First Road Trip in my 2022 Model S

Just drove from my home in the Bay Area to Arizona for my first road trip in my 2022 Model S. For the most part the trip went well with the exception of the following:

1: Range was below what I expected given the car supposedly had a range of 405 miles. Charged the car to 100% before I left and admittingly drove down I5 at about 75-80 MPH which the car handled beautifully but I ultimately had to charge the car had the following location (235 miles from my home) as the charge level was down to about 8%:

Easy Trip Food Store
29541 Stockdale Hwy
Bakersfield, CA 93314-9644

2: The car's onboard computer indicated prior to our ultimate stop in Bakersfield that we should stop at the following charging station:

Buttonwillow, CA - Cal Club Rd (No Amenities) Supercharger
24551 W Lerdo Hwy
Buttonwillow, CA 93206

As the navigation was directing us to this Supercharger we followed the directions to a tee and for the life of me, could not find it anywhere! Admittingly it was foggy outside but there was nothing near here even though there was a sign saying turn right with a Tesla emblem on it which we did and other than a road still under construction, there was nothing resembling a charging station and ultimately we simply turned around and went the extra 16 miles to the charging station in Bakersfield. Anyone been to this charging station in Buttonwillow that we may have missed?

3: After charging in Bakersfield the onboard computer had us go to the following Supercharger:

Victoria Gardens
12642 Cultural Center Dr.
Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91739-7511

This was a big mistake as not only is it not close to the 210 where we were traveling, the chargers were very slow (about 50kW) and the bathrooms not convenient. Truth is, we never should have stopped here as we had plenty of charge left and after a few minutes left and went to the following Supercharger:

Morongo Travel Center
48540 Morongo Trail
Cabazon, CA 92230

This was an excellent place to charge as the bathrooms were quite nice and the other amenities convenient as well. Only issue was that the computer was trying to send us to this other nearby location:

Desert Hills Premium Outlets
48400 Seminole Drive
Cabazon, CA 92230-2125

We wanted to go to the Morongo Travel Center as the chargers were up to 250kW so we got a little turned around with the navigation trying to send us to the Desert Hills Premium Outlets so we probably burned about 20 minutes of extra time going in circles trying to get the Morongo Travel Center. With this 20 minute delay along with probably a 40 minute delay by going to the Rancho Cucamonga charger (not to mention the 15-20 minute delay trying to find the Buttonwillow Supercharger) we added about an hour plus to our trip which we would not do on the next drive from the Bay Area to Arizona.

4: Our last stop was at the following Supercharger:

Carl's Jr.
1451 West Main Street
Quartzsite, AZ 85346-5359

This proved to be an excellent choice which as a side note we used (along with the Supercharger at the Morongo Travel Center) on the way back. Our other stop on the way back was at the following Supercharger:

Harris Ranch Inn & Restaurant
24553 W Dorris Avenue
Coalinga, CA 93210

This too proved to be an excellent stopping location.

Bottom line, a little advance planning will go a long way towards minimizing the time spent stopped on a long trip but again, outside of perhaps a little less range that I expected, the car performed beautifully and the bathroom breaks along the way proved very convenient not to mention necessary. Very pleased with the performance of the car and will gladly take it again on our next road trip!

"Tesla Model S electric car at Union Square, San Francisco" by mariordo59 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog feed.

 

[Wattsisname]

Pre planning at your desk with " A Better Route Planner" works really well.
Gorgeous car.

Just noticed my tautology above ; "pre" planning.

 

[Rottenapplr]

You don’t have to always go with Tesla’s recommebedtchargjng stops. You can skip. Press the charging button and click the location. Check the charge rate 250kwh or more. Look at the rates to pay. Check the arrival charge. That’s what I do. Last time I did San Francisco with a short 7 mins charge twice. Got home fast too. And didn’t take Tesla recommended route.

 

[Evpowerdan]

Expectations of driving 75-80+ and getting amazing range - you can only pic 1. They are not on the same continuum.

Weather (wind + temps), speed, terrain (hilly or flat) and load in the vehicle or on it - all affect range a lot. No different than a ICE vehicle.

 

[Darmie]

The tesla nav always likes to stretch out the stops. This usually takes much longer doing a road trip this way. You can do an experiment with EV Trip Planner on a road trip, start removing superchargers and you will find that it takes longer to complete a trip than stopping often. Now to locate the best stops, I've always had great success with the plugshare app giving it a quick look. You can usually find out what's around by all the pictures that are posted and the few writeups that are available to read. I'm really digging all the gas stations that now have S/C. Many of the Buc'ces in the area now have S/C and they make a great stop since they are open 24hr. When we traveled north, there are many stops at other brand gas stations as well.

 

[tivoboy]

The tesla nav always likes to stretch out the stops. This usually takes much longer doing a road trip this way. You can do an experiment with EV Trip Planner on a road trip, start removing superchargers and you will find that it takes longer to complete a trip than stopping often. Now to locate the best stops, I've always had great success with the plugshare app giving it a quick look. You can usually find out what's around by all the pictures that are posted and the few writeups that are available to read. I'm really digging all the gas stations that now have S/C. Many of the Buc'ces in the area now have S/C and they make a great stop since they are open 24hr. When we traveled north, there are many stops at other brand gas stations as well.

I love/d EV Trip Planner and years ago much preferred it to ABRP, but sadly I don’t think it has been updated at all in several years.. things are probably OK for this trip planning, but as an example they don’t even have Model Y as selectable models, nor AWD Model 3, so I think it’s vehicle database is quite lacking and other calculations may not have been updated or optimized. Not sure if the Superchargers it queried were via a Database or API, but if it was static or required maintenance on the part of the developer, it too is probably WAYYY out of date.

Not advocating for ABRP, but at this point we know it’s getting updates for everything features AND vehicles, etc., so even the free version might prove more accurate or effective.