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Excellent trip segment! I liked the variety of using those Ford chargers, I was surprised at their power and locations. Cool to see. Nice to see you were greeted by 🦬! 😀 Looking forward to more in the next part.
And incredible that they're still doing it decades later... must be something in the tea ☕! More scenery than charging in the next one and Jen's favorite: the Prairie Dogs! 🤩
Thanks, enjoyed the trip to this point. This segment went through the area we live. I have wanted to travel from central Il to Minneapolis MN and this route takes some of that highway. I knew of the EA in , I typically would not go to a dealer but, now know i have another option with the Ford dealer in Kewanee.
Glad it's of use and thanks for the feedback. I'm starting to add Ford dealerships in general to my back ups. Both on this trip and across my Northeast travels, they're installing some genuinely useful stations.
Love the video. The wild buffalo herd and the badlands sun rise took my breath away 🦬. Champagne, IL claim to fame is the seat of the main campus of the university system in Illinois. Having grown up north of Chicago, many of my childhood friends went there for undergrad. Amazing route. Thx so much for sharing. This has much to rewatch for
Thanks, Walter. I have to wonder how many interesting places we sped past on this trip... also passed Normal, IL and all the Rivian sites without a stop. Just the nature of a relatively short window trip crossing this big ol' country, I suppose.
Thanks, Steve! Those Ford locations were pretty nice, even if I'm not the biggest fan of dealership charging stations. Some Ford dealerships do have sit-down cafes and restaurants, which would definitely maximize hosting one of these charging hubs.
Right, it felt a bit of an addition heading for those break/destination activities either side of charging rather than during, but I'd say both were walkable to attractions and bought our wallets to the local area in different ways. Those kind of stops are where we fondly remember the Bolt EV leases. Lots of yummy spots in NY and PA found over a 50-minute charging session :)
Steve, Your state park overnight charging stop was actually 2.5 kW on the L30 plug. I determined this by figuring their voltage based on your more accurate 8.4kW on 40A which is 210VAC so 105V for the 24A or 2.5kW. NEMA 14-50 is always a winner if you can get it. Double the voltage and almost twice the current. 🎉 Great VLOG!
I initially thought it was only the Northeast that had a few ambitious Ford dealers, then realized that these were our best alternatives to EA heading across the Midwest. Beat out the likes of Circle K in Illinois and Tesla in Iowa, based on stall count and power levels. Definitely a pleasant surprise but it's unfortunate they haven't hit the region with the most EVs yet. Didn't encounter any in Washington or Oregon, either. EDIT: my blind spot in WA... looks like Tacoma/Seattle area has a couple of similar stations at Ford dealers.
Nice job! You were going through our old stomping grounds in Iowa. I mostly grew up in Sioux City. And that's good news about the Ford chargers. If we ever get to take our Ioniq 5 through that area, I'll have to be ready for that. (Glacier NP is on our bucket list.) BTW, you should try sitting on a motorcycle and watching a bison herd go by. Kind of nerve wracking! 😀
Thanks! It was a pleasant area and Iowa in general had several spots I would have liked to explore more. No desire to square up to a herding creature in anything less than a robust metal box though, thanks all the same! 😳
I used both the Cumberland, IN & Champaign, IL EA stations on a trip eariler this year. Glad it was smooth for you; I had issues at both. Champaign was particularly concerning as it started pumping in >60 kW to the Bolt before I quickly hit stop. I've really enjoyed the Ford dealership installations though as well. Also Iowa State isn't in the Big Ten, that's Iowa. Good mistake to make, you'll get lots of engagement in the comments lol
Accidental engagement farming... hurrah! Hopefully the strange accent gives me a form of immunity. I got the Champaign EA location on the way back as well with similarly satisfying results. More EVs charging there that time but everything seemed to run smoothly. Typically, if we saw newer EA hardware on this trip, it went perfectly. Happy to have Ford Charge with the assists though.
The charging speed of the eGMP cars is just crazy. My wife had a Mach E & now she has a Model Y. We’re at the age we’re charging speed is not the priority (but still important). Rather it was the reliability & ubiquity of the Supercharger network that prompted the switch. It appears that Hyundai will be the first manufacturer with NACS ports (albeit on the still-blocking-spaces side), so it will be interesting to see how their drivers adapt to slightly longer charging times (et tu, V4) vs reliability.
I'm hoping they'll fix the voltage limitations at some point but spending twice as long charging is a tough ask, especially with the port position putting Tesla noses out of joint at some locations. We'll need more redundancy on the public network but I'm confident, after this trip, that the full 1000V hardware will be worth the smaller stall count and other challenges of public CPOs.
A couple of good EA charging sites en route! I always charge to only 80% myself. How was the air mattress? TT-30s are fairly slow actually. I've only used that once, but have used 14-50 at campgrounds many times. I think the Corn Palace needs some chargers! Heh. I'd never seen those Ford chargers before. Nice! Makes me wonder how the charging landscape will improve when IONNA gets to work. I've been to the Badlands before, but that was years before EVs were available. Loved seeing the buffalo, BTW!
Thanks for the comment and thoughts! Air mattress was okay but too high, overall. We'll be investing in an Exped Automat for the next trip, which seems to blend lower footprint with more even comfort. Downtown Mitchell did have L2 chargers, so that could have added 10-15 kWh during our exploring, but my interest in Ford Charge had been piqued by this point. I think dealer charging has been (correctly) dismissed based on early installs and limited access, but Ford is doing it the right way IMO. These sites are easily on par with most EVgo and many older EA sites, for our needs.
Good morning Steve! Thanks for the travel log video. It's nice to see the good charging infrastructure in the mid west. Does your Ionic 5 allow pre conditioning for the battery en route to the EA dispensers? Safe travels. ⚡⚡
Morning, Brad! Yes, the Ioniq 5 will precondition heating the pack for DCFC in cold conditions, but I've never seen it go to work en route to cool the pack. All of that typically happens during and after our charges. We're rarely in the hottest parts of the country, however, so that doesn't mean it never happens.
Accurate for six more months. From another perspective, we either paid upfront (baked into new car price) or Hyundai/Volkswagen are footing the bill... either way, $0 to charge on the day.
You passed within a couple miles of my house at the PA Turnpike Downingtown exchange. That bison encounter had to make the whole trip worthwhile. Do you normally expect just around 200kW at a 350?
It was the first of a few encounters and a great welcome to the Plains, for sure. We usually get between 220-240kW in the IONIQ 5. It will start a little below 200, then ramp within a few minutes to the peak. Holds that for a middle section of the charge then begins ramping it down through the 100s in the last third of the pack.
Yeah, just happy to start up with that rate, as opposed to it bring the peak. I can usually tell it will ramp to 230/240 kW when the 80% estimate is between 12-18 minutes. If it's going to derate, the start rate is usually below 100kW and 80% time closer to 30 minutes.
Couldn't find our original exchange mentioning Selinsgrove, PA Supercharger but here's a video I found by PlugInPA looking at the site: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2E61L9IAHLM.htmlsi=L6P_Ze6ylzkpCHLh
Needed to replace 12V prematurely at 38k miles and the rear hatch had a phantom closing issue that was fixed under warranty. Other than that, it's mostly first-year model stuff like going to dealership for firmware updates (e.g. adding battery preconditioning) or known issues (ICCU diagnostics).
