[Trip Report] - A Pacific Northwest Family wedding

[daveo4EV]

Plan: Visit my Brother and his daughter who's getting Married in Port Townsend, WA - woot family wedding!!! And I get to see my daughter who lives in Seattle (she's coming over for the wedding - double bonus family time!)

Route w/Macan Turbo EV

• √ - Day 1: Santa Cruz to Eureka, CA
• √- Day 2: Eureka, CA to Astoria, OR via Hwy 1
• √- Day 3: Astoria, OR to Port Townsend, WA
  • long way around the Olympic Peninsula
• * - Day 4: no traveling - wedding
• Day 5: Port Townsend, WA to Grants Pass, OR (or further south depending on how far we can get on day 5)
• Day 6: arrive home in Santa Cruz, CA from where ever we stopped the night before…

Fast charging and the CCS network is obviously going to be in play here - having family in this area this trip is familiar to me and I've done it with an EV multiple times. Historically I"ve avoided the Hwy 1 segement with a CCS EV - a couple of years ago it was too daunting for a CCS vehicle (my taycan) with two segments on Hwy 1 being close to max Taycan range and requiring two specific charging sites to be "drama free" - I skipped it…

however it's 2025 now - and CCS coverage is better than it was a couple of years ago - let's give it go!! (I-5 north/south has been good/easy for a few years now - but Hwy 1 presented a challenge historically)

Uneventful trip so far:

• Wed. Jun 16th
  • Petaluma EVGo - opportunity charge while we grabbed cookies for the trip - no plug and charge but good solid charge rate - used the EVGo app to quickly/easily start the session
    • allowed us to "skip" a charging stop further north and drive directly to Eureka…
    • Santa Cruz to Eureka requires one stop somewhere - and then onto Eureka - the "best" choices are:
      • Petaluma (a bit too early)
      • Willits - a "safe" choice but lacks "bold confidence" as an EV road warrior
      • Garberville - a "bold" choice, but not impossible
    • the Petaluma "cookie break" + "charging stop" - allowed us to "skip" Willits and Garberville - but Petaluma was really too early to stop for a true EV "roadwarrior"
  • Eureka, CA - EA - Plug&charge - mild drama
    • the two 350 kW charging stalls occupied by Bolts
    • Plug&Charge "authorzied" the session just fine, but couldn't start the actual charging for some reason - charging error after 3 minutes of "doing nothing" - grrrr
    • left a running charging session w/Porsche charging service ever after I unplugged - that I had to manually cancel that session since it was blocking the "retry" session
    • unplugged - plugged in with 2nd cable - no plug&charge, but started session via Porsche app
    • charged a bit - but stopped short of goal % to go to dinner.
    • unplug to get dinner before Eureka rolls up the side walks
    • came back for a 2nd "go" - plug&charge worked fine - we got to 90'ish % for the next day's drive…
• Thursday Jun 17th
  • Coos Bay, OR - EA - plug&charge worked great - good charge rate -no drama
  • lovely drive up the oregon coast
  • Warrenton, OR (Astoria) - EA - plug&charge worked great - good charge rate - no drama
  • hmmmm - skipped the Rivian charger site closer to the hotel - 1 it wasn't 'free' - 2 didn't want to deal with any drama - but it appears to be one of the Rivian sites open to non-Rivians - hmmm - not congested like the EA site - consider this for future.
• Friday Jun 18th
  • Aberdeen, WA - EA @ Walmart - parking lot was a zoo - charging site was more of zoo and congested - two poorly parked F-150's - 1 of the 4 stalls "unavailable" and a 3rd car occupiying the 4th functional stall - and what appered to be a couple of other EV's "waiting" to charge with no clear queue…
  • pivot to plan "b" - we're going to use the BP Pulse chargers at the local Arco station
  • 6 stalls - 150 kW charge rate - no waiting - all 6 stalls are avalable to us…
  • no stalls occupied - app based charging session got some electrons
  • not my favorite charging network but functional and no drama!! 150 kW max rate
  • we took the "long" way from Astoria to Port Townsend, WA - and Aberdeen stop was necessary/practical to give us buffer to get to Port Angeles - distance from Astoria to Port Angeles via route we took was just on the edge of Macan EV range - +/- 5 miles best case range - too close - so add some "buffer" in Aberdeen, WA
  • Drove to Fork's, WA - nice drive
  • BONUS CHARGE!!!! Tesla Supercharger w/MagicDock - how come no one told me!!!!! 8 stalls, no waiting - Tesla app based activation!! Bathroom break, snacks and electrons!! - 133 kW charge rate - we no longer need to stop in Port Angles and can skip the likely congested 3 stall EA chargers in Port Angeles
    • app based activation - no drama - it just "worked"
  • Drive to hotel near Port Townsend and they have tesla Destination chargers - 6 Tesla Universal Wall Charger - in a configuration I've _NEVER_ seen
    • you need to use the Tesla app to activate the charger and they are able to "bill" the charging session - oh well - it's electrons!!!
  • car is now sitting @ 95% having been charged @ 8 kW by hotel chargers…

We have the wedding "today" light driving - will top off with hotel chargers again tonight - drive home sunday via I-5 south (3 most likely sites - Salem (easy), Albany (possible), Eugene (hard - 300+ miles)

couple of pics below - 1st pic - charging in Forks, WA at bonus MagicDock charger!! 2nd pic charge screen from the Tesla app for the hotel destination chargers!!

hotel charging "billing" via the Tesla app to activate the hotel's Tesla Destination chargers - this is new - I've never seen this - it's fine I understand - power is not free - but apparenlty the Tesla chargers can be configured for "billing" - who knew??? TUWC - I didn't even have to use my own adapter!!

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[daveo4EV]

the trip has had a "minor" issue - in Eureka the car has develped a "chassis fault" - I appear to have lost ride height control -nothing else is wrong - but the chassis error is persisting so I think this a real issue - it's harshed my buzz a bit - but it's the first serious problem I've had with the Macan Turbo EV since I picked it up in Nov. of 2024 @ PECATL

I've scheduled a "service" visit for the car on Jul 31st @ local dealer service - I'll get them to address the following issues:

• new chassis error - grrrrr
• comfort access no longer works on the driver's side - have to use the FOB manually to unlock the car - comfort access works on passenger side, not driver's side - odd
  • this was "new" a week or so ago - but I wasn't going to get it serviced since I knew I wanted to take the Macan on this trip - I'm thinking my issues might take a few days in service
• windshield washer jets aim adjusts - only "original" delivery issue that I've been living with
• 2 pending recalls (that I know about, there may be more once they run my vin, who knows??)
• I'm gong to request a full set of software updates - I know there has been a lot of software progress - I'm hoping for "all the bug fixes" - even the one's I don't know about or have personally experienced

car has 11k+ miles on it - will have 12k+ miles on by the time it gets to service…may be 13k - we'll see

been a good car so far - and few if any issues while the wife and I have been enjoying the west coast and pacific north west.

Charging has been "drama" free - other than having to pivot to plan "b" in Aberdeen, WA due to congestion…

but if I had known about the MagicDock stations in Forks, WA - the Aberdeen stop would've been 100% un-necessary…

while charging has been a non-issue - this trip would be even easier with Supercharger access - there is better coverage with superchargers vs. CCS1 options for Hwy 1 north/south…there is sufficient CCS1 coverage, but there is ample, easy supercharger coverage and more options as to where you can stop and better choices for how to "segment" the trip…

 

[alxman]

@daveo4EV did you use Taycan as your car in the Tesla app to authorize the charging and billing of your Macan at the magic station? So far the Macan is not a choice.

 

[Fun TC Driving]

Happy family time to you!. Hope your new chassis software issue fixes itself your return trip home goes great.

 

[PSPJames]

Thanks, Daveo4ev, for these fantastic and informative trip reports. I still want to road trip from Palm Springs to our house in Portland but my husband is nervous... we did it 14 times in the Tesla but he's a bit apprehensive about the CCS charging. I figure if you can do the coast freeway we can certainly do the interstate (we take Highway 99 up to Sacramento as it's much less stressful than the 5). 6 months in the car and I haven't even hit the 3,000 mile mark!

 

[daveo4EV]

@daveo4EV did you use Taycan as your car in the Tesla app to authorize the charging and billing of your Macan at the magic station? So far the Macan is not a choice.

MagicDock stations are open to _ALL_ CCS vehicles with no prior agreement required between the vendor and Tesla - no vehicle choice is "necessary"

you just used the Tesla app to start the session.

 

[daveo4EV]

Thanks, Daveo4ev, for these fantastic and informative trip reports. I still want to road trip from Palm Springs to our house in Portland but my husband is nervous... we did it 14 times in the Tesla but he's a bit apprehensive about the CCS charging. I figure if you can do the coast freeway we can certainly do the interstate (we take Highway 99 up to Sacramento as it's much less stressful than the 5). 6 months in the car and I haven't even hit the 3,000 mile mark!

easy peasy - I'm not personally familar with Hwy 99 in terms of CCS charging - but I-5 pretty much anywhere in California/Oregon is "CCS easy"…I'd have zero qualms getting to Portland from Palm Springs…

 

[daveo4EV]

@daveo4EV did you use Taycan as your car in the Tesla app to authorize the charging and billing of your Macan at the magic station? So far the Macan is not a choice.

Tesla.com "find us" button - and you can check the map for "magicdock" stations

there are only 4 in all of Washington state - that's how rare they are…

I knew there was a Supercharger stations in Forks, WA - but never thought to check if it was magic dock

Forks has Teals and Rivian for chargers - no generic CCS chargers (well if you count the superchargers) but you hopefully get my point… the Rivian charging site could've been an option, but it's still Rivian "only" according to plug-share…

I've check my route home - there is no MagicDock superchargers on my I-5 route home to Santa Cruz {sigh}

I'm looking forward to VW/Audi/Porsche Access to the supercharger network

here the map - the 4 red dots are Tesla Superchargers w/MagicDock access for any/all CCS vehicles

 

[daveo4EV]

here is the "filter" you can use to restrict the Tesla supercharger map @ tesla.com to just "MagicDock" stations for planing purposes…

"other EV" at the bottom _IS_ the proper choice to see MagicDock locations…

"NACS partners" will show you general-purpose Superchargers that are open to non-Tesla vehicles that have the agreement in place…BYOA (bring your own Adapter or native NACS vehicle)

MagicDock sites are great, but depending on the region fairly rare.

 

[daveo4EV]

@daveo4EV did you use Taycan as your car in the Tesla app to authorize the charging and billing of your Macan at the magic station? So far the Macan is not a choice.

here are the "magicdock" superchargers in/around Atlanta - should be easy to test @alxman

 

[alxman]

Thank you so much. Looks like there is one close to my home. I’ll check it out soon.

 

[Paris92]

Thanks for the update and trip report (so far). Wonderful informative thread regarding the chargers/Tesla.

 

[daveo4EV]

this apparently is where it will happen!

 

[daveo4EV]

car is feeling optimistic today - i hope it’s right!

 

[JohnDor]

Drive safe! Cool review so far!

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