Use THIS And DON'T Get Stranded When Road Tripping Your EV

[@LeftCoastEV]

Have you used A Better Routeplanner (ABRP) on one of your road trips? How was the experience? For me it is always a nice tool to have when you drive an EV especially when in unfamiliar territory.

[@rosiekong5472]

This is the perfect tool for new EV owners for sure. Or people buying a new EV and learning how it drives. I like to use it myself.

[@LeftCoastEV]

For sure if I am new to EVs I would be using the Premium version with the OBS2 dongle until I get comfortable.

[@westcoastbestcoast88]

Perfect app for EV beginners. It truly does make range anxiety a thing you never have to worry about. Now I just use it to gauge how much charge I need from charger to charger when on a road trip. Didn’t know you could use the live data without a subscription. Will have to check it out.

[@LeftCoastEV]

I agree. If you are new to EVs and don’t have one with a good built in route planner (like Teslas do) then get this app and dongle.

[@gnumel]

Kia soul ev here, 64kw, got it only a few weeks ago. Immediately added the obdlink cx, ant the same extension cable ahah (although I have not put the extension cable in, because I want to tie the switch to a fuse to power it with ignition). So far in all my local trips ABPR has been exactly spot on. It says I will arrive at 49%, I arrive at 49%. I have not got to do a long road trip yet though, except the day I drove it home from a dealer 500km away, but I did not have the obd dongle at the time.

[@gnumel]

If you added the dongle recently, it has to get data on the consumption to be precise

[@gnumel]

Car play goes full screen?? Android auto does not :(

[@LeftCoastEV]

CarPlay does go full screen. Android Auto does not? I will have to check this for myself!

[@LeftCoastEV]

Awesome. Good info!

[@LeftCoastEV]

I just checked on my car with an Android phone and for me Android Auto goes full screen. Make sure to enable this in the infotainment settings and if it still doesn’t work then I think you need to update the car software. Easy to DYI.

[@mondotv4216]

Beautiful? Looked like a gravel carpark to me. I guess beauty is the eye of the beholder.

[@LeftCoastEV]

Haha just like when a mom tells her kid that they are good looking but no one else thinks the same way, right?

[@YeOldeTraveller]

Extended use of ABRP with your car will allow ABRP to learn how the car operates at different speeds and temperatures. It also can get a good feel for the charge curve. It will then have that data for the routing. For me, the best part of ABRP is the ability to do the planning on my computer and then use that route in the car. If ABRP had better integration with my car, I would likely use it exclusively. If I could get a reasonable route, with chargers, from Google Maps, I would not need ABRP. I really like the ability to set the target SoC for charger and destination arrival. This is the current pain point with Google Maps. These values are way too high currently. My current approach is to have ABRP collect the data, and use the it to plan the initial charge stops. I then use Google Maps to route to each charger. Google Maps can tell the car the destination is a charger, so the car will pre-condition the battery.

[@LeftCoastEV]

I use ABRP to plan my routes same as you and then use Google to navigate there. I feel that ABRP is the perfect tool for new EV owners (if their car does not have a decent route planning solution) to learn the ins and outs of their vehicle.

[@nbstreet0631]

Does ABRP connect to all cars through OBD2? Or just a few?

[@LeftCoastEV]

They made sure to have as many cars supported as possible via OBD2. I’ve not heard of anyone say they couldn’t connect their vehicle. Just make sure to get a supported dongle like the OBDLink CX. Many dongles are not supported.

[@simplygregsterev]

I stopped using it ages ago. If I am going to “uncharted” territory I will just use Plugshare to find whats along the way and figure it out

[@gnumel]

@@nbstreet0631 you can connect the obdii to the Torque app, and if you know what to read, read the right values from _any_ car. And then there is integration between ABRP and Torque

[@AndrewLumsden]

Any developments with doing a video about the availability of chargers at rest areas and viewpoints that I suggested many moons ago!? That would really help the road tripper. 🤔😊

[@LeftCoastEV]

Yes! Planning on early 2025 when my day job vacation days reset and I can do it properly without having to rush.

[@Jonathan-vx2qj]

Whats up with the switch and extension cable?You don't have to unplug the ODB2 dongle when you turn off the car it should just goto sleep on its own. Wired to Wireless carplay dongles, are super cheap. You need wireless carplay, you just dont know it yet!

[@LeftCoastEV]

Not on my car. It stays on so I would rather turn it off with a switch. Call me old school but I like to know it’s off. I am familiar with wireless Apple CarPlay dongles (did a video on one a while ago). Thanks for watching!

[@AndrewLumsden]

😳😱 Cleaning your windscreen would have been good! 🙄😖🤣

[@LeftCoastEV]

Haha thanks! Winter has come to Canada so if you clean it next minute it is dirty again. They love to cover the roads here with a gravel and salt mix when the weather drops below freezing so cars get dirty fast! But next time I will carry some cleaning wipes for sure!