Certain EVgo high speed commercial EV charging stations worked great, but other EVgo stations simply would not work with my car. Those that did not work seemed to be the same incompatibility problem I had in Las Vegas the previous year. Most worked, some didn’t, but I had patience so I carried on. From there I charged at various EVgo high speed commercial EV charging stations along the 99 freeway. I eventually made it after draining my batteries and about half of my REX (BMW i3 Range Extender) gasoline tank. I was going to have to drive over the Grapevine and into Bakersfield without any high speed commercial EV charging stations. This is where the trip was going to get tricky. I drove from Duarte to Castaic where I topped off my EV batteries at another EVgo DC3 high speed charger. From there I drove to the WalMart in Duarte and charged up with an EVgo high speed commercial EV charging station. They have an EVgo high speed commercial EV charging station there that worked perfectly. I left San Diego County and headed up the I-15 freeway towards the Lake Elsinore Outlet Mall. My plan was to drive through the Central Valley along the I-5 freeway, but incredibly there were very few non-Tesla high speed commercial EV charging stations along this heavily traveled thoroughfare! So I mapped out an alternative route using the 99 freeway. I first planned my trip on Plugshare which is a great mobile app that shows where commercial EV charging stations are located, allows you to filter based on connector type and provides reviews from users.
There is a severe shortage of EV charging stations Let’s see how my little BMW i3 handles the trip. A year later in September 2016 I embarked on a 2nd adventure, this time to San Francisco. If you read my blog post about my EV drive from San Diego to Las Vegas you know it is a bit of an adventure with spotty availability of commercial EV charging stations.