2017 Fiat 500e – Bakersfield to Lebec

In February of this year I chose a lease vehicle that was being returned to the dealer. In this case it was a 2017 Fiat 500e. I had been interested in getting an electric car, but until my current job I was driving my car to job sites around Kern County.

It’s been working great for my day to day drive to work and little errands and longer Saturday morning garage sale hunting. What I’ve always wondered is how would it do if I headed south on 99 Fwy then on the 5 Fwy up grape vine and stopping on top at Lebec where there is a charging station at the Jack in the Box.

The opportunity finally presented itself and on Saturday, July 11, 2020 I got in the car with my wife and headed up the mountain.

In the morning it was a bearable 78 degrees and so we decided it would be a good idea to take the trip up the mountain without our A/C on. So we cracked our windows and headed out. I set the cruise control for 70 mph and took a picture of my instrument panel every 10 minutes in the beginning and as we began our accent, I took a picture every minute. I’ve taken the numbers from the pictures and placed them in a spreadsheet, and that’s just below.

Time	Battery Level	Miles Range	Speed	Motor Power	Outside Temp.
7:26	93	86	71	16	78
7:36	78	70	70	18	78
7:41	67	57	69	24	82
7:45	59	49	68	26	84
7:46	57	46	69	23	84
7:47	55	44	68	27	83
7:48	51	40	68	47	82
7:49	47	35	68	48	80
7:50	43	32	68	45	78
7:51	39	27	68	44	76
7:52	36	24	68	20	73
7:53	33	21	69	8	73
7:54	31	19	68	28	73
7:55	28	17	68	28	73
7:56	26	16	66	32	73
7:56	14	12	13	-5	73
7:57	14	11	9	1	73
7:57	13	9	0	0	73

It was crazy to watch your battery level drop and hope we’re going to make it. It might have been more efficient to drive slower, but I kept the cruse control at 70 and did not experience the need for speeding up or slowing down for traffic. We arrived at the charging station and wave the tap card I purchased when I signed up for the charging service a few months back. We pulled out the left plug and put it in. Nothing. It was broken! We had one more chance. I waved my card at the machine again and chose the right side and then we had a winner.

I started to charge, and we sat in the car with the windows open, used the nearby restroom at the gas station and waited. At some point the charging stopped because I had forgotten that I have scheduled charge set and so I had to override that to continue charging. We were in that parking space for a little under 3 hours. I get a text after unplugging my car that it cost me $4.65 for adding 16.699 kWh.

I knew the drive down was going to be easy for the car, so I turned the A/C on, but at a reasonable 80 degrees. The return trip was easy and pleasant. There was a little more traffic and could not use cruise control till I was down the mountain and in the valley.

Time	Battery Level	Miles Range	Speed	Motor Power	Outside Temp.
10:54	86	65	0	0	109
10:56	84	55	65	-5	102
10:57	83	55	65	1	98
10:58	83	57	65	4	95
10:59	82	57	65	17	93
11:00	82	58	53	19	91
11:01	82	60	59	-10	91
11:02	82	61	62	-11	91
11:03	83	62	65	-14	91
11:04	84	64	43	-17	91
11:06	84	67	70	10	93
11:07	84	68	70	6	93
11:12	81	70	70	9	93
11:17	76	67	70	14	97
11:22	69	63	70	17	96
11:28	62	57	70	15	96
11:30	59	55	62	-29	96
11:31	60	55	0	0	97
11:32	59	55	39	11	97
11:33	58	54	38	3	99

So we arrived home just over 5 hours after leaving and I had 58 percent battery left. I don’t think I would attempt this later in the day with hotter temperatures making A/C a requirement. I doubt I will ever attempt to make it all the way over the mountain into LA.

It was a nice learning experience and we did not get stranded, we got to enjoy some mountain scenery and the local fast food. All in all a good day.