Philly Area to Fort Collins Colorado Roundtrip

[detansinn]

Our recent college graduate landed a job in Fort Collins Colorado. So, we loaded up her stuff into the truck and hit the road. I've regularly done long trips (1000 miles or so) in the Lightning since taking delivery in 2023. The truck currently has over 45k miles. It's a rapid red metallic Lariat ER -- no tonneau cover, ie open bed.

Top Line Trip Info

• Westbound - 2.0 mi/kWh, 29h21m, 1795 miles (loaded up with cargo)
• Eastbound - 2.2 mi/kWh, 28h04m, 1761 miles
• Total Trip Miles 3,556 + 800 miles or so between Denver and Fort Collins
• PA Turnpike to I-70 was the route -- highway miles

Westbound Notes (three legs: Columbus, Kansas City stops)

• Several hundred pounds of moving bins were loaded and strapped into the bed. Truck was closer to level than normal on the springs.
• Load was covered with a Harbor Freight tarp, net, straps and numerous bungies to keep things dry.
• Strong Kansas headwinds and the ascent pulled us down to 1.5mi/kWh for stretches through Kansas.
• Thankfully, charging is plentiful through the Kansas I-70 corridor, so we didn't sweat the efficiency hit.
• Heat dome temps for much of the journey along with those winds

Colorado Notes

• We saw much higher mi/kWh than normal traveling up/down I-25 at 70+ MPH (posted 75MPH)
• It would not be unusual for us to finish a day averaging 2.8mi/kWh, whereas in Pennsylvania, I am happy to see 2.3mi/kWh hitting the turnpike.
• Thinner air? It was weird to get so much efficiency with that thin Denver air.
• Triple digit temperatures when we were in Colorado.
• I set a new personal best for efficiency 20.7mi/kWh over 31.5 miles. This was descending the mountain in Golden, CO.

Eastbound Notes (Two Legs, stopped east of Kansas City)

• Truck bed was empty for the ride home and we were substantially lighter.
• Efficiency was substantially better on the drive home -- I credit this to the descent from Rockies and flat run through the midwest.
• 2.3 mi/kWh with the average brought down from its peaks climbing the Appalachians.
• We had considered returning via I-80, but charging is just so plentiful in the I-70 corridor and we were completely spoiled by the IONNA charging experience.

Charging Notes

• I have over 75k miles of EV road tripping experience.
• I subscribe to a charging strategy of more frequent stops to reduce the amount of charging necessary at each stop.
• I'd rather do stops every 120-130 miles than longer legs where you run the battery way down, wait longer for the recharge and need a higher SoC to reach the next destination. Our longest segment was 170 miles.
• With our frequent stop strategy, we typically were out of there at 75-80% SoC -- and got there quickly. No stop is wasted. We use the restrooms or eat.
• Kansas has robust charging infrastructure in the I-70 corridor well-suited to this strategy, which is helpful, because Kansas is a big state to cross.
• We prioritized charging stops with a large number of chargers and as a result, didn't get stuck waiting once on this trip.
• Charging Networks Used (In Ranked Order, favorite first)
  • #1 IONNA
    • Easily our favorite charging stops.
    • They look amazing, well-maintained, everything just works
    • You'll find these stations all across Kansas and in Missouri outside of Kansas City
    • "Fallout" "Wall-E" design aesthetic
    • Awesome 400kw Alpitronic Chargers that are also being used by Applegreen (rest stop conglomerate) for their new installs.
    • "Membership" charging rates without the membership nonsense -- cheap.
  • #2 GM
    • Yes, it's weird that there are GM charging locations that are separate thing from EVGo, but every stop at one of these chargers was amazing.
    • The Limon Colorado Pilot stop looks and feels like how all EV charging should work -- with wind turbines in the background.
    • The Pilot locations are expensive, but I will pay a little more for charging when everything just works.
  • #3 Electrify America
    • We only hit a few EA charging sites on our route, but I am in awe as to how much the experience has improved since I started using them in 2022.
    • I used to hate EA chargers and have enough PTSD from units unable to meet rate or broken that I largely avoid them.
    • As I have been saying for a while now, you no longer have to avoid EA chargers.
  • #4 Tesla Superchargers
    • Tesla Supercharger access has been transformative to the EV road tripping experience, because you're getting so many additional charging options.
    • Reliability and uptime are nowhere near Teslas claims, but there's a big difference with 1 out of 8 chargers being down vs 1 out 2 being down. It's an important numbers advantage.
    • That being said, the only charging issues we encountered on our journey were at Supercharger locations. At the Spiceland Indiana location, the superchargers weren't meeting rate. The St Louis Moto Mart station had charging heads that would drop during a session without explanation.
    • I am a Tesla member, meaning that I had to the use app to activate the charger to get my discounted rate. At one Supercharger, I didn't have sufficient cell signal, but was able to just plug in and get the plug-n-charge FordPass rate.
    • To Tesla's credit, they are quick to respond to reported issues. Truth be told, they're the only game in town in some parts of the country. So, it's not like you have much of a choice. Take advantage of the access regardless of any feelings you have about Elon.
  • The Rest
    • Chargepoint location reliability is directly a function of the property owner's interest in maintaining the units. Some are great. Check Plugshare.
    • Applegreen is stepping up with the 400kw Alpitronic units at rest stops -- game changer.
    • Gas station/truck stop EV charging stations were surprisingly good.
• IMHO, IONNA is the experience leader in this space and looking forward to them expanding their network.
• No white knuckle factor on the whole trip. Multiple charging options. There's not enough infrastructure to support every person owning EV, but there's enough to truly travel anywhere in the United States now.

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[K6CCC]

Cool report. You made a very good point about Tesla and the number of stalls vs most of the other guys. The largest EA station I have used was 10 stalls (1 not working). Most are smaller with 4 being common. On the other hand, the smallest Tesla SuperCharger I have ever used was 12 stall, with most being larger - many of those A LOT larger. 4 stalls down out of 48 is far less of an issue than 1 stall down out of 4. And I gotta say that pulling into a 120 stall SuperCharger is impressive as heck! The one downside of many SuperChargers is the short cables on V3 stations. I have once been unable to charge because I could not reach due to the short cables. Fortunately I did not need a charge at the time, it was just a convenience.

 

[detansinn]

I have had nice experiences with the Tesla V4 superchargers that have much longer cables.

 

[RickLightning]

20.7 is the max efficiency it will display. That doesn't mean you didn't get better efficiency. Specifically, if you add to the battery (which you do on prolonged downhills), your efficiency is infinity, as you're never using battery.

 

[CD4TNF]

Great to hear the positive experience. The more positive road trip is experiences we share. The more we, and potential owners, all feel confident in doing one ourselves.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

• Reliability and uptime are nowhere near Teslas claims, but there's a big difference with 1 out of 8 chargers being down vs 1 out 2 being down. It's an important numbers advantage.
• That being said, the only charging issues we encountered on our journey were at Supercharger locations. At the Spiceland Indiana location, the superchargers weren't meeting rate. The St Louis Moto Mart station had charging heads that would drop during a session without explanation.

This is my experience too. With 70k EV miles, mostly road tripping, the reliability of brand-T is not all that great (I have about 50% success with their plugs and closer to 85% success with other plugs). They just have a higher density of ports, when you can find a station—several of my regular trips don’t have any brand-T en route.

 

[K6CCC]

I have had nice experiences with the Tesla V4 superchargers that have much longer cables.

Yes, the longer cables on the V4 SuperChargers is really nice.

 

[detansinn]

20.7 is the max efficiency it will display. That doesn't mean you didn't get better efficiency. Specifically, if you add to the battery (which you do on prolonged downhills), your efficiency is infinity, as you're never using battery.

The trip added 4% to the SoC. So, yes, over 30 miles, pretty amazing. Lol

 

[detansinn]

This is my experience too. With 70k EV miles, mostly road tripping, the reliability of brand-T is not all that great (I have about 50% success with their plugs and closer to 85% success with other plugs). They just have a higher density of ports, when you can find a station—several of my regular trips don’t have any brand-T en route.

This 100%. There are areas in the Midwest where all of the options are CCS with no Superchargers to be found. Adapters will be with us for years to come. If my truck had a NACS charging port, a CCS adapter would be seeing much more action than my NACS adapter.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

This 100%. There are areas in the Midwest where all of the options are CCS with no Superchargers to be found. Adapters will be with us for years to come. If my truck had a NACS charging port, a CCS adapter would be seeing much more action than my NACS adapter.

Exactly. Which is why I have zero desire to buy a vehicle with a NACS port. It just means more parts and more potential failures between the energy source and my vehicles.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Excellent trip report, thanks for sharing!!

OT, what model Harley & Ducati do you ride?

 

[detansinn]

Excellent trip report, thanks for sharing!!

OT, what model Harley & Ducati do you ride?

Thanks!

HD: Livewire, Pan America
Ducati: 900SS, Multistrada 1100

 

[Ted23Lightning]

I have had nice experiences with the Tesla V4 superchargers that have much longer cables.

Love those.

 

[K6CCC]

This 100%. There are areas in the Midwest where all of the options are CCS with no Superchargers to be found. Adapters will be with us for years to come. If my truck had a NACS charging port, a CCS adapter would be seeing much more action than my NACS adapter.

Sure not the case here in SoCal. The only time I have use a DCFC other than a Tesla SuperCharger was Baker, Calif. where the 96 stall SuperCharger is Tesla only, and I had to use the 12 stall Electrify America station next door. However, be that as it may, I agree that adapters will be in common use for a number of years. Although I do see that a lot of new or coming soon stations are both CCS-1 and NACS, but CHAdeMO is rapidly going away.

 

[FloridaMan655321]

Some interesting stickers on the rear window

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