Alaska Tesla Adventure!

[IdaX]

While we were in Fairbanks, a group of intrepid EV explorers started a drive north from Fairbanks over the Brooks Range of mountains and up to Prudhoe Bay and the Arctic Ocean. They call their trip the Arctic Road Rally. They installed four temporary chargers on the way up for use this week only. 10 total drivers supposedly. We were too late to join at the last second, but the trip looks super exciting and there may be opportunities to join in for future years!

 

[PLUS EV]

While we were in Fairbanks, a group of intrepid EV explorers started a drive north from Fairbanks over the Brooks Range of mountains and up to Prudhoe Bay and the Arctic Ocean. They call their trip the Arctic Road Rally. They installed four temporary chargers on the way up for use this week only. 10 total drivers supposedly. We were too late to join at the last second, but the trip looks super exciting and there may be opportunities to join in for future years!

I wanted to do that drive, but I was told it was recommended to carry 2 spare tires, which was a bit of a turnoff. Maybe the road has improved since then.

The rally may have been a good opportunity for you to piggy back if there were other Model Xes with spare tires that fit your car.

 

[Tacoma Dave]

@IdaX I've been following your postings. It looks like you've been having a great trip. I'm considering doing this next year with my daughter. Were there any parts of the roads that would have been problematic for a dual motor 3? Also, any thoughts on how early in the season this drive is feasible/advisable?

 

[IdaX]

@IdaX I've been following your postings. It looks like you've been having a great trip. I'm considering doing this next year with my daughter. Were there any parts of the roads that would have been problematic for a dual motor 3? Also, any thoughts on how early in the season this drive is feasible/advisable?

The worst sections are just dirt or mud — nothing requiring clearance or off-roading. A Model 3 should do just fine on the route that we took, if you’re comfortable getting it dirty . In fact I encountered a Model 3 who had done the route both ways and made it without trouble, so there are no showstoppers.

My trip was in late July, early August, obv, so that’s all that I can speak on about timing. It actually gets rainy here in August; June is warmest, when the Sun is up nearly the entire day. First snow is in mid-September in Fairbanks, so probably want to be through by around then.

 

[Tacoma Dave]

The worst sections are just dirt or mud — nothing requiring clearance or off-roading. A Model 3 should do just fine on the route that we took, if you’re comfortable getting it dirty . In fact I encountered a Model 3 who had done the route both ways and made it without trouble, so there are no showstoppers.

My trip was in late July, early August, obv, so that’s all that I can speak on about timing. It actually gets rainy here in August; June is warmest, when the Sun is up nearly the entire day. First snow is in mid-September in Fairbanks, so probably want to be through by around then.

You outlined your charging stops. What were your overnight stops? Were any necessary to be overnight other than Red Goat Lodge? Also, which of your adapters did you end up needing?

 

[IdaX]

You outlined your charging stops. What were your overnight stops? Were any necessary to be overnight other than Red Goat Lodge? Also, which of your adapters did you end up needing?

Red Goat is really the only Must Overnight stop. Tok as well, though, if you don’t have a CCS adapter and need to charge at the RV park, then that’s also an overnight.

Adapters listed in the first post: chademo for Yukon and west of Prince George. NEMA 14-30 dryer plug for Red Goat. Then either NEMA 14-50 or a CCS adapter for Tok. Recommended tho is a TT30 120V 30A travel trailer plug for peace of mind in extremely out-of-the way areas when it might be your only chance or as a backup.

 

[Tacoma Dave]

Red Goat is really the only Must Overnight stop. Tok as well, though, if you don’t have a CCS adapter and need to charge at the RV park, then that’s also an overnight.

Adapters listed in the first post: chademo for Yukon and west of Prince George. NEMA 14-30 dryer plug for Red Goat. Then either NEMA 14-50 or a CCS adapter for Tok. Recommended tho is a TT30 120V 30A travel trailer plug for peace of mind in extremely out-of-the way areas when it might be your only chance or as a backup.

Great. Thanks.

 

[PLUS EV]

@IdaX I've been following your postings. It looks like you've been having a great trip. I'm considering doing this next year with my daughter. Were there any parts of the roads that would have been problematic for a dual motor 3? Also, any thoughts on how early in the season this drive is feasible/advisable?

June should be fine, but May might be sketchy. I think July is generally the warmest month of the year on average, but late June seems to have the highest lows in a lot of those places (likely due to the extremely short or non-existent nights). You'll have to monitor the weather and be willing to adjust plans on the fly at any time of year, but if you travel in June, July, or August, you might have a 12-24 hour delay at most. At least that is my best guess.

 

[IdaX]

The route south from Fairbanks to Denali National Park is an easy 2-hour leg. They won’t let you drive a private vehicle more than 15 miles or so into the Park; you get on a halting diesel-powered bus instead. Watch out for grizzlies!

There are a couple of fast-charging options near the park, all CCS/CHAdeMO combos. We stayed near the Healy ReCharge Alaska fast charger, in a small tourist town with a small handful of lodging and food options (although with an amazing Three Bears supermarket!). South of the Park entrance is a wonderful charger at an enthusiast’s compound outside of Caldwell, and then a charger in Caldwell itself that we didn’t end up needing to try.

 

[IdaX]

South from Denali heading to Anchorage, the best charging stop is at the Denali Brewing Company in Talkeetna. Slightly out of the way, but fast reliable CCS/CHAdeMO charger at a great brewpub restaurant. Surprisingly, though, there’s no fast-charging in Anchorage itself! Probably the largest metro area in the US without any fast-charging options. So make sure to plan your stay in Anchorage around making sure that you have convenient level 2 charging nearby. There is one CCS/CHAdeMO that’s built but not yet activated, so if you come here hopefully that will be operational.

 

[IdaX]

From Anchorage we did a drive down the Kenai peninsula. The drive is hairy, along cliff sides and over shorelines, but as a result is gorgeous with staggering views all around. It was super-rainy the day that we went, and so we bugged out after hitting the one Tesla supercharger in Alaska, in Soldotna.

 

[IdaX]

I was meaning that I was surprised you went from Prince George to the Cassiar rather than from Prince George to Dawson Creek (or at least Chetwynd) and the Alaska Highway. But I see now that the Cassiar is about an hour faster. I just wasn't sure the charging infrastructure would be as good, but it sounds like you're doing alright.

Getting back to a quantitative answer on this East vs West question. On the eastern route the gap between fast chargers is a lot longer. From Prince George supercharger you can head north to the East Pine Rest Area, but that's a 25kW charger that seems to have a back rep on Plugshare. If I'd have gone that way, I'd have probably overnighted at the the Microtel in Ft St John, which has a Tesla destination charger. Then from there it would be pretty much mandatory to stop in Ft Nelson, probably at the TripleG RV Park. Because that's also level 2, this would also probably need to be an overnight stop. Ft St John to TripleG is 238mi (383km), so doable in one charge. From the East Pine Rest Area to TripleG is 298mi (482km), though, so the Microtel would really be a necessary stop regardless I think (let me know if you disagree though!).

Then from Ft Nelson in to Watson Lake DCFC is 317mi (512km): well longer than my 259mi range, so I would have to stop again at Northern Rockies Lodge for many hours, though not a full overnight. Northern Rockies Lodge uses a diesel generator, which is somewhat distasteful although understandable in such a remote location.

So, the bottom line is that the eastern route would seem to need 2.5 overnights or so at Level 2, while the route west from Prince George Supercharger has robust DC Fast Charging that limits the overnight Level 2 charges to one, the one at Red Goat Lodge.

 

[PLUS EV]

It's surprising to me that northern BC is so bereft of charging options. Public charging is very good in southern BC and even some remote areas of Central BC. Yukon beat them to the punch in the North! Disgraceful!

 

[pb2000]

Other than HV transmission lines coming from some of the hydro projects, there is really no infrastructure in the North. I would expect Fort St John to be next on BV Hydro's list but I don't think there is any meaningful grid again until you hit Fort Nelson, then same again until Watson Lake, YT.

 

[IdaX]

It's surprising to me that northern BC is so bereft of charging options. Public charging is very good in southern BC and even some remote areas of Central BC. Yukon beat them to the punch in the North! Disgraceful!

Driving up there, once you leave Hwy16 near New Hazelton the little outposts of civilization stop. There’s no convenience stores, no little towns, no farms, no cell service. It’s a rapid and stark contrast. In particular, most DCFC systems seem to rely on cell phone data to relay credit card info and such back to the mothership. You’d need Starlink for it up there — maybe once these polar launches from Vandenberg get enough to supply high latitudes…

 

[Tectonic]

Driving up there, once you leave Hwy16 near New Hazelton the little outposts of civilization stop. There’s no convenience stores, no little towns, no farms, no cell service. It’s a rapid and stark contrast. In particular, most DCFC systems seem to rely on cell phone data to relay credit card info and such back to the mothership. You’d need Starlink for it up there — maybe once these polar launches from Vandenberg get enough to supply high latitudes…

BC already has some 50 kW (and a bunch of 25 kW) DCFC that are currently free due to lack of cell connectivity. So lack of cell isn't necessarily a dealbreaker. For example, a couple sites north of Kamloops:

Little Fort Rest Area | Little Fort, BC | EV Station

(2) 50kW DCFC (1) Sun Country Level 2 One vehicle at a time per station Please refer to owners documentation/manual for approved charging unit manufacturers prior to using this charging station. To use 1. Follow instructions on the screen. 2. Stations are free and no network membership...

www.plugshare.com

Fish Trap Rest Area | Kamloops, BC | EV Station

2 x 50kW DCFC 1 x Sun Country Level 2 One vehicle at a time per station Please refer to owners documentation/manual for approved charging unit manufacturers prior to using this charging station. To use: 1. Follow instructions on the screen. 2. Stations are free and no network membership...

www.plugshare.com

 

[IdaX]

Shipping the car back to the lower-48 has gone pretty straightforwardly so far. We are using Alaska Car Transport; perfectly happy with them so far, although haven’t yet picked up the car! Cost was around $1400 for us from Anchorage to Tacoma. The rates are *not* symmetric — it costs more to send your car TO Alaska than FROM Alaska.

We dropped off the car at the Anchorage Dock on our day of departure. Note that this is NOT the ferry — they put the cars inside of a cargo container and ship them on one of those cargo container vessels. First the port authority security people inspect your car (including the frunk — they’re wise to that!). Then you drive the car over to the shipping company, and they have you drive it around to their loading zone out back. There the transport company folks inspect the car for damage, for insurance purposes, and take the keys from you. They then called security to drive us back to the security hut, from which our Lyft driver picked us up. The whole process took a solid hour. Budget your time accordingly!

Here’s the expected schedule from
Alaska Car Transport:

Drop offs at the port can only occur M-F during business hours. So although we dropped the car off on a Friday, the ship departed on Sunday. I had the idea that I could track the car as if went using the app, or, failing that, the Apple AirTag that I left in the glove compartment. Neither worked.

Teslas seem to save power by not using their GPS while in Park. Anyone who’s tried to put their car on a long ferry ride may be familiar with this efficiency, as it takes the car half an hour to figure out where it is when you drive off of the ferry.

Same thing happened here. I tracked the ship that I figured out that the car was on, the Matson Tacoma, on marinetraffic.com . Turns out that the car went first to Kodiak island for a few days. Interestingly I got data from the car while it was in port at Kodiak — windows down, interior and exterior temps, etc. But the car to this day thinks that it’s still at the Anchorage dockyard!

My AirTag trick fared only slightly better. Once the ship pulled into port in Tacoma I got this random ping from it from while the ship was in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean.

I suspect that the container with our car is sitting in the Tacoma Dockyard now, and they’ll drive it out and notify me that it’s ready to pickup tomorrow, as their initial timeline projected. Will report about the pickup once complete.

 

[Stewart]

Interesting, I was on one of Puget Sounds ferry’s lately. As I was one of the first on I was parked in the front, great view! I noticed that I didn’t see any progress of the short 30 minute trip. Guessing that the the car needs to be in drive to get any updates? Maybe next time I’ll put it in drive to see if I get any updates …

 

[Tacoma Dave]

Shipping the car back to the lower-48 has gone pretty straightforwardly so far. We are using Alaska Car Transport; perfectly happy with them so far, although haven’t yet picked up the car! Cost was around $1400 for us from Anchorage to Tacoma. The rates are *not* symmetric — it costs more to send your car TO Alaska than FROM Alaska.

We dropped off the car at the Anchorage Dock on our day of departure. Note that this is NOT the ferry — they put the cars inside of a cargo container and ship them on one of those cargo container vessels. First the port authority security people inspect your car (including the frunk — they’re wise to that!). Then you drive the car over to the shipping company, and they have you drive it around to their loading zone out back. There the transport company folks inspect the car for damage, for insurance purposes, and take the keys from you. They then called security to drive us back to the security hut, from which our Lyft driver picked us up. The whole process took a solid hour. Budget your time accordingly!

Here’s the expected schedule from
Alaska Car Transport:
View attachment 846455

Drop offs at the port can only occur M-F during business hours. So although we dropped the car off on a Friday, the ship departed on Sunday. I had the idea that I could track the car as if went using the app, or, failing that, the Apple AirTag that I left in the glove compartment. Neither worked.

Teslas seem to save power by not using their GPS while in Park. Anyone who’s tried to put their car on a long ferry ride may be familiar with this efficiency, as it takes the car half an hour to figure out where it is when you drive off of the ferry.

Same thing happened here. I tracked the ship that I figured out that the car was on, the Matson Tacoma, on marinetraffic.com . Turns out that the car went first to Kodiak island for a few days. Interestingly I got data from the car while it was in port at Kodiak — windows down, interior and exterior temps, etc. But the car to this day thinks that it’s still at the Anchorage dockyard!

View attachment 846467

My AirTag trick fared only slightly better. Once the ship pulled into port in Tacoma I got this random ping from it from while the ship was in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean.
View attachment 846468

I suspect that the container with our car is sitting in the Tacoma Dockyard now, and they’ll drive it out and notify me that it’s ready to pickup tomorrow, as their initial timeline projected. Will report about the pickup once complete.

Did you consider taking the ferry back instead? Was it too expensive with the size of your family?
A long time ago, I did the the ferry from the stop near Anchorage to Juneau, and it was pretty amazing. I am definitely considering the ferry for our trip that we hope to do next summer.

 

[IdaX]

Did you consider taking the ferry back instead? Was it too expensive with the size of your family?
A long time ago, I did the the ferry from the stop near Anchorage to Juneau, and it was pretty amazing. I am definitely considering the ferry for our trip that we hope to do next summer.

I considered it, but the ferry is both much more expensive and much slower than us flying home (if you discount the time that the car spends making its own way back). According to the Alaska Ferries website, it would have taken 4.5 days and $7464 (!) to get from Whittier to Bellingham. Much more than the car transport ($1400) + $400*6 for the plane flights.