Tesla L2 Charging

Our road trip planning since leasing the ID.4 now includes charging stops. In the past, our stops were planned on the fly as we needed gas or a stop for restroom break or a meal. Now, we spend much more time considering and planning charging stops to coincide with a meal or extended restroom/dog walk stop. Since we have the free Electrify America charging plan, these stops revolve around EA stations wherever possible, which further complicates our planning.

When selecting a hotel for example, I search using a EV charging filter. For example, our recent East to West Coast trip had 7 overnight stays of which 5 hotels had EV charging available. 

While 5 out of 7 stays had charging, what we discovered only too late was that 2 of the five had Tesla level 2 chargers and we did not have an adapter! so now we have a Tesla to J1772 adapter and can use it at the many hotels (especially ones in California) with Tesla level 2 chargers.

We purchased the WOLFCAR adapter:

Wolfcar Tesla to J1772 Charging Adapter with Safety Lock

Most of the ones I looked at had a hole in the release button, so that someone cannot take the adapter. The Wolfcar came with a small padlock and storage bag, which was nice.

First plug the adapter into the car and then plug the Tesla cord into the adapter:

And now we are charging (this is one of the hotels we stayed at):

Happy trails!

Road trip charging and range

We recently completed a 7 day East to West coast road trip. We tracked the energy usage and charges during the 3,000 miles from Baltimore, MD to the San Francisco Bay area. and have some interesting results. This is for a 2023 ID.4 Pro S AWD, so RWD models should get better miles/kW.

Trip Data Tracking

How did we maintain this data? Our methodology:

1. Tracked the starting and ending mileage between each charge
2. Adjusted the kWh energy charged whenever the ending battery charge percent changed (if the starting was 80%, then drove xxx miles and charged to 90%; made an adjustment to reduce the charged energy by 10% of the battery total)
3. Tracked the starting and ending range as calculated by the ID.4 to see how the range calculation changes with actual Miles/kWh consumed
4. Tracked elevation at each charging point to consider how elevation gains/losses affect range
5. Drove at or slightly above the speed limit during each segment, so many times we went 70+ miles per hour

The below graph shows the average miles driven per kilowatt per segment after each charging stop with an overall average for the trip of 3.07 miles/kW. Graph is labeled with the two main downhill segments (if a segment went up and then down there is no elevation gain and hopefully regenerative braking negates the uphill losses):

Note: the first charge calculation was for local commuting and displays a higher miles/kW than highway driving.

Charging

Charging rates and times have been a topic of conversation on several discussion groups. We kept track of the charging times and kWh rates at each stop with special attention on the Electrify America stations. We had mixed success getting high rates at 150 or 350 kWh stations, with only one really good 140 kWh charging session. While the rates were generally lower than we would have liked, out experience at EA stations was overall positive. We did not wait at any of the over 20 stations and only spent about $10 at EA stations due to going over the 30 minute free session. We did pay for one ChargePoint stop which cost $20, so our total energy cost was $30 for the 3,000 miles!

There were some EA iPhone app issues, which are documented in separate posts on this site:

EA grace period countdown issues

Range

The actual miles per kilowatt varied substantially over the trip. Obviously, speed and driving style impacted actual Mi/kW, but the main correlation that we could make was with elevation. It was quite easy to determine the elevation at each stop using the PlugShare route planning web application and clicking into Elevation:

Note: the trick is to click one of the route stops (any stop may be selected) before clicking Elevation to obtain the nice box showing the actual data.

Now each stop's elevation may be entered and compared to the average miles/kilowatt:

Notes:

1. Elevation loss (ending minus starting elevation) was calculated to better show the correlation between going down the mountain and increased Mi/kW.
2. There are other factors influencing miles/kilowatt that were not quantified and tracked.

The trip went very well and our ID.4 performed flawlessly! The car was comfortable and easy to spend 7-8 hours a day in. 

The Electrify America stations performed for us as well. With little waiting and fast charging we stopped, took a bathroom break and ate within 30-60 minutes. Oh, and had a chance to walk our dog (most important).

Filter charging stations in Navigation

The VW Navigation for routes and driving directions may be setup to add charger stops as needed. The setup includes options to:

1. Include or not include charging stops

2. Select the speed of chargers considered for stops

3. Specify whether only currently available chargers should be included

4. Turn on or off Electrify America chargers

5. Display range in the navigation map

The question is where to find and change these settings based on your preference?

From settings

Open settings using the 8 dots at the left and select Navigation:

In the navigation screen click into the gear to open settings:

Now open the Route Options:

In the route options screen click into the charging stations settings:

Finally set the range options to determine when to charge and whether EA should be the only stations shown (if blue slider as shown below, only EA stations):

Other options to filter by the charging power rating can be selected for a specific route, as shown below.

From the map view and destination search

Start by opening the maps in Navigation and then click into the three lines to adjust the settings:

If you are already entering a destination by either selecting a past one or entering an address, etc. As the destination is entered and confirmed, click into the three lines for settings before the route is "Started":

A series of options are provided related to the route such as volume for voice prompts, AM/PM display colors and brightness, and determination of charging stops. Click into the "Charging Stations" plug and gear icon to select charging stations based on criteria: 

The criteria to filter charging stations includes:

1. The kilowatt hour charging rate (all, greater than 50kw or greater than 100 kW)

2. Show only charging stations that are available or show all irrespective of current availability

3. Include only Electrify America/Canada stations (the blue bar indicates show only EA stations)

ID.4 charge cord release tips

My ID.4 was setup to automatically unlock the charging cable when a charging is complete. This means you are able to press the unlock button on the cable to disconnect. If the automatic unlock is set to No, then the cable cannot be disconnected by pressing the button without taking an action to unlock.

There are options available in the Infotainment system and on the VW ID.4 app to change this behavior. In the infotainment system the automatic release may be changed between Yes and No (find this in the Charging section by clicking the Settings "gear"):

This setting may also be changed in the ID.4 application under the Battery option:

My experience is changing the cable release with the app results in the Infotainment cable release option being removed:

If the automatic unlock is Off, then there are two ways to remove the cable:

1. Click the Unlock button on the FOB
2. Use the emergency cable release in the trunk

So, I recommend to use the Infotainment to change the automatic unlock if desired.