First EV road trip – Palm Desert or bust!
Yesterday, we took our first EV road trip. When we bought our 2021 Nissan Leaf S Plus a couple of months ago, we were taking a leap of faith that the car’s advertised range of 226 miles would meet our needs. That was our hope, but when it came time to drive to Palm Desert from our home in North San Diego County, the issue of EV range anxiety popped up like a prairie dog and said, “I’m here!”
The first thirty miles were the toughest
The actual distance from our home to our destination in Palm Desert was less than half of our 226 mile range, so I should have never questioned whether we could complete the drive. But as we got on the road with a full charge just before 6AM on Thursday morning, I kept thinking about the impending climb we’d have to make over the mountains. My anxiety grew during the drive from Escondido to Temecula, a thirty-mile stretch of Interstate 15 that has several long, slow inclines. In our Prius, those inclines were no problem, but as we zipped along at 70mph up those long hills and our charge level dropped, my range anxiety grew.
We pulled into Temecula with our charge level down to about 75%. That might sound pretty good, but we still had to climb 3,000 feet over a mountain pass. We made a quick stop at Starbucks, then headed out.
Our first mountain pass on the EV road trip
Part of my range anxiety was the climb to the top of the mountain pass over Highways 371 and 79. At about 3,000 feet, that’s a lot of climbing. The good news was that our average speed dropped to about 45-50 mph because of traffic. And as we climbed, I realized the Leaf was doing very well. When we got to the very top of the pass, we’d dropped about another 25%. That part of the drive made me realize mountain roads were only a little more difficult for the Leaf than the freeway.
The last leg of our first EV road trip — down the mountain to Palm Desert
The lowest the battery got to on the trip was 51%. That happened just before I put the Leaf into engine braking mode and we started gaining back some of that precious charge. By the time we rolled into the charging station in Palm Desert, we were at 53%. Because Nissan gave us a charging credit with EVgo when we bought the Leaf, we chose an EVgo quick charge station. The station is in a beautiful park where we could walk while the car did its thing. We thoroughly enjoyed the stop, which took about an hour, and left the station with the battery at 98%.
The long way round the mountain
We took the freeway route home. That was 120 miles of high-speed driving with some big hills. We stopped at the EVgo charging station in the Menifee Town Center shopping center. It was a great place for a restroom break and a super fast, quick charge. All-in-all, the trip was a great learning experience and did a lot to help reduce any range anxiety I might have had.
Want to see travels photos from our trip to New Zealand? Here’s a link where you can check out all the entries in our travel journal.
