Last week I drove the scenic 187-mile stretch from Salinas to Santa Maria, down Hwy 1 through Big Sur, on my way from San Jose to Santa Barbara. The drive was enabled by the new Salinas charger, with Atascadero/San Luis Obispo/Santa Maria on the other end; I don't think it would have been possible otherwise, short of serious hypermiling. Curious if any other Roadster owners have attempted this drive, or could I have been the first?
Anyway, it was the drive of a lifetime, and I posted some first-person video on YouTube: YouTube - Tesla Roadster in Big Sur . (Pretty decent video capture for an iPhone. Turn down the volume; the wind noise gets pretty loud.)
Major kudos to Tesla/SolarCity/Rabobank for installing these chargers. I've availed myself of the ones in Salinas, Atascadero and Santa Maria, and found them to be in perfect working order. (Though, I did discover the Santa Maria charger plug exposed to the elements; please stow it properly after use! Perhaps there should be a reminder sticker, indicating the correct 'parked' position?) I'd also strongly encourage Tesla to install a second charger in each location for redundancy; I nearly had a conflict with another Tesla driver who was making the southbound drive on the 101 at the same time. We both planned to recharge in Atascadero, but ended up making it to SLO and Santa Maria respectively, due to the Roadster's impressive range. (Which we all know from Top Gear to be 55 miles.)
Finally, I'd love to see a charging station at the Rabobank in King City, "plugging" the longest gap in the charging network: 110 miles from Atascadero to Salinas. Otherwise you end up completely dependent on the Salinas charger: it's 187 miles from Atascadero to Menlo Park, which is dicey if the Salinas charger is out, or if you arrive at Menlo Park after hours -- for that matter, I'd love to see 24/7 public chargers available at the Tesla store locations. I did take my Tesla up to Menlo Park while I was in San Jose, to show it where it was born!
-Ben
Anyway, it was the drive of a lifetime, and I posted some first-person video on YouTube: YouTube - Tesla Roadster in Big Sur . (Pretty decent video capture for an iPhone. Turn down the volume; the wind noise gets pretty loud.)
Major kudos to Tesla/SolarCity/Rabobank for installing these chargers. I've availed myself of the ones in Salinas, Atascadero and Santa Maria, and found them to be in perfect working order. (Though, I did discover the Santa Maria charger plug exposed to the elements; please stow it properly after use! Perhaps there should be a reminder sticker, indicating the correct 'parked' position?) I'd also strongly encourage Tesla to install a second charger in each location for redundancy; I nearly had a conflict with another Tesla driver who was making the southbound drive on the 101 at the same time. We both planned to recharge in Atascadero, but ended up making it to SLO and Santa Maria respectively, due to the Roadster's impressive range. (Which we all know from Top Gear to be 55 miles.)
Finally, I'd love to see a charging station at the Rabobank in King City, "plugging" the longest gap in the charging network: 110 miles from Atascadero to Salinas. Otherwise you end up completely dependent on the Salinas charger: it's 187 miles from Atascadero to Menlo Park, which is dicey if the Salinas charger is out, or if you arrive at Menlo Park after hours -- for that matter, I'd love to see 24/7 public chargers available at the Tesla store locations. I did take my Tesla up to Menlo Park while I was in San Jose, to show it where it was born!
-Ben
