Trip report for the EV1/EV+ roadtrip from L.A. to Las Vegas June 7-9, 1998 I had thought about driving out to Las Vegas in the EV1 many times before (my parents live out there) but always decided I had better wait for NiMH or a faster or lighter charger... that is until Kris headed out on his 'Charge Across America' which really opened my eyes to the possibilities. I was telling a friend about Marvin's radio ads when it struck me that I should re-consider a Las Vegas EV1 trip. I'm planning a longer trip in August and figured Las Vegas would be a perfect test of the EV1's road trip potential. I called up Bill Korthof who has a Honda EV+ and always seemed game for any long distance trip and invited him along. Even though he was in the middle of moving and studying for final exams at Pomona, he really had no choice but to go for it. Five days later we were in Nevada. I had been making adapters and extension cords for my August trip so I was already fairly well prepared. Bill already had more than a half dozen receptacle adapters he'd made for the EV+ so we were just about ready for anything. I called up several RV campgrounds along the way to find out if they had 50amp service and were willing to let us plug in, all said YES! In Baker I called up the Mad Greek (the only REAL food stop in Baker) to see if they could help out and Larry the owner agreed to help us get some 240V power. All set! Even though the Honda has about twice the battery capacity of the EV1, The range is only about 50% more because of the EV1's extraordinary efficiency at freeway speed. Add to this the fact that the Honda built in charger is only 4.4kw (compared to the 6.6kw Magnacharger) and this makes for some lengthy charge times. Fortunately the EV+'s large capacity gave Bill an extra reserve I didn't have and also let him start the day with about 40 more miles of range than me. Day 1 - Sunday (242.6 miles): The plan was for Bill to drive out early to the KOA campground in Devore by the 15/215 intersection (a good 1000ft higher than Ontario Mills) early on and start charging before I would arrive there. Since Ontario was reported dead, I made plans to charge in Corona. At the Corona Wallmart I charged from 44% to 92% (user) and was able to meet Bill at Devore a little before 11am (we were both running late). The unhappy person at the desk at KOA Devore had NOT been notified of our trip by her manager (as she should have been!) and blindly charged us EACH $26 for RV spaces that we'd only use for a few hours. Grrr... Well, it turns out this is all we paid for the whole trip... probably less than gasoline would have cost. I charged from 39% to 89% and headed up the dreaded Cajon Pass. It was only 2300 ft up from there (about) but very steep. I passed the 138 turn off with 62% user SOC remaining. By the time I got over the pass and down a few miles to the Desert Willow RV park just before Victorville, I had 47% charge remaining! Not bad... 42% used over 2300ft and 85.2-63.8=21.4 miles. Of course the last few miles don't count because that was coasting. I called Bill in Devore (we both had cell phones) and told him we were all set. He drove up, plugged in and we hung out for a short while until my charge got up from 47% to 87%. Then we headed down towards Barstow. In most places where we were driving together, I stayed in front to keep the cruise control locked in somewhere between 50mph and 60mph. No cruise on the EV+. We had a lot of time while charging along the way to discuss the cars... "If only the Honda had a faster charger".. "If only the EV1 had NiMH".. etc. Although for this trip I must confess the charge time was a lot more valuable than the range issue. It was cold and very windy in Victorville and it was nice to get down into the warmer areas. Driving beyond Barstow to the Calico KOA campground was a breeze! From 85.2 miles at Desert Willow/Victorville down to 134.7 at Calico KOA I only dropped from 87% to 51% (36% for 50 miles! of course the slight downhill and strong wind at our backs helped). Here I charged from 51% to 86% in no time and headed back on the road for Baker. This was the first 'warm' stop of the trip so I actually lugged the 70 pound magnacharger out of the front seat. At Devore and Desert Willow it was cold enough that I could leave the charger on the front seat with the doors open and the paddle cord reaching around to the front of the car. The drive from Calico to Baker was even more downhill (Baker is the lowest point on the trip, 1000ft just like Ontario). I found Larry at the Mad Greek and we set out to find some 240V power (the restaurant uses 208, but it wasn't easily accessible). Next door there is a closed Texaco Station that MG is leasing for extra parking (for those unfamiliar with Baker, the Mad Greek has grown tremendously over the last 10 years despite the lack of a huge thermometer). There was a 10-30 dryer plug in back but we had to get keys to open the place up to turn on the circuit breaker. Before long I was charging up thanks to John (who had the key) and Larry and I called back to Calico to tell Bill that charging was all set up (by the time he arrived, I'd be more or less full). During my wait I had a pleasant meal at MG then went for a walk down the main street (not much of a walk). I found an auto parts store with 240V for a welder, we'd use this on the way back. I charged from 36% to 88% by the time Bill arrived. I was charging at 1/4 speed at this point (5 bars) and I wasn't sure I was going to make it up the hill (+3000ft followed by another 1000ft!) so I planned on stopping near the top to trickle at 110 while Bill was still charging at 4.4kw. at the Mad Greek. I drove up to Halloran Spring where Jeannie was going to let me charge up 110V at her gas station. When I arrived, the guy at the counter said Jeannie wanted $15 for use of a 110 socket (!!) screw that. no thanks. I had already covered about 2/3rds of the elevation and was only down to 32% so I decided to go for it. A few miles up the road I ended up pulling over at the 'hilltop' gas station where they did let me plug in for a while after all... I called down to Bill who said he wanted to charge for another hour. By the time he met me up at the top of Halloran, I had gained another 7% in about 75 minutes (such is life at 1kw). We drove off towards Stateline (now called Primm) around 9pm and were both a little unsure if we had enough charge to make it. At the top of Mtn. Pass I had 13% so I guess I didn't need to waste the 75minutes at the gas station after all. If you've ever driven to Vegas, you know that it's all downhill from Mtn Pass. Bill and I passed each other several times depending on how much regen vs. coasting we were doing... I got up to 83mph with regen and actually had to use brakes. It's really easy to find the EV+ behind you at night because of the cool headlights. We slipped into the RV park at Buffalo Bill's with the permission of Dan the manager and plugged in... We were both extremely jazzed to have made it to Nevada without any problems. I was at 17% at the bottom and Bill was similarly low. We Spent the night at Buffalo Bills for $18 total. Day 2 - Monday (107.0 miles): In the morning we headed for my parent's place in Vegas, both starting with 100%... 40% and 44.8 miles later we were charging the EV1 while relaxing at Casa de Hanssen. We'd take the EV1 out for some sightseeing and picture taking then come back and do the same with the EV+. Of course we had to take the EV1 to the local Saturn dealership and the EV+ to the local Honda dealership. Everyone was impressed with the cars and we ALL agreed that Las Vegas would be the perfect market for EVs. (flat, warm, no big distances) Later that night I'd take the EV1 back out for a little more cruising. It actually rained on me in the evening (!) You can see some of the cool clouds in the daytime pictures. I intended to take the garage at night as the EV+ should have been charged by then... but unfortunately I guess the heat was getting to the Honda's NiMH batteries so it went into some sort of slow cooling mode which required that Bill stay in the garage overnight... no big deal, I only needed about 50% charge and that should be no problem in 7 hrs on the 110 charger. Day 3 - Tuesday (302.0 miles): I guess 7 hours was not enough.. I turned the EV1 on in the morning and it said 5 more hours (!!!) Bill and I swapped places after taking a few photos with both cars outside. When I plugged into the 6.6kw charger it said 1.25 hrs... ah, much better... just enough time for breakfast and a shower. Bill had brought plenty of snacks with him so he headed out to Primm to get a head start on charging in order to tackle Mtn. Pass. After relaxing with my folks I headed out about 1.5 hours later and met Bill at Primm. I was making good use of power drafting behind a truck at 74mph until we all stopped cold in traffic.. somebody flipped their car upside down (ouch!) and it took me a while to get around the accident. Over all I was just a tad late. From what I've observed, drafting close behind a truck can enable you to go about 10 or 15mph faster without using more power... but more tests need to be done. Bill and I walked over to the Casino and got one of the first rides on the Desperado roller coaster at 11am when it opened. If you're ever passing through Primm, this is a must experience... it's the longest drop on any roller coaster (or at least it was a few years ago when they built it). Back at the cars, the EV+ was more or less full so Bill headed out while I waited a few minutes more to get the pre-condition started and get from 36% up to 91% (first partial charge of the day usually lets you get into the low 90s before it slows down). I put the cruise control on 55mph and headed up towards Mtn Pass. At the top (17 miles and 2200ft later) I was down to 43%. Down in the valley by Cima (and the rest area.. (rest area with no 110 plugs btw)) I was up to 50% from regen. From there it was a small uphill to Halloran Summit then it was downhill 3000ft to Baker. During this long stretch the regen seemed to be working (slowing the car and producing over 5kw on the PDT) but the user SOC didn't budge.. if anything it went DOWN! I'm not sure what was wrong with the regen (or pack) but that energy had to go somewhere... probably cooking the pack.. I arrived in Baker with 34% and met Bill at Mad Greek. Bill was already hooked up so I borrowed one of his adapters (to go from a welding receptacle to 10-30 which is what I put on my magnacharger) and drove up to Baker Garage and Auto Parts where I plugged in. Bill and I hung out for a while and visited the thermometer (world's largest) and visitor center for the new Mojave National Preserve. The ranger made us promise to brings the cars by on our way out so he could check them out. We also took some pictures of the cars in front of the Mad Greek so I could send them a photo for their wall. I charged from 34% to 92% (although it was 90% by the time we left because we were hanging out with the AC on for a long time). The leg up to Barstow is what concerned me the most as it was 55 miles and at least 1200 ft up going into a strong headwind... I did this section at 51mph with the AC on setting 1. but as it turned out we got through the mountain sections without much hassle so when I reached the flat section for the last 20 miles I really cranked up the AC... ahhh, much better. Bill was surprised at how much power he needed for that leg of the trip (most likely due to the wind). I arrived in Calico with 14% user. There was a reporter from the local paper there to meet us so we talked with her for a while. I also tried to arrange something in Vegas but didn't have enough time to set something up before I had to leave.. I made the arrangements for the Desert Dispatch paper from the cell phone while in transit... I'll need to take some tips from Kris and Marvin on how to get some publicity, although I really only intended this trip as a trial run. After the interview, Bill and I decided it was best to make use of the KOA's swimming pool as it was getting really hot outside (the Baker thermometer said 94 degrees). After a relaxing dip, the EV1 was up to 57% but the EV+ still needed several hours... I asked Bill if the EV+ charging seemed slow due to the heat but he wasn't sure. I guess when your range is 100-120 miles and it takes 6-8 hours to charge, you don't find yourself using much public charging or observing the charge speed. The Magnacharge display is nearly unreadable lying on its back in direct sunlight.. I used the PDT most of the time. But here the Honda is even worse off having no percentage display AT ALL, merely a 5 segment display on the outside of the car (very handy for aprox status, but useless for real measurements) Inside the car there is a 10 segment display. We should feel fortunate that at least the Magnacharger gives us a percentage.. I'd be very very very very very upset if we didn't have the percentage display (wink wink, nudge nudge). But I digress... I was up to 57% so Bill and I decided to go out on a side trip and find the Solar power plant nearby while the Honda slowly charged at 4.4kw. Unfortunately this late in the afternoon they had just shut down and on top of that we nearly circled the thing but couldn't find a good road into it. Back at Calico KOA I plugged in again to get from 45% up to 84%. We hung out and relaxed for a while but I was eager to hit the road so that we could travel old route 66 from Barstow to Victorville in daylight. The theory was that old route 66 would be a little out of the way, but more of a flat drive and we could more easily go 45-50mph (speed makes a big difference on the EV1, but a much BIGGER difference on the EV+) Bill was only around 60-something percent but he figured it would be ok. It turns out rt.66 had a lot of micro hills... I'm not sure if that made much of a difference, it was a pretty drive though. We pulled over before hitting the last big uphill section from Victorville up to the Desert Willow campground along I-15... We were both pretty low but feeling rather cocky about our perfect record thusfar so we decided to go for it. It turned out to be a VERY close call... I pulled in with 1 mile range and 2% user SOC remaining.. Bill was in his reserve (like our triple diamonds). Now it was dark out and very COLD! Amazing how things change so fast in the desert. We walked over the freeway to the In-n-out Burger where I got some dinner and we hung out for a while and talked EV politics. Back at Desert Willow I was shocked to see the EV1 already at 1/2 speed charging at only 70% !!! Well, I guess this was a lot of partial charging for one day (already at the 223.5 mile mark). Bill was still dreadfully low (20 or 30% ?). Jeff Church had called me en-route to say that Ontario was supposed to be fixed and MIGHT have a conductive charger (they were supposed to add one at the same time that they fixed the magnachargers). I asked Bill if he wanted me to drive down and scope it out and call him back.. But of course by this time we were feeling REALLY cocky so he decided to just go for it. Mistake. I left with 70% and arrived at Ontario Mills with 58% I was going pretty fast down the steep part so I forced the car down to 51mph on the last stretch so that Bill could catch up.. He had to keep his speed down to maximize range. One of the Ontario Magnachargers had been fixed, the other completely replaced. There was not an Avcon in sight. I don't care what you think about Inductive vs. Conductive, when you pull in someplace with a low battery and all they've got is Magnachargers, you're gonna wish you had one too... you gotta hand it to GM for helping to install this excellent infrastructure. We strolled around for nearly an hour looking for 240V sockets but had no luck. Bill tried the 1-800 number but that was nearly useless... he suggested THEY look on the web, but they didn't have web access.. aigh! I charged from 58% to 78% but I really didn't need to as I arrived home at 1am with 32% remaining after going 65mph most of the way. It turns out that Bill was able to get all the way home without recharging and without going into his reserve!! Gotta love timed streetlights at 35mph he says :) This turned out to be a lengthy report... Over all I must say I am extremely pleased with how the EV1 performed. I have a whole new love/hate relationship with my 70 pound magnacharger now!!