SF Bay Area to Tulsa in the Niro ...
5 days, 19 charging sessions, about 1900 miles. Some ferocious tail and crosswinds, but luckily no ferocious headwinds. A couple of big long climbs, 3500 to 5000 feet each. Mi/kwh per charge between 2.6 and 4.1, mostly in the 3 to 3.2 range once out of the mountains, going the speed limit 75.
The range meter was fairly accurate in mom-mountainous, non-windy terrain. It will recalibrate itself as you encounter different terrain. I kept track of expected range vs actual as reported by my map app, and it was within 5% except in mountains and wind, where it underestimated range by as much as 50% on the big climb days.
The way I kept my range on track was to compare the remaining range vs the map app distance to the next charger. As long as I had 50+ miles overhead I know I was OK. The lowest SOC I experienced when arriving at a charger was 19%.
Which brings me to charging strategy. The Niro is just exceptionally slow at charging, and the only practical way to make progresson on a long trip is to run the battery down to less than 30% so it will charge at least moderately fast. You can go from 30 to 80 in less than an hour, but it will take you another hour to get to 95%. Sometimes that's essential, but if you know where the next charger is and can get there with an 80% charge, it will shave an hour off each leg. Slow charging is the achilles heel of the Niro; unless you are willing to spend an hour charging for every two to 2 1/2 hours driving, the Niro is not the roap trip car for you. This month's road trip is an exceptional adventure for me, but I don't think I'll do it again (except now I have to go home.) It was 5 days of driving, I could have easily done it in 4 or even 3 1/2 with a gas vehicle in "road warrior" mode. Taking a road trip in winter is out of the question without the battery heater option.
I had a deadline to meet, so I made the trip as fast as I could. Going back will be super leisurely, I plan to follow the historic Route 66 as much as possible, so I'll be traveling much slower. Most of the old 66 route's pavement is in bad shape, so I may have to divert to the freeway from time to time.
Pro tips:
Never check in to your hotel without charging the car first. In the morning, the battery will be stone cold and charging will be very very slow. (I do not have a battery heater.) Below 60 degrees, you will start out in the low teens to low 20s kW and the battery will not warm at all. That will add at least an hour to your trip. Even between 60 and 70 you will start out in the low 20s and stay there.
You will not see 50kW+ charging speeds below 70 or even 80 deg battery temperature, and 40% or less SoC. The battery is quite slow to dissipate heat, it warms up to 90+ deg pretty quickly at 50kw, and will stay happy all day if it's 80+ outside.
I joined the Tesla network and it is far superior to all others. Basically, you cannot make a long distance trip without using Tesla. Rivian is also an option now, it seems almost the chargers in the West are open to all vehicles, and they seem to cover locations where there are no superchargers. It's a little more expensive. Once east of I-25 there are no more Rivian stations, and Tesla stations are scarce, so I swtched to Electrify America. Once in Oklahoma, Teslas and EA are nonexistent except in the cities and interstates, and Francis Energy seems to have a monopoly. They seems to getting poor ratings on Plugshare, and I could not get their app to work, so my ability to follow the old Route 66 may be limited until I'm west of Oklahoma City.
Maybe I was lucky that all of the charging stations I scheduled were working 100%. Bring your EVSE along. The Santa Rosa NM Tesla-only supercharger was down, one poor Tesla driver arrived at the Santa Rosa EA station with only a J1776 adapter. The nearest supercharger was 100+ miles away. Presumably he was fucked.
I never had to wait for a charger, although a couple of sites (Kingman AZ, and Erick OK) did fill up while I was waiting to finish charging. Two Teslas would arrive and leave before I was finished.
Aside from the slow charging, it's an exceptionally quiet and comfy car.
A few more days here, and then it's back the other way .....
