I had to take a road trip on December 26 to visit a family member getting medical treatment in Tijuana. I figured I’d post some thoughts on my first longer road trip with a 22 Plaid on 21s. Also wanted to see how the supercharger network felt on a holiday in 2022 after all the recent expansions but with all the new Teslas on the road.
The trip started at 7:30 in Turlock with 90% charge and proceeded on the 99 driving to Modesto first as I had to pick someone up there. After some time we hit the road on the 99 N and had to drive to Sacramento airport to pick up an additional family member. After picking up we headed on the 5 S to Tijuana. The nav said Patterson would be our first stop and we started driving. It was in the 40s with fog throughout and just felt cold. Driving the 5 south the nav said there was a lot of traffic right before the 5/580 junction so it rerouted us off the freeway on the 33 all the way to the Patterson supercharger. There was 3 cars in line and it was full but within 3 minutes I got a spot. It was in the 40s and cold so even though we arrived at 10% and pre-conditioned before arrival it still needed a few minutes to get up to speed. It held at 90 kW for quite a few minutes before the app said the temp on the battery was good to ramp up to 250 kW. This is my first time at this stop and is a really good stop with tons of amenities nearby. Sure it could use more than 8 stalls but V3 really does a fine job of managing load and turning over fast.
After a quick fast food meal and charge at 82% we continued south at 1 PM. This is the first time I can ever recall where it was stop and go for the most part of the trip on the 5 from south of Tracy pretty much all the way to south Orange County. I’d say 90% of this stretch was stop and go and it was a nightmare. There were no accidents blocking the road but the chaos with Southwest and airports overall along with holiday traffic probably added to this. Our next stop 4 hours later at 5 PM was Bakersfield - Enos Ln. I secured the 12th spot but being V3 this time, with slightly milder temperatures at the south end of the valley, I was able to get 250 kW as soon as I plugged in at 10%. In the time it took us to go take a quick restroom break our car was at 67%. That was enough to get our next planned stop: Irvine - Culver Dr. This was to be our next stop as I needed a supercharger stop with a grocery or Target to grab some groceries for our trip. As we were leaving there was a line of 3 cars here in Bakersfield. I’m not sure if these were newbies or are unaware of line etiquette but they were forming 3 parallel lines which caused a little tension when I left my spot since a Model Y who had just arrived lunged towards my spot ignoring the other 2 cars that where waiting longer. It would be nice if Tesla would establish some official waiting etiquette similar to how they recently started giving tips leaving spaces between stalls and other charging tips.
We left around Bakersfield - Enos Ln. at 5:15 PM and continued battling traffic on the 5 S. There weren’t many options for alternatives to the route and the only detour from the route was a Waze suggested 5 S to 10 S to 710 S and then back to 5 S. I followed this suggestion since I usually run Waze in parallel to the Tesla nav. I think Waze is a little more reactive to traffic and really works well with inputs such as HOV, Fastrak, SENTRI, and others. As we neared Irvine I noticed the Culver Dr location kept being a wait and since I would have enough to get to the next V3 outside of Irvine with a grocery store which is San Clemente - Ave. Vista Hermosa, we rerouted there. I arrived there with 9% at 9PM and the nice mild ambient temperatures got me 250 kW immediately. While we got our groceries I charged to 90%. This had us arriving in Tijuana at 60%. I could’ve left with much less charge but I didn’t want to risk the destination chargers being ICEd at our hotel or being occupied so I figured at leave a cushion.
All I can say after this drive is I’ll probably avoid holiday travel unless I absolutely have to. It was rough and the traffic was more than I’ve ever experienced on a 500+ mile drive. I even saw massive lines at several gas stations on the 5 in the valley so that says just how bad it was. While it’s easy to focus on the *sugar*show that is the “genius“ running Twitter, I’ll give credit where it’s due: the supercharger network. The expansion everywhere and the addition of large sites in California have really made road trips a breeze. This trip really made me confident on taking a road trip even during busy times. Also the anxiety and memories I had of 2 years ago where I got stuck waiting 30 minutes in line at Buttonwillow and then when my turn came up it took an hour to charge fully due to the poor V2 load management, all that is in the past. Now with V3s, even with a line, they turn over so quick which is marvelous. The longer range of the Plaid compared to M3P on 20s was also a game changer as that reduced the amount of stops needed which also saves time. I think my family that traveled with me said it felt more like an ICE road trip this time since our stops were about every 4 hours. I realize that was more due to the horrific traffic than anything but still, at least that was kind of nice.
The trip started at 7:30 in Turlock with 90% charge and proceeded on the 99 driving to Modesto first as I had to pick someone up there. After some time we hit the road on the 99 N and had to drive to Sacramento airport to pick up an additional family member. After picking up we headed on the 5 S to Tijuana. The nav said Patterson would be our first stop and we started driving. It was in the 40s with fog throughout and just felt cold. Driving the 5 south the nav said there was a lot of traffic right before the 5/580 junction so it rerouted us off the freeway on the 33 all the way to the Patterson supercharger. There was 3 cars in line and it was full but within 3 minutes I got a spot. It was in the 40s and cold so even though we arrived at 10% and pre-conditioned before arrival it still needed a few minutes to get up to speed. It held at 90 kW for quite a few minutes before the app said the temp on the battery was good to ramp up to 250 kW. This is my first time at this stop and is a really good stop with tons of amenities nearby. Sure it could use more than 8 stalls but V3 really does a fine job of managing load and turning over fast.
After a quick fast food meal and charge at 82% we continued south at 1 PM. This is the first time I can ever recall where it was stop and go for the most part of the trip on the 5 from south of Tracy pretty much all the way to south Orange County. I’d say 90% of this stretch was stop and go and it was a nightmare. There were no accidents blocking the road but the chaos with Southwest and airports overall along with holiday traffic probably added to this. Our next stop 4 hours later at 5 PM was Bakersfield - Enos Ln. I secured the 12th spot but being V3 this time, with slightly milder temperatures at the south end of the valley, I was able to get 250 kW as soon as I plugged in at 10%. In the time it took us to go take a quick restroom break our car was at 67%. That was enough to get our next planned stop: Irvine - Culver Dr. This was to be our next stop as I needed a supercharger stop with a grocery or Target to grab some groceries for our trip. As we were leaving there was a line of 3 cars here in Bakersfield. I’m not sure if these were newbies or are unaware of line etiquette but they were forming 3 parallel lines which caused a little tension when I left my spot since a Model Y who had just arrived lunged towards my spot ignoring the other 2 cars that where waiting longer. It would be nice if Tesla would establish some official waiting etiquette similar to how they recently started giving tips leaving spaces between stalls and other charging tips.
We left around Bakersfield - Enos Ln. at 5:15 PM and continued battling traffic on the 5 S. There weren’t many options for alternatives to the route and the only detour from the route was a Waze suggested 5 S to 10 S to 710 S and then back to 5 S. I followed this suggestion since I usually run Waze in parallel to the Tesla nav. I think Waze is a little more reactive to traffic and really works well with inputs such as HOV, Fastrak, SENTRI, and others. As we neared Irvine I noticed the Culver Dr location kept being a wait and since I would have enough to get to the next V3 outside of Irvine with a grocery store which is San Clemente - Ave. Vista Hermosa, we rerouted there. I arrived there with 9% at 9PM and the nice mild ambient temperatures got me 250 kW immediately. While we got our groceries I charged to 90%. This had us arriving in Tijuana at 60%. I could’ve left with much less charge but I didn’t want to risk the destination chargers being ICEd at our hotel or being occupied so I figured at leave a cushion.
All I can say after this drive is I’ll probably avoid holiday travel unless I absolutely have to. It was rough and the traffic was more than I’ve ever experienced on a 500+ mile drive. I even saw massive lines at several gas stations on the 5 in the valley so that says just how bad it was. While it’s easy to focus on the *sugar*show that is the “genius“ running Twitter, I’ll give credit where it’s due: the supercharger network. The expansion everywhere and the addition of large sites in California have really made road trips a breeze. This trip really made me confident on taking a road trip even during busy times. Also the anxiety and memories I had of 2 years ago where I got stuck waiting 30 minutes in line at Buttonwillow and then when my turn came up it took an hour to charge fully due to the poor V2 load management, all that is in the past. Now with V3s, even with a line, they turn over so quick which is marvelous. The longer range of the Plaid compared to M3P on 20s was also a game changer as that reduced the amount of stops needed which also saves time. I think my family that traveled with me said it felt more like an ICE road trip this time since our stops were about every 4 hours. I realize that was more due to the horrific traffic than anything but still, at least that was kind of nice.
