Long trip tomorrow, and charging time estimates question

[kinabalu]

Just got a 2016 b250e and loving the car, quick little devil. Taking it for a much longer haul tomorrow (105mi) and so the range anxiety is high for the trip. Planning a stop over at some midpoint to charge for an hour and get some lunch.

If I drive this thing 45 miles, I'm assuming in a 240V 6.6kWh station I'd be able to top off in about 90 or so minutes?

And if at my destination while charging, I turn on the Range Plus option, I should get an extra 15 miles or so out of it? Making any stop overs 45 minutes or so to get enough for home?

 

[JeffRay]

Assuming you will charge using range extender before you start. Your math seems correct on top off. Also assuming it will be largely highway in moderate temperatures.

As a newbie, keep an eye on the usage meter to the right to avoid the jackrabbit starts which is both fun and eats kwH.

Drop a post after you make it back to see how close you were.

 

[kinabalu]

The trip up was fairly easy, stopped off at about the 45mile mark, plugged in and let it charge using range plus for about 3 hours which brought it back up to about 92%. The rest of the trip I had range anxiety due to lots of uphills and the GOM? fluttering between a 10 mile diff with battery and nav and down to 3 or 4 miles difference at times. And then in the end, it stuck at around 30 miles and never lowered until I reached my destination.

The trip home, I got it fully charged and trekked on. This time, I was determined to take it a bit farther, and as it happened, press my luck. Ended up coasting without using gas down a toll road and just made it in front of a charging station only 11 miles from home. Only problem was, the charging stations were all broken! So here I was, having braved a 2% battery indicator and stared it in the face and laughed, only to have it win out in the end.

Turns out I did about 93 miles on the trip back home. So drove about 200 miles and because each of the chargers just happened to be free, it didn't cost me anything.

Except for time waiting for the tow truck to tow me home so I could plug in. D'oh! Live and learn. Does seem that even at 0% there's a bit more left in the battery to drive on.

 

[JeffRay]

K, thanks for posting the after story. That is a quite the experience. When I get to that point, I try to use an app which tells me which charging station is available and working! Also, have learned that taking an hour to top off is better than range anxiety.

Assume you had AAA or MBrace so tow was free.

 

[kinabalu]

Yeah, had mbrace so the tow was free, and he took me home, so no loss in sleep.

I did actually check PlugShare and it didn't show any problems with this location. Probably due to the 2 fast charging stations that appeared to be working fine.

And misreading the hills, I went from 20% -> 2% in an amazingly short period of time. Whoops

Live and learn.

Oh and I realize now that having a portable EVSE is going to be fairly important on some trips as when they say they have a place for EVs at some hotels, they just mean there's a 240V outlet in the back

 

[Stretch2727]

Interesting trip. Yeah the broken down or blocked chargers are a bummer. I always try to have a plan B just in case.

I drove 71 miles each way recently to near Allentown PA. I was able to charge where I planned but I also knew there was a few chargers 3-4 miles away at car dealers if my planned charger did not work out.

This is one reason I am looking forward to a Tesla (Model 3) some day. Besides the better range the Tesla super chargers seem to be well maintained.

 

[vin]

Thanks for sharing, kinabalu! You are not alone. Here's my story, in a Focus Electric:

http://ev-vin.blogspot.com/2013/10/charge-depleted.html

Wish I had our B-Class back then...

 

[kinabalu]

Awesome story @vin, it's exactly the feeling I had going down that hill, but even though I had made it to a charging station it was broken, and all hope was lost. Reading that story though, I'm wondering, is the "reserve" on the B-class enough for another 10 miles? Not that I'm looking to try that out anytime soon.

I had another question guys, dealing with it right now, I've been charging this thing since Sunday night. I don't yet have an EVSE at home, but going to buy real soon now. So:

Sunday night at midnight I plugged into a 110v for about 12 hours
late Monday drove it a few miles around town and then plugged into a Chargepoint station (pulling 6kW or so) for a little over 2 hours
and last night I plugged it back into the 110v at home at 9pm and it's still charging at 7:30am this morning.

The website says that the battery will be fully charged at 1:41pm. I'm wondering if this is normal because I depleted the battery so absolutely? :/

 

[Stretch2727]

Awesome story @vin, it's exactly the feeling I had going down that hill, but even though I had made it to a charging station it was broken, and all hope was lost. Reading that story though, I'm wondering, is the "reserve" on the B-class enough for another 10 miles? Not that I'm looking to try that out anytime soon.

I had another question guys, dealing with it right now, I've been charging this thing since Sunday night. I don't yet have an EVSE at home, but going to buy real soon now. So:

Sunday night at midnight I plugged into a 110v for about 12 hours
late Monday drove it a few miles around town and then plugged into a Chargepoint station (pulling 6kW or so) for a little over 2 hours
and last night I plugged it back into the 110v at home at 9pm and it's still charging at 7:30am this morning.

The website says that the battery will be fully charged at 1:41pm. I'm wondering if this is normal because I depleted the battery so absolutely? :/

Yes this is pretty normal if you are charging on 110v. Nothing odd (longer charging per Kwh) will happen just because you ran the battery down to a low percentage. 110v adds about a KWH in 1 hour. So it can take more than a full 24 hours to charge the battery. The normal battery capacity is 28KWH. Make sure your charger and the "eCell" settings in the car are on max. This will help some. When I only had 110v charger I can remember it taking almost 30 hours to fully recharge when I ran it dow to a low percentage of charge.

The charging on 110V is also less efficient. Only about 85% of the energy gets to the battery. The on board charger will have a pretty much fixed loss no matter how much power you are pushing into the car. The loss is probably about 100-200 watts. Because you need to charge for so long the total power lost is much larger. Another reason to go get a 240 volt EVSE.

 

[vin]

The charging on 110V is also less efficient. Only about 85% of the energy gets to the battery. The on board charger will have a pretty much fixed loss no matter how much power you are pushing into the car. The loss is probably about 100-200 watts. Because you need to charge for so long the total power lost is much larger. Another reason to go get a 240 volt EVSE.

Ah, I've often wondered why L2 is more efficient than L1... Thanks!

 

[GlennD]

Remember the supplied EVSE defaults to 8A. Remember to change to 12A if the socket is up to it. At 12A check for overheating. A couple of people on MNL have experienced melt down.

The EVSE defaults to a safe current on even worn sockets. The car charger can accept 20A at 120V.