Canadian owners charging in the US

Depends on where you’re going, and your expectations while traveling. Charging only at night? Charging more than 1x per day?
I moved to Canada from the US 4 years ago but 99% of my charging is done at home. We haven’t done a long road trip since we moved here however…

-skipperT

 

I would check plugshare website and see where the chargers are along your route and make plan accordingly. Volta chargers are setup in shopping areas and are free. Paid charger setup are pretty simple and most will let you enable charging with an app or via NFC on your phone.

 

With a plug in hybrid, why bother with charging on a road trip? Stop and get 7 gallons of gas in a minute or two and continue on your journey.

 

I feel the same way, I thought that was the point of a PHEV so that you don't have to charge on trips. However when mountains will be involved it's a lot better to have a full charge, but unfortunately HV Charge only goes about halfway. I got stuck recently doing some local mountain driving, I left home with about 50% SOC, but knew I would be driving right past a grocery store that had a couple of free Volta chargers, so I cheaped out and instead of charging at home I decided I would charge up at this grocery store and sit and do some web surfing and also go into the store for a bit. But when I got there both Volta stations were in use which was rare. So I abandoned that plan and headed towards the mountains. On the way I used HV Charge and kept it at 60% SOC but once I started up the steeper parts of the mountain the charge steadily dwindled, I was barely able to avoid totally running out of charge by not using EV at all. Would have been nice to have that extra 40% to start out with as I could have done at least some of the climb in EV and also get away with more HV resetting.

Nevertheless, even on a trip with mountains, unless the charging is extremely convenient I would probably lean towards putting up with the noise rather than spending any amount of time charging.

 

You've hit it on the head. Charge when convenient to do so and not more expensive than using gas, but don't obsess over it.

Same for the mountain climbing -- sure, play with HV vs EV, but it really isn't worth obsessing over. I've driven both a 2019 and 2020 clarity on some heavy mountain climbs (sea level to 7500-8000 feet elevation in an hour of driving). I've used EV on parts of the climbs and I've done the whole climb from 0 EV, and can confidently say the car drives just fine either way. There's plenty of battery buffer at 0 -- similar to a normal hybrid like the Accord Hybrid that shares the same drivetrain but smaller battery.

Yes, it is of course louder when the engine's running to generate climbing power, but it maxes out at 6500 RPM (tracked with different OBDII devices), which is a perfectly safe speed for a Honda engine to run continuously. In fact I'd expect an engine that's smoothly driving a generator at high speed to last longer than one that's being jerked around by a normal drivetrain at any speed.

I also haven't experienced power loss -- I can accelerate and pass just fine at 70-80 MPH uphill. I've driven a Highlander Hybrid quite a bit though, so am used to the engine revs not being in sync with the pedal (a property of any hybrid) and don't instinctively back off the pedal when it revs like I might have before.

In short, while I play with the settings sometimes for fun, other times I just drive the car (in Eco mode just because I like the pedal finess I have there) and let it switch to HV when it's ready to...

 

Another reason to go gas-only on a road trip is the lack of DC-fast charging ability of the Clarity. I might consider charging at convenient locations if I could charge my Clarity from 0-80% in 10 minutes. Not willing to stop for 2 hours at Level II speeds just to gain 40-50 miles of EV range.

 

Where in the US will you be traveling? Will you be staying in hotels?

The west cost has many no cost charging opportunities. City and county parks, museums, etc. Hotels may have complimentary charging stations or an available 120V outlet that you could use.

 

Yeah, there are various different charging networks like Chargepoint, Volta, Blink. Volta is free, Blink is absurdly expensive (more than gas), Chargepoint and others can completely vary. If you have planned stops or would like to plan stops along your way, absolutely go and check out Plugshare etc to try to find chargers on your way. But I also wouldn't worry too much about it since it would take >2 hours for a full charge.

 

best advice is buy charging adapter for standard 120 v outlet for your charging cable and extension cord, put car in charge mode overnight when you in hotel sleeping.

don`t charge on road, it will take 2,5 hours anyway

 

We road-trip 500+ miles probably 2-3 times per year. I echo the general sentiment - finding a level 2 charger is certainly possible, though often far enough out of the way to make it NOT worth it (for example, you have to go 5 miles off a highway, spend 2 hours charging, possibly at cost, then you have "lost" 10 miles out of 40 or 50 miles of all electric in the best case!). In addition, there are commercial stations that really are geared towards fast charging and would end up unreasonably expensive.

What I do is try to plan ahead to take advantage of convenient (and usually free) charging when I do plan to stop. In particular, I look at Plug-share and find hotels that have Level 2 charging. In addition, if there is a stop with a charger close to the highway for lunch or a good break, come in close to an empty battery, charge up while eating and get a break. If we are lucky, we can get 80-100 miles out of 300 miles or so (we usually break up drives over that with a hotel stay).

While I don't love using gas, we do for these drives and it is easy and not very expensive. This is why I am looking to switch to all-electric, though frustrated by the industry whose poor ethics really turn me off (Tesla as a manufacture with many "customer be damned" policies, Ford, Kia, and others whose dealers take advantage of limited availability with stupid markups and ordering processes that are not very equitable).

Good luck on your road trip! Charge when it makes sense, use gas as you *need* to, and stay safe and enjoy the trip!

 

I don't think we have a lot of Cdn owners charging in the US weighing in. For US owners, the recommended app was Plugshare. It is a simple app to download on the smartphone. It is free to download and use. It lists both free and pay chargers, but generally like others have said, I'd recommend only free chargers where you plan to stop for an hour or so at least or an overnight stay. Generally the only option you won't find in Plugshare would be any overnight locations that might let you charge at 120V if you ask them.

 

As I was going to say before the error message, so much of your decision will depend on where in Canada you are and where in the USA you are going. EV charging availability and costs vary a lot depending on where you are. You might have a different set of expectations for the EV experience if you live in Alberta (the Texas of Canada) vs BC, for example. If you can give some specifics, the helpful folks in this forum can probably give you the absolute optimal approach.

That said, you bought a PHEV. That 7-gallon tank is there for a purpose. Given the difference in gasoline cost between Canadian provinces and US states, you’ll want to use it. The 40+ mpg plus ability to charge while driving make even Hybrid Charge + Gas Power an economical and eco-friendly alternative (at least better than all-ICE.)