May Trip Day 2

9 May 2024

Today’s drive was 421 miles from Painted Post NY to Columbus OH and the weather was nice until just east of the Cleveland OH area when I found the rain, and lots of it! I was mostly in moderate-to-heavy rain and winds from there to very near Columbus; this was particularly fun on I-71 with heavy traffic, both truck and car, and limited visibility due to the rain and road spray. Much to my surprise, the adaptive cruise control did not shut off — Hyundai must have greatly improved the radar’s ability to see through rain as the other cars I’ve had could not handle this much water in the air.

I opted to play it safe today and charge three times en route and the first two were free at Electrify America chargers. My first stop was in Olean NY where I went from 61-80% in 15 minutes, not great speed, but not completely surprising given that I wasn’t all that low to start. Number two was at the EA chargers at the Walmart in Erie PA which were available this time; that session went from 42-80% in 17 minutes. And finally, I stopped at an EVgo in the Cleveland area and went from 40-something percent to 80% in 19 minutes at a cost of $16.03. I was very pleased to see that EVgo recognizes my vehicle now — I just plug in and the session starts right up, billed to my card on file.

I nudged my cumulative miles/kWh up to 3.1 today and I’m sure I would have done a bit better had I not run into the winds and rain. Still, considering that gas prices have generally been in the $3.60 region on this trip, my $16.03 spent on electricity (thanks to the free two years of charging at Electrify America plus free overnight charging at Hilton properties) would have bought 4.45 gallons of gas. Divide that into my 722.5 miles driven, and you get 162 mpg. Not bad.