EV Adventure Los Alamos <> Denver

Above: Charging at Wagon Mound – great spot and nice bike ride.

I drove our Nissan Leaf (2020, SV Plus) with the Los Alamos band up to Denver for the weekend. I went to the middle school to help pack up/etc. I was the “scout car” so left the school about 7:30am and drove fast (90 mph-ish.. real drag on batteries). I used “ABRP” (Another Best Route Planner) app to help plan things – it missed the fact that a few of the CHAdeMO plugs were out of order (Pueblo, Walmart..), so I had to “ad-lib” a bit (the slower (J1772) charger in Walsenberg – the new Circle K charger was great!). I used PlugShare quite a bit and had to use a few different apps to actually charge (ElectrifyAmerica, ChargePoint, ChargeWay, SemaConnect, EvGateway, and Circle K Charge). The drive up wasn’t ideal (between charging waits, there was also some crazy traffic – the band got just ahead of me in WagonMound then I got stuck in traffic, so way late getting up there. The band made it just fine. Coming home was much more relaxed – especially Walsenberg to Alamos I drove slower (65-70 mph) and had much better range. Charging at Wagon Mound was nice (good bike ride there) and Alamosa was really pleasant (they were putting in a few more fast chargers – I hope those are up and running soon!).

The EV was a bit of extra work – we had plenty of parents/cars, so it wasn’t an issue at all. An Internal Combustion Enging would have been just a little smoother. On the drive home, it wasn’t stressful and was pleasant. Trying to caravan and make time – I’d rather have a non-CHAdeMO, real fast-charging vehicle (the Nissan can’t take more than 50kW charge rate – the new fast chargers are ~6x that speed).

Trip Log / Details:

Fri May 5 from home: 6:51am 99% 242 miles range (17622 odometer)

Fri May 5 in Santa Fe: 8:38am 79% 177 miles range (17662 odometer)
charging at 30kW -> 12 kW, Whoo’s Run, ATM,
Fri May 5 in Santa Fe: 9:01am 91%, 208 miles range (17662 odometer)
$2.40 total for this charge

(drove pretty fast – 90 mph..) electrify America
Fri May 5 in Wagonmound 10:22am 18%, 37 miles range (17768 odometer)
43kW charging,
11:09 77%
11:31 94%, $19.63 ($18.24+$1.39 tax) for 38.2870 kWhr in 65 minutes

12:54 – Walmart Trinidad CHAdeMO is broken

slow-ish charger at Walsenberg (J1772) $4.47 EV Trail
1:31pm 20%, 41 miles range (odometer 17892)
2:01pm 41%, 86 miles range (odometer 17892)

Circle K – Colorado City (Free! New chargers)
Something Strange is Afoot..
2:23pm 25%, 49 miles range (odometer 17915)
3:09pm 60%, 118 miles range (odometer 17915)

bad traffic – car on fire in other lane, …

Phil Long EVOutlet, Colorado Springs (free – their app wasn’t working, awesome sales folks rescued me) – only EVs! They tried to get me into the PHEV Jeep. I told them I’d go test drive it will the Leaf charged… 😉 (no luck.)
4:52pm 19%, 38 miles range (odometer 17980)
6:16pm 78%, 155 miles range (odometer 17980)

Colorado Springs, Denver Traffic – driving 60mph or less..
At the Walgreens right by the band concerts – J1772 SemaConnect
7:39pm 38%, 101 miles range (odometer 18061)
8:00pm 42%, 109 miles range (odometer 18061) – had to run check for accompaniest to other school!
8:42pm 36%, 92 miles range (odometer 18072)
10:30pm 58%, 145 miles range

Sat, May 6
Free Charger at Colorado Dept of Environment and Health – LOVE IT! Thank you!!
charging at 27.7 kW (free charge and bike ride down Cherry Creek!)


8:39pm 49%, 126 miles range (odometer 18089)
9:23pm 85%, 224 miles range (odometer 18089)

Sun, May 7
6:38am, 85%
7:26am, 97%, 252 miles range (odometer 18092)
Finish the charging at CO Enviro/Health Free charger and more Cherry Creek bike ride

Walmart, Pueblo electrify America – broken!
would start charging and stop immediately
7-11 Pueblo, 50kW charging!
12:26 24%, 57 miles range (odometer 18212)
Aven & I walked to lunch
1:31pm 97%, 203 miles range (odometer 18212), added 37.05 kWh, $15.96

2:15pm 64%, 113 miles range
charging at Walsenberg (slow charger, J177) (EV Trail) super glad it is here!! Thank you!


2:30pm 75%, 132 mile range $2.27 for charge

At Alamosa (HION network)
3:54pm 23%, 50 miles range
27.3 kW charging, $32.69, 37.06 kWh (almost $1/kWh?!?!)
Aven & I checked out Visitor’s Center, called family, walked around, got lunch
5:39pm 96%, 209 mile range

Home!
8:40pm 30%, 73 miles range (odometer 18470 miles)

Drive cost $78 dollars in charging total, a little over 800 miles total