Trip Report: Lap of Michigan visiting Electrify America

 

Full lap of Michigan Electrify America (EA) charging sites

On July 22, 2021, I traveled to all the EA charging sites in Michigan.

I chose Electrify America because it may be the best-known nationwide charging network, outside of the Tesla Supercharging network. EA is expanding their network to provide coast to coast coverage on major highways and is introducing locations in more urban environments, allowing charging sources to people who have no or limited access to charge at home. EA was started in part from some of the VW diesel scandal settlement money. EA has installed sites with at least 4 chargers, thus ensuring that there is always charger availability, even if one charger has an issue. An additional area where EA is leading is the support for the upcoming Plug and Charge technology that promises to make a charging and paying for charging as simple as Tesla. You just plug your car in and everything else happens automatically in the background.

During my planning using the PlugShare and EA apps, I located the addresses of all the EA stations and made a high-level route plan. I would visit Roseville, Bay City, Gaylord, Cadillac, Lansing, Portage, Ypsilanti, and finally Novi. With the basic loop documented, I plugged all the destinations into A Better Route Planner, a website/app is designed for EV owners. Owners simply enter the details on their EV and then A Better Route Planner will plan routes that include charging stops with information estimating how long you will need to charge at each stop, along with estimated arrival and departure battery percentages.

I hit the road at 6:15am with 90% charge. I headed to the first stop at a Meijer in Roseville, MI. With such an early departure, there was minimal traffic, so I made it to the first stop without any issues. The 4 EA stations at this stop where easy to find and access, located only a couple of stoplights off the freeway. I was here long enough for quick top off and to check this site off my list. Also located at this stop is an 8 station Tesla Supercharger, something that would be common for the first stops of my journey. A quick 8-minute charge took me from 77% to 82% and I was already onto my next stop before 7am.

The next stop was in Bay City, MI. With I-75 under construction and major lane restrictions, I decided to work my way up to M-59 and then back over to I-75 to avoid any delays. With this route, it only took me an hour and forty minutes to arrive at the Bay City stop. It was an easy to find location, also only a couple of stoplights from the freeway. I arrived with 38% battery, better than the projected 27%. With the need to charge up to 73%, I opted to take this time to stop into the close by Meijer gas station and get myself a coffee and a donut for breakfast. As with the previous stop, there is also a Tesla Supercharger here and I saw a couple of Model 3s charging. After 26 minutes, I was charged to 77% and ready to start the next leg of my journey.

The northern most stop on my journey took me to Gaylord, MI. A couple of stoplights off the highway, I drove past a 10-stall Tesla Supercharger location and pulled up to one of the 4 EA stations. Arriving at 24% and only needing to charge to 60%, I made a quick run into the Meijer and almost got lost in the strangest layout of a Meijer store I’ve ever seen. Back at Elektra, the 29-minute charge brought the battery up to 67%. I headed south to my next stop in Cadillac, MI.

Yet another Tesla Supercharger greets me at the next stop. 8 Tesla stalls and 4 EA stalls support this location. At the time of this stop, I was hungry and ready for lunch. Based on my planning, there was a Culvers about 100 yards away from where I was plugged in. I was able to take my time to enjoy my lunch as I spent 26 minutes charging from 43% to 77%. Once lunch time was over, I headed South to my next stop.

The first and only charger issue of the trip happened when I arrived in Lansing. The first charger displayed an error message on the screen. I asked the driver of the Chevy Bolt charging at the next stall over if he had experienced an issue, and he indicated that it was a known issue with this site. With this information, I moved to the next station and was able to start charging. Since I was doing so well against the projected charge level needs, I cut this stop short. I charged for only 19 minutes, going from 22% to 50%, a full 9% less than the planner had recommended.

My stop in Portage, MI was one of the two EA locations I have visited previously. I stopped here when I was bringing Elektra home for the first time. This site is not well located and is not an easy off, easy on stop. Off the highway at least a couple of miles, you must go through what feels like at least a dozen stop lights! This road seems to be always busy. Of all the stops, this one is the hardest to find and least convenient for travel. Once I was plugged in and charging, I went to a nearby sandwich shop for a drink and restroom break. A charging time of 24 minutes took Elektra from 25% to 60%. From this stop, the battery had reached maximum temperature and I found that the charging speed was slowing at times to allow the cooling system to maintain the peak temperature limit for the battery. Having matched the planned charging numbers, I was off to my next stop.

Pulling into my next to last stop at Roundtree Place in Ypsilanti, MI, I was doubly surprised. The first surprise was to see another person charging. This was only the second non-Tesla vehicle I had seen at a charger all day. The bigger surprise that it was another Kia Niro EV. With my charging session started, I chatted with the driver of the Kia. He was very familiar with the fast chargers in the metro Detroit area and gave me some suggestions on other sites to check out in the future. While we were talking, a Nissan Leaf with a brand-new owner pulled up. We took some time as well-practiced EV owners to share some guidance with this new owner. We directed him to the one stall with the CHAdeMO connector. (The Nissan Leaf is one of only a few cars that use this charging standard connector.) I spent 24 minutes charging, going from 18% to 55%.

The last stop of the day was in Novi, MI. This is the second EA location I have been to previously. I used this site for my 10% to 80% charging speed test. This time, having spent longer than expected at the previous site, I arrived with 43%. I would have stopped the trip after just a short charge here, however, when I arrived, I was met by a couple of VW ID.4s charging up. These drivers were a couple of VW engineers who had just driven the vehicles up from the factory in Chattanooga, TN. They had covered roughly the same number of miles I had covered. They mentioned that I was the first other electric car driver they had encountered charging during their travels. We spent about 10 minutes chatting about the new car, then I was off.

Summary Stats:

Total Distance: 679.5 miles; Total Driving Time: 11hrs 13min

Total Time Charging: 2hrs 40min; Total kWh Charged: 173kWh

Total Cost: $52.24 (EA Membership rate $0.31 per kWh)

What this trip in miles would have cost me driving a gas car at 30 MPG: $72.48 (Current Gas Price $3.20 Gallon)

Did I have fun: Yes, especially talking with all the other EV drivers.

Would I do it again: I would love to do this loop in another EV like the ID.4 or the Mach-E; to get a feel for how other EVs handle the trip.

What other networks providers am I planning: I am looking to do EVgo next. They have a limited network in the metro Detroit area, and I think I could visit all the sites in a long afternoon.

All the Stats (green is actual):

Waypoint	Arrival SoC	Depart SoC	Cost	Charge Time	Dist.	Drive Time	Arrival	Departure
Point on map		90%			34 mi	38 min		20:50
		90%			33.5	0:41:00		6:15
Meijer Roseville (Roseville, MI) [Electrify America]	75%	81%	$2	5 min	117 mi	1 h 48 min	21:28	21:33
30800 Little Mack Ave Roseville, MI	77%	82%	$0.99	8 min	108	1:48:00	6:51	6:59
Meijer Bay City (Bay City, MI) [Electrify America]	27%	73%	$12	26 min	121 mi	1 h 44 min	23:22	23:48
2980 Wilder Rd Bay City, MI	38%	77%	$8.68	30 min	119	1:42:00	8:47	9:21
Meijer Gaylord (Gaylord, MI) [Electrify America]	10%	56%	$12	24 min	76 mi	1 h 25 min	1:32	1:56
250 Meijer Dr Gaylord, MI	24%	67%	$10.52	29 min	71	1:23:00	11:03	11:39
Meijer Cadillac (Cadillac, MI) [Electrify America]	25%	76%	$13	29 min	144 mi	2 h 21 min	3:22	3:51
8605 East 34 Road Cadillac, MI	43%	77%	$8.22	26 min	137	2:08:00	13:02	13:31
Walmart 2869 Lansing [Electrify America]	11%	59%	$12	25 min	72 mi	1 h 10 min	6:13	6:37
409 N Marketplace Blvd Lansing, MI	22%	50%	$6.90	19 min	70	1:16:00	15:39	16:02
Sams Club 6661 - Portage, MI [Electrify America]	25%	60%	$9	18 min	108 mi	1 h 42 min	7:48	8:07
7021 Westnedge Portage, MI	25%	60%	$8.06	24 min	107	1:42:00	17:18	17:44
Roundtree Place [Electrify America]	10%	25%	$4	8 min	33 mi	39 min	9:49	9:57
2539 Ellsworth Rd Ypsilanti, MI	18%	55%	$8.87	24 min	34	0:33:00	19:26	20:05
Walmart 5893 - Novi, MI [Electrify America]	10%						10:37
26090 Ingersol Dr Novi, MI	43%	58%					20:38