A Tesla Nerd's Road Trip

[Zaxxon]

At first I thought the comparing the gasoline stop against the Supercharger would give the gas stop the edge every time. It really doesn't.

And it's important to note that this is all on the 'old' Supercharger at a max of 120 kW. The upgrade to a max of 145 kW is happening currently (side note, the delta being added is close to the average 'fast charge' rate for my old 2017 Nissan Leaf--the delta!), and over time we'll have charging that peaks at 250 kW. This means that before too long the average Supercharging stop time will drop by around five minutes, and in the medium term more like ten minutes. At that point, even those who want to get back on the road as quickly as possible won't have much to complain about.

 

[sublimejackman]

Nice dude! I've done five 2,000+ mile road trips in my Model S in the last two years. You nailed what it's like. Autopilot makes a HUGE difference, esp after day two. Really makes a slog something much more bearable. Seems like the M3 does a little better with its charging to driving ratio. I'm sitting closer to 80min of charging for every four hours of driving.

Aslo, I loved driving thru Vail Pass and Utah on I-70! I did it mid March and June of last year. So glad I had the chance to drive thru it in the snow and summer. Glenwood Springs, CO and Beaver, UT are my two favorite places to stop.

 

[Beprimeau]

We just took our first long-distance trip (Indiana to South Florida) and it totally allayed any fears we might have about long-distance travel in a Tesla (Model 3 midrange bettery rear wheel drive). We also experienced surprise that charging stops are not burdensome: they are mostly not that long, just enough time to have a bathroom break, stretch your legs, get a bite to eat. I also kept statistics for our trip and they are eerily similar to yours. We were a little less efficient, spent about 75% of the time driving and 25% charging, but we may have been more conservative in terms of staying a little longer to "top up." Our average charging stop was 35 minutes. We also got between 70% and 80% in actual mileage compared to the putative "range," also mostly driving 75 mph. I do wonder why the range prediction can't be a little better than that, because I get the same efficiency on in-town short hop driving, so it can't all be due to high speeds. We did use destination charging once and it was not that expensive, at the Kennesaw, GA Hometown Suites, and we will be looking to do more of that on long trips. My only remaining concern is about trips to the boonies: we are going to rural Quebec in June and have decided to take the back-up ICE because of the paucity of charging options.

 

[Zaxxon]

Aslo, I loved driving thru Vail Pass and Utah on I-70! I did it mid March and June of last year. So glad I had the chance to drive thru it in the snow and summer. Glenwood Springs, CO and Beaver, UT are my two favorite places to stop.

Utah is beautiful (so is CO, but I live here so I'm used to it...). However, driving over Vail Pass at the end of this trip was the most terrifying drive I've ever had. It was in the dark, with heavy enough snow as to be virtually whiteout conditions, no visible lane lines, and enough other drivers driving too fast for conditions that I was convinced someone was going to plow into us on one of the many curves. Thankfully it all worked out.

We just took our first long-distance trip (Indiana to South Florida) and it totally allayed any fears we might have about long-distance travel in a Tesla (Model 3 midrange bettery rear wheel drive). We also experienced surprise that charging stops are not burdensome: they are mostly not that long, just enough time to have a bathroom break, stretch your legs, get a bite to eat. I also kept statistics for our trip and they are eerily similar to yours. We were a little less efficient, spent about 75% of the time driving and 25% charging, but we may have been more conservative in terms of staying a little longer to "top up." Our average charging stop was 35 minutes. We also got between 70% and 80% in actual mileage compared to the putative "range," also mostly driving 75 mph. I do wonder why the range prediction can't be a little better than that, because I get the same efficiency on in-town short hop driving, so it can't all be due to high speeds. We did use destination charging once and it was not that expensive, at the Kennesaw, GA Hometown Suites, and we will be looking to do more of that on long trips. My only remaining concern is about trips to the boonies: we are going to rural Quebec in June and have decided to take the back-up ICE because of the paucity of charging options.

Glad to hear that the MR does nearly as well. Hopefully folks in the SR/SR+ are fine, too. I imagine they will be, but will just have slightly longer charge sessions as they go from 10%-85% or something rather than the 20%-70% that seemed to be typical in the LR.

 

[sublimejackman]

Utah is beautiful (so is CO, but I live here so I'm used to it...). However, driving over Vail Pass at the end of this trip was the most terrifying drive I've ever had. It was in the dark, with heavy enough snow as to be virtually whiteout conditions, no visible lane lines, and enough other drivers driving too fast for conditions that I was convinced someone was going to plow into us on one of the many curves. Thankfully it all worked out.

I had the same experience, just early in the morning. Spent the night in Boulder and drove west around 5am. Was like 40 degrees when I woke up in Boulder. It was snowing pretty hard in the mountains. Basically white knuckling the whole way down after the Eisenhower tunnel. When I was heading out of Glenwood Spring, they announced chains, something I don't own and didn't think about. Luckily just made it.

Also, fun to mention that is the only time where my 15mi average battery use went negative.

 

[Daveman]

Awesome; thanks for the kind words, all. Helping others who haven't yet bought is one of the goals I had with this, as EV road-tripping (and the gigantic advantages Tesla has in this regard) is an area that is extremely poorly-understood by folks who haven't done it yet.

Great write-up! The best part is that your trip experience is not the exception, but the rule!
I agree that people are vastly unaware, and in fact, misinformed by the range-anxiety narrative perpetuated from the compliance/commuter phase of EVs.

Imagine if there was a one-minute TV commercial version of your trip to raise awareness!!!!

 

[notAnExpert]

... EV road-tripping (and the gigantic advantages Tesla has in this regard) is an area that is extremely poorly-understood by folks who haven't done it yet.

Absolutely! The supercharger network makes Tesla almost as versatile as an ICE car to go anywhere without range anxiety or impractically long refueling breaks. Before our Model 3, we had two other EVs. We could only use them as local commute cars. We had to have an ICE car for weekend/out-of-town trips. Tesla is the only EV that eliminates the need for a second (ICE) car. To me, that's HUGE.

Until other EV manufacturers show the same commitment as Tesla to develop a ubiquitous fast charging network across the country, this is certainly the single most important and the most underrated benefit of owning a Tesla.

 

[kattrap67]

A friend and I just completed a Tesla-centric road trip last night--arriving home at a minute to midnight after enduring blizzard conditions over Vail Pass on I-70 heading back home. Here is a recap of the trip.

Tl;dr - The Model 3 was phenomenal the whole way, making what would have been an exhausting trip in any other vehicle--and a literally impossible trip in any non-Tesla EV--a blast.

The Trip
We left Denver around noon on Wednesday in my friend's P3D, heading north to Wyoming.

Thursday we checked out the Salt Lake City Tesla store, which has a bank of Superchargers on the lot. We continued onward, hitting up the Gigafactory--or trying to. Turns out that (as expected) there's no public access, and 'we're Tesla fans and would love to see even just the lobby' is not deemed a valid reason to approach. We ended Thursday in Truckee, CA, near Tahoe.

Using A Better Route Planner to manage a trip leg on the car's display
View attachment 390091

Friday morning we continued on to the Fremont factory, and took an afternoon tour. I can't talk about specifics due to the NDA, but in general terms: the factory employees were very friendly, waving and smiling at us on the tram while we navigated their work areas. I'm sure they're encouraged to act upbeat and be nice, but they did seem genuine. The factory tour is something I'd recommend any Tesla owner take if you find yourself planning to travel to the Bay area.

The Factory and my tour badge:
View attachment 390092 View attachment 390093

Saturday was down to LA to check out the Tesla Design Center and SpaceX HQ in Hawthorne. Did not catch a Model Y prototype or break into the top-secret area to get a gander at the pickup, but it was still a fun stop. There's a Supercharger monitor in the lobby that shows the current # of vehicles charging and where, along with totals for total system lifetime kWh delivered, miles enabled, and gallons of gasoline saved. It periodically zooms into random stations and gives further details, like # of stalls currently in use, total site consumption, etc. Tesla security asked me not to photograph it, so I did not. We also got to stand with the first successfully-recovered Falcon 9 and see the Hawthorne Hyperloop pod competition test track and Boring Company test tunnel.

SpaceX's HQ intersection on Rocket Rd, the first recovered Falcon 9, and Tesla Model S security vehicles at SpaceX
View attachment 390099 View attachment 390094 View attachment 390104

Saturday night we spent in Vegas as it was right along our route back home, and Sunday was a long but direct trip back to the Denver area.

Our route:
View attachment 390100

Some Stats (thanks, TeslaFi!)

• Time spent driving: 42.6 hours
• Time spent charging: 11.6 hours
• Drive/charge ratio: 79% (eg about 1 hour of charging for every 4 hours driving)
• 21 Supercharging stops, averaging 33 minutes. We used these breaks to have meals, grab snacks, use the restrooms, etc. As such, our total time spent sitting around waiting for charging to complete was about 30 minutes for the entire trip. Supercharging is a crazy-efficient use of time. We included no Destination charging hotels on this trip, so this should be an accurate representation of how easy it is to road trip in a Tesla when relying entirely on the Supercharger network for energy.
• 2,479 miles driven, 3,428 rated miles used, for about an 80% efficiency rating. 299 Wh/mi per the car's trip computer. Overall trip average temp was 51 degrees, and ranged from about 25F to 75F.
• 822 kWh consumed, which is the energy equivalent to 24.4 gallons of gasoline, or ~112.7 MPGe.
• Those efficiency stats seem pretty good to me, as this was a P3D (18" Aeros with covers on for the trip) on Interstate highways that have long stretches of 80 MPH limits with 85 MPH+ prevailing speeds. Probably 90%+ of the miles we traveled were on roads with 70 MPH or higher speed limits. The trip also included tens of thousands of feet of elevation gain and loss as we passed over the continental divide in both directions, plus the mountains of Utah and California. Plus whiteout blizzard conditions coming home over Vail Pass, which was... nerve-wracking.

Trip stats
View attachment 390090

Some Observations

• On long trips, especially condensed into a short period like this one was, Autopilot is worth its weight in gold. For all the complaints people (including myself) have raised about the system, it's virtually flawless on long interstate drives, and takes the vast majority of the stress out of the drive. Auto-lane change is a great addition to Autosteer, and largely did a good job on our trip.
• The Supercharger network remains a vastly under-appreciated competitive advantage for Tesla. As I mentioned above, we spent about 30 minutes (thirty minutes!) in total waiting for charging. Across a 4+ day, 2,749-mile trip. I've had good luck not waiting in the past, but generally travel with my kids and wasn't sure whether I was being too generous to the Supercharger system's effectiveness due to the slowness of my kiddos when we make a stop. But this trip was just two adult dudes, and we did not dawdle. We ate meals at a quick pace, made speedy restroom stops, and grabbed snacks for the road on some stops. Even given this, the car was ready to continue before we were on the large majority of our 21 stops. Could we have pushed ourselves to the point where we were waiting for charging more often? Sure. But it would not have been as enjoyable of a trip.
• Following on the prior point--no other manufacturer's EV could have made this trip in a reasonable time. None, and it's not even close. This is why I believe the Supercharger network is such an advantage. It's literally the only way to take this sort of trip in any EV, and that's not going to change anytime soon. Even if/when competition has sufficient network locations to complete the trip, it will be a long time additional to that before it's as convenient and fun as Tesla's. Being able to just have the nav calculate everything, pull up to a stall, plug in and walk away (without hassling with charge network payment/membership cards), then have the phone app ping us when we have enough charge for our specific trip's next leg is a level of integration that I don't expect from anyone else anytime in the near-to-medium term.
• This is the third road trip of > 1,500 miles I've taken in a Model 3. All three were similarly easy to make happen, with very little range anxiety. The only times I've had serious anxiety were on last summer's trip, which included a 280-mile single leg up to Medora, ND to see Teddy Roosevelt National Park (no Superchargers in ND yet, so we used an RV park adjacent to our hotel--rented an RV space and just parked there overnight using the UMC on a 14-50 outlet), and last night coming home when we didn't plan on adding 90 minutes and blizzard conditions to that leg (much heavier HVAC usage, much colder and less efficient weather than expected when we departed the prior Supercharger). In both cases, the car made it without any issues.
• The Kettleman City Supercharger seems like a proof-of-concept of what interstate fueling stops will look like in the future--40 stalls, a lounge, a barista (!), vending machines that included sandwiches, wi-fi, Tesla gear, windshield cleaning and tire-filling station, and a giant solar canopy and energy storage to aid in peak shaving. It's just a great execution of the post-gasoline rest stop.

Random but representative Supercharger session snapshot
View attachment 390101

I highly recommend road tripping in a Tesla.

Great insights on road trips. Keep sharing useful info especially for new EV (MX) owners like myself. Your summary and observations were extremely helpful and educational! Thanks.

 

[Aksourdough]

When you take your planned trip through the canyon lands of Utah be aware that I helped install guard rails on the road through Capital Reef National Monument . That was in 1962. Those guardrails are probably long gone but I bet the heat and the flesh eating white sock flies are still there.Be careful, be safe and above all don't run out of juice.

 

[jmepps]

Zaxxon,

Do you have an AWD Tesla 3, with or without long-range battery?

jmepps

 

[puckpurnell]

A friend and I just completed a Tesla-centric road trip last night--arriving home at a minute to midnight after enduring blizzard conditions over Vail Pass on I-70 heading back home. Here is a recap of the trip.

Tl;dr - The Model 3 was phenomenal the whole way, making what would have been an exhausting trip in any other vehicle--and a literally impossible trip in any non-Tesla EV--a blast.

The Trip
We left Denver around noon on Wednesday in my friend's P3D, heading north to Wyoming.

Thursday we checked out the Salt Lake City Tesla store, which has a bank of Superchargers on the lot. We continued onward, hitting up the Gigafactory--or trying to. Turns out that (as expected) there's no public access, and 'we're Tesla fans and would love to see even just the lobby' is not deemed a valid reason to approach. We ended Thursday in Truckee, CA, near Tahoe.

Using A Better Route Planner to manage a trip leg on the car's display
View attachment 390091

Friday morning we continued on to the Fremont factory, and took an afternoon tour. I can't talk about specifics due to the NDA, but in general terms: the factory employees were very friendly, waving and smiling at us on the tram while we navigated their work areas. I'm sure they're encouraged to act upbeat and be nice, but they did seem genuine. The factory tour is something I'd recommend any Tesla owner take if you find yourself planning to travel to the Bay area.

The Factory and my tour badge:
View attachment 390092 View attachment 390093

Saturday was down to LA to check out the Tesla Design Center and SpaceX HQ in Hawthorne. Did not catch a Model Y prototype or break into the top-secret area to get a gander at the pickup, but it was still a fun stop. There's a Supercharger monitor in the lobby that shows the current # of vehicles charging and where, along with totals for total system lifetime kWh delivered, miles enabled, and gallons of gasoline saved. It periodically zooms into random stations and gives further details, like # of stalls currently in use, total site consumption, etc. Tesla security asked me not to photograph it, so I did not. We also got to stand with the first successfully-recovered Falcon 9 and see the Hawthorne Hyperloop pod competition test track and Boring Company test tunnel.

SpaceX's HQ intersection on Rocket Rd, the first recovered Falcon 9, and Tesla Model S security vehicles at SpaceX
View attachment 390099 View attachment 390094 View attachment 390104

Saturday night we spent in Vegas as it was right along our route back home, and Sunday was a long but direct trip back to the Denver area.

Our route:
View attachment 390100

Some Stats (thanks, TeslaFi!)

• Time spent driving: 42.6 hours
• Time spent charging: 11.6 hours
• Drive/charge ratio: 79% (eg about 1 hour of charging for every 4 hours driving)
• 21 Supercharging stops, averaging 33 minutes. We used these breaks to have meals, grab snacks, use the restrooms, etc. As such, our total time spent sitting around waiting for charging to complete was about 30 minutes for the entire trip. Supercharging is a crazy-efficient use of time. We included no Destination charging hotels on this trip, so this should be an accurate representation of how easy it is to road trip in a Tesla when relying entirely on the Supercharger network for energy.
• 2,479 miles driven, 3,428 rated miles used, for about an 80% efficiency rating. 299 Wh/mi per the car's trip computer. Overall trip average temp was 51 degrees, and ranged from about 25F to 75F.
• 822 kWh consumed, which is the energy equivalent to 24.4 gallons of gasoline, or ~112.7 MPGe.
• Those efficiency stats seem pretty good to me, as this was a P3D (18" Aeros with covers on for the trip) on Interstate highways that have long stretches of 80 MPH limits with 85 MPH+ prevailing speeds. Probably 90%+ of the miles we traveled were on roads with 70 MPH or higher speed limits. The trip also included tens of thousands of feet of elevation gain and loss as we passed over the continental divide in both directions, plus the mountains of Utah and California. Plus whiteout blizzard conditions coming home over Vail Pass, which was... nerve-wracking.

Trip stats
View attachment 390090

Some Observations

• On long trips, especially condensed into a short period like this one was, Autopilot is worth its weight in gold. For all the complaints people (including myself) have raised about the system, it's virtually flawless on long interstate drives, and takes the vast majority of the stress out of the drive. Auto-lane change is a great addition to Autosteer, and largely did a good job on our trip.
• The Supercharger network remains a vastly under-appreciated competitive advantage for Tesla. As I mentioned above, we spent about 30 minutes (thirty minutes!) in total waiting for charging. Across a 4+ day, 2,749-mile trip. I've had good luck not waiting in the past, but generally travel with my kids and wasn't sure whether I was being too generous to the Supercharger system's effectiveness due to the slowness of my kiddos when we make a stop. But this trip was just two adult dudes, and we did not dawdle. We ate meals at a quick pace, made speedy restroom stops, and grabbed snacks for the road on some stops. Even given this, the car was ready to continue before we were on the large majority of our 21 stops. Could we have pushed ourselves to the point where we were waiting for charging more often? Sure. But it would not have been as enjoyable of a trip.
• Following on the prior point--no other manufacturer's EV could have made this trip in a reasonable time. None, and it's not even close. This is why I believe the Supercharger network is such an advantage. It's literally the only way to take this sort of trip in any EV, and that's not going to change anytime soon. Even if/when competition has sufficient network locations to complete the trip, it will be a long time additional to that before it's as convenient and fun as Tesla's. Being able to just have the nav calculate everything, pull up to a stall, plug in and walk away (without hassling with charge network payment/membership cards), then have the phone app ping us when we have enough charge for our specific trip's next leg is a level of integration that I don't expect from anyone else anytime in the near-to-medium term.
• This is the third road trip of > 1,500 miles I've taken in a Model 3. All three were similarly easy to make happen, with very little range anxiety. The only times I've had serious anxiety were on last summer's trip, which included a 280-mile single leg up to Medora, ND to see Teddy Roosevelt National Park (no Superchargers in ND yet, so we used an RV park adjacent to our hotel--rented an RV space and just parked there overnight using the UMC on a 14-50 outlet), and last night coming home when we didn't plan on adding 90 minutes and blizzard conditions to that leg (much heavier HVAC usage, much colder and less efficient weather than expected when we departed the prior Supercharger). In both cases, the car made it without any issues.
• The Kettleman City Supercharger seems like a proof-of-concept of what interstate fueling stops will look like in the future--40 stalls, a lounge, a barista (!), vending machines that included sandwiches, wi-fi, Tesla gear, windshield cleaning and tire-filling station, and a giant solar canopy and energy storage to aid in peak shaving. It's just a great execution of the post-gasoline rest stop.

Random but representative Supercharger session snapshot
View attachment 390101

I highly recommend road tripping in a Tesla.

Thanks. Great report. Looking forward to a few long east cost drives. Agree that the Superchargers are diamonds.

 

[Zaxxon]

Zaxxon,

Do you have an AWD Tesla 3, with or without long-range battery?

jmepps

This trip was in a performance AWD 3, which has the LR battery. My own car is a RWD LR 3.

 

[dburkland]

Nice write up, I’ll be doing a similar route from MSP to LAX next month and your pictures have me excited!

 

[Andrejun]

Looks awesome. I would love to do a similar trip. I've done the same talk to the guard at Gigafactory 2x now (I have family in Reno).

So, do I have to do anything special to get a Freemont factory tour?

 

[Zaxxon]

So, do I have to do anything special to get a Fremont factory tour?

Just email [email protected] from the email address associated with your Tesla account and tell them the dates you're available. They'll give you time options. You can schedule one tour per year and bring up to 3 people with you.

 

[Philh2o]

Great report, Zaxxon. Indeed, Vail Pass is far worse in the winter than the Continental Divide (Eisenhower/Johnson Tunnels). And luckily you managed to avoid all the avalanches that occurred along I-70 and other main routes a couple of weeks ago.

With the weather warming and mileage estimates coming back to 'normal' I'm planning a similar, multi-day trip west similar to yours and am encouraged by your experience. For me, getting to Minden, Nevada, and back involves mostly I-80 after leaving I-70 at Green River, Utah. However, I really want to return using US-50 but will have to rely on third-party charging options, probably in Ely, Nevada.

Or, if I chicken out on that, I'll do a round trip to Imperial Beach, California, in July that should be a piece of cake given the Supercharger options along the way. This will be the first summer of us having our LR, AWD M3 so I'll be interesting to see what kind of impact that hot weather instead of cold will have on range.

Honk for me when you pass the Evergreen exit!

 

[Lucky_Man]

That is... a lot of miles. Nicely done. I'd love to take an extended road trip someday, but right now getting more than a week at a time is difficult. We'll be doing another loop in July from Denver through several National Park sites in Utah--Hovenweep, Natural Bridges, Rainbow Bridge, Cedar Breaks, Bryce Canyon, and Capitol Reef. That one will be a bit more challenging as we'll be off the Supercharger path for portions of it, but destination charging should make it doable so long as there aren't any Tesla overloads at the lodging.

Well done (and glad you made it back thru the blizzard)! That Utah trip is a favorite of ours. Last time was last century in an RV so it wasn't cheap (sadly, lots of gas burned). If my SO can get the time off, we'll do it again soon in our MS. Now we're anxiously awaiting your report on that trip!

 

[Lucky_Man]

I’m picking up my 3 LR AWD today and starting my road trip on Friday. Cleveland to Minneapolis. Looks like its going to be a great experience. I like the documentation you did and I’m going to do the same.

Sounds wonderful. A road trip's the best way to learn everything about your new ride If possible, avoid rush hour in that horrible I-80/I-90/I-94 mess around Gary. The semi-jockeys are abso nuts around there. Stay safe, but enjoy it!

 

[Saguarojoe]

A friend and I just completed a Tesla-centric road trip last night--arriving home at a minute to midnight after enduring blizzard conditions over Vail Pass on I-70 heading back home. Here is a recap of the trip.

Tl;dr - The Model 3 was phenomenal the whole way, making what would have been an exhausting trip in any other vehicle--and a literally impossible trip in any non-Tesla EV--a blast.

The Trip
We left Denver around noon on Wednesday in my friend's P3D, heading north to Wyoming.

Thursday we checked out the Salt Lake City Tesla store, which has a bank of Superchargers on the lot. We continued onward, hitting up the Gigafactory--or trying to. Turns out that (as expected) there's no public access, and 'we're Tesla fans and would love to see even just the lobby' is not deemed a valid reason to approach. We ended Thursday in Truckee, CA, near Tahoe.

Using A Better Route Planner to manage a trip leg on the car's display
View attachment 390091

Friday morning we continued on to the Fremont factory, and took an afternoon tour. I can't talk about specifics due to the NDA, but in general terms: the factory employees were very friendly, waving and smiling at us on the tram while we navigated their work areas. I'm sure they're encouraged to act upbeat and be nice, but they did seem genuine. The factory tour is something I'd recommend any Tesla owner take if you find yourself planning to travel to the Bay area.

The Factory and my tour badge:
View attachment 390092 View attachment 390093

Saturday was down to LA to check out the Tesla Design Center and SpaceX HQ in Hawthorne. Did not catch a Model Y prototype or break into the top-secret area to get a gander at the pickup, but it was still a fun stop. There's a Supercharger monitor in the lobby that shows the current # of vehicles charging and where, along with totals for total system lifetime kWh delivered, miles enabled, and gallons of gasoline saved. It periodically zooms into random stations and gives further details, like # of stalls currently in use, total site consumption, etc. Tesla security asked me not to photograph it, so I did not. We also got to stand with the first successfully-recovered Falcon 9 and see the Hawthorne Hyperloop pod competition test track and Boring Company test tunnel.

SpaceX's HQ intersection on Rocket Rd, the first recovered Falcon 9, and Tesla Model S security vehicles at SpaceX
View attachment 390099 View attachment 390094 View attachment 390104

Saturday night we spent in Vegas as it was right along our route back home, and Sunday was a long but direct trip back to the Denver area.

Our route:
View attachment 390100

Some Stats (thanks, TeslaFi!)

• Time spent driving: 42.6 hours
• Time spent charging: 11.6 hours
• Drive/charge ratio: 79% (eg about 1 hour of charging for every 4 hours driving)
• 21 Supercharging stops, averaging 33 minutes. We used these breaks to have meals, grab snacks, use the restrooms, etc. As such, our total time spent sitting around waiting for charging to complete was about 30 minutes for the entire trip. Supercharging is a crazy-efficient use of time. We included no Destination charging hotels on this trip, so this should be an accurate representation of how easy it is to road trip in a Tesla when relying entirely on the Supercharger network for energy.
• 2,479 miles driven, 3,428 rated miles used, for about an 80% efficiency rating. 299 Wh/mi per the car's trip computer. Overall trip average temp was 51 degrees, and ranged from about 25F to 75F.
• 822 kWh consumed, which is the energy equivalent to 24.4 gallons of gasoline, or ~112.7 MPGe.
• Those efficiency stats seem pretty good to me, as this was a P3D (18" Aeros with covers on for the trip) on Interstate highways that have long stretches of 80 MPH limits with 85 MPH+ prevailing speeds. Probably 90%+ of the miles we traveled were on roads with 70 MPH or higher speed limits. The trip also included tens of thousands of feet of elevation gain and loss as we passed over the continental divide in both directions, plus the mountains of Utah and California. Plus whiteout blizzard conditions coming home over Vail Pass, which was... nerve-wracking.

Trip stats
View attachment 390090

Some Observations

• On long trips, especially condensed into a short period like this one was, Autopilot is worth its weight in gold. For all the complaints people (including myself) have raised about the system, it's virtually flawless on long interstate drives, and takes the vast majority of the stress out of the drive. Auto-lane change is a great addition to Autosteer, and largely did a good job on our trip.
• The Supercharger network remains a vastly under-appreciated competitive advantage for Tesla. As I mentioned above, we spent about 30 minutes (thirty minutes!) in total waiting for charging. Across a 4+ day, 2,749-mile trip. I've had good luck not waiting in the past, but generally travel with my kids and wasn't sure whether I was being too generous to the Supercharger system's effectiveness due to the slowness of my kiddos when we make a stop. But this trip was just two adult dudes, and we did not dawdle. We ate meals at a quick pace, made speedy restroom stops, and grabbed snacks for the road on some stops. Even given this, the car was ready to continue before we were on the large majority of our 21 stops. Could we have pushed ourselves to the point where we were waiting for charging more often? Sure. But it would not have been as enjoyable of a trip.
• Following on the prior point--no other manufacturer's EV could have made this trip in a reasonable time. None, and it's not even close. This is why I believe the Supercharger network is such an advantage. It's literally the only way to take this sort of trip in any EV, and that's not going to change anytime soon. Even if/when competition has sufficient network locations to complete the trip, it will be a long time additional to that before it's as convenient and fun as Tesla's. Being able to just have the nav calculate everything, pull up to a stall, plug in and walk away (without hassling with charge network payment/membership cards), then have the phone app ping us when we have enough charge for our specific trip's next leg is a level of integration that I don't expect from anyone else anytime in the near-to-medium term.
• This is the third road trip of > 1,500 miles I've taken in a Model 3. All three were similarly easy to make happen, with very little range anxiety. The only times I've had serious anxiety were on last summer's trip, which included a 280-mile single leg up to Medora, ND to see Teddy Roosevelt National Park (no Superchargers in ND yet, so we used an RV park adjacent to our hotel--rented an RV space and just parked there overnight using the UMC on a 14-50 outlet), and last night coming home when we didn't plan on adding 90 minutes and blizzard conditions to that leg (much heavier HVAC usage, much colder and less efficient weather than expected when we departed the prior Supercharger). In both cases, the car made it without any issues.
• The Kettleman City Supercharger seems like a proof-of-concept of what interstate fueling stops will look like in the future--40 stalls, a lounge, a barista (!), vending machines that included sandwiches, wi-fi, Tesla gear, windshield cleaning and tire-filling station, and a giant solar canopy and energy storage to aid in peak shaving. It's just a great execution of the post-gasoline rest stop.

Random but representative Supercharger session snapshot
View attachment 390101

I highly recommend road tripping in a Tesla.

I do too. M3. We’vel done three trips over 500 miles since delivery last July and they just keep getting better. Supercharger time is not wasted time. It puts a new face on road travel. Always located where there is food and facilities. We are usually occupied until charging is nearly complete. We are rested, refreshed and ready to go. Auto steering is not giving up the fun of driving. It takes the stress out of it. I have had two incidents that have left both me and my wife in hysterics. Going too fast or otherwise misbehaving. She (yes it's a girl) kicked me out of EAP and suddenly admonished me that she was done with my nonsense until the end of the trip. WHAT? No more for you pal. So I contritely end the trip and start over. She accepts that ploy and gives me another chance. Approaching LA in evening rush hour traffic can be a leap of Faith but with auto Lane change it is totally doable. Do it!

 

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Hey Zaxxon, where did you get that awesome CO Tesla shirt? Great job with the trip report.