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Polestar 2 NE American road trip notes +3

11:23 04-Apr-23

This entry relates the experience of my first road trip with the Polestar along the American northeast coast.  I've driven back and forth across both America and Europe in gas cars.  Thus, I am writing from the perspective of a hardcore road tripper who prefers to avoid airline nonsense, and is accustomed to driving high speed back to back tanks of gas with just brief refueling stops.  The three main points for people considering such an excursion are:

1. For populous areas and major highways, it's completely doable.  Just plan ahead and expect charging to increase your minimum travel time by almost 20%.
2. Know your charging companies, and car capabilities.  Polestar's active battery warming really shines here.
   
3. Do NOT expect to save money vs gas cars.

My trip began on a cold early morning with a full charge an initial Chargepoint destination at a mall identified.  Despite no signs, Google maps in the Polestar lead me to the charger easily enough.  However, although everything looked good, I could not get the unit to respond in any way.  A call to Chargepoint wasted perhaps 20 minutes in identifying the unit and eventually confirming that it was not functioning.  The representative appeared to be finding this out for the first time, and could only say that the owner of the charger would be notified.  I've been updating on the goals of Chargepoint and other companies on the private side of this blog in an effort to project the overall situation in the coming years.  However, a public service announcement is in order here:

• Like me, you might be a happy Chargepoint home charger owner, but if you rely on the company for an extended road trip, you are putting your plans and possibly your life in jeopardy.

The Chargepoint recommended the PlugShare app for finding alternate charging, and it does appear to offer the most information, even compared to Google Maps, which is pretty comprehensive.  I had very limited range left, and was fortunate that a bank of Electrify America charging spots was just hundreds of feet away.  Electrify America quickly became my go to preference for charging for the following reasons, in descending order of importance:

• Its installations always had at least four charging spots, which meant I never wound up needing to wait for one.
• EA charges a flat rate for charge provided, as does EVGo.  As expected in my private writing, no Tesla stations that I saw appeared to be available to me, despite news about the company opening up.  I hope the company is denied federal funding until this changes on a broad scale.  Beware, some other providers charge by the minute, often with a slow rate, and some even charge a small initial hookup fee.
• For the sites I visited, at least 150KW was always available, although I never saw the actual rate even get into triple digits.  In practice, the difference in charging time between a 50 and 150 was very significant, whereas the 350 vs 150 was negligible and sometimes even slower.  Which leads to the next point...
• Pay attention to the charging speed!  It can vary significantly, even by moving just one spot over despite the same posted KW.  EA will display a message when the rate is particularly slow, but it only flashes up every 30 seconds or so.
• Unlike Chargepoint, non-working plugs were clearly identified by the screen.
• It was easy to use these chargers without yet another app or signup.  I note that using the chip reader for credit cards was by far the most reliable means of payment, rather than tapping or swiping.
  

Some Polestar-specific notes are in order too.  Bizarrely, Google Maps on my phone and in my car turn up somewhat different results and mileage.  The car was generally more accurate, and of course updates on charge dynamically.  The car will point out when a destination is out of range and give you options for adding charging stops along the way.  However, if you make an unscheduled charging stop, you should cancel your destination and remap to change your next charging stop.  Where the Polestar really managed to shine in contrast to other brands is with its battery warming capabilities.  I often charged in cold conditions and the car actively warming its battery still made for a speedy charge - from 10 to 80% in 20-30 minutes.  Note that charging over 80% is not generally time-efficient because charging rates slow as batteries approach full.  Those ready or a full sleep might alternatively consider RV parks for overnight charging.

Finally, a word on cost and experience...  Charging rates for my trip varied between 37 and 48 cents per KWh on this particular trip with state and provider being the biggest points of variance.  By my math, this averaged out to be a comparable to current gas prices in the northeast, whereas charging at home certainly saves us substantial money.  That's disappointing, but par for the course in America.  It really speaks to the varying business & growth models available to different companies, and my private analysis of investment prospect on CHPT.  Despite the initial scare, and my efficiency-minded approach, I still very much enjoyed my trip.  I had a book and the food I like with me for charging breaks; maybe I'm just getting old, but the trip wound up feeling much more relaxed and safe than ever.  Infrastructure will need to expand to keep pace with EV adoption, but again, that's a matter for the private side of this blog.  I hope many others can benefit from my experience!

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