A road trip from LA to Penticton BC via Redwoods CA, Portland OR, Seattle WA, and Vancouver BC, and back

[charlesoris]

I truly had a lot of fun driving my one-month-old 2022 Model Y LR.

The pros:
Comfort,
Cost,
No ICE vehicles blocking charging stalls.

The cons:
A non-working supercharger forced a 100-mile detour without feedback from Tesla NAV. - Had to pull over to search for available superchargers,
A 5-minute wait for an available spot at Corning, CA,
Phantom braking became a nightmare on certain highways, really scary at times.

Some statistics gathered along the way:

Date	Location	Cost ($US)	kWh	Distance (miles)	Wh/mile
7/23/2022​	Bakersfield, CA – Copus Road (Limited Amenities)	$14.10​	28
7/23/2022​	Firebaugh, CA	$26.10​	55
7/23/2022​	Sacramento, CA - Freeport Boulevard	$22.08​	44
7/23/2022​	Corning, CA	$16.10​	32
7/22/2022​	Mount Shasta, CA - 134 Morgan Way	$14.72​	30
7/22/2022​	Grants Pass, OR	$20.91​	47
7/22/2022​	Harrisburg, OR	$17.20​	38
7/22/2022​	Hood River, OR	$25.42​	57
7/21/2022​	Kennewick, WA	$11.07​	26
7/21/2022​	Yakima, WA	$4.30​	9
7/21/2022​	Ellensburg, WA - Canyon Road	$28.80​	64
7/21/2022​	Osoyoos, BC	$4.67​	18
	Pentincton BC to Los Angeles	$205.47​	448	1445	0.310
7/17/2022​	Penticton, BC	$8.26​	17
7/17/2022​	Hope, BC - Klassen Road	$15.62​	33
7/17/2022​	Blaine, WA	$17.63​	41
7/16/2022​	Seattle, WA - NE Northgate Way	$13.44​	28
7/16/2022​	Kelso, WA	$17.67​	57
7/16/2022​	Harrisburg, OR	$21.50​	50
7/15/2022​	Grants Pass, OR	$22.96​	23
7/15/2022​	Eureka, CA	$18.00​	40
7/15/2022​	Ukiah, CA	$8.80​	22
7/15/2022​	San Ramon, CA - San Ramon Valley Boulevard	$17.11​	17
7/14/2022​	Harris Ranch	$13.63​	29
7/14/2022​	Harris Ranch	$4.70​	10
7/14/2022​	Charged at home to 90%	$16.63​	69
	Los Angeles -Redwoods- Portland-Seattle-Vancouver-Penticton, BC	$179.32	436	1654	0.264
	Grand Total	$384.79	884	3,099	0.285

I will post videos and photos on Youtube soon.

 

[bmah]

Looks like fun!

Couple questions: Did you use the trip planner in the nav to pick Superchargers for you, or did you choose them on your own? Also, which Supercharger was down?

Also if you're interested, there's a little friendly competition for visiting Superchargers... Feel free to post on the thread below if you'd like to join in the fun. Your trip would be a nice start.

Wiki - Superchargers Visited

**** NOTE: We have transitioned to a new platform **** More Info: Supercharging.Life database This is a friendly contest for Tesla owners to track the number of unique public Superchargers where they have charged - "Supercharger count" is the number of unique public Superchargers where you...

teslamotorsclub.com

Bruce.

 

[bradtem]

So wait, you got all the way to BC, and then turned around right before the best part? Though I recommend having a CCS or CHAdeMO adapter it you want to get off the main roads in BC, but if you have one there is charging on most roads Prince George and south, tons of great road trip territory.

But my other question, as you obviously didn't have time to drive around BC, was why so much I-5? You did a nice loop in eastern Wash and southern BC, but otherwise a lot of I-5.

Also 12 cents/mile, which is similar to the cost in a Hybrid probably. Which is not too bad but one always hopes to do better. Why didn't you try to stay in any hotels that had overnight charging, almost always included with the price, and better for your battery, and takes zero time?

 

[charlesoris]

Looks like fun!

Couple questions: Did you use the trip planner in the nav to pick Superchargers for you, or did you choose them on your own? Also, which Supercharger was down?

Also if you're interested, there's a little friendly competition for visiting Superchargers... Feel free to post on the thread below if you'd like to join in the fun. Your trip would be a nice start.

Wiki - Superchargers Visited

**** NOTE: We have transitioned to a new platform **** More Info: Supercharging.Life database This is a friendly contest for Tesla owners to track the number of unique public Superchargers where they have charged - "Supercharger count" is the number of unique public Superchargers where you...

teslamotorsclub.com

Bruce.

I used the trip planner plus ABRP. The Tesla NAV did not state which Supercharger was down, but it did inform me that I don't have sufficient battery charge to continue my trip.
As far as the friendly competition is concerned, I will consult with my significant other regarding our future travel plans.
Thanks for the offer.
Charles

 

[charlesoris]

So wait, you got all the way to BC, and then turned around right before the best part? Though I recommend having a CCS or CHAdeMO adapter it you want to get off the main roads in BC, but if you have one there is charging on most roads Prince George and south, tons of great road trip territory.

But my other question, as you obviously didn't have time to drive around BC, was why so much I-5? You did a nice loop in eastern Wash and southern BC, but otherwise a lot of I-5.

Also 12 cents/mile, which is similar to the cost in a Hybrid probably. Which is not too bad but one always hopes to do better. Why didn't you try to stay in any hotels that had overnight charging, almost always included with the price, and better for your battery, and takes zero time?

We only had 10 days in total at our disposal. My wife has never been anywhere north of San Francisco and we had 5 days/ 4 nights with friends from Alberta at Penticton BC.
The only free charging sessions we received were at the Days Inn motel in Penticton BC. Other ones, including Holiday Inn, did not offer EV charging.
My daughter's Prius Prime would have been a cheaper option.

 

[charlesoris]

A rare site - Corning, CA

 

[bradtem]

We only had 10 days in total at our disposal. My wife has never been anywhere north of San Francisco and we had 5 days/ 4 nights with friends from Alberta at Penticton BC.
The only free charging sessions we received were at the Days Inn motel in Penticton BC. Other ones, including Holiday Inn, did not offer EV charging.
My daughter's Prius Prime would have been a cheaper option.

You have to seek out the hotels with charging. You can now do that in the plugshare app. Hotels.com app I think has it too but not as good a database as plugshare. It's frankly a pain to do but can be worth it.

Plus at regular hotels I often ask if they have a parking space with a plug next to it. (I carry a 25' 12AWG extension cord.) You can usually pick up 50 miles, which opens up more choices on where and when you supercharge.

Other good idea is to have the chademo adapter or if you can get it, the CCS. Strangely those networks now often have lower prices. In BC, there are still quite a few BC hydro stations at rest stops with free fast charging, though sometimes only 25kw. You drove past the one at the Hope Slide Rest area on #3, I suspect. Though yeah, 25kw is barely worth it, even free, unless the rest area is a nice place for a picnic, which they often are.

 

[israndy]

A rare site - Corning, CA

That's actually why I got the custom wrap on my red car was coming back to a Supercharger from the rest room that looked JUST like that. No one even had a front plate on.

I did a trip to the Canada border last Thanksgiving from the Bay Area (they wouldn't let me in as I had a booster shot only 3 days previous) I took advantage of the West Coast Electric Highway that had recently been purchased by EVCS. They were letting people use it for free until they redid the stations (no complete), as they were all old CHAdeMO only stations, and at the time I had the old CHAdeMO adapter. There was a little run around Seattle where there were no free ones anymore, but my Nephew in Law lives there, where we were for Thanksgiving.

California now has free highway charging from the top to the bottom and from the East at Donner Pass and coming from Vegas to the i5 free corridor. I could have driven from Canada to Mexico for free that winter. All this free charging isn't super fast, but it beats the old free SOLAR charger I used to use at Camp Roberts on the way to LA. That was always very slow, but free, now shuttered until 9/22/22

 

[avs007]

We only had 10 days in total at our disposal. My wife has never been anywhere north of San Francisco and we had 5 days/ 4 nights with friends from Alberta at Penticton BC.
The only free charging sessions we received were at the Days Inn motel in Penticton BC. Other ones, including Holiday Inn, did not offer EV charging.
My daughter's Prius Prime would have been a cheaper option.

Did you look at gas prices while you were on your trip? I drove from Canada to Sacramento in the beginning of the summer... And again a few weeks ago. There were a few gas stations in Vancouver BC that were $2.93/litre, which is like $8 USD /gallon. Likewise when I was driving down the 5 near Shasta, there were a few stations that were $7/gallon at the time. At those prices, I don't think a prius is going to be cheaper. Granted, I used my CCS adapter quite a bit during the first trip.

 

[charlesoris]

Did you look at gas prices while you were on your trip? I drove from Canada to Sacramento in the beginning of the summer... And again a few weeks ago. There were a few gas stations in Vancouver BC that were $2.93/litre, which is like $8 USD /gallon. Likewise when I was driving down the 5 near Shasta, there were a few stations that were $7/gallon at the time. At those prices, I don't think a prius is going to be cheaper. Granted, I used my CCS adapter quite a bit during the first trip.

I didn't pay too much attention to gas prices along the way. I did not notice prices above $6.50US per gallon anywhere, but my point was that there is not a significant cost difference between BEV and ICE as I had expected.
I am still enjoying my Tesla Model Y regardless.

 

[avs007]

@charlesoris do you remember where you were when your car said you had insufficient charge? I assume you didn't have the energy graph up? I only ask, because while I was driving thru Shasta, I my nav said I would arrive with like 6% when I originally left with it saying 20%. But that was prob because most of the time I was going +10, but I was trying to get to sac to meet my brother, so I was going much faster than my average for the previous leg. When the energy graph got to 5% I slowed down to 75 or so, and managed to arrive at my next charging stop at 14% or something like that.

The energy graph is really helpful in these scenarios. I was just curious, cus in northern California, when using SC I normally go from Williams to Yreka, then I'll hit myrtle creek. Grants Pass is only a v2 so I try to avoid that one.

 

[charlesoris]

@charlesoris do you remember where you were when your car said you had insufficient charge? I assume you didn't have the energy graph up? I only ask, because while I was driving thru Shasta, I my nav said I would arrive with like 6% when I originally left with it saying 20%. But that was prob because most of the time I was going +10, but I was trying to get to sac to meet my brother, so I was going much faster than my average for the previous leg. When the energy graph got to 5% I slowed down to 75 or so, and managed to arrive at my next charging stop at 14% or something like that.

The energy graph is really helpful in these scenarios. I was just curious, cus in northern California, when using SC I normally go from Williams to Yreka, then I'll hit myrtle creek. Grants Pass is only a v2 so I try to avoid that one.

I don't recall exactly the place, but it was not too far from WA/OR border. Yes, I did use the energy graph to control my speed based on desired SoC upon arrival at the next SuperCharger.

 

[charlesoris]

I posted my first video of the trip. My video production skills require some time to get up to speed, but I wanted to share the video of my first trip in EV with you for comments.

P.S. Moderators, please delete my previous post.