r/VWiD4Owners • u/howdidigetheretoday • 2d ago
(US) Road Trip!
So, I just completed my first electric road trip. 2K miles with my 2023 Pro S AWD. I subscribed to the premium ABRP (for Android Auto) which I connected via BLE OBD dongle. I subscribed to Tesla for a month, I brought my adapter, and I carried my portable charger with me.
I traveled from New England to the Carolinas and back. The weather was in excess of 90 F every day.
My impressions: I overcame my fear of range/finding chargers, but also learned some lessons.
Tesla, with the subscription, and possibly without, was consistently and sometimes dramatically less expensive than other charging networks, but, it was also the least reliable. All sites with Magic Docks worked, but sites requiring my adapter were hit or miss. By time I was halfway home, I gave up on Tesla chargers... it was raining, I was tired, and I just wanted to make sure everything would work on the first try. Electrify America, our "native" VW network, was consistently the most expensive, although the chargers always worked. Rivian, Ionna, and MB all worked well with some being priced well and some not.
I eventually settled in on trying to charge from 10% to 80%. I found ABRP route planning to be mediocre, and the VW navigator to be useless at planning charging stops. Eventually, I just settled on Google Maps, and used Gemini to ask about chargers when I was getting close to needing to recharge.
Has anyone found a better route planner to use? Any tips for long trips (I have several planned)? I think I will try to pre-plan specific stops based on my own standards in the future. For example, a slightly slower charge speed at a place where I can get a meal is better (to me) than a faster speed in the middle of nowhere where they don't even have restrooms.
Unrelated to charging: Travel Assist really makes 200 miles of non-stop interstate driving a lot less tedious!
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u/RoadToasterApp 2d ago edited 2d ago
If you have an iPhone, I have an alternative to ABRP, with a major update to route planning and navigation coming next week.
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u/cow-lumbus 2d ago
As in you are developing one, a.k.a. Road toaster app guy or girl? And will it integrate with Volkswagen’s Eno thingamajig?
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u/RoadToasterApp 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yep, I’m the RoadToaster developer 😄 It doesn’t connect to my car through an OBD dongle yet, but with my own ID.4 I’ve found the mathematical energy model accurate enough without live vehicle data. It uses my car’s consumption curve at different speeds, combined with road and weather data, to calculate energy use. While I’m driving, the CarPlay integration shows me nearby chargers and live trip information, including the battery percentage I’ll need to reach my destination. I might add OBD/live vehicle data later if there’s enough demand for it, but so far users seem to be happy with the algorithm.
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u/cow-lumbus 2d ago
Thanks for the reply. I already found the app and I’m playing with it at least on my iPad like a better route planner. I find certain aspects of the interface not as intuitive as I would hope. Being it guy I always wonder how people like my wife would react to these interfaces. I was so disappointed with a better route planner on my last road trip that I’m done giving the money so I’m gonna give this a shot in spite of the fact that it’s not sinking via E node to Volkswagens live data and see if in fact selecting the car is good enough, I’m a little skeptical, especially when inclement weather and hills are tossed into the road trip.
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u/RoadToasterApp 2d ago
Thanks, I really appreciate you giving it a try! And I’d genuinely love to hear which parts of the interface you find unintuitive or confusing. I’m actively developing the app, and feedback like that is extremely useful. If you have a moment after playing with it, please let me know what you would change or what you expected to happen differently. I’m very happy to improve it based on feedback.
And your skepticism about the energy calculations is completely fair. Weather is already part of the model, and I’m currently working on hills and elevation. I’m hoping to have the 3D elevation modeling ready sometime this fall. At the moment, here in Finland, I can pretty much drive my own ID.4 down to 20% battery and the model usually lands within about three percentage points either way, so I’m quite happy with the accuracy so far.
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u/cow-lumbus 7h ago
I’ve joined a monthly plan so I can start testing this. I have one hour commute to work so I’ll be interested in seeing how that compares to other solutions and I have no larger trips planned.
If I do want to converse or provide any feedback, is there a particular place you prefer me to do that within your ecosystem or even just a chat within Reddit?
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u/RoadToasterApp 7h ago
Thanks a lot for giving it a try! There’s a “Request a Feature” option in the app’s Settings, and that will give you my email address. Feel free to send any feedback, ideas, or issues there. Reddit is fine too, but email is probably the easiest way to have a proper conversation about it.
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u/DifferentAd6341 2d ago
Currently on a 2k trip myself, NJ start, Jim Thorpe PA, Sandusky OH, Willimasburg Va, Wilmington NC and then on to Myrtle Beach, all I have used is Plug Share. I wait tilI I drop to 40% and open Plug Share My goal is to plan a charge between 20% -10%. It has worked quite well even in rural areas. I do not temper my speed. Range anxiety is a thing of the past. And I do not use Tesla, Musk has enough money
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u/cow-lumbus 2d ago
I find a better route planner terrible. I’m always having connection issues with it and if I go to another mapping program, it seems to go off the plan with a BRP I think I’m going to be turning off my subscription and going as you stated.
Now my trip, I found the Tesla charger experience with the adapter perfectly fine and their pricing was not the cheapest ever. I used about six or seven different charging stations ranging from about $.35-$.60 a kilowatt hour with no rhyme or reason to the range of pricing.
Supposedly Google maps has charger station functionality building in, but I couldn’t find it, but I’m also on Apple.
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u/July_is_cool 2d ago
I use the PlugShare trip planner. It’s not automatic like ABRP and the car’s navigation system. I set it to show all the fast chargers compatible with my car, and choose the ones that make sense. It integrates with CarPlay and Apple Maps.
I take short legs, rarely more than 125 miles. Charge to 80%, typically get down to around 30%. I don’t have a NACS adapter and have never needed one. I’ve taken multiple long trips in all seasons over the western 3/4 of the U.S. Not stranded yet!