[ad_1]
Mammoth Mountain is now open for the 23/24 season, not even 100 days after they closed on August 6 for the 22/23 season, and I drove my ’24 iX M60 up there for the opening weekend.
Charging:
I went to Santa Clarita for some errands first, and started my trip from there. I thought I’d top off at Electrify America Westfield Valencia before I left, but I couldn’t get 2 charging stations to initiate session. The charging stations made some noises after I scanned my pass and hit Continue on the screen, and just stopped themselves. I still had more than enough juice so I just left for Mojave.
Mojave EA was wide open when I got there so I pulled up to a 350 kW stall, but I ran into the same issue, so I called EA support, which quickly connected to a representative that forced a charging session to start for me. She informed me to try updating or using a different payment method in the pass as that had worked for some people. I spent 34 minutes to charge from 16% to 80% SoC and continued my trip. While I waited I changed the credit card stored in my EA pass.
When I arrived in Bishop, a Rivian was just leaving 350 kW station #2. So I tried that first. It actually worked this time (and all sessions afterwards), but the charging rate only stayed at 31 kW, I waited a minute before switching to the other 350 kW station #3. #3 seemed to be sharing power with 150 kW #1, which had a car (VW?) charging. It only charged at ~130 kW despite my SoC being at 16%. So I moved over to 150 kW #4, which started at ~140 kW.
I spent 40 min at station #4 and charged to 90% SoC before heading up to Mammoth. I arrived at Mammoth Mountain Inn with 58% SoC left.
The battery dropped about 3% overnight while parked outside the first night, about freezing temperatures. Not much noticeable drop otherwise when parked in the garage for the following two nights.
When it was time to head back on Sunday, the car gained 1% rolling down to the Black Velvet coffee shop on Main St, and used 9% going from Mammoth to EA Bishop. The EA Bishop is by the Vons and was wide open when I got there and when I left. I started a charging session at 350 kW #3, the charging rate was again ~130 KW even though no other car was present, but I didn’t really care this time.
I left on foot to grab a Turkey Sandwich (really good!) from Schat’s Bakery. I wish the EA stations were closer to the bakery shop. When I came back 47minutes later, the car was at 99% SoC (started from 39%).
I charged one more time at Mojave, 23 minutes from 36% to 80%.
Most of my entire trip was done at ~75 mph on the freeway, for a small section I went up to 77 mph to follow two other cars on the road. I think charging might have added about 50 minutes on the trip to and about 20 minutes on the trip back (I was going to grab food in Bishop anyways) compared to when I drove an ICE/hybrid car., considering restrooms/fueling stops.
(Assisted) Driving:
Assisted Driving made the trip pretty relaxing. Assisted Driving Plus (hands-free) was available through the interstates and on CA-14 up till Mojave. It was not available between Mojave and CA-14/US 395 junction, and not available for my entire US 395 trip from the junction up to Mammoth, which was honestly disappointing. Well, regular Assisted Driving mode performed pretty well and predictably on 395, but I had to keep my hands on the steering wheel the entire time of course.
I think the most fun part and the highlight of the trip, was when the onboard navigation decided to take me through CA-2 Angeles Crest/Forest Hwy on my way home. At first I thought maybe there was some traffic at CA-14 to I-5 junction so it wanted to merge at the next ramp. Then I realized I was on a twisty canyon road. Oh well, good thing I was in a performance SUV.
Sports B mode turned out to be really fun, and I’d do it all again. My skis did roll around in the trunk a couple of times though, oops. The trip was done on 22″ summer tires, I only saw a temperature dip below 40°F/4.5 °C briefly on the first night driving up.
[ad_2]
