 21 miles RR. Battery at 33%. Trip odo at 150.9 miles.
6. Charged to 100%, using 12.83 kWh.

Quick stats:

Total distance - 150.9 miles
Total consumption - 34.85 kWh
Wall to Wheels efficiency - 4.33 Mi./kWh

Battery temperature never went above 30 C, even during some serious hill climbing
(2/3 power just to maintain 40 MPH).

PV1, thanks for posting the stats.

PV1 said:

...Battery temperature never went above 30 C, even during some serious hill climbing (2/3 power just to maintain 40 MPH).

Click to expand...

Did you have your battery vent mod in place? What was the ambient temperature?

It was rather cool outside, roughly 60 F. I started cooling right before starting the climbs and kept it on until I arrived at 7 Springs. No AC, just ambient air into the pack. I'll have to look at CaniOn, but I think the pack started out around 19-20 C, and climbed as high as 27 C shortly after topping the last hill.