What are most folks using for planning routes in the US?
I'm considering an e-tron and running what-ifs to get a feel for road trip planning

I suppose I'll do 98% of my charging at home...local driving, but will want the ability to road trip

I'm also considering Tesla Y, making a pro/con list.... and this seems to be a strength for tesla's "pro" column... longer range and strong supercharger network.

I was playing around on both plugshare and a better route planner. Are those pretty much the go to? Just making sure i'm not missing something

Looks like it's better in some areas than others...just for grins doing a sample trip to visit my extended family.... two stops and 64 minutes to charge in the Tesla for total trip 7:46....vs two charge stops at 105 minutes total for the audi 9:35 total trip becasue it had to route a long bit off highway to catch a charger....

 

I have not done any longer road trips yet. So I only used a DC fast charger once. But PlugShare and ABRP seem to be the recommended tools for this. There were a few posts that confirmed the accuracy of ABRP for the E-tron. I liked PlugShare to familiarize myself with the charging options in areas I tend to go to (which pointed me to the DC fast charger I used so far).

The SuperCharger network is certainly a big plus (and accomplishment) for Tesla. I expect independent charging networks to expand in the future and there are a lot of announcements that have been made lately (such as EvGo). There are also some government led efforts (some of which are funded through VW diesel gate dollars). Those networks all together will probably surpass Tesla at some point. But that may be a few years. Doing 98% of driving with at home charging, your reliance on charging networks is fairly low. So you are in a similar boat than me from that perspective. Given that, I preferred the better quality car over the charging network. Also, the E-tron generally can charge faster compared to Tesla vehicles as you can charge at a higher rate across most of the spectrum whereas Teslas drop down from the maximum rate fairly early. But in the end, which car to go with is a question only you can answer for yourself.

Another aspect of the charging stops is that it forces you to take a break. Some people reported a more relaxed driving experience as a result. Looking at the numbers for charging you posted, it seems that with the E-tron it makes you take a detour to get to the chargers. Once the charging network is built out more, the difference will likely get smaller.

 

Longer charge time for the etron must mean that you're only able to find ~50kwh chargers along your route. Otherwise, it'd be significantly faster.

 

This is the right approach, and the same one I undertook. I think A Better Route Planner is your best bet, as it has a lot of flexibility in assumptions (extra weight, for example) and accounts for elevation changes. If you select the e tron as your car, the base Reference Assumption for efficiency (mi/kwh) is 2.59. I think this is fairly accurate for what I've seen in my experience on longer highway drives.

Depending on where you live and where you want to be able to go on a regular basis, the extra range and charger network of the Tesla may or may not be worth anything. For example, I live in Austin and there was not a single trip I would take in which the Tesla provided an advantage. Even looking at a trip like to Denver, that would take a little over 19 hours (15.5 driving, 3.5 charging) in the e tron vs. 17.5 (15 driving, 2.5 charging) in the Y. Now, to be clear, why would I drive to Denver when I can just fly in 2 hours direct for less than $100 each way. But, for the sake of argument, there it is. Is the Tesla worth driving around 99.9% of the time for the 1.5 hours it might save you on a rare road trip? I don't think most people actually take the time for this exercise and just look at the extra 100mi range and assume it's clearly better. By the way, you can expect to get 210-220mi actually in the e tron on highway drives, better than EPA, whereas the Tesla's notoriously underperform stated range.

If you live up north, be sure to change the temp setting to look at winter driving, perhaps that extra range then makes a difference, but it doesn't factor into mine.

 

Not necessarily, it could mean replacing more SoC in e tron vs. Y. He may only need 20% recharges in tesla vs. 40% in audi. Every route is unique, which is why everyone should undertake the research and not make general assumptions based on stated range.

 

https://abetterrouteplanner.com/
and
https://www.plugshare.com/

Are what I use.

Some of ABRP charge time/cost estimates have not very good. Also, I've seen some route bugs of various types. Such as either not knowing about charge locations, especially when recently opened, or having the computed charging time far too long, or failing to route on common roads such as avoiding I-5 north of Seattle. The good side of this is that energy consumption seems to be usually fairly well modeled.

Plugshare has a better database of charge locations, however the route planner isn't very useful.

Tesla has a larger and more mature network of charger aka "superchargers". I'd suggest avoiding Tesla for quality reasons. But in either case, enjoy the EV driving experience. The first time you get into a rental ICE, you will realize you will never go back.

Would you share a near realistic route and I will have have a look at it? If nothing else, to suggest to EA where to put the next round of charge stations...

Example is this: towing a trailer, which I don't actually own yet, taking a trip to a state park starting and ending at Costco, where I don't live.

https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?pla...e-e87405e332be

 

sure thing
https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?pla...8-58b1e25ed1c9

the big unknown variable for me right now is regarding model number. When i go to choose the car in these planners, there are a few different e-trons listed. As far as I know there's only E-tron available with two different trim levels. Nowhere do I see mention of a number...such as 55 Quatro

The thing I find interesting is that it's routing me off I95 for such a huge portion of the trip. normal routing would take me up 95 into NC before heading East. Just seem like a dead-ish zone up through that area...which is a bit surprising given that this is a heavily travelled hwy...although it is rather rural and likely not a lot of EV owners living there

think I'll play with a few other example routes when I get some time....

 

The only e tron in the US is the 55 (Europe has the 55 and the 50, which is smaller battery). 2020 Sportbacks are arriving at dealers now, but if you're looking at a 2019 model you'll want to select the 55 Quattro (alpha) selection.

 

All e-Trons sold in US are 55 series. It indicates the 95 kWh battery capacity

Charge infrastructure is much better here on the left coast compared to your trip from Northern Florida to coastal NC. On a similar trip up the coast, the choices for charging are multiple and none of the stuck at 50 kW chargers for over an hour.

 

You can force ABRP to go a certain route by adding waypoints before your final destination. Below is what I think you were implying the normal route would be. The drive time is slightly less, but adds a third charge and 1.5 hours to the trip. However, these seem to be suspiciously long charge times.
https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?pla...d-5cb64f3a4374

Sometimes you also have to consider that you may actually want to stop longer than it technically takes to charge, because it you may want the rest, or it's meal time, etc. So the fastest route to spit out of the computer may not always be best.