Chicago - Detroit- I-94 SC Access Report

[deaddog]

I've driven this roundtrip 3x in 3 weeks. These were my first road trips and one thing I learned is that your timing can be impacted greatly by ingress/egress to SC - from the moment you pull onto the exit ramp until the moment you're plugging in (and the reverse) - a pretty obvious point but one I didn't appreciate until I experienced it.

The St. Joseph and Marshall SC are excellent, at most one minute off and one minute on the highway. Ann Arbor and Livonia are in Meijer parking lots and are at least 10 minutes off the highway and 10 minutes on due to traffic (at various times between 7 am and 10 pm). Livonia in the snowstorm was close to 20 minutes from highway to plug-in.

Obviously, you have to charge when needed but if I had been a bit smarter about my charge strategy -- and known about the ingress/egress issues - I could have saved a lot of time on a relatively short trip. Granted, I was a bit more range-anxious than necessary given these were my first trips and they were mainly in the cold and snow - but I suspect this could be useful information.

 

[turbospecc]

Ann Arbor is generally 2-3 minutes off I-94 in light traffic but could be closer to 10 in heavy traffic. Between the broken pavement and crazy drivers, that Meijer parking lot if a bit harrowing, though!

Have you ever seen more than half of the Ann Arbor stalls occupied?

 

[outdoors]

A2 Supercharger is a cluster of epic proportions. Almost afraid to drive through there with the crazy drivers coming from every direction.

Just once did I see more than half full. Someone brought a model 3 up for a meet up.

Glad to see you are enjoying and learning about a sweet way to travel.

 

[IT Geek]

Marshall is certainly the easiest one to get to off the highway. That's in a great location. I didn't think the Meijer in Livonia was all that bad though. The trick is to turn in from the stop light as if you were going to Costco and snake your way to the SC from that way. If you try to turn in further up the road at the Meijer entrance you'll be there all day trying to make that left turn.

 

[deaddog]

Ann Arbor is generally 2-3 minutes off I-94 in light traffic but could be closer to 10 in heavy traffic. Between the broken pavement and crazy drivers, that Meijer parking lot if a bit harrowing, though!

Have you ever seen more than half of the Ann Arbor stalls occupied?

I stopped at AA SC 4 times over last two weeks, all between 8 am and 6 pm, 2 weekdays, 2 weekends. Never less than 12 minutes from exit to plug-in, or plug-out to entrance. I timed it precisely. Only one other car there one time, other times the SC was empty. The problem is all the lights and traffic going into the big center.

On the positive side, AA is a pleasant stop with a Starbucks a two minute walk away. But when the ingress/egress takes longer than the charge, its pretty inefficient on a road trip that would be about 4:30 in an ICE.

And, to continue the positive, I was really pleasantly surprised by this road trip, which I've done, literally, hundreds of time in an ICE (family in DTW, I moved to Chicago in 1982). My MS 90D was super comfortable and handled perfectly at speed, even in a terrible snowstorm; AP1 worked flawlessly; TeslaWaze on the browser was pretty good (lots of troopers in western michigan); UHFS was pretty good (but streaming sucks); and, the multiple stops would have been just fine if all were no more than actual charge time + 5 minutes (as it was in Marshall and St Joe).

 

[mongo]

A2 Supercharger is a cluster of epic proportions. Almost afraid to drive through there with the crazy drivers coming from every direction.

Just once did I see more than half full. Someone brought a model 3 up for a meet up.

Glad to see you are enjoying and learning about a sweet way to travel.
View attachment 284723

For reference, that one guy is 6'8" and fit in the 3.