Putting Bowie, TX on the EV (PlugShare) Map

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charles

Active member
Joined
Oct 24, 2017
Messages
35
While having a 2006 Ford E150 van at my disposal, I opted to be an EV pioneer and took my 2015 Chevy Spark EV for a 128 mile (one way, 256 mile round trip) journey on the weekend of July 21-22, 2018. Not just under normal circumstances, but in record 112 degree July 2018 Texas heat!

Trip to WF route planning per Google Maps:

My Place, Arlington, TX 76013
4520 Western Center Blvd, Haltom City, TX 76137
19.1 Miles

4520 Western Center Blvd, Haltom City, TX 76137
Pelham Park, 413 Pelham Rd, Bowie, TX 76230
60.7 Miles

Pelham Park, 413 Pelham Rd, Bowie, TX 76230
My Friend's Place, Wichita Falls, TX 76302
48.2 Miles

Upon successful completion of this trip, I have made the following contribution:

Pelham Park, Bowie, TX: https://www.plugshare.com/location/160855

Honorable mention:

Nissan of Wichita Falls: https://www.plugshare.com/location/2240

I now fully understand why the onboard 3.3kW charger of the Chevy Spark EV is indeed a key weakness. Driving 128 miles took 7.5 hours each way (2.5 hour drive, 5 hour charge) but at least I knew it was coming, to plan for it, and picked a nice place to wait on the 5 hour charge. Actually more like 2.25 hours driving and 15 minutes Level 3 DCFC plus 5 hours Level 2 NEMA 14-50 to charge on the outgoing trip due to the Haltom City Level 3 DCFC "range insurance" stop. I was feeling more brave on the return trip.

I bought a Duosida Level 2 NEMA 14-50 charger to enable this trip, and to enable future travel using NEMA 14-50 charging at RV parks to travel where not only Level 3 DCFC but also basic Level 2 J-1772 infrastructure is non-existent. Part of me hopes I never use it again, but it sure beats the factory supplied Level 1 charger as a backup portable charger, easily 3x and perhaps 4x faster.

It was an adventure that ended well. My final leg was Bowie, TX back to Arlington, TX. I really wanted to pull it off without the EVgo stop in Haltom City on the return trip. I managed to pull off 79.78 miles at a rate of 5.5 miles per kW on a not quite fully charged battery with 9 miles to spare leading me to believe that the capacity of my 2015 Chevy Spark EV with about 33k miles is around 16.2kW, in heat averaging 100 degrees no less, using A/C set to 79 with the fan on 2 bars. Never came anywhere close to seeing 80 miles in a single power on to power off trip before in my 10 months of owning and quite enjoying this car. I had to drive at or under the speed limit for the entire trip, but it worked! Woo hoo!
 
In hindsight, elevation matters, and may explain why my return trip was more efficient. The trip involved a cumulative 525' climb going up from Arlington to Bowie, same cumulative 525' descent back down from Bowie to Arlington.

Arlington, TX elevation = 604'

Bowie, TX elevation = 1,129'

Wichita Falls, TX elevation = 948'

Thankfully, US 287 roughly follows the BNSF railroad tracks (I'm into trains) much of the way, so no really steep climbs up or down hills are involved. In some cases I took the "business route" using city streets with lower speed limits and fewer hills more closely following the tracks vs. modern bypass highways with higher speed limits and more hills.
 
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