I took a road trip this past weekend. It was a trip I've done before in other vehicles.
I had to take a longer route than usual in order to do it in the I-pace. A few weeks ago I scoped out the locations and distances between high powered chargers in order to make for shorter charging stops. The choice came down to Electrify America chargers at 4 possible locations.
I stopped at charger #1 to charge from 61% to just over 80% in order to get to charger #2. 89 miles covered and 28 minute stop. $13.61
Distance to charger #2 121.3 miles. 1 hour 12 minute stop. I started the charge and walked to a restaurant for lunch. A charging fault occurred. I was able to start charging again after I got back to the car. $23.17 (I think) It may have been more. I'm not sure if the "fault" charging was charged to the credit card.
Distance to charger #3 145.1 miles. 54 minute stop. $36.35
Driving to my destination, local driving and back to charger #3 129.5 miles. $30.04 for a 1 hour 6 minute stop.
Distance to charger #2 144.3 miles. 59 minute stop. $36.04 to go to 90% because I expected a longer route to the next charger.
Distance to a free Chargepoint charger 191.1 miles. 1 hr 50 minute stop to charge to 100% adding 70.12 kWh.
Drove home and plugged in there to get back to the 100% starting charge. 1 hr 24 min.
I didn't sign up for an EA account. This was an experiment to find out how much it would cost and how much extra time it would take.
The return trip included travelling on alternate roads due to road construction having shut down a lengthy section of an interstate.
The car reported: 33.6 kWh/100 miles. Avg speed 52 mph. 15.2 kWh regen. 837.9 miles total.
The charging stops added 3 hours 56 minutes going (partly due to the time lost for the charging fault) and 3 hours 8 minutes on the return. I also had several other brief stops along the way that I didn't count along the way.
Normally my stops amount to about 1 hour each way. None would be for fuel but I would top up at my destination.
Based on average fuel costs for my other vehicles, I'd say driving the I-pace cost up to 50% more for "fuel" using EA chargers.
Charging rate wasn't near the 100kWh rate except for a brief few seconds at the start of charging a couple of times. It tapered down fairly quickly from that but remained above 40 kWh until I stopped the charging.
At charger location #3 on the return, I tried to initiate the charging at a different charge than I had used before but it got stuck in "processing" the credit card. I moved to another charger only to have it tell me the card read wasn't working and I should call customer support to start charging. Customer support asked me to move to another charger that someone had used the day before (me!). It worked. This highlights the risk that chargers may not be in working order. This can present challenges when they are the only chargers available for many miles around
I don't think I'll be taking the I-pace on this journey again. The added time and cost don't justify it when I have alternate choices. The free local chargers do justify it for local driving and work commuting.
I had to take a longer route than usual in order to do it in the I-pace. A few weeks ago I scoped out the locations and distances between high powered chargers in order to make for shorter charging stops. The choice came down to Electrify America chargers at 4 possible locations.
I stopped at charger #1 to charge from 61% to just over 80% in order to get to charger #2. 89 miles covered and 28 minute stop. $13.61
Distance to charger #2 121.3 miles. 1 hour 12 minute stop. I started the charge and walked to a restaurant for lunch. A charging fault occurred. I was able to start charging again after I got back to the car. $23.17 (I think) It may have been more. I'm not sure if the "fault" charging was charged to the credit card.
Distance to charger #3 145.1 miles. 54 minute stop. $36.35
Driving to my destination, local driving and back to charger #3 129.5 miles. $30.04 for a 1 hour 6 minute stop.
Distance to charger #2 144.3 miles. 59 minute stop. $36.04 to go to 90% because I expected a longer route to the next charger.
Distance to a free Chargepoint charger 191.1 miles. 1 hr 50 minute stop to charge to 100% adding 70.12 kWh.
Drove home and plugged in there to get back to the 100% starting charge. 1 hr 24 min.
I didn't sign up for an EA account. This was an experiment to find out how much it would cost and how much extra time it would take.
The return trip included travelling on alternate roads due to road construction having shut down a lengthy section of an interstate.
The car reported: 33.6 kWh/100 miles. Avg speed 52 mph. 15.2 kWh regen. 837.9 miles total.
The charging stops added 3 hours 56 minutes going (partly due to the time lost for the charging fault) and 3 hours 8 minutes on the return. I also had several other brief stops along the way that I didn't count along the way.
Normally my stops amount to about 1 hour each way. None would be for fuel but I would top up at my destination.
Based on average fuel costs for my other vehicles, I'd say driving the I-pace cost up to 50% more for "fuel" using EA chargers.
Charging rate wasn't near the 100kWh rate except for a brief few seconds at the start of charging a couple of times. It tapered down fairly quickly from that but remained above 40 kWh until I stopped the charging.
At charger location #3 on the return, I tried to initiate the charging at a different charge than I had used before but it got stuck in "processing" the credit card. I moved to another charger only to have it tell me the card read wasn't working and I should call customer support to start charging. Customer support asked me to move to another charger that someone had used the day before (me!). It worked. This highlights the risk that chargers may not be in working order. This can present challenges when they are the only chargers available for many miles around
I don't think I'll be taking the I-pace on this journey again. The added time and cost don't justify it when I have alternate choices. The free local chargers do justify it for local driving and work commuting.