Does this mean driving for fun days are over?

I'm finding that at the places I can recharge, it hasn't been do-or-die for much of anyone. It may be at some of the oversubscribed Tesla stations, but I can't use them. The CCS/SAE and CHAdeMO stands I've encountered were very lightly used, but I can't use them either.

I can use only J1772s or wall outlets. The free J1772s, typically 3.5 to 7 kW, get swamped by everybody. The pay outlets, which I happily used when within walking distance, where barely used. All the hotels without J1772s had been asked about wall outlets by previous customers. Most happily pointed out to them, though mentioned that truck engine block heaters might need to share (none did this trip). A couple places had multiple outlets, but only in places that would block traffic or have traffic running over cords. (For one of them, on a rest day, we found a 10-cord pay station along a nice riverfront walking trail, so recharged while getting needed non-ski exercise.) One had just a single potentially usable outlet, but declared itas reserved for the manager. Another was marked on PlugShare as having engine block heater outlets that were allowed for EVs too, but had since been padlocked and staff would not unlock even for a paying lodging customer.

My home ski hill (Stevens Pass) has 4 J1772 outlets, though only 3 worked the first time my PHEV visited (repaired quickly). Of the 9 vehicles (6 brands) I knew to have used it that day (directly seen, or disclosed by "Charging History" on the website), only a single Nissan Leaf might possibly have been short-enough range to need some refill to get home. But I talked to him the following week, and found that he lived within round-trip range, so like all the rest of us, was just taking advantage of the 'free' fuel. That day, I was only able to get a 15-minute charge (at 3.5kW, due to power sharing on this station's setup) when one vehicle left just as we started packing up to leave. This past week, I was finally able to plug in on arrival and get a full charge. Moved it at lunchtime, but the station was never filled on that low-turnout weekday, the first such not-filled day since I'd been watching.

Plenty more Teslas and Rivians and Ioniqs park elsewhere in that same lot, making no attempt to use these power stations.

On this ski road trip, there were several days where I did manage the day's round trip between lodging and ski parking without gasoline. Or could have if I had played it a bit different.

 

^ I should have added that on this 22 day ski tour in our PHEV, we found enough plug-in availability to use the equivalent of 17 full battery charges: 10 from wall outlets at lodgings, 7 from real J1772 charging stations. It was actually plugged in more times than that, but some for just partial charges fitting the available time of activities near the stations.

A few more charges could have been acquired if we were more open to substantial changes in our early evening activity.

 

What was your mpg during that trip?

 

Howdy folks - I've got a Gen5 on order and am just becoming aware of all the privacy concerns with modern connected vehicles... (I've been driving a 2007 Corolla for the last 17 years without even so much as power windows, so needless to say, I feel a bit like a caveman).

For what it's worth, I discovered that Toyota has a "privacy hub" on their website. They provide a form you can submit to opt out of sharing personal information with 3rd parties. You can also request a summary of the information Toyota has collected on you, and can also apparently request they delete stored information. Just sharing in case folks might be interested. I'm a newbie on these forums, so unfortunately I can't post links, but you can find the website by typing "privacy*toyota*com" into your browser's address bar (sorry had to use asterisks instead of periods so the system didn't reject my post for containing a forbidden URL)

 

... or cick here:

Privacy Hub

 

" If you could afford to replace tomorrow what burns down today you'd be a fool to buy insurance" Charlie munger

I self-insure my cars...

 

Fun days were over when they decided that affordable cars had to also be boring.

I know! I've lived in Colorado my whole life and I never, ever go above the speed limit.

But at least I pull over every once in a while to let traffic by if there's no passing lane for a while.

 

i would happily self insure my car. it's the medical that worries me