1 00:00:05,606 --> 00:00:12,106 Good morning grid connections listeners today we're joined again by Steve Birkett, the host of plug and play EV. 2 00:00:12,106 --> 00:00:18,306 He recently embarked on an incredible 8 ,500 mile road trip across the U S and his electric vehicle. 3 00:00:18,306 --> 00:00:26,266 Steve shares his highs and lows of the journey, offering insights in the current state of EV travel and what he hopes will improve in the future. 4 00:00:26,266 --> 00:00:30,886 Whether you're an EV enthusiast or just curious about what it's like to hit the road in electric vehicle. 5 00:00:30,886 --> 00:00:32,993 This episode has something for everyone. 6 00:00:33,261 --> 00:00:44,254 Also for those listening and in the San Francisco Bay area, I will be hosting the Amazon recharge zone and electrify expo in San Francisco this weekend, August 24th and 25th. 7 00:00:44,254 --> 00:00:51,116 If you'll be attending or are in the Bay area and want to meet up to talk about electric vehicles or anything grid related, hit me up. 8 00:00:51,116 --> 00:01:01,089 You can either tweet at us on our social pages or leave a comment on YouTube for this episode, or even email me at chase at connecting the grid .com. 9 00:01:01,091 --> 00:01:04,832 That's chase at connecting the grid .com. 10 00:01:04,893 --> 00:01:10,075 If you enjoy today's episode, please share it with at least one other person who might find it interesting as well. 11 00:01:10,075 --> 00:01:13,717 And don't forget to leave a pause review on our podcast page. 12 00:01:13,717 --> 00:01:18,639 Your support helps us continue bringing you great content with that. 13 00:01:18,639 --> 00:01:19,629 Enjoy. 14 00:01:25,297 --> 00:01:28,699 I'm joined by Steve Birkett again from Plug and Play EV. 15 00:01:28,699 --> 00:01:30,974 Thanks again for coming on today, Steve. 16 00:01:31,114 --> 00:01:33,905 Thanks for inviting me, I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you again. 17 00:01:34,099 --> 00:01:42,867 Yeah, I, one, I've just always been enjoying the, I guess fortnightly live episodes you've been doing with the rest of the coast to coast Evie team on YouTube. 18 00:01:42,867 --> 00:01:47,251 And I've, I definitely recommend anyone that hasn't been watching those to check them out. 19 00:01:47,251 --> 00:01:56,520 I'll definitely make sure to have a link in today's show notes, but we were just kind of chatting, one about being on an upcoming episode and unfortunately, I just haven't done 20 00:01:56,520 --> 00:01:58,311 many road trips this year. 21 00:01:58,311 --> 00:02:00,012 It's been pretty kind of. 22 00:02:00,255 --> 00:02:02,157 Couple hundred miles or something, just point to point. 23 00:02:02,157 --> 00:02:04,528 So I've really haven't had to use public fast charging. 24 00:02:04,528 --> 00:02:07,751 And so you took quite the trip recently. 25 00:02:07,751 --> 00:02:16,048 And I think it'd be really interesting to just talk about your EV road trip and your experience on today's episode and kind of let that guide us. 26 00:02:16,048 --> 00:02:20,401 And I think it'll be really informational and interesting to our listeners, especially too. 27 00:02:20,801 --> 00:02:21,351 For sure, yeah. 28 00:02:21,351 --> 00:02:23,363 Thanks for the opportunity to share. 29 00:02:23,363 --> 00:02:31,510 So I mean, I've been a long time EV owner, as we've spoken about in the past, almost a decade now, but I've never done a coast to coast trip. 30 00:02:31,510 --> 00:02:42,779 And coming from the UK, which is probably the size of some states in many cases, it's kind of a new thing to think about going across a country and driving for thousands and 31 00:02:42,779 --> 00:02:45,501 thousands of miles and still not running out of land. 32 00:02:45,505 --> 00:02:47,985 So that had been on my radar for a long time. 33 00:02:47,985 --> 00:02:55,795 I got pretty close to it in the ball TV days going down to Boston, Texas from Boston to fully charge live in 2020. 34 00:02:55,795 --> 00:03:00,175 But that was not still not quite reaching the other coast. 35 00:03:00,175 --> 00:03:11,365 So this year decided to make the most of the last year of free electrify America charging head across to we started actually in the eastern most point of the lower 48 states up in 36 00:03:11,365 --> 00:03:13,853 Maine in a place called West Cawdye Head. 37 00:03:13,857 --> 00:03:25,237 has a lighthouse as you would expect from scenic coastal Maine and then headed across the country via various national parks to the technically the northwest and most point not 38 00:03:25,237 --> 00:03:39,437 quite the the western most but a place called Cape Flattery in Washington state so think headline numbers were around just over 8500 miles covered 23 states and overall efficiency 39 00:03:39,437 --> 00:03:42,913 for the nerds out there was 2 .9 miles per hour which is 40 00:03:42,913 --> 00:03:48,633 not great until you consider you're doing 80 plus miles an hour in some of those plain states. 41 00:03:48,633 --> 00:03:51,415 gets pretty heavy on the arrow at that point. 42 00:03:52,033 --> 00:03:55,033 Well, was going to ask you, how do you, when you a road trip, how do you drive? 43 00:03:55,033 --> 00:04:00,833 Cause I usually do anywhere from five to 10 over, through a lot of these. 44 00:04:00,833 --> 00:04:02,321 So yeah. 45 00:04:02,321 --> 00:04:08,731 although once you get to 80 miles an hour, it's only really the brodozer trucks in the left lane that cranking out that. 46 00:04:08,731 --> 00:04:19,101 It was pretty comfortable to just stay 80, 82 at that point, but anything in that kind of 70, 75 miles an hour speed limit zones is just a little low. 47 00:04:19,501 --> 00:04:23,871 Although I have to say, I think people are driving crazier since the end of the pandemic. 48 00:04:23,871 --> 00:04:28,435 It definitely seems to be a little more wild out there, whether you're in the coast or... 49 00:04:28,435 --> 00:04:34,547 of in the middle of the country there seem to be those speedsters going no matter what the situation. 50 00:04:35,137 --> 00:04:36,607 Yeah, I've definitely experienced that too. 51 00:04:36,607 --> 00:04:39,977 I have driven I 80, especially quite a bit. 52 00:04:39,977 --> 00:04:43,787 And then also I 90, but I'm kind of curious on your trip. 53 00:04:43,787 --> 00:04:53,877 you share what, I guess let's, let's start with the coast and then maybe what were, cause you didn't take the same way, back as you did across the country, right? 54 00:04:53,877 --> 00:04:56,096 You did kind of do a little bit of a different. 55 00:04:56,096 --> 00:04:57,367 on myself along the same route. 56 00:04:57,367 --> 00:05:01,450 It's always if I can do some kind of weird loop, it's always my preference to do that. 57 00:05:01,450 --> 00:05:02,351 I'm the same flying. 58 00:05:02,351 --> 00:05:04,662 can't fly back over myself and go the same route. 59 00:05:04,662 --> 00:05:06,474 It just messes with my head. 60 00:05:06,474 --> 00:05:09,826 So we started in Maine, so I was going say coastal Maine. 61 00:05:09,826 --> 00:05:13,418 you're on the kind of scenic route one there. 62 00:05:13,418 --> 00:05:19,272 And I won't remember all the highways or the interstates as we go across, but it kind of, we had to drop kids off in Pennsylvania. 63 00:05:19,272 --> 00:05:22,904 So we did the usual kind of Northeast to Midwest route. 64 00:05:23,563 --> 00:05:34,661 PT or IAT4 down through IAT through Ohio so that's all fairly familiar stomping ground to anyone who watches Plug and Play V, we've got family over in Ohio so we do that quite a 65 00:05:34,661 --> 00:05:35,461 lot. 66 00:05:35,581 --> 00:05:48,390 But then kind of moved on to relatively new states to us through Iowa, South Dakota, did the Badlands over there so all your IAT kind of routes and snuck in a corner of Wyoming to 67 00:05:48,390 --> 00:05:52,933 just say we'd been there and show what a charging desert it was in the north. 68 00:05:53,023 --> 00:06:05,570 northeast corner I guess, then headed through, I get this right, Montana, this tiny sliver of Idaho which I guess is panhandle goes north and then into Washington state but we came 69 00:06:05,570 --> 00:06:13,504 back or I came back because my wife kind of bailed out in South Dakota she'd had enough but she also had to be back for an event in Pennsylvania. 70 00:06:13,925 --> 00:06:19,743 I came back through your neck of the woods which apologies again for not giving you a hug, didn't realize you were so close. 71 00:06:19,743 --> 00:06:20,534 I just moved. 72 00:06:20,534 --> 00:06:21,286 So I know. 73 00:06:21,286 --> 00:06:21,737 Yeah. 74 00:06:21,737 --> 00:06:23,960 I figured you're no worries at all. 75 00:06:24,153 --> 00:06:29,893 kind of Northern Oregon, I guess, with the Columbia River Gorge, as you're familiar with. 76 00:06:29,893 --> 00:06:40,613 Then back through the main bit of Idaho, so through Boise, down through Utah, Colorado, and then again, more familiar stomping grounds because I used to live in Colorado for a 77 00:06:40,613 --> 00:06:41,073 little bit. 78 00:06:41,073 --> 00:06:44,293 We've done that Kansas, Missouri kind of route. 79 00:06:44,293 --> 00:06:51,993 So yeah, 23 states, of IAT, I -90, cross -country routes for the most part, I -70 a little bit as well. 80 00:06:54,399 --> 00:07:00,452 Yeah, I'm sure just coming back from all of that, but I, I'm curious. 81 00:07:00,452 --> 00:07:10,548 were there any kind of rules or it, cause it sounds like this was more of a leisurely trip, but where were you trying to do just DC fast charging or were you like looking for 82 00:07:10,548 --> 00:07:19,753 hotels, especially that you would stay overnight at to use level two or any sorts of hacks or kind of tips to how you're doing this cross country trip, or you were just kind of 83 00:07:19,753 --> 00:07:22,464 focused on speed or enjoyment. 84 00:07:22,464 --> 00:07:24,005 sounds more like enjoyment. 85 00:07:24,011 --> 00:07:32,557 On the way across it was enjoyment, I was with my wife and we took lot of time out to, we did some kind of boondocking camping but we're not hardcore campers, we did maybe three 86 00:07:32,557 --> 00:07:42,213 days maximum, we had a hotel break so you know we had a chance to get a nice warm shower and do our laundry in actually a wonderful place that I'd highly recommend to folks called 87 00:07:42,213 --> 00:07:53,321 I think it was the Bavarian Inn in Custer, South Dakota, lots of really nice facilities, EV charging, Tesla, J1772, all the kind of mod cons for EV drivers. 88 00:07:53,377 --> 00:08:03,317 was a highlight but actually I really didn't practice what I preach on this not through want of trying but there is we've started to identify on coast to coast EVs there is a bit 89 00:08:03,317 --> 00:08:16,257 of a lack of you know accessible hotel charging I stayed I've about eight of the 16 days camping a couple of the days were at home or with family and then the five hotel nights 90 00:08:16,257 --> 00:08:22,269 only one of them had EV charging that was the one that I mentioned the Bavarian Inn 91 00:08:22,269 --> 00:08:25,310 I'm not through really, you know, lack of trying. 92 00:08:25,310 --> 00:08:27,091 did look at the places we were going to stop. 93 00:08:27,091 --> 00:08:29,533 planned at least two more of those hotel nights. 94 00:08:29,533 --> 00:08:33,204 couple of them were just winging it, you know, so kind of took it where I could. 95 00:08:33,204 --> 00:08:41,969 But instead of getting the level two charging, because it just wasn't really out there in the places we visited, I had to kind of fall back on the other side of things where you 96 00:08:41,969 --> 00:08:43,649 get near to a fast charger, right? 97 00:08:43,649 --> 00:08:47,361 So you arrive with whatever state of charge and then either 98 00:08:47,361 --> 00:08:54,061 or there later in the night, or more likely as I did in the morning grab breakfast for my wife and charge at the same time. 99 00:08:54,061 --> 00:08:55,281 So I mean, that works okay. 100 00:08:55,281 --> 00:09:04,921 But I did realize, you know, over the 60 or so fast charging sessions we have, we could have cut out four or five of those by just, you know, being able to find a hotel to have a 101 00:09:04,921 --> 00:09:05,761 level two. 102 00:09:05,761 --> 00:09:08,111 And it's just not really that common. 103 00:09:08,111 --> 00:09:10,777 Or if it's, you know, if it's there, it's in a 104 00:09:11,265 --> 00:09:17,805 a place where you know it's going to be iced if you're doing this in the city quite often, you know, that it just looks more trouble than it's worth and you don't want to plan your 105 00:09:17,805 --> 00:09:27,085 charging around a place that is almost certainly going to be a hassle, especially when you're arriving in as we did at, you know, 11, 11 .30 PM and just want to hit the sack. 106 00:09:27,637 --> 00:09:28,387 Fair. 107 00:09:28,387 --> 00:09:30,319 I guess that brings up a couple of other questions. 108 00:09:30,319 --> 00:09:38,304 So you mentioned you camped a couple of nights where these, was this kind of more like dispersed camping or any of these like official campgrounds where you could actually like 109 00:09:38,304 --> 00:09:40,093 plug into an RV plugin. 110 00:09:40,093 --> 00:09:44,094 a good mix actually that one of the best ones was Ledges State Park. 111 00:09:44,094 --> 00:09:48,225 I tend to find the state parks and the ones that are in a run that way have electric hookups. 112 00:09:48,225 --> 00:09:51,736 So we've done that a couple of times over the years. 113 00:09:51,736 --> 00:09:56,037 So the place in Iowa Ledges State Park was definitely a good one for plugging in. 114 00:09:56,998 --> 00:10:01,959 Minor plug, but we use the J plus, so guess J2 booster. 115 00:10:01,959 --> 00:10:08,901 It's kind of got all the adapters, you know, on the end, you can take the pigtails off and use it for the TT30 camping adapters and 116 00:10:08,929 --> 00:10:17,289 we've used NEMA 1450, but there's a bunch that you can use with a nice little product to kind of be able to adapt to whatever campsite has. 117 00:10:17,349 --> 00:10:21,989 But a lot of them were either the dispersed camping or just places that had the RV. 118 00:10:21,989 --> 00:10:27,769 A lot of these are in RV places where you can get that slot, but you don't necessarily want to be with the RVs. 119 00:10:27,769 --> 00:10:33,619 know, the kind of tents and this small car in between all the massive rigs doesn't always work that way. 120 00:10:33,619 --> 00:10:38,769 So a lot of it was actually, you know, just kind of regular campsites without the electric hookup. 121 00:10:39,041 --> 00:10:49,621 just enjoying really actually then the power kind of reverses because you're using the cars the onyc 5 as the V2L feature and we took a portable power bank so we were able to 122 00:10:49,621 --> 00:10:58,461 kind of just you know make breakfast use the cars features was either using the car to kind of power the battery and then the battery goes around the campsite wherever it's some 123 00:10:58,461 --> 00:11:07,137 you know most needed to kind of cook or power devices or in some cases just using right out the car to to plug into the the various kind of 124 00:11:07,137 --> 00:11:11,756 induction hob or know the kettle for a nice morning cup of tea. 125 00:11:11,977 --> 00:11:16,997 But yeah, it was it was a lot of camping but not really a whole lot of opportunity to charge. 126 00:11:16,997 --> 00:11:22,657 again, that was planning in the fast charge before you stop so that you're at 80%. 127 00:11:22,657 --> 00:11:34,037 And then typically we don't really use more than 10 to 20 % of the battery pack in the ionic five itself, it kind of does enough to to kind of power your devices and get that 128 00:11:34,037 --> 00:11:35,017 cooking done. 129 00:11:35,017 --> 00:11:35,737 But 130 00:11:37,540 --> 00:11:43,953 It's nice to be able to wake up to a full charge, and that happened less than I would have expected it to be able to happen on this trip. 131 00:11:44,679 --> 00:11:53,599 kind of curious because I haven't heard much about it this year, but I remember last year when I was doing a bit of a trip, there were a couple of campsites I was looking at and 132 00:11:53,599 --> 00:12:03,082 It just seemed like I was seeing a lot of things posted online that campsites were, if they did offer like RV charging, they were now trying to either ban or like charge more 133 00:12:03,082 --> 00:12:10,794 specifically for EVs because there were concerns that they use more electricity or would throw the breakers, which I could definitely understand. 134 00:12:10,794 --> 00:12:16,406 have used a friend's, RV charger that they have at their home. 135 00:12:16,856 --> 00:12:20,745 when I've gone there to stay, cause it's in a of a remote area, but 136 00:12:20,745 --> 00:12:24,019 We've had to, and I don't know if you can do, I think you can do this in the onyx. 137 00:12:24,019 --> 00:12:26,311 You can turn down the AC amperage. 138 00:12:26,311 --> 00:12:31,216 And that's what we found is if we just brought it down, it was still more than just plugged into a regular wall outlet. 139 00:12:31,456 --> 00:12:33,028 but then it wouldn't throw the breaker. 140 00:12:33,028 --> 00:12:37,833 And so I'd heard quite a few last year, like campgrounds were sharing pushback on EVs. 141 00:12:37,833 --> 00:12:42,058 And I'm, just kind of curious if you've heard more about that or came across that at all in your trip. 142 00:12:42,058 --> 00:12:43,517 It doesn't sound like it. 143 00:12:43,517 --> 00:12:51,842 No, so mean obviously the only one as I say that we really got to charge out was this one in Ira and I don't think that they've quite reached the level of adoption where people are 144 00:12:51,842 --> 00:13:02,119 constantly plugging in and tripping their breakers but we did hit a couple with the kids last year when we traveled which were more family oriented sites, heavier volume that had 145 00:13:02,119 --> 00:13:04,450 specifically no EV charging from these outlets. 146 00:13:04,450 --> 00:13:08,312 A lot of CoAs or the kind of name brand campsites that you see. 147 00:13:08,683 --> 00:13:13,175 but where they've obviously had a problem in the past, something has kind of triggered them to put up these signs. 148 00:13:13,175 --> 00:13:22,669 And I think some of them are in the process of figuring out how to best add EV charging, whether it's a central point where you can go and park your car, which is, it works okay, 149 00:13:22,669 --> 00:13:24,529 but we did some car camping as well. 150 00:13:24,529 --> 00:13:34,684 So, you know, if the car becomes your tent because it's inclement weather, or you just arrive late and it's more convenient to not set the tent up, then that becomes, you can't 151 00:13:34,684 --> 00:13:38,485 really then drive off and camp by the charger because that's kind of in the middle. 152 00:13:38,545 --> 00:13:42,026 the campsite and defeats the entire point of having your own little berth. 153 00:13:42,387 --> 00:13:50,170 So no nothing specific this time they certainly didn't have any problem at the place in Iowa that we went to but I can see that becoming more more of a thing as you get into 154 00:13:50,170 --> 00:13:55,212 these areas where you know camping and being able to charge your car is quite a bonus. 155 00:13:55,212 --> 00:14:04,146 I can see more and more draw being put on those circuits and as you say as long as your car can dial back that amperage and be a little on the safer side I think you're fine but 156 00:14:04,146 --> 00:14:06,057 there's definitely going to be some people just 157 00:14:06,101 --> 00:14:11,421 plugging it in, hoping it works and maybe waking up in the middle the night with a power outage. 158 00:14:12,757 --> 00:14:18,349 Well, so, okay, so that's really interesting to hear that you did come across that last year, but not on this trip. 159 00:14:18,349 --> 00:14:34,143 And let's talk about then the level two, what in your opinion was, was it just kind of challenges with planning and just the places you were going to find level two charging at 160 00:14:34,143 --> 00:14:34,963 these hotels? 161 00:14:34,963 --> 00:14:40,105 Or were there any reasons in particular you think that these areas were more of a desert than others? 162 00:14:40,403 --> 00:14:49,736 I think in the middle states, you know, as you get to the plains and the kind of high deserts there, it definitely becomes just a lack of hotels in general, there's only so 163 00:14:49,736 --> 00:14:56,837 many of them and then you have, know, then becomes there's not that many with the foresight to put in level two charging. 164 00:14:57,038 --> 00:15:05,420 I think there's certainly more around the routes we've gone in the New York, New England region, but again, they tend to be quite I mean, as Tesla led this, as you know, with the 165 00:15:05,420 --> 00:15:09,201 destination charger program, that tends to be a higher end resorts. 166 00:15:09,789 --> 00:15:13,981 know, B &Bs, guest houses, that kind of thing, which we do from time to time. 167 00:15:13,981 --> 00:15:21,195 But for the majority, if we're going on a longer trip, we'll usually do a mix of camping and mid -level hotels. 168 00:15:21,315 --> 00:15:26,858 So in the East, hasn't been as much of a problem to find that charging, although you do have to book it ahead of time. 169 00:15:27,139 --> 00:15:35,963 But when I was looking on the spot and even in Indiana, which was just like a stop off after dropping off the kids, just an easy way to get a good drive day in and then stop 170 00:15:35,963 --> 00:15:37,284 around Indianapolis. 171 00:15:37,284 --> 00:15:39,225 Just couldn't find anything that was 172 00:15:39,233 --> 00:15:45,793 conveniently placed around that kind of east side of Indy that was a good option to charge. 173 00:15:45,793 --> 00:15:56,393 Again, maybe people weigh in the comments with a million different options that I missed, but I've done this for a few years and most of the settings on Plug Share or Chargeway 174 00:15:56,393 --> 00:15:59,273 figured out and just couldn't find anywhere that was that good of a fit. 175 00:15:59,273 --> 00:16:07,787 And then in the middle of the country, as I say, it just becomes more and more sparse in terms of who offers EV charging unless it's a NEMA 1450 at an RV site. 176 00:16:08,447 --> 00:16:17,342 Yeah, that's kind of interesting because, the road trip I've done in a mentally the furthest East it's been to is Iowa and just barely Iowa. 177 00:16:17,482 --> 00:16:22,445 I was also road tripping to cover distance and not really like to enjoy it. 178 00:16:22,445 --> 00:16:25,537 So I was able to find hotels that I could like strategically. 179 00:16:25,537 --> 00:16:29,269 I was like, okay, at this point I could stay here for the night and they have level two. 180 00:16:29,269 --> 00:16:35,713 It's a high enough plug shares where I don't have to worry about it, but it definitely does seem, a little bit like. 181 00:16:35,827 --> 00:16:46,528 If you're trying to do a trip for enjoyment or a little bit more spontaneously, then yeah, you're more likely than not going to just have to deal with getting up early or before you 182 00:16:46,528 --> 00:16:51,551 go to the hotel and charging with the supercharger or at a DC fast charger, unfortunately. 183 00:16:51,551 --> 00:16:59,826 Yeah, and I mean, I guess there's an opportunity there to we've heard about the deals with, you know, Tesla charging and some of hotel chains. 184 00:16:59,826 --> 00:17:10,071 I certainly have a couple of chains that I know in the Northeast would be, you know, regularly offering charging, but as a nationwide franchise or brand, I don't know of 185 00:17:10,071 --> 00:17:10,471 anybody. 186 00:17:10,471 --> 00:17:14,794 There's not really a go to who I would say that chain I know is going to offer EV charging. 187 00:17:14,794 --> 00:17:19,946 And obviously none of this really takes into account sort of like Airbnbs, vacation rentals by owner. 188 00:17:19,946 --> 00:17:21,289 So maybe there's an entire 189 00:17:21,289 --> 00:17:22,940 wing there that I just didn't look at. 190 00:17:22,940 --> 00:17:28,864 And maybe people can use that as more of a travel hack to have a secondary or tertiary option. 191 00:17:28,864 --> 00:17:35,078 the hotels, which again, it's just easier to roll up, check in, be gone the next morning. 192 00:17:35,318 --> 00:17:36,759 Known quantity kind of thing. 193 00:17:36,759 --> 00:17:39,571 None of them were a known quantity for EV charging or something. 194 00:17:39,571 --> 00:17:42,023 I could say, there's a XYZ brand. 195 00:17:42,023 --> 00:17:46,255 I know there's going to be two or three, you know, level two charges that I can just rely on. 196 00:17:47,061 --> 00:17:47,982 Yeah, that's kind of interesting. 197 00:17:47,982 --> 00:17:55,478 I think it's totally true about it being more coastal because I know I usually will go with Hilton, especially if I'm kind of on coasts. 198 00:17:55,478 --> 00:18:03,755 Just there's a very high likelihood they usually have level two and it's same with Marriott, but I've just usually used Hilton more from personal travel. 199 00:18:03,755 --> 00:18:13,933 so with when you're traveling, you mentioned that when you use has come an adapter, do you have an adapter for the Tesla charger to use with your ionic to charge at these level two 200 00:18:13,933 --> 00:18:14,944 as well? 201 00:18:15,625 --> 00:18:16,000 Yeah. 202 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:28,637 I won't actually had J1772, but I usually travel with the Electron, just, you know, the type of kind of handle easily to throw in the frunk, even though the Ionic 5's frunk is 203 00:18:28,637 --> 00:18:34,540 minuscule, it's big enough to carry a portable charge cord and a few different, you know, adapters. 204 00:18:34,581 --> 00:18:41,664 So do use that, use the Juice J2 booster and try and think what else we had in there. 205 00:18:42,625 --> 00:18:51,985 V12 adapter that's about the size of a regular Tesla adapter so that's in the frunk as well and a 12 volt battery booster just in case. 206 00:18:51,985 --> 00:19:00,985 had one incident last year or thankfully on a relatively local trip where the battery kept dying and we had the 12 volt drain issue but that's all in the past, thankfully haven't 207 00:19:00,985 --> 00:19:02,219 needed it since. 208 00:19:02,443 --> 00:19:03,633 That's good. 209 00:19:03,994 --> 00:19:13,769 I guess like, yeah, just before we get into the fast charging side of stuff, I'm kind of curious, maybe to take a step back when you were doing this trip, was there, you mentioned 210 00:19:13,769 --> 00:19:17,512 you having those charge cables and it sounds like you always have those in your car in the front there. 211 00:19:17,512 --> 00:19:28,538 And I kind of do the same thing, but, I think maybe to people listening who haven't done a big road trip in an EV, is there any kind of planning or specific things you make sure to 212 00:19:28,538 --> 00:19:29,898 pack with you? 213 00:19:30,845 --> 00:19:32,826 How do you go about your road trip? 214 00:19:32,826 --> 00:19:39,530 And cause I'm kind of curious, cause when I know I'm going to do like a couple of thousand mile thing, like I have it, I'm not focused on sometimes fun. 215 00:19:39,530 --> 00:19:42,331 I'm focused on like, okay, I've got the, the tire repair kit. 216 00:19:42,331 --> 00:19:45,153 got this, I got like, just to make sure I get the miles done. 217 00:19:45,153 --> 00:19:51,934 And I'm kind of curious to hear, if that plays into your, or how you approach this road trip and road trips in general. 218 00:19:51,934 --> 00:19:53,314 three years old. 219 00:19:53,314 --> 00:20:03,159 So we've already, you know, we've done this, the hard yards over what was missing in the first year that we building the, the trunk and the trunk. 220 00:20:03,780 --> 00:20:04,360 Not really. 221 00:20:04,360 --> 00:20:07,672 mean, the camp, by virtue of camping, you take a lot of stuff with you. 222 00:20:07,672 --> 00:20:12,545 So we have, you know, a lot of chairs, tents, pillows, comfort stuff. 223 00:20:12,545 --> 00:20:17,878 All of the charges are in the front anyway, now locally as well as going on a cross country trip. 224 00:20:17,878 --> 00:20:20,008 I don't think too much about that. 225 00:20:20,917 --> 00:20:25,689 really I guess just the usual stuff of making sure your tires are inflated. 226 00:20:25,689 --> 00:20:30,041 We definitely need to change the tires now but before they were in pretty good condition. 227 00:20:30,041 --> 00:20:39,025 And the usual checks, know, we do have a local shop here that does a pretty good job of doing the once -over of EVs and independent shop but obviously you can go to your 228 00:20:39,025 --> 00:20:47,268 dealership and just get them to, you know, rotate the tires, make sure you're in good shape before you head off on several thousand miles worth of drip. 229 00:20:47,861 --> 00:20:49,381 No, that's great. 230 00:20:49,982 --> 00:20:52,613 So let's get to the interesting side of stuff. 231 00:20:52,613 --> 00:21:02,627 I think that gets all the headlines anyway, even though this is kind of the example on the time you need DC Fast Charging, which is on that big road trip. 232 00:21:03,688 --> 00:21:16,011 let's start from the beginning and kind of hear what your experience was as the Tickliss trip with using fast chargers and any of the different CPOs in particular that seemed to 233 00:21:16,011 --> 00:21:18,915 give you a good pros and cons. 234 00:21:18,977 --> 00:21:25,117 Yeah, so I mean, I'm kind of biased on this one, because as I say, we were on the Electrify America free charging plan. 235 00:21:25,117 --> 00:21:34,857 This is our last kind of few months of complimentary 30 minute sessions, which the Ionic 5 pretty much gets the charging done within that period. 236 00:21:34,857 --> 00:21:41,627 So we did about 76 % of the sessions on Electrify America, which is just the way it is, you know, that's what we're looking at. 237 00:21:41,627 --> 00:21:43,549 There also are, you know, just 238 00:21:43,549 --> 00:21:51,251 as the nationwide provider, if you look at the maps, they're the only one that truly does the kind of coast to coast routes outside of Tesla superchargers. 239 00:21:51,251 --> 00:22:00,814 So you can probably get across the country on a mix of other CBOs, but they were the ones that we kind of went with for both, you know, financial and just ease of access. 240 00:22:00,934 --> 00:22:08,496 But there were gaps, you know, I tried to make sure just as a channel, I tried to, you know, compare and contrast what the other CBOs are doing, where the presence are of 241 00:22:08,496 --> 00:22:10,176 different providers. 242 00:22:10,176 --> 00:22:12,737 And then obviously you've got regional ones that 243 00:22:12,737 --> 00:22:15,317 I've never even come across until this trip. 244 00:22:15,317 --> 00:22:29,777 So stuff like Francis Energy, 24 seven travel centers in Kansas, just a bunch of the whole Volvo Starbucks partnership that goes down from Seattle to I think Denver, Colorado. 245 00:22:30,017 --> 00:22:32,857 That, you know, that was just one that you don't come across in the West. 246 00:22:32,857 --> 00:22:41,177 You obviously have Chargepoint whose equipment they use, but that was one that kind of constantly popped up again and again when I was on that kind of route from your kind of 247 00:22:41,177 --> 00:22:41,825 region down. 248 00:22:41,825 --> 00:22:44,505 to Denver, where there was always an option. 249 00:22:44,505 --> 00:22:47,915 It wasn't always the fastest option alongside Electrify America. 250 00:22:47,915 --> 00:22:50,805 was maybe a best to 200 kilowatt. 251 00:22:50,805 --> 00:22:59,745 But again, that's not a bad piece of kit if you're looking for a place where you want to just change it up because as the old stereotype goes, Electrify America is full of 252 00:22:59,745 --> 00:23:04,465 Walmart's and it's not an uncommon kind of thing to be at either a Walmart or a gas station. 253 00:23:04,465 --> 00:23:09,965 Starbucks provides kind of an interesting alternative when you're going along that kind of route. 254 00:23:10,539 --> 00:23:15,031 But yeah, it was mostly Electrify America who, for the most part, did pretty good. 255 00:23:15,031 --> 00:23:22,264 It's, you know, there's a lot of new installations across that planes area because they were kind of second, third wave for Electrify America. 256 00:23:22,264 --> 00:23:27,516 A lot of the routes they tried to bridge initially were that I -70 route for the cross country. 257 00:23:27,516 --> 00:23:35,639 And I think it's I -40 for the South, which I didn't cover, but those were their first, you know, where they were throwing in a lot of this equipment, which has initially proven 258 00:23:35,639 --> 00:23:36,250 to be a problem. 259 00:23:36,250 --> 00:23:40,113 You know, you've got some of that older signet hardware and some of the 260 00:23:40,113 --> 00:23:44,835 providers who they're now ripping out and replacing with the latest generation hardware. 261 00:23:44,835 --> 00:23:47,126 Whereas in the plans, this is just they weren't covered. 262 00:23:47,126 --> 00:23:52,988 So they just learned the lessons elsewhere and implanted their newer hardware into those locations. 263 00:23:52,988 --> 00:24:03,063 So some of these were six store Luxury Americas, which for them is a step up of, know, over the previous three or four stall installations, new hardware, a lot of these places 264 00:24:03,063 --> 00:24:05,374 had pull through stalls, which was valuable. 265 00:24:05,374 --> 00:24:08,585 You start to see a lot of people towing as you hit that kind of 266 00:24:08,607 --> 00:24:16,540 middle of the country, Wisconsin, Great Lakes kind of area into Iowa and the plains where people are going to the national parks, they're towing their big rigs. 267 00:24:16,540 --> 00:24:24,605 And not that I saw any cyber trucks or F -150 lightnings in that particular area, but if they were using that, they would have had pull through stalls. 268 00:24:25,146 --> 00:24:36,602 So a lot of EA Chargepoint was second, although that's more just ubiquity of, you know, Chargepoint as a model is pretty much going into a lot of towns and government sites, a 269 00:24:36,602 --> 00:24:38,783 lot of dealerships, that kind of thing. 270 00:24:38,837 --> 00:24:50,042 A couple of pilot flying J's, kind of disappear in the middle of the country, certainly in the north part, and then reappear in the kind of Idaho, Washington area. 271 00:24:51,182 --> 00:24:55,314 And yeah, just some regional providers as well, Francis Energy did actually quite well. 272 00:24:55,314 --> 00:25:03,618 I've heard horror stories of them from some of the older installations and folks like Jacob Espinosa down in New Mexico, they have a lot of Francis Energy down there and he's 273 00:25:03,618 --> 00:25:06,429 just constantly complaining about their older kit. 274 00:25:07,029 --> 00:25:13,511 You know, it was interesting to see as I hit all these Electrify Americas and looked at PlugShare, what other options were out there. 275 00:25:13,511 --> 00:25:23,624 And surprisingly, other than the middle states where there's just a lack of fast charging, there were some really interesting options for most of the journey, whether it was the 276 00:25:23,624 --> 00:25:26,835 Starbucks -Volvo kind of partnership with Chargepoint. 277 00:25:26,835 --> 00:25:32,717 Circle K had a presence a lot in Illinois, kind of the middle of the country, then back in Washington. 278 00:25:34,112 --> 00:25:39,372 Thank you all, Rivianne, who, you were just waiting and watching for them to open up the network. 279 00:25:39,372 --> 00:25:43,492 I wasn't even really looking for them, just kind of stumbled across them a couple of times. 280 00:25:43,492 --> 00:25:53,942 And then occasionally Tesla superchargers, which the Ionic 5 don't really do much, but the Magic Dock locations were in places like Ames, Iowa, you know, Forks, Washington. 281 00:25:53,942 --> 00:25:58,702 So there's some places where they would have been potentially useful if I was needing to charge. 282 00:25:59,925 --> 00:26:00,435 Yeah, that's great. 283 00:26:00,435 --> 00:26:04,887 And I guess one other question would be, what, was like the weather during this trip? 284 00:26:04,887 --> 00:26:15,101 Because I know, when I was coming back through I -90 on the last trip, I was facing just a horrendous headwind and I pretty much had a charge at every station, unfortunately. 285 00:26:15,101 --> 00:26:19,652 But yeah, I'd just be curious to hear if there was anything like that you came across. 286 00:26:20,693 --> 00:26:21,202 Yeah. 287 00:26:21,202 --> 00:26:26,175 was still, you know, we had a heat wave in Boston, this was mostly end of July, early August. 288 00:26:26,175 --> 00:26:30,697 And we had a heat wave throughout the Northeast kind of towards the middle of July. 289 00:26:30,697 --> 00:26:33,519 And that continued just kind of followed us across the country. 290 00:26:33,519 --> 00:26:41,673 So while we were hearing, you know, Ohio and the coast, East Coast being battered by the various hurricanes that were, you know, making their way up the coast, we were just in the 291 00:26:41,673 --> 00:26:43,834 middle of a blazing heat wave. 292 00:26:43,834 --> 00:26:49,249 again, along that Columbia River Gorge, I actually started kind of, you know, Oregon. 293 00:26:49,249 --> 00:26:52,151 Portland, Washington kind of border area. 294 00:26:52,151 --> 00:26:54,652 The temperatures were maybe mid fifties. 295 00:26:54,652 --> 00:27:03,837 It was pretty chilly at that point, but then going up into the kind of desert parts, just, think we, charged in Hermiston, one of the convenience stores there, no shelter. 296 00:27:03,837 --> 00:27:09,791 That was one of the lacking things, not a whole lot of canopies or shelter, but the equipment's just baking in the sun. 297 00:27:09,791 --> 00:27:10,982 It's so hot. 298 00:27:10,982 --> 00:27:13,653 And you do start to get a little thermal throttling at that point. 299 00:27:13,653 --> 00:27:17,585 It wasn't, it wasn't too often, but we definitely felt the, you know, 300 00:27:17,659 --> 00:27:23,175 pumping the air conditioning the entire way because that was just blazing blazing heat for a lot of it. 301 00:27:23,701 --> 00:27:25,902 Yeah, that's something worth talking about. 302 00:27:25,902 --> 00:27:34,956 actually had a friend, as we were kind of mentioned right before this, was texting me this week and I think it was up to Washington and it was decently warm, but yeah, he kept 303 00:27:34,956 --> 00:27:36,757 texting me like, well, it's a rental. 304 00:27:36,757 --> 00:27:38,128 Is this the issue I'm having? 305 00:27:38,128 --> 00:27:38,928 Is it the car? 306 00:27:38,928 --> 00:27:41,189 Is it the, charger? 307 00:27:41,189 --> 00:27:47,792 And it just seemed like, since he was having this consistently at the, he would move chargers. 308 00:27:47,792 --> 00:27:52,144 so it seemed more and more like it was charger specific and probably heat related. 309 00:27:52,374 --> 00:27:53,685 was, was that something you 310 00:27:53,685 --> 00:28:00,193 seeing or was it more maybe a little bit of car a little bit of both or what were some of the challenges you saw around that? 311 00:28:00,193 --> 00:28:04,533 More in terms of energy draw, we don't get that hot over here, it's probably similar for you. 312 00:28:04,533 --> 00:28:16,213 If you're nearer the coast, you know, those coastal regions tend to hit 80s, 90s, and that's boiling hot for us, but in the middle it was getting much closer to 100, 110 in 313 00:28:16,213 --> 00:28:20,093 some places, and that's where it starts to just drag on the AC. 314 00:28:20,093 --> 00:28:28,449 Recurrent does some really good studies of this, again, I think they're in your area, but you don't really hit that heat wall until the mid -90s hitting 100. 315 00:28:28,449 --> 00:28:37,709 but folks in Arizona and Nevada, know, the desert parts of California will definitely be familiar with how much that heat starts to drain because we hear all the time about winter 316 00:28:37,709 --> 00:28:49,329 and using the, you know, heating system really drains the kind of efficiency and range, but it does tend to hit as you get up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit and above. 317 00:28:49,509 --> 00:28:51,349 Charging wise, it wasn't that much of an issue. 318 00:28:51,349 --> 00:28:57,769 We pretty much were in and out of most charging sessions with 20, 25 minutes. 319 00:28:58,593 --> 00:29:04,033 Occasionally it'll throttle back at 70, 80 % mile per by that point you're pretty much done. 320 00:29:04,033 --> 00:29:08,813 More often than not we were waiting, well the car was waiting ready and done. 321 00:29:08,813 --> 00:29:14,253 We were waiting in the store to fill up supplies and go grab dinner, whatever. 322 00:29:14,253 --> 00:29:16,737 The car was ready typically before we were. 323 00:29:18,133 --> 00:29:26,579 No, I've found that to be generally the case, especially when you're traveling with someone else that, and then if you have kids or a dog, it's always everyone else is 324 00:29:26,579 --> 00:29:30,419 waiting on someone else versus the actual car during the trip. 325 00:29:30,419 --> 00:29:33,200 I mean, this is only the tour, you we have two other kids. 326 00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:41,092 So when we travel as a family, it's definitely a lot of the cars just come never, never the crunch point is a little shorter stops for me and my wife. 327 00:29:41,092 --> 00:29:47,324 But we're still, know, when you're camping, you tend to have the next eye on where the campsite is and what you need to prepare an evening. 328 00:29:47,324 --> 00:29:57,749 So unless you're on one of those hotel nights, you need to pick up, you're glad to get to a grocery store because you need to pick up the fresh produce, more ice for the cooler. 329 00:29:57,749 --> 00:30:00,865 just a bunch of stuff that is kind of a daily pick up. 330 00:30:00,865 --> 00:30:06,215 So at least one or two of the stops were valuable just to kind of resupply and get ready for the campsite that night. 331 00:30:07,189 --> 00:30:07,629 That's great. 332 00:30:07,629 --> 00:30:17,539 Now, and it sounds like overall, the biggest struggle you had with your trip was really just the middle of the country, which I don't think is too surprising for most people. 333 00:30:17,720 --> 00:30:24,528 Definitely not impossible, obviously, but that is just where it probably required a little bit more of just being aware of where the chargers were. 334 00:30:24,528 --> 00:30:27,730 And would you say that's pretty accurate? 335 00:30:29,173 --> 00:30:29,578 Yeah. 336 00:30:29,578 --> 00:30:39,391 was much more than even I, you know, I know this stuff inside out after this point, but there's there's really no sticking point to the only place where there was a gap and 337 00:30:39,391 --> 00:30:47,743 slower charging was that Wyoming, Wyoming's becoming pretty, you know, much more roaming and Florida are both the kind of Florida for different reasons, but the kind of, you know, 338 00:30:47,743 --> 00:30:53,665 politically motivated leanings are starting to crunch on some of the EV infrastructure in those states. 339 00:30:53,761 --> 00:30:56,041 federal funding point of view at least. 340 00:30:56,041 --> 00:31:04,481 But Wyoming was the only place where we had to, I used a Stellantis dealership of all things, but they don't really have any EVs, but they had an EV charger. 341 00:31:04,481 --> 00:31:14,121 So the little gap where it was about 220 miles from the EA in Gillette to wherever it was in Montana, Billings, I would guess. 342 00:31:14,121 --> 00:31:20,897 There's a little town called Sheridan, which it must be a small place because it has a four -storey, 150 kilowatt. 343 00:31:20,897 --> 00:31:31,657 V2 Tesla supercharger so you know when you're forced all that it's you know not the the kind of Oasis of EV charging but that was just a regular old charge point CP 250 so we 344 00:31:31,657 --> 00:31:41,477 were sitting there waiting I waited initially for a Volvo XC 40 recharge for about 10 minutes and then got on a 62 and a half kilowatt charger you know that was probably my 345 00:31:41,477 --> 00:31:48,769 longest charge session I would have had it was about 50 minutes but you know that was the only place where there was a charging desert I would say on the way across 346 00:31:48,769 --> 00:31:59,429 And then the way back, was, we definitely hit some kind of some more glitchy older EA stations in the kind of Kansas City, Missouri side. 347 00:31:59,429 --> 00:32:07,459 And that's when I just kind of bailed and went to dealership charging at that point, which actually was another point of the trip that was quite notable. 348 00:32:07,459 --> 00:32:18,549 Ford charge, especially, I would call out for having really good installs, good site design, also stalls, mostly high power stations that maxed out the IONIQ 5. 349 00:32:18,549 --> 00:32:20,460 I just wasn't really expecting it. 350 00:32:20,460 --> 00:32:30,327 As I go out, I'm expecting, you know, maybe a of flat J or Circle K to kind of step in as backup and, know, for charge, certainly in my area, but also across the country really 351 00:32:30,327 --> 00:32:39,183 seems to be doing a really good job of getting in the right equipment and providing places where you know, you're not going to be blocked by dealer inventory or, you know, trying to 352 00:32:39,183 --> 00:32:42,405 weave between the trucks to find space to charge a car. 353 00:32:42,633 --> 00:32:49,068 Well, yeah, that's how that's what I going to ask you is, I mean, I, I haven't used a dealership one since like the early days. 354 00:32:49,068 --> 00:32:52,640 And back then they were much slower and usually just level two or something. 355 00:32:53,521 --> 00:32:59,326 and maybe a couple of chat demos, but in your experience, it sounds like these have been really good lately. 356 00:32:59,326 --> 00:33:06,111 Is that, is there ever the awkward like, I'm showing up in my ionic at a Ford dealership. 357 00:33:06,111 --> 00:33:09,092 It's out of the way or what, what was, 358 00:33:09,769 --> 00:33:13,284 Yeah, just, just share that with us as someone who owns something that's a different brand. 359 00:33:13,284 --> 00:33:14,977 sounds like it's been positive. 360 00:33:14,977 --> 00:33:24,517 Yeah, I mean, again, I would call out Ford for actually installing stuff that can, you know, charge a car quickly and is, you know, multiple stalls with, you know, several 361 00:33:24,517 --> 00:33:28,097 dispensers, but you're paying for the service now. 362 00:33:28,097 --> 00:33:36,557 It used to be a case where you'd maybe certainly remember the bad old days of the Chevy dealerships that are at 25 kilowatts on Bosch units where you're really fighting just, I 363 00:33:36,557 --> 00:33:37,537 mean, it's a free charge. 364 00:33:37,537 --> 00:33:42,057 was the only upside really, because, you know, you're waiting on the dealership for hours. 365 00:33:42,261 --> 00:33:45,132 But no, they were all clear everywhere. 366 00:33:45,132 --> 00:33:50,564 I mean, looked, sent to check them on Plugshare so you have a feel for whether or not it's a friendly place. 367 00:33:50,564 --> 00:34:01,179 But the middle of the country was really good for those kinds of dealerships, were just some of them had squeegees and the usual kind of gas station amenities, bins, that kind of 368 00:34:01,179 --> 00:34:02,029 thing. 369 00:34:02,169 --> 00:34:07,812 So yeah, I mean, was just, as you say, you kind of slip out of the dealership charging. 370 00:34:07,812 --> 00:34:11,157 I kind of dismissed that in the last year or two as a 371 00:34:11,157 --> 00:34:14,358 you know, the old days of charging when you really just had to. 372 00:34:14,978 --> 00:34:24,001 But nowadays, it was not that I would make a beeline for a dealership charge, but some of them have, you know, they're in town centres, they they brought business to their 373 00:34:24,001 --> 00:34:27,201 communities, essentially, because, you know, we were there charging. 374 00:34:27,201 --> 00:34:34,234 And whilst we were doing that, we looked at, you know, local restaurants, grocery stores, just somewhere to walk around and have a shop. 375 00:34:34,234 --> 00:34:36,949 So it was an interesting kind of 376 00:34:36,949 --> 00:34:48,081 juxtaposition with actual charging networks that are trying to facilitate interstate travel and cross -country travel with just local community kind of businesses that have 377 00:34:48,081 --> 00:34:56,219 either hopefully put it in intentionally or had their hand forced by Ford when they were in phase of their modell -y rollout. 378 00:34:56,917 --> 00:34:57,087 Yeah. 379 00:34:57,087 --> 00:35:00,499 So that's a, that actually brings up another interesting question. 380 00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:07,584 when I go on EV road trips, I always a part of it, I really do enjoy, even though usually when I'm doing these long ones, I'm kind of in the zone. 381 00:35:07,584 --> 00:35:16,419 I always have really interesting conversations with people also at chargers or, probably more commonly, I just have people, especially in the middle of the country, I would just 382 00:35:16,419 --> 00:35:17,480 have people walk up to me. 383 00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:23,033 And so like, was that thing electric or have these kinds of not negative, but just 384 00:35:23,197 --> 00:35:29,600 You could say like, these things actually exist or, maybe this is becoming less and less of a thing, but I'm kind of curious. 385 00:35:29,910 --> 00:35:40,025 first, were there any, cause I've had some interesting, not, would say inherently negative, but I have had some interesting experiences lately with dealerships around EVs. 386 00:35:40,025 --> 00:35:49,339 So I'd be curious, if you've had any conversations like that around, EVs at dealerships when you've charged, but then also just this road trip in general. 387 00:35:50,801 --> 00:36:00,866 I, I'm again, I don't really try and charge dealerships before, know, this kind of overlap, you know, I've, I've almost ignored them for the past year or two, other than the 388 00:36:00,866 --> 00:36:03,287 ones locally, which just kind of check out. 389 00:36:03,487 --> 00:36:11,721 I didn't interact with a whole lot of the, the dealership staff per se, the one in Wyoming was a really nice, you know, place. 390 00:36:11,721 --> 00:36:15,653 Just, I mean, I think it's still more of a curiosity that people are stopping with them. 391 00:36:15,777 --> 00:36:19,837 you know, it's again Stellantis just isn't this big EV brand yet. 392 00:36:19,837 --> 00:36:27,757 So they're still on that kind of cusp of seeing EVs, but they were definitely kind of eyeballing, you know, looking at the cars as we went by. 393 00:36:27,757 --> 00:36:32,957 And then the locals, you know, the most common question is how long does it take to charge? 394 00:36:32,957 --> 00:36:34,827 It's just the kind of thing. 395 00:36:34,827 --> 00:36:42,657 And so with the Arnic 5, that's quite a good conversation because I'm usually gone within, you know, 20, 25 minutes and they can kind of see because they've been hanging around for 396 00:36:42,657 --> 00:36:45,473 the same period of time that, you know, that 397 00:36:45,473 --> 00:36:51,873 actually would fit at least how they refuel whether or not it goes far enough for them is another question. 398 00:36:51,873 --> 00:36:59,033 Again, I don't know too many people that can drive 300, 400 miles in a sitting without stopping for some kind of break. 399 00:36:59,353 --> 00:37:09,493 So mostly around recharge times and most of them were at least positive conversations, if not a little bit kind of, you know, just what is it, know, how does it, how do you get 400 00:37:09,493 --> 00:37:11,961 here from Massachusetts, that kind of thing. 401 00:37:12,405 --> 00:37:14,449 Yeah, I wouldn't say I've ever had like a negative thing. 402 00:37:14,449 --> 00:37:18,275 It's usually just kind of general curiosity and like skepticism. 403 00:37:18,577 --> 00:37:20,424 And it's, yeah. 404 00:37:20,424 --> 00:37:21,394 haven't heard too much. 405 00:37:21,394 --> 00:37:31,411 expected a little more actually, you as you leave the kind of, you know, states that you know, love that you got into these areas where, you know, there may be an element of 406 00:37:31,411 --> 00:37:41,938 hostility, but I don't, I don't think although the onyx five is distinctive, it doesn't really scream, EV, it doesn't have a lot of, you know, some Massachusetts EVs have kind of 407 00:37:41,938 --> 00:37:46,031 blank, you know, stuff all over them, and just wasn't the case on this trip. 408 00:37:46,031 --> 00:37:46,731 So 409 00:37:46,731 --> 00:37:55,213 doesn't shout it out but certainly there are people who were intrigued that it could get that far when they had written the stuff off as a city car. 410 00:37:55,831 --> 00:37:56,362 for sure. 411 00:37:56,362 --> 00:37:59,054 I think that you bring up a couple of interesting things there. 412 00:37:59,054 --> 00:38:02,067 One, yeah, I've never had like a negative thing. 413 00:38:02,067 --> 00:38:08,633 It's more like, so it doesn't, it's like more like kind of curiosity and it's like, so it doesn't take hours to charge these things. 414 00:38:08,653 --> 00:38:10,205 And you're like, well, yeah, it does. 415 00:38:10,205 --> 00:38:16,720 If you're plugged into like a level two or an outlet at home, but when you're on a road trip, yeah, you're, you're talking about minutes. 416 00:38:17,101 --> 00:38:21,836 And so that's where it's all, always kind of see like the light bulb go on above people's minds. 417 00:38:21,836 --> 00:38:27,092 Even though they're like, well, they might not be for me, but it's good to know that, or not for me just yet. 418 00:38:27,092 --> 00:38:31,347 Or like I have my dually Ram pickup, it's like, can, it's not like a negative thing. 419 00:38:31,347 --> 00:38:38,569 That's always so funny to see like the online Facebook comments and all that stuff versus the reality I think is like night and day. 420 00:38:38,569 --> 00:38:43,909 critical when they're on their Facebook posts than they are in, you know, it's interesting. 421 00:38:43,909 --> 00:38:54,249 I mean, the whole conversation here, there's an undercurrent of we continue to have the kind of, you know, subsume the benefit of EVs, the home charging or the level two 422 00:38:54,249 --> 00:39:02,471 charging, because you know, as you say, if you're talking about how long it takes to charge for level two charging, you'd have to say 10, 12 hours in some cases. 423 00:39:02,471 --> 00:39:03,792 But that's the advantage of it. 424 00:39:03,792 --> 00:39:09,407 And this is kind of going around the I don't know what you're reading on LinkedIn and your various profiles, but there's a lot of this at the moment. 425 00:39:09,407 --> 00:39:14,311 I think there was a Wall Street Journal article on, know, Americans are missing the point on electric cars. 426 00:39:14,311 --> 00:39:19,735 know, the whole thing here is that you can charge them at home, you have a fueling station in your driveway. 427 00:39:19,735 --> 00:39:27,141 But these conversations at the fast chargers, they almost do a disservice to this because you're talking about how fast it charges. 428 00:39:27,141 --> 00:39:31,553 That's the mindset, especially at a gas station or convenience store is 429 00:39:31,553 --> 00:39:33,393 is how quickly can I get out of there? 430 00:39:33,393 --> 00:39:40,353 Where it's more really, how can you cut out this refilling experience altogether for 90 % of your driving or more? 431 00:39:40,353 --> 00:39:48,733 How can you in your day -to -day life just wake up to a full charge and never think about anything other than plugging in at night and unplugging in the morning? 432 00:39:49,003 --> 00:39:49,343 For sure. 433 00:39:49,343 --> 00:40:00,110 And then I think the kind of other side of that, that I think some of the Evie haters always like to, kind of disregard or it's like, that's, that's different is, and I even 434 00:40:00,110 --> 00:40:05,304 had this conversation the other day with my friend, like he likes to go to Costco because it's cheaper to fill up gas. 435 00:40:05,304 --> 00:40:07,425 And it's really the conversation of. 436 00:40:07,457 --> 00:40:18,757 kind of large metropolis inner city kind of gas stations and yeah, you might be waiting like 20 50 minutes, especially in the summer on the weekdays around kind of people come on 437 00:40:18,757 --> 00:40:29,877 off of work or large holidays and sure that can also Happen at EV charging stops, but I just find so much more frequently That it's like I will roll up to a charger and if 438 00:40:29,877 --> 00:40:34,617 there's a gas station there and it's a busy weekend I'll see like a bunch of people waiting 439 00:40:34,813 --> 00:40:43,938 in line, especially if it's like a Costco to get gas versus just rolling up and plugging it and then going in using the bathroom, whatever going on. 440 00:40:44,199 --> 00:40:54,235 And, I think it's, I think it's totally valid understanding and kind of criticism, but it's also just, you kind have to take a step back and have that critical thinking and have 441 00:40:54,235 --> 00:41:01,921 that like just realistic conversation and also approach a lot of these people, as a person who still drives a gas vehicle occasionally and who 442 00:41:01,921 --> 00:41:06,281 Primarily had driven gas vehicles before they like, yeah, I waited 30 minutes in line to get cheap gas. 443 00:41:06,281 --> 00:41:08,341 I will admit that. 444 00:41:08,841 --> 00:41:13,701 and it happens, but now I don't have to deal with that, especially since most of the time I just charge it home. 445 00:41:14,049 --> 00:41:14,990 Yeah, exactly. 446 00:41:14,990 --> 00:41:23,949 It's hard to get that, the nuances across because there are those various levels of charging, but once you see it and kind of start to realize that that's available, you 447 00:41:23,949 --> 00:41:33,489 know, as long as you have the option at home, it's, you know, that's a lot of people and there's a lot of people who don't necessarily associate it with that benefit. 448 00:41:34,041 --> 00:41:34,552 Totally. 449 00:41:34,552 --> 00:41:43,263 then I can't remember why I read it I haven't been able to find it since, but I remember years ago seeing a stat that like someone had done a measurement and on average in a 450 00:41:43,263 --> 00:41:47,338 year's people spent more time at gas stations than they did charging. 451 00:41:48,065 --> 00:41:57,265 Yeah, well, I've always wanted to kind of put a time -lapse on while I try some of these, you know, EA stations are better than others for this, but there's certain places, State 452 00:41:57,265 --> 00:42:04,805 College in Sheets jumps out of, Sheets in State College, Pennsylvania jumps out of me for some reason, because you get a really clear view of the whole parking lot. 453 00:42:04,805 --> 00:42:13,465 And I just want to put a time -lapse camera on to see like how long these cars stay, because if you look, I'm in and out in 20, 25 minutes, there's definitely people where 454 00:42:13,465 --> 00:42:17,887 I've pulled in and they've been there and they haven't left before I've, you know, headed out. 455 00:42:17,887 --> 00:42:22,890 And that's, you know, it's an overlap with the convenience store becoming a fast food joint as well. 456 00:42:22,890 --> 00:42:26,482 they're much more, you know, grab your peanuts and hit the road again. 457 00:42:26,482 --> 00:42:38,529 But, it's, it's, it's kind of morphing into that where the dwell time of an EV is not necessarily even, you know, longer than or the same as some of these gas stops because 458 00:42:38,529 --> 00:42:45,045 they stopped, they think of a rest area, they stopped, they go into the rest area, they do their bio, they do their 459 00:42:45,045 --> 00:42:53,951 convenience store shop, maybe grab some food that they come out and then they have to do exactly what you say with the active kind of pumping for three, four minutes and paying. 460 00:42:53,951 --> 00:43:01,787 So the gas piece is another five minutes on top instead of just a passive thing that you do while you plug in and go and do all that stuff that you were doing in the rest area 461 00:43:01,787 --> 00:43:02,587 anyway. 462 00:43:03,263 --> 00:43:03,383 Yeah. 463 00:43:03,383 --> 00:43:07,637 And I mean, as something I've brought up on this podcast quite a bit, and I just always talk to people. 464 00:43:07,637 --> 00:43:11,480 was like for a technology to take over and has to, it doesn't have to be just as good. 465 00:43:11,480 --> 00:43:12,840 It has to be better. 466 00:43:13,041 --> 00:43:21,158 And I think with Tesla and obviously with the plug and charge standard, the fact that you can just plug it in and walk away creates a better thing instead of having to deal with 467 00:43:21,158 --> 00:43:21,678 the terminals. 468 00:43:21,678 --> 00:43:28,334 I'm hoping to see more manufacturers offer that and really see that from the, charge point operators. 469 00:43:28,334 --> 00:43:32,497 Cause that, especially in a road trip, that does save and add up to a lot of time. 470 00:43:32,655 --> 00:43:33,509 when you can just run. 471 00:43:33,509 --> 00:43:35,928 Yeah, exactly. 472 00:43:35,928 --> 00:43:44,156 a, have to unplug and replug, then you're into, didn't happen much to me again, there were really very few stall moves, but when it does happen, you're starting to think, all right, 473 00:43:44,156 --> 00:43:48,981 well now people who see this, that becomes a, why would I ever go to that? 474 00:43:48,981 --> 00:43:53,275 Because it looked way harder than plugging in the pump and just, you know, pouring the gas. 475 00:43:53,473 --> 00:43:53,943 for sure. 476 00:43:53,943 --> 00:43:56,144 And I totally agree with that. 477 00:43:56,144 --> 00:44:03,408 But at the same time, it's like, is such a nice thing when you're on road trip and you have to use the bathroom so bad, you can just plug it right in, sprint in without having 478 00:44:03,408 --> 00:44:03,908 to deal with it. 479 00:44:03,908 --> 00:44:07,750 But I think like, once again, using a gas thing, still have to plug it in, paint, swipe the car. 480 00:44:07,750 --> 00:44:11,041 I just love that. 481 00:44:11,641 --> 00:44:18,959 just, it's a separate activity almost, you know, you get the gap, there's a discrete kind of errand at that point, if you have to do it one way or another. 482 00:44:19,657 --> 00:44:19,937 Right. 483 00:44:19,937 --> 00:44:24,449 And I mean, I've even rolled up to gas stations and then yeah, a gas pump or something's out. 484 00:44:24,449 --> 00:44:31,422 And so I have to move it, but it's, it's not the same thing that like, it stands in your mind as much as when it's a charging station. 485 00:44:31,422 --> 00:44:37,945 And I think just the reality versus the, perception is still a challenge in that realm. 486 00:44:37,945 --> 00:44:46,849 I'm hoping I'm starting to see that change, but I think that's where still a long ways is to be, is to go around trying to, 487 00:44:47,755 --> 00:44:54,039 Position that I think that's even something I've seen a lot of the dealerships around EV struggle with is how to 488 00:44:54,301 --> 00:45:01,544 not talk about some of those, things that they hear on the news themselves and repeat to people who are even looking at an EV. 489 00:45:01,544 --> 00:45:10,158 But I think let's, let's talk about another topic that you would kind of mention, especially once you're in the Seattle area, some interesting things that you had kind of 490 00:45:10,158 --> 00:45:11,389 ran into. 491 00:45:11,389 --> 00:45:20,463 And it was even meeting with one of a guest of this or a listener of this show and your show as well, that you kind of came across some of issues in Seattle. 492 00:45:20,463 --> 00:45:24,195 And just since we're kind of already on the topic of, city 493 00:45:24,195 --> 00:45:28,405 charging versus kind of interstate charging. 494 00:45:28,405 --> 00:45:37,453 Yeah, so it's worth pointing out, like, I don't know when this will go out, but I think we have you scheduled for September 11th, not a great date, but you know, it's memorable at 495 00:45:37,453 --> 00:45:38,174 least. 496 00:45:38,174 --> 00:45:45,950 For that one, where we'll be on Coast2CoastTV is talking about Charger vandalism, which unfortunately seems to be limited very much to your area. 497 00:45:45,950 --> 00:45:50,234 Like I haven't really seen it around Boston, although we're sometimes a little island away from stuff. 498 00:45:50,234 --> 00:45:56,203 thought maybe, you know, New York City or kind of Philly, Pittsburgh would have this kind of... 499 00:45:56,203 --> 00:46:03,875 challenge, the only place I've seen it was, know, a fellow viewer, Anthony, giving me a courtesy of tour around Seattle. 500 00:46:03,875 --> 00:46:09,797 And I think the similar kind of things down into Portland and maybe into parts of California from what I'm reading. 501 00:46:09,977 --> 00:46:12,177 But it was, you know, just clipped chords. 502 00:46:12,177 --> 00:46:13,599 And this is, know, across the board. 503 00:46:13,599 --> 00:46:18,350 They're not, this isn't one network or any one place so you can kind of easily filter them out. 504 00:46:18,350 --> 00:46:21,621 You know, every site, EB goes in. 505 00:46:21,965 --> 00:46:31,733 underground parking lots, know, where you'd think that's just a really awkward place to go and try and commit a crime with, you know, being on a closed circuit camera. 506 00:46:31,974 --> 00:46:36,919 It was actually the first thing I noticed charging in Washington state with Electrify America. 507 00:46:36,919 --> 00:46:46,717 They'd put those kind of famous, you know, the thieves that had the Prius and they've got them on, you know, the camera, closed circuit camera, and now they're broadcasting their 508 00:46:46,717 --> 00:46:48,629 pictures all over the internet across 509 00:46:48,629 --> 00:46:58,257 they put them on the charger screen saying, have you seen these people, know, these are committing the cord cutting crimes and taking away the ability to charge our locations. 510 00:46:58,257 --> 00:46:59,758 But it wasn't, you know, it was everything. 511 00:46:59,758 --> 00:47:06,324 And even a pre -opening Tesla supercharger, which was V4 post, really great looking site. 512 00:47:06,324 --> 00:47:08,706 It's like, it's going to be a real boon of the community. 513 00:47:08,706 --> 00:47:11,828 Had half its cords clipped when we were there. 514 00:47:11,828 --> 00:47:17,961 And then I think, you know, a couple of people have posted since that the entire thing has been, you know, gutted and it's just. 515 00:47:17,961 --> 00:47:23,933 it seems to be a really localized problem to the kind of part of the West Coast and in certain cities. 516 00:47:23,933 --> 00:47:30,025 It was just heartbreaking to see really because city charging is already a bit of a pain. 517 00:47:30,025 --> 00:47:41,289 It's definitely that's a common theme across the country is you're starting to bump up against ride chair drivers, more apartment, renters, kind of thing, tenants, and everybody 518 00:47:41,289 --> 00:47:43,129 who's maybe. 519 00:47:43,241 --> 00:47:49,947 returning vehicles for rental EVs, everything kind of collides in these city locations. 520 00:47:49,947 --> 00:47:57,193 know, general takeaway is just try and charge either side of a city or somewhere where you know that it's not going to be running into that. 521 00:47:57,193 --> 00:48:05,319 But this just compounds that problem, you know, because they're saying some of these sites, as soon as they replace them, they're clipped within a few days. 522 00:48:05,319 --> 00:48:07,603 you know, it's a 523 00:48:07,603 --> 00:48:15,136 epidemic at this point in these places and it really is impacting local EV ownership because if you see that constantly and they're actually not going to start repairing them 524 00:48:15,136 --> 00:48:27,251 because it's just throwing you know good money after bad it's it starts to become a real potential detractor to EV ownership in those locations. 525 00:48:28,159 --> 00:48:28,359 Yeah. 526 00:48:28,359 --> 00:48:35,923 mean, I know it's definitely happened in the Portland area a little bit and kind of sporadically through California, but it really does seem like everything I've heard 527 00:48:35,923 --> 00:48:39,505 anecdotally and seen in the news is the Seattle area, especially. 528 00:48:39,505 --> 00:48:41,586 It just seems to be really bad for that. 529 00:48:41,586 --> 00:48:42,256 And. 530 00:48:42,303 --> 00:48:51,516 Yeah, I know, you know, people, mean, people throughout the politics, obviously, and, you know, say, blue cities, but it's, I mean, it really isn't hitting the Chicago is the East 531 00:48:51,516 --> 00:48:52,816 Coast. 532 00:48:52,816 --> 00:48:54,696 It's just, it's hard. 533 00:48:54,696 --> 00:48:55,367 hope it doesn't. 534 00:48:55,367 --> 00:48:58,498 I hope it's not, you know, just starting there and kind of going to spread. 535 00:48:58,498 --> 00:49:02,789 There's obviously there needs to be some kind of thought around the solution. 536 00:49:02,789 --> 00:49:10,541 Maybe we'll have more time to think about in other ways with these kind of things can be combated before we talk again on that September 11th episode. 537 00:49:10,541 --> 00:49:11,281 But 538 00:49:11,615 --> 00:49:15,638 Yeah, it was an eye -opener because I hadn't really, you know, considered it. 539 00:49:15,638 --> 00:49:23,618 I mean, obviously I'd heard the reports and you kind of place it in a, well, that's just maybe an isolated site that's getting blasted a few times, but he took me to probably five 540 00:49:23,618 --> 00:49:30,705 or six sites and across the board as let EV go Electrify America, all of them just, you know, uniformly kind of hit. 541 00:49:31,551 --> 00:49:31,811 Yeah. 542 00:49:31,811 --> 00:49:42,339 And I do know just coincidentally, it does seem like there has been, trying to not make it political, definitely a lapse in smaller thefts and crimes. 543 00:49:42,339 --> 00:49:50,476 And honestly, with only within the last few months, has there been kind of a change in actually like persecuting and kind of like falling through with a lot of those, criminal 544 00:49:50,476 --> 00:49:51,456 punishments and stuff. 545 00:49:51,456 --> 00:49:56,960 So hopefully that will, continue, especially with this kind of vandalism. 546 00:49:57,503 --> 00:49:59,456 to kind of minimize that. 547 00:49:59,456 --> 00:50:01,869 But yeah, I mean, it's a fact. 548 00:50:01,869 --> 00:50:02,760 It's not one of those things. 549 00:50:02,760 --> 00:50:08,788 I think it is something like, yeah, it's unfortunate, but it is happening and something that I think does need to, I think it's a short -term issue. 550 00:50:08,788 --> 00:50:13,444 think there's been talk of ways that you can maybe engineer them better to make them harder to steal. 551 00:50:13,444 --> 00:50:14,816 But I think if... 552 00:50:15,423 --> 00:50:24,444 there's more of a punishment or like at least follow through for finding people who do this, then it kind of prevents the added costs and the actual like time having to over 553 00:50:24,444 --> 00:50:27,346 construct something and just, it doesn't happen. 554 00:50:27,628 --> 00:50:28,359 So, 555 00:50:28,359 --> 00:50:39,329 mean, it's also the juxtaposition of the payoff, which, you know, from what people have said is, you know, $30 to $40 worth of copper at some of these sites for the replacement 556 00:50:39,329 --> 00:50:44,629 costs of not just the parts, but the technician visit is thousands of dollars. 557 00:50:44,629 --> 00:50:53,949 if that's happening, you know, as you say, multiple times in a month, there's only so many times you're going to do that before the CPR just says, that's not, we're going to wait 558 00:50:53,949 --> 00:50:57,595 till someone else, you know, beefs up security or fixes the... 559 00:50:57,595 --> 00:51:03,313 problem they've got at the site rather than them just being the kind of cash cow for it. 560 00:51:03,435 --> 00:51:03,835 For sure. 561 00:51:03,835 --> 00:51:06,127 No, I completely agree with that. 562 00:51:07,228 --> 00:51:20,189 So let's swing to a more positive now with the trip back and looking out throughout the whole trip, I guess, what was your takeaway and what were the things like you would like 563 00:51:20,189 --> 00:51:21,140 to see? 564 00:51:22,101 --> 00:51:25,334 Maybe you can share some of the things that maybe surprise you positively. 565 00:51:25,825 --> 00:51:27,316 but then like, what were your takeaways? 566 00:51:27,316 --> 00:51:34,274 Like, Hey, more canopies or some of the things that you're just take away is like this would make the UV driving experience a lot. 567 00:51:34,274 --> 00:51:37,907 It's not a huge change, but it would make it much better. 568 00:51:37,953 --> 00:51:43,553 Well, I mean, the very fact that we're talking about it being incremental changes, small things is positive, right? 569 00:51:43,553 --> 00:51:51,533 Because we've been hearing 18, 24 months that the charging networks are a disaster outside of the superchargers and you just can't travel. 570 00:51:51,533 --> 00:51:57,173 I mean, it was remarkably uneventful for, you know, the vast majority of my trip. 571 00:51:57,233 --> 00:52:04,373 Sometimes there's gaps, sometimes there's, you know, optimal placement, but that's just really a factor of, you know, we were still building out networks. 572 00:52:04,373 --> 00:52:07,133 So that was a positive takeaway in itself. 573 00:52:07,805 --> 00:52:10,957 There's obviously things that you would want to improve. 574 00:52:10,957 --> 00:52:14,209 mean, know, canopies and shelters are certainly valuable. 575 00:52:14,209 --> 00:52:20,732 I think in the desert, that's more just hot areas just to protect the equipment so that we don't have those reliability issues again. 576 00:52:20,732 --> 00:52:31,058 Because again, I think a lot of the positive experience that I had coincided with routes that Electrify America has either installed brand new equipment or just renovated the old 577 00:52:31,058 --> 00:52:31,958 stuff. 578 00:52:32,139 --> 00:52:33,829 So I think you want to protect that hardware. 579 00:52:33,829 --> 00:52:36,885 You know, there's only so much life it's going to have in it and you don't want that. 580 00:52:36,885 --> 00:52:42,069 dying two or three years earlier and having the same problems we've seen over the last year or so. 581 00:52:43,811 --> 00:52:51,778 On the positive side, know, I'd really like to see those down in Moab, just outside of Arches National Park, which is well worth a visit, you know, for anyone who's going down 582 00:52:51,778 --> 00:52:52,498 there. 583 00:52:52,498 --> 00:53:02,206 There's recently been activated in Electrify America site with Rocky Mountain Power, so they have that commercial kind of agreement where the utility sets the pricing and the 584 00:53:02,206 --> 00:53:05,589 location, but the Electrify America is on the back end. 585 00:53:05,757 --> 00:53:08,348 That's right next to the entrance to the National Park. 586 00:53:08,348 --> 00:53:09,659 think there's a few of these. 587 00:53:09,659 --> 00:53:13,040 Electrify America has one near the Grand Canyon as well. 588 00:53:13,040 --> 00:53:20,033 think Rivian is opening one of those charging outposts near to Yosemite, I want to say. 589 00:53:20,033 --> 00:53:30,077 So you're starting to see some of these more adventurous brands or the utilities that serve the National Park areas, putting and charging right where the entrance to the parks 590 00:53:30,077 --> 00:53:30,307 are. 591 00:53:30,307 --> 00:53:31,628 That was really nice. 592 00:53:31,628 --> 00:53:35,209 It takes out all the thoughts of, because the National Parks are... 593 00:53:35,209 --> 00:53:37,513 Some of them are really prone to driving. 594 00:53:37,513 --> 00:53:40,217 You really have to cover a lot of miles to get in and out of them. 595 00:53:40,217 --> 00:53:46,835 Not so much Arches, but Olympic, which I hit in Washington, was big and didn't really cover nearly enough of it. 596 00:53:46,835 --> 00:53:47,165 Yeah. 597 00:53:47,165 --> 00:53:55,663 And I mean, in Oregon, it's funny you mentioned that, the big ones, crater Lake actually here because it is kind of removed and it requires you to go over a mountain pass, 598 00:53:55,663 --> 00:53:57,225 especially if you're coming from my five. 599 00:53:57,225 --> 00:54:02,160 so for anyone that wanted to go up and then it's a decent drive up in elevation. 600 00:54:02,160 --> 00:54:07,925 So to go up there and then to get back for a long time until really just a, maybe not even a month ago. 601 00:54:08,505 --> 00:54:20,484 Finally, there was a new V4 pull -through supercharger that opened, I guess V3 plus, whatever you want to call it, but at least made it open to more people, not just Teslas, 602 00:54:20,484 --> 00:54:23,106 to really make that kind of experience a lot greater. 603 00:54:23,106 --> 00:54:24,237 And I'm all for that. 604 00:54:24,237 --> 00:54:30,641 think the National Park partnerships that Rivian and others have done, I would love to see much more of that. 605 00:54:30,997 --> 00:54:36,629 Yeah, I'm probably, mean, both would probably be the answer, but you can also mix in level two there. 606 00:54:36,629 --> 00:54:44,971 know, Crescent, I think it was in the center of Olympic has a lodge there with a lot of hiking trails off it and level two, complimentary level two. 607 00:54:44,971 --> 00:54:54,554 So I plugged in there for about two and a half hours, got enough, you know, charge so I didn't have to fast charge on the kind of forks, know, outer roads where the Rivian and 608 00:54:54,554 --> 00:54:56,665 Tesla charges are. 609 00:54:56,665 --> 00:54:58,593 So you can, as long as you're, you know, 610 00:54:58,593 --> 00:55:05,013 your stay is not just drive drive drive as long as you're going to do something in that national park which I hope most people want to do. 611 00:55:05,013 --> 00:55:11,973 Level 2 can play that role as well if it's at the visitor centers, it's at the hiking trailheads, that kind of thing. 612 00:55:11,973 --> 00:55:13,673 That can be really valuable. 613 00:55:13,673 --> 00:55:22,393 I think you probably need both because some people need the long stay, some people just literally want to drive it and head out again so fast charging it. 614 00:55:22,570 --> 00:55:24,372 yeah, no, I completely agree with that. 615 00:55:24,372 --> 00:55:33,039 think, I think it is definitely a both thing because, yeah, there are obviously, and I think it'd be great to see more people go hiking and stuff, but there are a lot of great 616 00:55:33,039 --> 00:55:38,794 like Zion and others that do have hikes that you can do there, but also great parts of that you drive through. 617 00:55:40,077 --> 00:55:47,841 that I think it's just good to see more people in general, especially if they're driving electric, visit national parks, have appreciation for nature. 618 00:55:48,182 --> 00:55:53,065 And, I mean, another great example would be the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. 619 00:55:53,065 --> 00:55:58,009 which is phenomenal and highly recommend anyone that can go out there. 620 00:55:58,009 --> 00:56:07,248 But it is so essentially you have to be kind of coming through Northern Arizona to hit it because it is so remote and out of the way, but it's such a different and awesome 621 00:56:07,248 --> 00:56:08,199 experience. 622 00:56:08,199 --> 00:56:18,968 And that would be a great one to have level two add because yeah, we drove back when we did that a few years ago in our outback and we drove for hours. 623 00:56:19,815 --> 00:56:24,170 least a couple hours before we even got to Flagstaff and through a good portion of that there weren't even gas stations. 624 00:56:24,170 --> 00:56:25,811 It's just that remote. 625 00:56:25,912 --> 00:56:30,157 And that's, think, what makes some of the best national parks or some of these monuments and stuff. 626 00:56:30,157 --> 00:56:34,842 And so I think at the very least level two is required. 627 00:56:34,943 --> 00:56:37,525 But I think a lot of the time it's a bit of both. 628 00:56:38,961 --> 00:56:41,452 And you can appreciate electric vehicles. 629 00:56:41,452 --> 00:56:50,785 I most appreciated them around the Badlands and kind of South Dakota because Sturgis is happening this month and it was just wall to wall, Harley's and with all due respect, I 630 00:56:50,785 --> 00:56:53,716 think that's probably one of the last things that should be electrified. 631 00:56:53,716 --> 00:57:03,349 But when you're in the middle of a national park and the kind of striking local scenery is there and trying to enjoy that. 632 00:57:03,849 --> 00:57:05,813 roaring thunder wave comes through. 633 00:57:05,813 --> 00:57:09,531 It's a little bit more jarring than it would be on the interstate. 634 00:57:10,043 --> 00:57:12,274 I completely agree with you on that too. 635 00:57:12,695 --> 00:57:20,040 Well, I realize we've kind of come up to the end of our time today, but I really appreciate you coming on Steve and sharing this. 636 00:57:20,040 --> 00:57:29,747 I guess to finally wrap up, is there any data, I know you shared a little bit at the beginning, but any data just to kind of in conclusion to share around the whole trip as 637 00:57:29,747 --> 00:57:33,109 far as miles and total chargers visited and stuff like that? 638 00:57:33,197 --> 00:57:34,847 so it's all headline figures at the moment. 639 00:57:34,847 --> 00:57:40,077 did give me a service and forced me to kind of wrap the numbers as quickly as I could. 640 00:57:40,077 --> 00:57:46,747 So I hit 8 ,518 miles over the course of, I think it was 16 drive days. 641 00:57:46,747 --> 00:57:56,047 Now some of that's a little bit of bloat in terms of driving around the parks and not pure coast to coast, but solid kind of big trip, obviously. 642 00:57:56,047 --> 00:57:59,265 23 states, I think I said. 643 00:57:59,265 --> 00:58:08,845 61 fast charging sessions, some of that's doubled up and there's videos to come on this because it's you know, it's there's a lot of main videos for the road trip and then 644 00:58:08,845 --> 00:58:13,385 there'll be the Starbucks versus Electrify America kind of stuff and stuff like that. 645 00:58:13,385 --> 00:58:17,085 So I did want to hit some other CPOs. 646 00:58:17,085 --> 00:58:26,685 And again, only five level two charges, which was disappointing just you know, it's when you're away for two weeks and you can only charge level two effectively, you know, that 647 00:58:26,685 --> 00:58:27,904 number of times. 648 00:58:27,904 --> 00:58:28,333 Right. 649 00:58:28,333 --> 00:58:35,213 really like to see more hotels and kind of camping opportunities to hit the overnight charge. 650 00:58:35,213 --> 00:58:38,273 And as I say, we hit 2 .9 miles per kilowatt hour. 651 00:58:38,273 --> 00:58:40,933 So it was not the best we've done in the Ionic. 652 00:58:40,933 --> 00:58:47,593 I think we got up to about 3 .5, 3 .6 around some of the flatter areas, all the slower roads. 653 00:58:47,593 --> 00:58:55,113 But then we were 80 miles an hour plus you're down to 2 .3, 2 .4 and it's sapping your range. 654 00:58:55,217 --> 00:58:58,700 was a good interesting mix of driving styles I think. 655 00:58:59,021 --> 00:59:07,108 That's about all I've got in terms of stats you can certainly kind of revisit the channel and getting these videos out as quickly as I can but hopefully I'll be at least one by the 656 00:59:07,108 --> 00:59:08,689 time this goes out. 657 00:59:09,225 --> 00:59:09,415 Yeah. 658 00:59:09,415 --> 00:59:12,230 And I, I'm curious, do you have a rough ballpark? 659 00:59:12,230 --> 00:59:21,104 know electrify America, a lot of it was free, but do you have a rough ballpark for those ones that you did have to pay for what your kind of total trip came to? 660 00:59:21,601 --> 00:59:23,101 We're only in low hundreds. 661 00:59:23,101 --> 00:59:24,661 I haven't totaled it all up yet. 662 00:59:24,661 --> 00:59:34,501 I calculate out using just below 3 ,000 kilowatt hours So if you times that out by what the going rate for fast charging is somewhere between you know, 40 and 50 cents It's well 663 00:59:34,501 --> 00:59:35,541 over a thousand dollars. 664 00:59:35,541 --> 00:59:45,461 So you start to get into gas territory there But again, that's where the kind of level twos come in if you're getting out free or cheap overnight charge Then you find certain, 665 00:59:45,461 --> 00:59:50,889 you know places do have cheaper charging or free charging you can start to really bring those costs down 666 00:59:50,889 --> 01:00:00,674 It's evident from looking at the way the prices are going that road trips in electric vehicles at the moment, unless you're on one of these plans or maybe on like superchargers 667 01:00:00,674 --> 01:00:01,645 tend to be a bit cheaper. 668 01:00:01,645 --> 01:00:04,816 Certainly the Riviera venture network is a little bit cheaper. 669 01:00:04,816 --> 01:00:06,838 They're getting close to parity with gas. 670 01:00:06,838 --> 01:00:09,689 That's not really the strength of selling UVs at the moment. 671 01:00:09,689 --> 01:00:13,831 If you're fast charging a lot, you're going to be paying almost gas prices. 672 01:00:14,145 --> 01:00:22,005 Well, yeah, and there's even level twos I've had to use lately that charge anywhere from like 35 to 40 cents a kilowatt hour, which to me is like, okay, now that's good. 673 01:00:22,145 --> 01:00:24,785 That just annoys me. 674 01:00:25,365 --> 01:00:28,605 I understand they have to make some money, but yeah, that's just kind of give them a sir. 675 01:00:28,605 --> 01:00:30,485 But no, I appreciate you sharing that with them. 676 01:00:30,485 --> 01:00:34,635 That's still impressive for the amount of miles and everywhere you covered with that. 677 01:00:34,635 --> 01:00:36,985 That's really great to see. 678 01:00:37,545 --> 01:00:43,318 I know we'll have links like we did previously to your plug and play YouTube series and also the coast to coast TVs. 679 01:00:43,318 --> 01:00:55,555 I'm excited for the upcoming episode on September 11th, discussing the current state of EV charging and some of the challenges around that, but I'm sure we'll, I'm sure we'll find 680 01:00:55,555 --> 01:00:56,956 some with that crew. 681 01:00:58,357 --> 01:01:05,701 But, is there any other upcoming events or other ways that people can kind of follow you and learn more about what you're working on right now, Steve? 682 01:01:06,049 --> 01:01:08,171 LinkedIn's an increasingly good place. 683 01:01:08,171 --> 01:01:11,794 it's, I can probably send you the link, but it's just Steve Birkett. 684 01:01:11,794 --> 01:01:14,526 I have, a few projects on the way there. 685 01:01:14,526 --> 01:01:24,184 I'm trying to track the pricing of, DC fast charging specifically, as we talked about across the country and create a sample of, you know, the average prices month to month. 686 01:01:24,184 --> 01:01:29,228 also pretty closely following the Neve progress or unfortunately lack thereof this summer. 687 01:01:29,228 --> 01:01:31,110 It's a ground to a real halt. 688 01:01:31,110 --> 01:01:35,293 So, I don't really have much to put in the monthly updates at the moment, but those are the kinds. 689 01:01:35,293 --> 01:01:38,927 of the things that I'm spotlighting and keeping my eye on at the moment. 690 01:01:39,723 --> 01:01:40,204 Well, that's great. 691 01:01:40,204 --> 01:01:45,806 I'll make sure to have links to that in today's show notes for people listening so you can find more and follow Steve there. 692 01:01:45,968 --> 01:01:50,217 With that, Steve, thank you so much for coming on today and we'll have to do this again soon. 693 01:01:50,217 --> 01:01:50,833 Yeah, absolutely. 694 01:01:50,833 --> 01:01:52,055 Appreciate the opportunity to share. 695 01:01:52,055 --> 01:01:52,738 Thanks, Chase. 696 01:01:58,684 --> 01:02:01,844 Thank you for tuning into this episode of grid connections. 697 01:02:01,844 --> 01:02:11,764 We hope you enjoyed our conversation with Steve Birkett from plug and play EV about his epic 8 ,500 mile road trip in an electric vehicle across the U S it's clear that the 698 01:02:11,764 --> 01:02:18,500 future of travel is electric and hearing Steve's firsthand experiences gives us a glimpse into the exciting possibilities that lie ahead. 699 01:02:18,766 --> 01:02:28,247 As a reminder to those listening in the San Francisco Bay area, I will be hosting the Amazon recharge zone and electrify expo in San Francisco this weekend, August 24th and 700 01:02:28,247 --> 01:02:29,188 25th. 701 01:02:29,188 --> 01:02:34,384 If you'll be attending or in the Bay area, I want to meet up to talk about EVs or anything grid related. 702 01:02:34,384 --> 01:02:35,455 Hit me up. 703 01:02:35,455 --> 01:02:40,314 You can either tweet at us or message on any of our social pages. 704 01:02:40,314 --> 01:02:46,396 Leave a comment on the YouTube page for this video or email me at chase at connecting the grid .com. 705 01:02:46,396 --> 01:02:49,827 That's chase at connecting the grid .com. 706 01:02:49,827 --> 01:02:55,109 If you found this episode valuable, we'd love for you to share it with a friend or colleague who might enjoy it as well. 707 01:02:55,109 --> 01:03:03,561 And while you're at it, please take a moment to leave a positive view on our podcast page or feedback helps us continue to grow and deliver content that matters to you until next 708 01:03:03,561 --> 01:03:03,761 week. 709 01:03:03,761 --> 01:03:05,900 This is the grid connections podcast signing off.