tcboyd said:
Google Maps says it's 50.3 miles from my house to SFMOMA...a random place I sometimes go. The "typical" charge that I get indicates 108 to 110 miles with "environmentals" on. I would never risk having just 8 to 10 miles of range left on a trip. I don't want to end my drive in "limp home" mode. My understanding is that the basic rule of thumb with lithium batteries is never over-charge and never over-discharge them. Sadly, for that reason I usually take my ICE car to San Francisco. Like I originally said, I'd LOVE to have a solid 150 mile range without having to recharge along the way.
I'm certainly not opposed to installing a JdeMO fast charge connection on my RAV4. But I looked briefly at the CHAdeMO charge station location map, and the closest to SFMOMA is several blocks away. Of course I could be going somewhere closer to a CHAdeMO charger in San Francisco, but still...
I'm sorry to read that you're so concerned about getting the most out of your RAV4 EV. I'd like to try to encourage you to be able to enjoy it more.
Starting with your "typical" range estimate, remember that the range estimate it's calculated based on your recent driving activity and you'll likely find, as I do, that your available range increases on nice, consistent long drives like the one from Cupertino to San Francisco. (As opposed to stop and go driving or mountainous driving.)
But on point two, it's really unnecessary to avoid ever using the bottom limits of your available charge or to avoid charging it up fully in extended charge. The potential for degradation comes from letting it sit around at empty or fully charged (in extended charge mode). Plus I would like to say that it's not that your "risking" having just 8-10 miles left. Between San Francisco and Cupertino there are always dozens of charging stations around so, at worst, you're never at risk of anything more than discovering that you need to stop and charge when you didn't intend to.
Regarding JdeMO fast charging, keep in mind that it's fast enough (typically around 30 minutes) that it's not like you're going to leave it plugged in while you visit SFMOMA for half-a-day. It's not something that needs to be at your destination – it's more like finding a gas station because you'll need to treat it more like a pit stop, if it turns out you need the added charge. You'll be hanging out nearby having a meal, a coffee break or whatever until you're done. And for the route in question, you'd likely only need a few/ten minutes of charge time to add say the extra 30 miles or so that you want. Or you could do the similar for an hour or more at the more common J1772/level 2 chargers scattered all over the place.
Anyway, I just wanted to encourage you to be able to more enjoy your RAV4. Use your available range! Don't worry about "limping" home. Over the course of your trip, if it starts to look like you might run out, slowing down will have a big effect but there's plenty of chargers around (and many in more obscure places that aren't nearly as crowded) if you truly aren't going to make it. You'll never really be stranded if you're paying as much attention to your available range as it sounds like you already do. Ideally of course you'll be able to plug-in near your destination at a short walk away and none of this will come up.
Many of us have become comfortable enough that we have arrived home many times with the range estimate at "--", running on the equivalent of "fumes". I certainly have, and that's after committing to climbing up and over highway 17 to get back to Santa Cruz, but I know with much experience that I only need three or so bars left when I get to Los Gatos to get over the hill. (It's all downhill from there!) This is also from experience with originally using a LEAF with only 70-75 miles and having to budget for half of that going to just getting over the hill and back again on highway 17 .
For me, my gas car sits unused except for much longer trips like when the one-way distance is much longer than my available range (going to Tahoe, for instance). I'm comfortable finding a charge station somewhere like San Francisco (75 miles away, plus big elevation climb over 17) since there's so many of them in the city – or even on the way back if I'm going to stop somewhere to eat anyway. Now that I have JdeMO, we've even done trips that require a single stop along the way (like Santa Cruz to Sacramento, 150 miles) since it's not a very long stop with CHAdeMO.
Good luck and I hope you'll give it a try and over time find that you can leave your gas car behind more often!
