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ABRP (A Better Route Planner) Reviews/Comments

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2.2K views 17 replies 10 participants last post by  Jersey Bill  
#1 ·
I'm starting this thread in hopes to elicit any and all current information on the ABRP app for used with XC40 Recharge. I have scrolled through other discussions on this topic, most a bit dated and those otherwise mixed in with other topics. I hope to get specific and up-to-date assessments here.

I was introduced to this route planning app recently by a fellow EV owner (not a Recharge) and have been initially impressed with the overall functionality. I have downloaded (ABRP 6.1) to the Android system on my car and am going to use on upcoming trip. I also have on my Android phone - but plan to use the app directly on the car as I do not use the cable-dependent Android Auto (as I have mentioned elsewhere this seems a bit redundant). During install, the app requested, and I granted access to car information, which it displays. So far so good.

As a start I am using the base (free) version and have not decided to upgrade to the premium (subscription) version.

I'm not sure if this is an improvement over the native Google Maps, but any insights would be appreciated.
 
#4 ·
Have a Premium account with ABRP. It’s pretty good, but honestly, Google has come a long way. I tested range and accuracy on a 120km trip, and Google was 1% closer to the final number. But it also told me that both apps deal with conditions and elevation really well - there were climbs of 300m and speed limits of 50-90kph, with a final run of 2km over a rough road at below 20kph in temperatures of 15-20C. One thing common to both Google and ABRP is that accuracy requires an Internet connection. We took an 1800km trip this spring with most of it out of range. The mapping worked just fine, but I followed the ABCs - Always be Charging, and didn’t trust range predictions. It was quite a bit cooler up north, with charging stations few and far between and temperatures quite a bit cooler. Instead I calculated consumption based on distance. Funny thing was despite a lack of signal, we had Spotify most of the time. No idea why!
 
#11 ·
I also recommend using both ABRP and Google Maps if your trip is long and/or going into low charge percentages and/or in more rural areas.

On a recent road trip from NorCal to Idaho:

Pluses for ABRP: it knew I had a Tesla adapter when Google didn’t. That saved me hours of driving the long way.

Minuses: ABRP tried to send me on a state hwy that was closed - and had been all winter! I reported the "bug" to ABRP. But had I followed ABRPs directions, it would have cost me ~2 hours reversing course.

Hope this helps!
 
#12 ·
You should be able to go into Google Maps settings in the car to include a NACS adapter. I agree that in general, the maps do miss things like closed roads, particularly in town - depends on who is responsible for posting info. We had a connector street near home that was closed for over a year. Took Google about six months. Ditto, speed limit changes, which are happening all over. These things are a moving target, dependent on so many external factors. I have multiple apps on my phone like ChargeHub and PlugShare to check on chargers. Google and ABRB are good - a lot better than they were. But none of them are perfect. Kind of makes me leery of things like Automation in my car. The cruise control is pretty good, but my foot is always handy to override it. As for people who believe uncle Elon, don’t get me started…
 
#13 ·
ABRP is a must-have for planning a trip with multiple stops, from a computer or your smartphone, while configuring preferred chargers (Ionity, Tesla, etc.) and simulating various SoC charging at different steps of your trip. This is something that is absolutely impossible to do easily directly in the car with AAOS Maps. The best to do is plan your trip on ABRP, then send the trip from ABRP to Google on your phone, then send it to the car (there is a direct option to do it).
The driving GPS application on ABRP is correct, but really too optimistic in terms of time (because it is less aware of the traffic). I've used it through Android Auto in the car (your need the Premium ABRP subscription for this), but the phone becomes extremely hot quickly, i.e. the GPS driving application is very CPU intensive. So I eventually use the builtin AAOS Maps application in the car.
But to summarize, the duo ABRP-Google (ABRP for planning your trip, AAOS Maps for driving) is really a killer.
 
#14 ·
Back from recent road trip to interior British Columbia. The XC40 is a comfortable ride and performed very well overall that included climbing up Coquihalla Pass (averaging around 21 kWh/100 km or 33 kWh/100 mi on the trip) and even rumbling up an unpaved logging road the last 25 clicks to the final destination (including the 5 days sitting idle while we were boated into remote fishing lodge). In summary, I ended up not using ABRP much. What I found was the application (installed on the vehicle as well as my cell phone) was quirky, sometimes not booting up when initiated - or took a long time to come to service. It did read the car information as permitted, but I ended up using the native Google Maps. Goggle Maps was reliable in setting up and implementing the full route home with periodic stops for charging. At each stop, there is a notice of how much charge is needed along the route - which I found very dependable and informative. In addition, I used the offline feature available in Google Maps and downloaded the last section of the route and saved ahead of time where there is no cell service!
Image



I did invoke ABRP in route planning on way home for comparison, but due to its poor performance, I relied on Google Maps. And here is the most interesting experience: on the way home, I suddenly got a notice that "ABRP is interfering with performance and is being disabled..." or something to this effect, as it flashed momentarily on the screen and I was busy driving and could not read the notice entirely. My guess is that it was competing with internal memory for reading car information that was also being used for Google Maps. But more interesting, when I got home and unpacked, I went to see if I could replicate the notice only to find that ABRP icon was no longer displayed on the home screen! Navigating to the apps menu under Settings>Privacy>Applications, I found the app still installed. I am wondering if anyone else has had such experience? Interesting!

In British Columbia, charging can be found at sites run by BC Hydro (I have the app on phone and established account), Canadian Tire with Electrify Canada app and account, or at the plentiful Petro-Canada stations all along the route. At Petro-Canada, no account needed just a credit card (in the same manner one would purchase gasoline for ICE). BC Hydro provides either 50kW or 100kW service. Faster charging (200-350 kW) at Petro-Canada and Canadian Tire. The cost for charging up to 80-90% SOC typically ran about $15 CAN ($10 US). Overall, a much more convenient and better developed electric infrastructure than found in the US (no thanks to our current Felon in the Whitehouse). There are Tesla stations, but despite having the adaptor I avoid those at all possible costs. In fact, there is a set of BC Hydro charging stations that I found at a rest area along the way are no cost - 50kW charging for no charge! :p

Image


And a big thanks to my fellow Canadian fishermen and lodge proprietors!

Image
 
#15 · (Edited)
EV Guy said:
EV Guy said:
I'm starting this thread in hopes to elicit any and all current information on the ABRP app for used with XC40 Recharge. I have scrolled through other discussions on this topic, most a bit dated and those otherwise mixed in with other topics. I hope to get specific and up-to-date assessments here.

I was introduced to this route planning app recently by a fellow EV owner (not a Recharge) and have been initially impressed with the overall functionality. I have downloaded (ABRP 6.1) to the Android system on my car and am going to use on upcoming trip. I also have on my Android phone - but plan to use the app directly on the car as I do not use the cable-dependent Android Auto (as I have mentioned elsewhere this seems a bit redundant). During install, the app requested, and I granted access to car information, which it displays. So far so good.

As a start I am using the base (free) version and have not decided to upgrade to the premium (subscription) version.

I'm not sure if this is an improvement over the native Google Maps, but any insights would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Back from recent road trip to interior British Columbia. The XC40 is a comfortable ride and performed very well overall that included climbing up Coquihalla Pass (averaging around 21 kWh/100 km or 33 kWh/100 mi on the trip) and even rumbling up an unpaved logging road the last 25 clicks to the final destination (including the 5 days sitting idle while we were boated into remote fishing lodge). In summary, I ended up not using ABRP much. What I found was the application (installed on the vehicle as well as my cell phone) was quirky, sometimes not booting up when initiated - or took a long time to come to service. It did read the car information as permitted, but I ended up using the native Google Maps. Goggle Maps was reliable in setting up and implementing the full route home with periodic stops for charging. At each stop, there is a notice of how much charge is needed along the route - which I found very dependable and informative. In addition, I used the offline feature available in Google Maps and downloaded the last section of the route and saved ahead of time where there is no cell service!
View attachment 9634


I did invoke ABRP in route planning on way home for comparison, but due to its poor performance, I relied on Google Maps. And here is the most interesting experience: on the way home, I suddenly got a notice that "ABRP is interfering with performance and is being disabled..." or something to this effect, as it flashed momentarily on the screen and I was busy driving and could not read the notice entirely. My guess is that it was competing with internal memory for reading car information that was also being used for Google Maps. But more interesting, when I got home and unpacked, I went to see if I could replicate the notice only to find that ABRP icon was no longer displayed on the home screen! Navigating to the apps menu under Settings>Privacy>Applications, I found the app still installed. I am wondering if anyone else has had such experience? Interesting!

In British Columbia, charging can be found at sites run by BC Hydro (I have the app on phone and established account), Canadian Tire with Electrify Canada app and account, or at the plentiful Petro-Canada stations all along the route. At Petro-Canada, no account needed just a credit card (in the same manner one would purchase gasoline for ICE). BC Hydro provides either 50kW or 100kW service. Faster charging (200-350 kW) at Petro-Canada and Canadian Tire. The cost for charging up to 80-90% SOC typically ran about $15 CAN ($10 US). Overall, a much more convenient and better developed electric infrastructure than found in the US (no thanks to our current Felon in the Whitehouse). There are Tesla stations, but despite having the adaptor I avoid those at all possible costs. In fact, there is a set of BC Hydro charging stations that I found at a rest area along the way are no cost - 50kW charging for no charge! :p

View attachment 9635

And a big thanks to my fellow Canadian fishermen and lodge proprietors!

View attachment 9636


EV Guy said:
I'm starting this thread in hopes to elicit any and all current information on the ABRP app for used with XC40 Recharge. I have scrolled through other discussions on this topic, most a bit dated and those otherwise mixed in with other topics. I hope to get specific and up-to-date assessments here.

I was introduced to this route planning app recently by a fellow EV owner (not a Recharge) and have been initially impressed with the overall functionality. I have downloaded (ABRP 6.1) to the Android system on my car and am going to use on upcoming trip. I also have on my Android phone - but plan to use the app directly on the car as I do not use the cable-dependent Android Auto (as I have mentioned elsewhere this seems a bit redundant). During install, the app requested, and I granted access to car information, which it displays. So far so good.

As a start I am using the base (free) version and have not decided to upgrade to the premium (subscription) version.

I'm not sure if this is an improvement over the native Google Maps, but any insights would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Wow, you found working Petrocan stations! They are a bit like what we used to say about Lucas electrics in British cars - the Prince of Darkness. To be fair, it looks like the charging stations on the highway to the ferry are finally being replaced after well over a year. Hopefully they’ve improved the software too. Glad you had a good trip. Hopefully you avoided the smoke from forest fires too. BC Hydro is my go-to charging service, and I even got a card. But when I tried to charge in Skidegate on Haida Gwaii, I couldn’t find the swipe spot on the new charger, and couldn’t get Internet to use the app. But I did manage to make a call to be manually connected. Yes they use real operators who actually can reset chargers and so on. What a concept! Internet service in the north is what it is. One of those things about life outside the cities. Hope you enjoyed B.C.
 
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