Bonus Episode: The Return Journey Artwork

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Basic AF: a (mostly) tech podcast

Bonus Episode: The Return Journey

December 04, 2023 • Tom Anderson & Jeff Battersby

0:00 | 13:36

Join us for a unique bonus episode as Greg Battersby follows up with us on his return journey to Southern California in his Subaru Solterra EV. Using the lessons he learned around route planning, optimizing driving techniques, and charging headaches on the first trip, was the trip home any better?

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Intro Music: Psychokinetics - The Chosen

Transcripts and some images are AI generated and may contain errors and general silliness.

...

Intro

Tom Anderson (16s)

This is a bonus episode of Basic AF Tom Anderson, Jeff Battersby, back again on a little shorter schedule.

Jeff Battersby (22s)

Tom, here we are. Yeah, well, our very first bonus episode with, for very good reason,

Jeff Battersby (29s)

we've got Greg Battersby back, my brother, who told us in our last real episode, not bonus

Solterra on the Return Home

Jeff Battersby (37s)

about his trip from Seal Beach to the San Francisco Bay Area. And we figured it only right to talk about the better planned trip, certainly, but maybe some of the foibles that that came with that.

Jeff Battersby (50s)

Greg, welcome.

Greg Battersby (51s)

good to be back and yeah I have been i've been i've been back for a couple days just everybody

Jeff Battersby (1m 1s)

The Conestoga Wagon's holding up okay?

Greg Battersby (1m 4s)

yeah oxen the oxen are uh being watered right now

Jeff Battersby (1m 9s)

Feel like you're playing a game of Oregon Trail.

Jeff Battersby (1m 14s)

You have diphtheria.

Jeff Battersby (1m 17s)

You die.

Jeff Battersby (1m 19s)

Anyway, we wanted to catch up with you.

Jeff Battersby (1m 22s)

And hear a little bit about the return trip and have you give us those details.

Jeff Battersby (1m 27s)

So it's going to make this a quick, short, sweet bonus episode.

Jeff Battersby (1m 31s)

But give us the deets. Tell us what happened, when you left, where you went, what you planned out, and how that worked out.

Greg Battersby (1m 39s)

Yeah. So, uh, made the trip back on a Saturday of last week, uh,

Greg Battersby (1m 44s)

better planned, more educated from my trip up.

Greg Battersby (1m 48s)

Um, so instead of taking the one Oh one, which is typically a little longer,

Greg Battersby (1m 53s)

and I gave you the reasons why I chose that route on the way up, I took the faster and more direct, uh, highway five, uh, uh, route down to Southern California.

Greg Battersby (2m 3s)

I also, one of the things I learned of course, was that, um, I need to drive in Eco mode. So that's.

Greg Battersby (2m 9s)

Fair. I did that. I also charged 200% before leaving, which was possible because there was a charger at my mom's house. So I just took advantage of that. So my experience was better. Instead of it taking 13 hours, it took 11 less. I left that. Yeah. And I got home at 1am. Almost exactly.

Greg Battersby (2m 36s)

And some of that was due to weight.

Greg Battersby (2m 39s)

So, as you know, most OEMs like Subaru don't have their own charging network.

Greg Battersby (2m 48s)

So, I am subject to the availability and speed of public charging.

Greg Battersby (2m 55s)

And I typically go with Electrify America, but had to use some other chargers because those weren't available.

Greg Battersby (3m 3s)

And again, we talked about routing to the charging locations.

Greg Battersby (3m 9s)

I used the Subaru app for that, HeySubaru.

Greg Battersby (3m 14s)

And, you know, in some cases it routed me backwards to an Electrify America.

Greg Battersby (3m 18s)

Of course, that wasn't an option.

Greg Battersby (3m 20s)

And there were, you know, just so people know, when you're using a public charging provider, there's weight in some cases.

Greg Battersby (3m 30s)

The worst case was I had to wait an hour, you know, because people were charging.

Greg Battersby (3m 35s)

three cables, three dispensers available.

Greg Battersby (3m 39s)

So, I waited about an hour, got up there, and then had difficulty getting the charger to work.

Greg Battersby (3m 44s)

So, we also talked about charging culture and, you know, the people that are there.

Greg Battersby (3m 48s)

Everybody's really cool.

Greg Battersby (3m 49s)

We're kind of all experiencing the same thing for the first time.

Greg Battersby (3m 52s)

And had somebody actually paid, yeah, somebody paid for my charging session because, well,

Tom Anderson (3m 53s)

Misery loves company, I guess.

Jeff Battersby (3m 59s)

Why was that? What happened?

Greg Battersby (4m 1s)

there's incentive for them, right, because they can't charge until I get out of the way.

Greg Battersby (4m 6s)

So Rob Wadey and--

Greg Battersby (4m 9s)

I was having trouble with the dispenser and this nice lady came up and tried her phone and it worked.

Greg Battersby (4m 16s)

And so then I just Venmo'd her.

Greg Battersby (4m 18s)

And then there was a person next to me after my session was underway who had similar problems.

Greg Battersby (4m 24s)

So I paid it forward and took care of her.

Greg Battersby (4m 27s)

I don't know that she paid me back. I think I took on the chin on that one.

Tom Anderson (4m 31s)

That was at the same place?

Greg Battersby (4m 32s)

Same place. It was a charge point location.

Tom Anderson (4m 34s)

Okay, so your phone started to work eventually, or your app I should say.

Greg Battersby (4m 37s)

Yeah, I guess so.

Greg Battersby (4m 39s)

The reason was, you know, they're quirky and I wasn't able to pay for it on my own, but I was able to pay for this other person's at some point.

Greg Battersby (4m 46s)

So yeah, and I think really the limitations for me with this vehicle are the range, obviously the 73 kilowatt hour battery and the speed at which it charges.

Greg Battersby (5m 1s)

So each time I stop to charge, I'm looking at an hour and that's to get it to 80%.

Greg Battersby (5m 7s)

You know, I typically...

Greg Battersby (5m 9s)

...get down around 20% before I stop to charge.

Greg Battersby (5m 13s)

I don't want to go any further than that because I don't want to get stuck.

Greg Battersby (5m 17s)

And yeah, it's been pretty consistently an hour to go from 20 to 80.

Greg Battersby (5m 21s)

So yeah, cut off two hours with my plan, you know, the different route and...

Greg Battersby (5m 28s)

...driving in eco mode, driving very slowly.

Greg Battersby (5m 31s)

I was driving...

Jeff Battersby (5m 31s)

When you say very slowly, like, what is it? It's 75 on 55 you went the whole way down?

Greg Battersby (5m 31s)

I was driving 55.

Greg Battersby (5m 37s)

I drove at 55.

Greg Battersby (5m 39s)

miles per hour, wherever possible.

Jeff Battersby (5m 40s)

Holy smokes. So wait, isn't I-5, isn't that 75 miles an hour? Can't you go 75? Okay.

Greg Battersby (5m 42s)

Yeah.

Greg Battersby (5m 46s)

It's 65 in most places, some places you can go 75, but my main concern was just battery, you know, duration.

Greg Battersby (5m 55s)

I was trying to get as many miles out of it as I could.

Greg Battersby (5m 57s)

And so I had to stop.

Greg Battersby (5m 59s)

I think it was three times versus the four that I stopped on the way up.

Greg Battersby (6m 6s)

Um, and.

Jeff Battersby (6m 8s)

Which you started at 80% when you left Seal Beach rather than 100%.

Greg Battersby (6m 9s)

Yeah.

Jeff Battersby (6m 11s)

So that gives you a little bit more.

Jeff Battersby (6m 15s)

Just as an aside, and we didn't ask this the last time, how much does it cost to charge each time?

Jeff Battersby (6m 23s)

Like what's it cost to do?

Greg Battersby (6m 24s)

Yeah, usually it's, I mean, just to tell you what I'm spending on average, it's like 12 to 15 bucks, 18 bucks at the most.

Greg Battersby (6m 34s)

And it depends, like the cost per kilowatt hour varies depending on when you charge.

Greg Battersby (6m 41s)

There's peak and off-peak charges, and I think, I don't recall exactly what the kilowatt hour price is.

Jeff Battersby (6m 47s)

So the 1 a.m. charges are fine, besides you're sitting at that place at 1 in the morning.

Jeff Battersby (6m 54s)

That's good reason. It saves some money.

Greg Battersby (6m 56s)

You're saving 15 cents, you're saving like 15 cents and it's totally worth it.

Tom Anderson (7m)

Oh boy.

Tom Anderson (7m 2s)

So you're paying say 15 bucks a charge.

Jeff Battersby (7m 2s)

Oh, man.

Tom Anderson (7m 6s)

And what would, what would be like the average mileage you would get in between?

Greg Battersby (7m 11s)

I think at 80%, it's about 180 miles on paper on the display.

Greg Battersby (7m 18s)

What I actually get, I haven't really drilled down and done the math on that, but I think that 180 miles is to 0%, right?

Greg Battersby (7m 27s)

And I'm getting down to 20%, so I'm probably getting like 150 miles, something like that,

Greg Battersby (7m 34s)

and it's like a 400-mile journey.

Tom Anderson (7m 34s)

Yeah, 'cause I was thinking about that.

Tom Anderson (7m 37s)

So if it's 15 bucks, say, a charge up,

Tom Anderson (7m 40s)

and we were talking before we started to record about the Crosstrack, which is what I have,

Tom Anderson (7m 46s)

and I can get four, 450 a tank on the highway with that.

Tom Anderson (7m 52s)

And Virginia gas is less expensive than California gas.

Jeff Battersby (7m 56s)

No, yeah, by half.

Tom Anderson (7m 56s)

So my fill up would be 36 bucks.

Tom Anderson (8m)

So, I mean, it's, yeah.

Jeff Battersby (8m)

Yeah, yeah, sorry.

Greg Battersby (8m 2s)

Yeah. Yeah, I'm digging the savings.

Jeff Battersby (8m 3s)

California gas is about five and change a gallon.

Tom Anderson (8m 4s)

Yeah, it's ridiculous. I don't know how you guys do it.

Greg Battersby (8m 10s)

But so I'm back with Subaru discussing what we're going to do.

Greg Battersby (8m 15s)

I may end up keeping this vehicle and that's just going to limit my distance travel.

Tom Anderson (8m 21s)

Yeah, and I can't remember if we talked about this too much in the first recording we did,

Tom Anderson (8m 27s)

but like your daily driving and then commute and everything to work.

Tom Anderson (8m 31s)

You like the car then.

Greg Battersby (8m 33s)

I love it. Yeah.

Tom Anderson (8m 33s)

Yeah, so it's just that really that range and even not if the range sounds like you would almost be able to tolerate that if the charging was maybe a quarter of a time of the time that it takes.

Greg Battersby (8m 46s)

Yeah, exactly. I mean, sitting there for an hour each time, and if you add weight to that, it could be two hours.

Tom Anderson (8m 52s)

And then if you have to do that two, three times a trip.

Greg Battersby (8m 55s)

Brutal.

Greg Battersby (8m 57s)

So, yeah, that's it. It's the speed of charging, size of the battery to some degree, and, you know, just adds a ton of time to your trip.

Jeff Battersby (9m 8s)

Wow. All right. Well, I'm happy that you cut the time off the trip. I'm sorry that you had to wait at the base of the grapevine for... Was that the one? I think that was the one where you had the hour wait just because you couldn't get your app to work and the person behind you wanted to go.

Greg Battersby (9m 26s)

Yeah, that was the basic grab time.

Jeff Battersby (9m 28s)

And we really appreciate you coming back for this little update. It's pretty good. I've actually heard from a bunch of people already.

Jeff Battersby (9m 38s)

about the last episode of the podcast, that they were really interested in it.

Jeff Battersby (9m 46s)

There's a thing that's on a lot of people's minds, and I don't think it's a thing that's played up that much when it comes to electric cars.

Jeff Battersby (9m 52s)

And yeah, granted that the Subaru has a slower charge time, but you still got limitations with other vehicles too.

Jeff Battersby (10m)

It's not like you're pumping gas and you're gone in 15, 20 minutes, which is what we said in the last episode.

Tom Anderson (10m 4s)

Yeah, yeah, it sounds like the Tesla is the king of that, right? The fastest charging.

Jeff Battersby (10m 8s)

The fastest charging, some of them, some vehicles are starting to get longer range than Tesla now.

Jeff Battersby (10m 16s)

But I think they're pretty beefy vehicle price too.

Tom Anderson (10m 21s)

Yeah, and then it gets into how many motors you want and all the other extras, right?

Jeff Battersby (10m 24s)

Right.

Tom Anderson (10m 26s)

You want the dual, the triple, the Cybertruck, whatever.

Greg Battersby (10m 29s)

Yeah. As I said, that Solterra is a great vehicle if you live in the mountains, right?

Jeff Battersby (10m 30s)

I'm not driving a Cybertruck.

Greg Battersby (10m 39s)

If you don't have to drive a long ways. From what I hear, and I guess I shouldn't say it's a great vehicle because I haven't used it in this capacity yet, but it's supposed to be very good in the snow with the dual motors and elevated. It's lifted a little bit more than the typical.

Greg Battersby (10m 59s)

track etc so.

Jeff Battersby (11m 1s)

Keep us, when you decide to go to the mountains, keep us updated so we can have a Saint Bernard on the ready for you with a big drum of whiskey around his neck.

Greg Battersby (11m 7s)

Yeah, exactly.

Tom Anderson (11m 8s)

So, as we would say in the technology world, Jeff, this is very much a 1.0 release for Subaru in terms of EVs and everything.

Jeff Battersby (11m 17s)

Yeah, I would

Tom Anderson (11m 20s)

And I got a couple of comments on the Subaru page about the hybrids too, because there's someone in the UK that reached out to me and told me that he's got the e-sport Forester hybrid over in the UK.

Tom Anderson (11m 32s)

And he said, he's kind of meh about that as well.

Tom Anderson (11m 35s)

I don't know.

Tom Anderson (11m 35s)

I asked him for some more details, but I haven't heard anything.

Tom Anderson (11m 38s)

back yet, but so hopefully we'll see if they expand the hybrid line in the U S.

Greg Battersby (11m 39s)

Yeah. Yeah. And I think, right. I think I misspoke last time I said that the EPA estimated mileage on the Crosstrek hybrid, which they're not selling anymore, was 100 miles. It's more like 90, but still that's, that's, it's pretty good. Yeah. Yeah.

Tom Anderson (11m 43s)

I know the forest is coming up with that, but.

Jeff Battersby (11m 56s)

And still, that's, yeah, you could, yeah, you could, it's not bad. Definitely not bad.

Tom Anderson (11m 57s)

That's pretty good. That would be good.

Jeff Battersby (12m 4s)

All right, Greg, thanks so much for stepping back in with us. Really appreciate it,

Jeff Battersby (12m 8s)

sharing your heartbreak with us. And, you know, who knows, maybe in the next few months,

Jeff Battersby (12m 15s)

you'll figure out another way of making this work, either by getting Subaru to let you get into a Crosstrek or figuring out, you know, a better way of being able to handle that, the journey.

Jeff Battersby (12m 26s)

You know, maybe there's some magic or science to it. Yeah, exactly. All right. Thanks so much.

Greg Battersby (12m 28s)

Other tricks. Yeah, I'll keep you posted.

Tom Anderson (12m 34s)

All right, thank you. Is that it? No.

Jeff Battersby (12m 34s)

So this is, oh, sorry, Tom, I'm interrupting you. Yeah, yeah, that's it. Once again,

Close

Jeff Battersby (12m 41s)

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Tom Anderson (12m 45s)