Spring Trip 2025, Day 2

The day dawned clear and cold, in the low 20s, and while the temperatures eventually did rise to 60º by the time I arrived in Columbus OH, I didn’t see anything over 32º until I was in northeastern Ohio. Here is the beginning of sunrise from my hotel room in Painted Post:

This is close to the route I took with all the stops; the only incorrect part is the last leg because I didn’t stay on I-71 for that:

Between here and Jamestown NY, my first charging stop of the day, the road rises at least twice to 2,000′ elevation. Between the hills, the temperatures, and the wind, my efficiency dropped considerably for this first two-hour leg, to 2.4 miles/kWh.

Jamestown has a new EvolveNY installation at a tire store with a Tim Horton’s next door (for a bathroom, coffee, etc.). After preconditioning, I got a max rate of 220kW on a 350kW charger, going from 26-80% in 17 minutes.

Although there was another (free) Electrify America east of Cleveland that I’ve used before, I decided to check out a new IONNA charger spot in that same area. Because the car’s navigation didn’t know about the IONNA location (and therefore couldn’t precondition the battery if I navigated directly there), I put in the EA location as my charging destination so that the battery would precondition. By the time I arrived, still in full sun, the temps were just nudging above 40º and my efficiency had come up for the day.

The IONNA location is next to a Sheetz, always a welcome place to stop for a break. There are 4 NACS plugs and 6 CCS1, two to a charging unit. The chargers are 400kW each with the two plugs each getting ~200kW. There’s no account, no signup, no app — you just swipe a card and charge (and an Apple Watch payment worked perfectly). The downside of this is that you don’t get a record of exactly how much charge you took onboard or exactly how much it cost — IONNA put a $50 hold on the credit card (standard practice) and I’m still waiting for the actual charge to come through. But it was a good experience in spite of all that, especially given that I was the only one there! (If I hadn’t been in a hurry, I’d have taken advantage of the Sheetz Car Wash right behind the chargers!)

Shortly after leaving Willoughby, I exited I-90 for I-271 and connected to I-71 for the drive to Columbus. After a slight detour to Uniontown Brewing in Ashland OH, I was on my final leg of the day to my hotel. First, I drove on I-71 to Mansfield for a quick charge from 36-80% at an Electrify America at the Walmart. Again, I saw a max rate of 220kW on a 350kW charger and was unplugged in just 7 minutes. From there, I took back roads to my hotel. With the warmer temps and more “eco-friendly” hills, I ended the day with my trip efficiency at 2.8 miles/kWh. The last segment from Mansfield to Columbus was 3.8, a testament to the efficiency hit you take at higher speeds.

I don’t expect to do much driving on the weekend; if I do, I’ll post again here, but otherwise probably won’t do anything until I’m on the way home next week.