This is the first time since taking delivery that we completed a long-distance drive in the peak period with the extremely cool 001.
On the sixth day of the lunar new year, we drove from Quanzhou, Fujian to Hangzhou, Zhejiang for the return trip. The actual total distance was 816 kilometers, with a total energy consumption of 150.7 kWh and an average energy consumption of 18.5 kWh/100km. We set off at 10 o’clock and arrived home at half past midnight, spending a total of 15 hours in the car, with a driving time of 12 hours and 16 minutes and a rest time of 2 hours and 44 minutes for recharging.
The biggest two feelings from this trip for me are:
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Driving the extremely cool 001 on a long-distance trip is very comfortable, no problems at all.
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Proper planning for recharging can avoid anxiety! However, currently, there is no charging app on the market that can make plans for recharging during these peak periods, so you can only rely on yourself manually to find the charging station. How to find them? What should you pay attention to? Let me explain step by step.
When it comes to electric long-distance driving, many people’s inherent impression is that you must use petrol cars for long-distance driving! Recharging an electric car is too stressful, and queuing up to charge is difficult!
However, many people do not know that queuing for petrol is just as difficult!
In peak periods, refueling is not easier than recharging, just take a look at how long the queue is at the rest areas.
No one is more noble than anyone else. The key is, as long as you plan for recharging well, whether you are in a petrol car or an electric car, you can completely avoid queuing anxiety!
Why did I say earlier that there is no charging app on the market that can make plans for recharging during these peak periods?
Because for all journey planning apps, they generally arrange charging stations at the rest areas on your route. However, during peak periods, it goes without saying that the charging stations at rest areas are not sufficient, and how is it possible that you won’t have to queue up? If you still go there at that time, wouldn’t it be that you will end up queuing for a very long time?
And the probability of bad chargers in service areas is too high. In several service areas in Fujian, for example, out of four chargers, two can be out of service.
So what would the ideal peak period driving and charging plan look like?
The key point is actually quite simple – charge at high-speed charging stations because most peak periods are during holidays, and tolls are generally free during holidays, meaning there won’t be any additional costs for entering and exiting the highway. Moreover, better charging stations can be found with adequate numbers of charging ports and fewer bad chargers. The ideal charging location should be near the toll booth (3-10 km).
So the APP features I need are quite obvious – exclude the chargers in service areas in the itinerary planning, display all charging stations within 3-10 km from toll booths along the way, and make intelligent recommendations.
For my trip, I looked for a charger manually:
Step 1: Use the Extreme APP function to plan the itinerary and find the recommended first charging location.
Step 2: Find several toll stations adjacent to the charging location, such as the Yanping toll station and the Shaxian toll station. Then, check if there are nearby charging ports in the charging APP around these toll stations, select the appropriate toll station exit.
Just to be safe, I charged twice along the way, and although I still had to wait for a spot, I was able to charge within 10 minutes. The charging experience was not too bad.
In short, thanks to the excellent endurance achievement by NCM 811 battery, the frequency of power supplement has been greatly reduced. Except for some attention to power supplement planning, everything else is hassle-free.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.