I took a few days off to drive to Kansas City, Missouri for a baseball game between the Kansas City Quitters and the St. Louis Skeletons. The Skeletons are a new team having formed from an extended circle of friends in St. Louis, just over a year ago, and they emerged from the game victorious over the home team. The Quitters fell behind early but staged a furious comeback in the late innings and came up one run short at the end. I love the diverse player rosters which included women in key positions.
At least for this game the league has an innovative format. The game was paused after the 4th inning for a Punk Rock concert with two local bands. The players got the chance to relax with some dancing and some time to hydrate (It is hot in Kansas City in June). I don’t often listen to Punk Rock but I have great respect for the musicians that played on Saturday. How many times is the venue a baseball diamond facing home plate? Probably not many.
I don’t like to take my Leaf on these long drives. It has an old charging technology and it takes planning to find chargers with CHAdeMO connectors. This trip was necessitated by Hertz cancelling my Tesla rental the day before I was to leave — they said a hail storm had left them short of Teslas to fulfill my contract.
I charge fairly often so that I don’t have to spend too much time at each stop and so I can chew up charge at highway speeds without concern.
Charging was a breeze however as -chargepoint+ chargers were available in Limon, Burlington, Oakley, and Topeka and -chargepoint+ has CCS and CHAdeMO connectors on all of their chargers that I’ve used. There is a sort of CHAdeMO desert in Kansas but in Hays the Walmart has an Electrify America facility with one CHAdeMO connector and in Salina I’ve charged at Casey’s General Store near I-70. That charger was out of service however both ways on this trip but I was able to charge at Marshall Motor Company (a Nissan dealership) in Salina. It is very fast but only available during business hours. After Salina I charged in downtown Topeka (I unplugged an F-150 Lightning that had a full charge since there is only one -chargepoint+ charger there) then proceeded to my hotel in Kansas City.
Charging for the way home was at Wyandotte Plaza in Kansas City, Kansas on a very fast EVGO charger, then Topeka, Salina, Hays, Oakley, Burlington, and Limon.
If you are looking to buy an EV I don’t recommend the Leaf if you plan to go on long drives, charging just adds too much time. I don’t have any experience with the newer EVs with CCS connectors but they potentially charge very quickly if the KW potential at charging infrastructure is a fair indicator.
The Tesla charging network is fantastic and is integrated with their vehicle navigation system so that is my EV of choice for long trips. The navigation system takes you to the Tesla Superchargers and they are all about getting you in, charged, and out. Hopefully Hertz will get their supply in order before I need to rent the next one.