Are supercharging road trips time consuming?

[JetFalcon]

I'm trying to convince my friend to adopt the EV lifestyle. It is cumbersome for roadtrips, and going to cities like Phoenix AZ that only have 5 superchargers in the entire area. Where that same area, probably be like 20-30 superchargers in So Cal.

I'm hoping in 10 years, especially in 2035 when CA bans gas cars, that charging will be more stream line.

 

[RTPEV]

I'm trying to convince my friend to adopt the EV lifestyle. It is cumbersome for roadtrips, and going to cities like Phoenix AZ that only have 5 superchargers in the entire area. Where that same area, probably be like 20-30 superchargers in So Cal.

I'm hoping in 10 years, especially in 2035 when CA bans gas cars, that charging will be more stream line.

In recalling your specific scenario, if your friend's parents (or was it your parents?) house had 240V charging, that alone would have made a huge difference. I suspect that it's going to become quite common for households to have a charging station or at least a 240V outlet accessible outside or in the garage.

 

[JetFalcon]

In recalling your specific scenario, if your friend's parents (or was it your parents?) house had 240V charging, that alone would have made a huge difference. I suspect that it's going to become quite common for households to have a charging station or at least a 240V outlet accessible outside or in the garage.

I am going again this weekend. My friend's parents have a convenient outdoor 110V outlet which is within reach of the portable charging cable. Can a house somehow have a 240V outlet if the occupants don't have an electric car? Like they had one but didn't know they had one? IF they had a 240V outlet, that be great. Then we can drive around Phoenix all day without charging and always have a full charge next day, just like my home.

They tried looking for public charging stations but they are mostly in apartments which could be gated, or be residents only. Hopefully its free or the same rate as the off peak supercharging. I can only get about 7% each time with overnight charging, which is nice to have.

 

[JetFalcon]

The parents house is in Chandler. Tempe area in Phoneix has a supercharger in Arizona Mills Mall. That is the closest supercharger and the home base one, even though it's about 10-20 miles away from the house. But it's near major freeways so we will have many chance to pass by it.

I'm telling my friend now that we must dine somewhere so we don't have to wait in the car and cut down on our recreational time, like force an activity while we charge. We likely will have to charge in Tempe each night so we have enough for the next day to drive around Phoenix. And I told that the money we saved driving EV instead of gas can now go towards sit down dining. Thus the whole waiting in the car to charge doesn't have to count anymore because you are now sitting at a restaurant. Gas cars have no chance to get free or cheap refueling if they park at a parking lot. Can a Tesla sales person advertise this idea to undecided customers and be kind of right?

He agreed and we likely will eat at Joes Crab Shack, order a $20 entree each (2 people). I expect the charging to be about $15-20 for a full charge. So $15+20+20= $55 which gets us restaurant food and refueling? Most gas cars need $50-60 to refuel, he drives a Toyota Corolla.

 

[bradtem]

The parents house is in Chandler. Tempe area in Phoneix has a supercharger in Arizona Mills Mall. That is the closest supercharger and the home base one, even though it's about 10-20 miles away from the house. But it's near major freeways so we will have many chance to pass by it.

I'm telling my friend now that we must dine somewhere so we don't have to wait in the car and cut down on our recreational time, like force an activity while we charge. We likely will have to charge in Tempe each night so we have enough for the next day to drive around Phoenix. And I told that the money we saved driving EV instead of gas can now go towards sit down dining. Thus the whole waiting in the car to charge doesn't have to count anymore because you are now sitting at a restaurant. Gas cars have no chance to get free or cheap refueling if they park at a parking lot. Can a Tesla sales person advertise this idea to undecided customers and be kind of right?

He agreed and we likely will eat at Joes Crab Shack, order a $20 entree each (2 people). I expect the charging to be about $15-20 for a full charge. So $15+20+20= $55 which gets us restaurant food and refueling? Most gas cars need $50-60 to refuel, he drives a Toyota Corolla.

The 120v plug, if dedicated, will just do 5mph, but that's at least 50 miles in a typical night, more if you hang around the house in morning or evening. That may not seem like much but the typical car only does 35 miles/day. If you find yourself doing more than 50 miles one day, odds are you might be passing near a supercharger. In addition, while normally it's a waste of time, when you are on a road trip with just level 1, it can be worth looking for parking spaces with level 2 charging if they happen to be convenient to where you are driving. And if you're not driving places, you will pick up much more than 50 miles. But they might not be convenient.

Many homes have 240v outlets for the dryer or stove, and Tesla sells various adapters for the TMC to use them. However, you must be able to park within reach of this plug, and not all homes have such plugs in short reach of a parking space. Generally only those with the dryer in the garage (which I have at my house.)

If you go to such a house regularly, you can consider an extension cord with 10AWG for your dryer plug. Probably at least $100.

You should also get a CCS adapter if your car can use it. There are several more CCS stations in Chandler or around the area giving you more choices.

 

[CapsEngineer]

The parents house is in Chandler. Tempe area in Phoneix has a supercharger in Arizona Mills Mall. That is the closest supercharger and the home base one, even though it's about 10-20 miles away from the house. But it's near major freeways so we will have many chance to pass by it.

I'm telling my friend now that we must dine somewhere so we don't have to wait in the car and cut down on our recreational time, like force an activity while we charge. We likely will have to charge in Tempe each night so we have enough for the next day to drive around Phoenix. And I told that the money we saved driving EV instead of gas can now go towards sit down dining. Thus the whole waiting in the car to charge doesn't have to count anymore because you are now sitting at a restaurant. Gas cars have no chance to get free or cheap refueling if they park at a parking lot. Can a Tesla sales person advertise this idea to undecided customers and be kind of right?

He agreed and we likely will eat at Joes Crab Shack, order a $20 entree each (2 people). I expect the charging to be about $15-20 for a full charge. So $15+20+20= $55 which gets us restaurant food and refueling? Most gas cars need $50-60 to refuel, he drives a Toyota Corolla.

Have you looked on PlugShare? I did a quick look around Chandler and there are a lot of L2 charging spots available for J1772 and Tesla.

When you are deciding what to do each day, it would probably be worth your while to see if there is charging around the area. I saw some spots in parking garages, libraries, grocery stores, and other places.

 

[Snerruc]

When I visit my son in Richmond (826 mi), I charge to 100% and leave about 5:00AM. I stop in Brunswick, GA, have breakfast while charging then stop around Florence SC for lunch. A stop around Rocky Mount for an early dinner. The next next stop would be a stop at WaWa in Richmond to wash up. This would be my schedule with a gas car, too. I average about 60+ including stops. No real difference from gas.

 

[RTPEV]

I am going again this weekend. My friend's parents have a convenient outdoor 110V outlet which is within reach of the portable charging cable. Can a house somehow have a 240V outlet if the occupants don't have an electric car? Like they had one but didn't know they had one?

I suspect they would know it if they had one, but who knows...maybe there is an old outlet in their garage that they have no idea what it is.

Another solution is to use a Quick220 type device (Quick220 Electrical Systems). With these kinds of devices, the idea is that you plug into two different 120V outlets on different phases (you will very likely need a heavy duty extension cord for one of them) that can be combined to provide a 240V supply (albeit only at 15A, so only 3.6kW, but still enough to get 10-15 miles per hour of range, so over 100 miles overnight). These devices are a bit pricey for what they actually are (you could essentially do the same by "splicing" two extension cords together, but it may not be the safest solution), but they can provide a relatively inexpensive solution when visiting those that don't have 240V outlets.

 

[Ampre Sand]

Planning my a drive from San Juan Islands, WA to Fountain Hills, AZ for next week, a trip I have done a couple times now in my LR M3.

I lose a minimum of 90 minutes dealing with the ferry to the mainland. That said, I used to be able to just barely do it in two days in a gas car with two drivers switching off and eating in the car. It made for one exhaustingly long day followed by a more manageable day.

The Tesla pushes it to three days, but this trip will be with one driver, so three days is arguably safer. This time I will try staying at hotels with L2 charging. They are getting more common, but I won’t depend on it just in case the chargers are occupied.

While I love driving electric, I try not to sugarcoat it for people asking what it’s like. There are some downsides, but the upsides make it very worthwhile. As the supercharging infrastructure continues to fill in, and it’s already amazing and a non-issue for many routes, the downsides related to long distance travel will diminish. Home charging is a huge convenience over a gas car for day-to-day.

As far as driving around the Phoenix area, we never use the superchargers since we have 240V L2 at our winter home. That said there are tons of L2 chargers that add 30-40 miles per hour plugged in. Some are even free, like at the fourth tallest fountain in the world at Fountain Park. Some good restaurants there and a neat place to visit.

 

[srs5694]

In addition to 240v dryer, range, etc., outlets and Quick220 devices, it might be worth looking for 120v NEMA 5-20 outlets. These can provide up to 20A (peak; 16A continuous), vs. the 15A (peak; 12A continuous) available from the more common NEMA 5-15 outlets. This isn't a huge difference, but it should get you about 33% more range from an overnight charge. If you do find a NEMA 5-20 outlet, be sure it's on its own circuit, or at least that nothing else on the same circuit is in use, before you use it to charge a car. It may also be worth checking the breaker box to be sure it's got a 20A breaker, and check to be sure that the wiring is up to spec (I'm not sure how to check the wiring, myself). You'll also need an appropriate NEMA 5-20 adapter cable for the Tesla Mobile Connector to get the extra speed.

 

[Rocky_H]

They tried looking for public charging stations

Well, that's probably not going to work very well having someone who doesn't own an electric car or know what to look for try to physically keep an eye out for them. @CapsEngineer is right--you need to just look on Plugshare. There is a lot of stuff in Chandler.

Have you looked on PlugShare? I did a quick look around Chandler and there are a lot of L2 charging spots available for J1772 and Tesla.

Another solution is to use a Quick220 type device

I have one, and it was an interesting curiosity, but I regret bothering with it. It's almost never useful. The main problem is that it can't work on circuits that are GFCI protected. Guess what? All garage or external outlets are, so they won't work. So you would have to find outlets inside the house, and then run long extension cords to the box and to outside where the car is. It's a big pain, but granted, if it lets you charge overnight, maybe that's worth a few extension cords. But I would personally rather just take a break at a Supercharger.

 

[bradtem]

Well, that's probably not going to work very well having someone who doesn't own an electric car or know what to look for try to physically keep an eye out for them. @CapsEngineer is right--you need to just look on Plugshare. There is a lot of stuff in Chandler.


I have one, and it was an interesting curiosity, but I regret bothering with it. It's almost never useful. The main problem is that it can't work on circuits that are GFCI protected. Guess what? All garage or external outlets are, so they won't work. So you would have to find outlets inside the house, and then run long extension cords to the box and to outside where the car is. It's a big pain, but granted, if it lets you charge overnight, maybe that's worth a few extension cords. But I would personally rather just take a break at a Supercharger.

Yeah. There are various special purpose tools out there, including the ones that try to combine two circuits, the two dryer plug adapters, but you will be able to use them so rarely they are only for the most dedicated. Even the TT-30 adapter, which I have made use of, is used rarely. Finding homes that have dryer plugs or dedicated pairs of plugs next to the parking spot is rare. On the other hand, if it's your home, there are a number of options that are useful when you can make the time, put in some effort and will get much reward back.

 

[Jane4]

I just did a weekend trip with my friend from So-Cal to Phoenix. I left from Lake Forest CA (Orange County), picked friend up in Redlands, and we went to the Phoenix area.

Supercharging from Orange County to Las Vegas isn't that big of a deal. It's only one stop at Baker CA where I get Jersey Mikes or Eddies World where I just chill for 20 min. Las Vegas has alot of free chargepoint & charging options at shopping centers and hotels so while I'm in the area I usually don't have to supercharge.

But Phoenix we had to stop 3 times to make it to our destination. It feels like we could only drive for 2 hours and we always have to stop for 15-30 min. And I never found any free places to charge, so everything had to be supercharging. The only non supercharging was at the parents house, which only gave an e xtra 7% using the 110 V. If his parents house had a Wall Connector or 240V outlet, then I likely could eliminate supercharging during the day trip driving around Phoenix & Tuscon and only use superchargers just for going from CA to AZ.

My arcade friends eventually want to do a trip from So-Cal to Salt Lake City Utah. But I checked the area and it only has like 5 Superchargers in the entire area. If I get a hotel, should I try find one that is near a supercharger? Or how do you find hotels that could guarantee the use of a destination charger like a wall connector type? It just sucks always being forced to wait nearly an hour to top off each time at night so we have enough for the next day where we will be commuting 1-2 hours away round trip.

I think the part that made it a drag to go to Phoenix AZ for a Tesla is there were no random places to charge up while at a store. Las Vegas and CA have alot more free charging spots laying around. There are very limited supercharging spots in AZ so you can't just mindlessly drive and start looking for superchargers at 20% because you may risk not making it to the nearest supercharger. And supercharging takes a while.

In our limited experience--traveling to the Grand canyon last Fall--charging was easy and fast enough. It gave us time to use the bathroom and get something to eat and walk around. I appreciate the breaks from driving. It's good to get out and stretch.

 

[Jane4]

Okay, so a bit more info than in the other thread, but still don't know what car you are driving, or how fast you are driving, or extra weight, etc.

I put in my own car (LR Model 3 RWD) into ABRP and it came up with this plan (I upped the arrival SOC in Phoenix to 15% for this trip):

View attachment 844126

Certainly did not require 3 stops, and the one stop that was required was only 14 minutes.

Granted, if you have a Model 3 SR, or older Model S, you're obviously going to have to stop more frequently.

And yes, if you are planning on a few day trips (1-2 hours) and only have 120V charging at your destination in Phoenix, you will have to plan accordingly and "fill up" at a Supercharger (just as you would a gas car), unless of course you found a nearby L2 charger. As others have said, when I travel, I try to stay at hotels with L2 charging, and I favor visiting places (restaurants, stores) that offer L2 charging to keep topping off my vehicle.

There does seem more available all the time--esp. chargers at restaurants and hotels, etc. So far, the two National Parks we've stayed at have had Level 2 chargers--so slow, but helped.

 

[GWord]

Took a trip from east Texas to California and back earlier in the year. I found that supercharging added about 10% extra to the trip than what I would have typically spent for ICE travel. The impact is more pronounced for short trips with no meal/break stoppage that require a deep recharge versus an ICE car that could potentially make it in one shot.

 

[threeputts]

My wife and I just completed a long road trip in a M3LR from our home near Minneapolis to Seattle via Boulder Colorado and back.
The TL/DR version: Added less than an hour vs ICE each full day of driving, using hotel chargers helps, having the CCS adapter paid off.

We left after work on a Thursday with the car at 99% and made it to the Sioux City IA SC which is next to a Holiday Inn. We plugged
in and checked into the hotel. When the car hit 90% about 30 minutes later I went down and moved it. The next morning I plugged it
back in before eating breakfast in the hotel and the car hit 100% just as we were ready to go. From there we drove to the SC in
Kearney NE which is in the parking lot of a Runza restaurant so we went in to eat lunch (we were both unimpressed with the
food). I unplugged as soon as we got back to the car and we proceeded to Ogallala NE. This one is in the lot of a hotel and was
the first stop where we waited around while charging, but it gave me time to catch up on emails and the like. Spent 13 minutes there
before moving on. At the next SC in Brush CO we went into the service station to use the restroom and browse for some snacks. We
had 96 miles to the hotel at this point so we waited just a few minutes more after getting back to the car.

We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn in Broomfield CO for two nights which has multiple destination chargers. Friday night I charged
overnight to 90% which was ample for driving around Saturday. Saturday night again to 90% but Sunday morning raised the limit
to 100% from the app while still in the hotel room and we left with 98% about 40 minutes later. First stop Sunday was Laramie WY
where again after using the restroom we waited a bit before moving on. This sequence was repeated at Rawlins WY, Rock Springs WY and
Evanston WY with 5-10 minutes spent waiting at the car although in Rawlins we spent that time eating lunch. We intended to make our
last SC stop of the day in Trementon UT but the nav indicated there was a wait so we went to the Electrify America station in Perry UT
instead. I plugged in there with the CCS adapter I bought from South Korea earlier in the year and it started charging before I
got the EA app open to start it, turns out it was a free session. By the time we used the restroom and bought some chips in Walmart
we had enough charge to get to the Fairfield Inn in Burley ID where we plugged into one of the three destination chargers there.

Monday morning I again raised the charge limit from inside the hotel and after eating breakfast we left at 100%. First SC stop was
Ontario OR where we went into a coffee shop for another restroom break and some java. Waited just a couple minutes before heading to
Pendelton OR. Despite the nav showing one open charger there was a line of 3 cars waiting - turns out a model X was parked poorly
making one of the pedestals unreachable. We were at 13% but I figured that would be enough to get to the EA location in Hermiston OR
so we went there rather than wait. Once again the EA session was free, and we spent the time eating lunch, chatting and sharing cat pictures
with a BMW i3 driver. We stayed there longer than I had planned so we had to make just one more stop at Cle Elum WA for about 10 minutes
before continuing on to Seattle WA.

Fast forward to Saturday afternoon. Leaving a friend's house in Tacoma WA I had intended to stop at the SC in Auburn WA but the nav
showed a wait so once again hit up a nearby EA locaiton and once again no cost . Hit up the SC in Ellensburg WA while we ate fast
food and on to the Hampton Inn Spokane with their 2 destination chargers.

Sunday morning as before charged to 100% while eating breakfast and drove to Missoula MT. I decided to go to the EA chargers in Missoula
and Butte and spent more time than I needed to at both because I didn't know when the free juice promo might suddenly come to an end.
Still free sessions at both, too bad there were no more EA locations the rest of the route home. Stopped at Big Timber MT SC just long
enough to use the bathroom then spent the time at the Billings SC eating dinner. Billings is a site that could use an expansion as it's an
older 4 stall V2 location and when headed East it's 150 miles to the next SC in Miles City with 80mph speed limits. Sharing a cabinet here
would result in a very long charge with nothing but a hotel lobby nearby, fortunately we were the only ones there. Stopped for 7 minutes
at the Miles City MT SC and headed to the Holiday Inn Express in Glendive MT with a SC in the hotel parking lot. The Glendive SC site is
prone to flooding and it had been raining, half the pedestal's parking spots were under water. Fortunately it was also empty when we
arrived.

Monday morning I once again plugged the car in before going back in to eat breakfast. This turned out to be a mistake as I didn't realize that SC was billed by the minute and not by the kWh so I ended up paying about $9 for just 8kWh to get from 90% to 100% when I didn't need to. Don't top off to 100% at by the minute SCs unless you have no other option. First charge stop was Billings ND where a Tesla tech was working on one of the pedestals. We chatted with him for several minutes before heading for the Jamestown ND SC where we charged as we ate lunch. Stopped at the Fargo ND SC again just long enough to use the bathroom then on to the Alexandria MN SC where we did some shopping in Target. When we got back to the car we had more than enough charge to get home.

All the SCs from Miles City to Alexandria (including Dickinson ND which we skipped) are V3 250kW max and if you arrive with ~10% charge with a preconditioned battery you can be on your way to next one after about 10 minutes as they are all about 100 miles apart. Obviously you would need to charge longer if you drove this route in winter but the weather was warm this day.

Overall I think we spent less than an hour more on the road each full day of driving than we would have if we did the same trip in an ICE. About the only other advantages would be eating meals in restaurants instead of in the car at the superchargers, and not needing to plan where the next stop will be when filling up. Road trips in both the MYLR and M3LR are really quite easy as long as the temperatures aren't bitter cold and you are sticking to major highways like interstates. Still not ultimately as fast or as much fexibility as an ICE, but if you can combine food and bathroom breaks with charging the difference isn't too much IMHO. The one thing that could derail a Tesla road trip is having to wait at SCs which I fear is going to be a growing problem with the number of Teslas on the road growing quickly. Having the CCS adapter helped a ton on this trip.

 

[bradtem]

My wife and I just completed a long road trip in a M3LR from our home near Minneapolis to Seattle via Boulder Colorado and back.
The TL/DR version: Added less than an hour vs ICE each full day of driving, using hotel chargers helps, having the CCS adapter paid off.

We left after work on a Thursday with the car at 99% and made it to the Sioux City IA SC which is next to a Holiday Inn. We plugged
in and checked into the hotel. When the car hit 90% about 30 minutes later I went down and moved it. The next morning I plugged it
back in before eating breakfast in the hotel and the car hit 100% just as we were ready to go. From there we drove to the SC in
Kearney NE which is in the parking lot of a Runza restaurant so we went in to eat lunch (we were both unimpressed with the
food). I unplugged as soon as we got back to the car and we proceeded to Ogallala NE. This one is in the lot of a hotel and was
the first stop where we waited around while charging, but it gave me time to catch up on emails and the like. Spent 13 minutes there
before moving on. At the next SC in Brush CO we went into the service station to use the restroom and browse for some snacks. We
had 96 miles to the hotel at this point so we waited just a few minutes more after getting back to the car.

We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn in Broomfield CO for two nights which has multiple destination chargers. Friday night I charged
overnight to 90% which was ample for driving around Saturday. Saturday night again to 90% but Sunday morning raised the limit
to 100% from the app while still in the hotel room and we left with 98% about 40 minutes later. First stop Sunday was Laramie WY
where again after using the restroom we waited a bit before moving on. This sequence was repeated at Rawlins WY, Rock Springs WY and
Evanston WY with 5-10 minutes spent waiting at the car although in Rawlins we spent that time eating lunch. We intended to make our
last SC stop of the day in Trementon UT but the nav indicated there was a wait so we went to the Electrify America station in Perry UT
instead. I plugged in there with the CCS adapter I bought from South Korea earlier in the year and it started charging before I
got the EA app open to start it, turns out it was a free session. By the time we used the restroom and bought some chips in Walmart
we had enough charge to get to the Fairfield Inn in Burley ID where we plugged into one of the three destination chargers there.

Monday morning I again raised the charge limit from inside the hotel and after eating breakfast we left at 100%. First SC stop was
Ontario OR where we went into a coffee shop for another restroom break and some java. Waited just a couple minutes before heading to
Pendelton OR. Despite the nav showing one open charger there was a line of 3 cars waiting - turns out a model X was parked poorly
making one of the pedestals unreachable. We were at 13% but I figured that would be enough to get to the EA location in Hermiston OR
so we went there rather than wait. Once again the EA session was free, and we spent the time eating lunch, chatting and sharing cat pictures
with a BMW i3 driver. We stayed there longer than I had planned so we had to make just one more stop at Cle Elum WA for about 10 minutes
before continuing on to Seattle WA.

Fast forward to Saturday afternoon. Leaving a friend's house in Tacoma WA I had intended to stop at the SC in Auburn WA but the nav
showed a wait so once again hit up a nearby EA locaiton and once again no cost . Hit up the SC in Ellensburg WA while we ate fast
food and on to the Hampton Inn Spokane with their 2 destination chargers.

Sunday morning as before charged to 100% while eating breakfast and drove to Missoula MT. I decided to go to the EA chargers in Missoula
and Butte and spent more time than I needed to at both because I didn't know when the free juice promo might suddenly come to an end.
Still free sessions at both, too bad there were no more EA locations the rest of the route home. Stopped at Big Timber MT SC just long
enough to use the bathroom then spent the time at the Billings SC eating dinner. Billings is a site that could use an expansion as it's an
older 4 stall V2 location and when headed East it's 150 miles to the next SC in Miles City with 80mph speed limits. Sharing a cabinet here
would result in a very long charge with nothing but a hotel lobby nearby, fortunately we were the only ones there. Stopped for 7 minutes
at the Miles City MT SC and headed to the Holiday Inn Express in Glendive MT with a SC in the hotel parking lot. The Glendive SC site is
prone to flooding and it had been raining, half the pedestal's parking spots were under water. Fortunately it was also empty when we
arrived.

Monday morning I once again plugged the car in before going back in to eat breakfast. This turned out to be a mistake as I didn't realize that SC was billed by the minute and not by the kWh so I ended up paying about $9 for just 8kWh to get from 90% to 100% when I didn't need to. Don't top off to 100% at by the minute SCs unless you have no other option. First charge stop was Billings ND where a Tesla tech was working on one of the pedestals. We chatted with him for several minutes before heading for the Jamestown ND SC where we charged as we ate lunch. Stopped at the Fargo ND SC again just long enough to use the bathroom then on to the Alexandria MN SC where we did some shopping in Target. When we got back to the car we had more than enough charge to get home.

All the SCs from Miles City to Alexandria (including Dickinson ND which we skipped) are V3 250kW max and if you arrive with ~10% charge with a preconditioned battery you can be on your way to next one after about 10 minutes as they are all about 100 miles apart. Obviously you would need to charge longer if you drove this route in winter but the weather was warm this day.

Overall I think we spent less than an hour more on the road each full day of driving than we would have if we did the same trip in an ICE. About the only other advantages would be eating meals in restaurants instead of in the car at the superchargers, and not needing to plan where the next stop will be when filling up. Road trips in both the MYLR and M3LR are really quite easy as long as the temperatures aren't bitter cold and you are sticking to major highways like interstates. Still not ultimately as fast or as much fexibility as an ICE, but if you can combine food and bathroom breaks with charging the difference isn't too much IMHO. The one thing that could derail a Tesla road trip is having to wait at SCs which I fear is going to be a growing problem with the number of Teslas on the road growing quickly. Having the CCS adapter helped a ton on this trip.

Curious why you charged to 100% so often? It's not a good thing for the battery, and of course takes lots of time if doing it at an SC. While you are wise to only do it just before you drive, generally it's not needed (and thus not a great idea) unless your next destination really needs 100%. I stick to 90% and only go above it if I know I have a very long trip ahead. It also slows you down to charge to 100% because when you get to the next SC, you have more charge, and thus charge more slowly.

 

[Snerruc]

I make a trip to Richmond, VA often. 826 miles. I normally leave with 100% full battery. Takes me 3 stops and 13 to 13.5 hours. Started once with only 250-260 miles in the battery and it took about the same.. Usually drive 75 or so.

 

[threeputts]

Curious why you charged to 100% so often? It's not a good thing for the battery, and of course takes lots of time if doing it at an SC. While you are wise to only do it just before you drive, generally it's not needed (and thus not a great idea) unless your next destination really needs 100%. I stick to 90% and only go above it if I know I have a very long trip ahead. It also slows you down to charge to 100% because when you get to the next SC, you have more charge, and thus charge more slowly.

Good question. The short answer is to avoid spousal anxiety. The first leg each day was over 200 miles at freeway speeds with cooler morning temps so I wanted to start with as much as I could
(I initially intended to skip Laramie WY but it looked like we were going to be cutting it too close). We arrived at the first stop each day with less than 20% so we still got good charging speeds.

It’s not good for the battery to charge to 100% and let it sit. It’s fine if you start driving right away.

 

[LoneStarEve]

Albuquerque to Vegas is nearly 600 miles and it took me 9 hours 20 minutes in our gas SUV with 2 restroom stops and one lunch stop.
In the Model Y it took 9 hours 50 minutes also with 2 restroom stops and 1 lunch stop. If the supercharger sites were v3 we might have been able to shave 10 minutes off.

So I’d say 10 hours real world door to door in a gas car is 10.5 hours in a Tesla if you optimize stops. However in a gas car if you pee in a bottle and eat while driving you could do it in 9 hours so a full 90 minutes quicker than the Tesla.