Welcome to the final update of our cross-country, electric car adventure for charity!
With O-2-O Day 3 in the can, I can honestly say this was a hell of a challenge!
As tempting as it was to uncork our Hyundai Ioniq5’s serious torque, we had to think things through. The further we can get after a stop at one of Electrify America‘s chargers, means less wheel time overall. Unfortunately, if we burned through our energy too quickly, it would have meant more stops for additional charging. On top of that, if we take too long charging, our goal of making it in less than 48 hours would have gone out the window.
We managed to squeak in just under the two-day time frame, with a final time of 46 hours, 46 minutes and 41 seconds. Almost, almost perfectly symmetrical there.
For the most part, we charged up to 80-percent at each stop. This meant we could average a hair under 20-minutes per stop. There were a few times we went closer to 90-percent, because we needed a greater cushion for a longer distance run from one charger to the next. Those stops took a lot longer. On the other hand, if we topped off from 50 to 80 percent, we had stops that flew by in less than 15-minutes.
You can see the previous day’s update here.
We did run into a few issues. There were a few chargers that were not working. Also, oddly, the charge rate often took a nose dive after we hit 80-percent.
Almost every stop included a swag box, hidden near by. At the time of this writing, not all of the boxes have been claimed. Our awesome fans have sent photo and video updates about their swag box discoveries. It’s great to see intrepid fans going the extra mile to find these boxes!
Arriving in Orange Country, FL
The last six hours were especially rough. We were all beat, and we slipped up at one of our stops by not adding quite enough power. As we headed deep into Florida, we had to reduce speeds and coast as much as possible to make the destination. That nail-biter had us down to four-miles before we inched up to a charger.
At the wee hours of the morning, having a car die on a foggy highway wasn’t a great prospect. The best thing we could do it drop to super slow speeds, and hope our hazard lights were visible enough.
We also screwed up with our dietary needs. We simply didn’t have time to shop, despite visiting dozens of Walmart parking lots. Many of our meals were acquired from quick marts, and fast food joints. Old men like Roman and I should avoid this type of cuisine. That’s especially noteworthy when you think about our kind videographer/producer. His ability to deal with our constant modification of the car’s odor was heroic.
The last few stops were especially hectic, given our hope to replenish time we lost earlier. It’s so frustrating finding the will to back off on the speed to allow for better mileage. Reducing speed truly helps range.
Once we got to the Thornton Park Fountain, and put the car in park – we were finished. Interestingly, we were about the same distance from the fountain in Florida as we were from the fountain we departed from.
O-2-O is now in the books. The best part is: this is a challenge that anyone with an EV and some gumption can challenge. We already have a few journalists that threatened to take on our record.
Bring it on!
