I just did an EV Trip Plan...Looks kind of tight...

[EnjoyingLife]

Starting Location: Waconia, MN
Ending Location: Rochester, MN
Rough Distance: 110 miles
Total Energy Used 26/6kWh (from the site)
Car: Tesla S 75D 19" Tires

Assuming my total range is 259miles-10% with AC on = 235 miles. if my one way is 110 miles, I get there I will have 125 miles left. If I drive around for lunch, dinner, easily I could put 15-20 miles on day 1. So now I have 125-20 = 105 at the end of day 1.

At the hotel, they don't have charging. They might have an outdoor 110v plug I can use but do I really want to leave it plugged in overnight and risk getting the cord stolen? Let's say I do let it plugged in and charge at a rate of 3 miles/hr, then the next morning, I would have 105 + 24 roughly 130 miles to play with. Then I might drive here and there. Let's say I use 40 miles on second day. Now I have 130-40 = 90 miles left at the end of day 2. Then I charge it again at night. The next morning I leave to go home, I will have 90 +24 roughly 105 miles. Which means, I will have to make a stop at oakdale supercharging station. Is that how a lot of people are doing it? I'm beginning to feel the anxiety and my model S hasn't even left Chicago yet

 

[NOLA_Mike]

I would suggest you utilize PlugShare to find a few Level 2 charging options and plan on spending an hour or two at one of them.

I did a quick look and found this one, for example:

 

[kort677]

why do you think that using the 110 connection will result in the UMC being stolen? while the connection to the wall is insecure the connection to the car is locked and only way to steal it would be cutting the cord rendering the unit almost useless.
as noted, get the plugshare ap in order to locate chargers that you might be able to access.

 

[Graffi]

Driving an EV requires a shift in your way of thinking. Once you get this shift then every time you take your EV out you automatically think of the charge you have and what you need to get to where you are going.

In your case, this whole trip does not have a Supercharger along the way. Therefore you plan for the alternatives.

* do you plan a side trip to get you to a near-by Supercharger
* do you find places you are stopping at that have electricity available, 120v or 240v (do they have the NEMA 14-50 outlet that included in the on-board EVSE)
* are there public J1772 charging stations along the route or at your destination that you can use. Do you have the necessary subscriptions to use then?
* do you need to limit your speed to increase your remaining range

These are just a few. We lived with a 24kwh Nissan Leaf for 3.5 years before getting our MS 75D so we know all about the various hypermiling techniques we had to use to survive. On our recent cross-country trip we missed the exit for one Supercharger and the next exit to turn around was 10 miles up the road. We were limited by time so we decided to go on to the next one. We slowed down, got behind a Semi and reduced the following distance to 1 for the next hour. Instead of having a negative miles available when we arrived we showed over 10% available. You have got to love the Autopilot. Yes, it took us a little longer to get there but still a lot faster than trying to go back to the Supercharger we missed. Oh, and just so you know, there was a head-wind that would have further reduced our efficiency had we not drafted behind the Semi.

 

[Rocky_H]

Yeah, first off, the charging cord can't be stolen, because, as @kort677 mentioned, it is locked into the charging port, and it can't be removed unless the car is unlocked.

So a few thoughts. First off, I see this too often unfortunately, where you say you have your hotel booked, you say it doesn't have charging, and now are trying to figure out charging. In the future, try reversing that. Charging is an amenity you want, so try using that as your criteria for picking which hotel to book. We all need to help with this. The La Quinta Inn & Suites in Rochester decided to go ahead and sign up with Tesla's Destination Charger program, so it could be a win/win of them offering the service so travel to Rochester would be easy and convenient with a Tesla and attracting some business from Tesla owners, and here you are, a Tesla owner traveling to Rochester, but you're ignoring them and booking somewhere else and now worrying about charging. Help them out, man!

OK, so...onward with what you have if you don't want to change the reservation. Yeah, I like the suggestions of @NOLA_Mike . Are any of those charging locations on Plugshare near where you will be? Could you leave it there for a couple of hours and maybe walk or get a cab to or from where you are going to be? Also, don't discount the idea of contacting any of the 3 electric car owners who have their outlets offered on Plugshare. I've been very glad to help out Tesla owners who were traveling through my city and have let them charge at my house overnight a couple of times. I thought it was fun being part of a sharing, helpful community of electric car early adopters trying to make electric travel work. So maybe they would be helpful with being able to charge at their house for a few hours.

But if you really want to just do it on your own, yeah, going through Oakdale at least one way, maybe both, would work too, although it's kind of out of the way as far as your travel route.

 

[Rocky_H]

And also realize that you can usually think of it this way: You can usually make some kind of trade-off in either direction of Time versus Stress. Write that down; that's a good one.

In this case, instead of worrying about it, just take a different route that takes a little longer. After you're done with your stuff in Rochester, drive west to Albert Lea, hit the Supercharger there, and then go up I-35 back home. Instead of 105 miles back home, it's 176, so yes, it's longer, but that would only be on either the way down or the way back, and it makes this trip totally completely free of worry or anxiety or logistical complications if you're just willing to add that extra hour or so to the total trip. I've definitely done that on some Tesla trips just to not have to worry about it.

But I've also done the trade-off the other direction, too, where I decided to take the really tight cutting it close way that was shorter just for the adventure of it and to see how well I could manage it.

 

[TexasEV]

I would also suggest buying the UMC 5-20 adapter. Most commercial 120V outlets are 20A, and with this adapter you can draw 16A (rather than 12A with the 5-15 adapter that comes with the car), and charge at 5-6 miles/hr. That can make a huge difference when you have to plug into 120V, especially if you're staying more than one night.

 

[Az_Rael]

So a few thoughts. First off, I see this too often unfortunately, where you say you have your hotel booked, you say it doesn't have charging, and now are trying to figure out charging. In the future, try reversing that. Charging is an amenity you want, so try using that as your criteria for picking which hotel to book. We all need to help with this. The La Quinta Inn & Suites in Rochester decided to go ahead and sign up with Tesla's Destination Charger program, so it could be a win/win of them offering the service so travel to Rochester would be easy and convenient with a Tesla and attracting some business from Tesla owners, and here you are, a Tesla owner traveling to Rochester, but you're ignoring them and booking somewhere else and now worrying about charging. Help them out, man

Every road trip I plan STARTS with the destination charger map to see if we can stay somewhere with a HPWC. Then I look at plugshare next to see what hotels have other charging onsite. Those places go on the short list to research on tripadvisor, etc.


However, on our next road trip to Pismo Beach, we are going "off grid" for the first time. There are hotels with destination chargers in Pismo, but one was booked, one had it's beach access closed (boo!), and the others didn't have the amenities we wanted. Pismo's plugshare is a little sparse, but there is a non-Nissan dealer Chademo 9 miles away, so we will bring our adapter as Plan B and have a Plan C as well just in case.

 

[Shock-On-T]

Starting Location: Waconia, MN
Ending Location: Rochester, MN
Rough Distance: 110 miles
Total Energy Used 26/6kWh (from the site)
Car: Tesla S 75D 19" Tires

Assuming my total range is 259miles-10% with AC on = 235 miles. if my one way is 110 miles, I get there I will have 125 miles left. If I drive around for lunch, dinner, easily I could put 15-20 miles on day 1. So now I have 125-20 = 105 at the end of day 1.

At the hotel, they don't have charging. They might have an outdoor 110v plug I can use but do I really want to leave it plugged in overnight and risk getting the cord stolen? Let's say I do let it plugged in and charge at a rate of 3 miles/hr, then the next morning, I would have 105 + 24 roughly 130 miles to play with. Then I might drive here and there. Let's say I use 40 miles on second day. Now I have 130-40 = 90 miles left at the end of day 2. Then I charge it again at night. The next morning I leave to go home, I will have 90 +24 roughly 105 miles. Which means, I will have to make a stop at oakdale supercharging station. Is that how a lot of people are doing it? I'm beginning to feel the anxiety and my model S hasn't even left Chicago yet

I've done many trips just like the one your planning.
My only advice is you will need to faster charging at your destination or you'll stress out for the whole trip.
The 110V charge rate is stunningly slow, and if you get caught even a little short it can take hours and hours to charge enough.
Eg you want to leave at 2pm, but instead you have to wait until midnight.
Try PlugShare.

 

[AndrewTX]

Yeah, first off, the charging cord can't be stolen, because, as @kort677 mentioned, it is locked into the charging port, and it can't be removed unless the car is unlocked.

So a few thoughts. First off, I see this too often unfortunately, where you say you have your hotel booked, you say it doesn't have charging, and now are trying to figure out charging. In the future, try reversing that. Charging is an amenity you want, so try using that as your criteria for picking which hotel to book. We all need to help with this. The La Quinta Inn & Suites in Rochester decided to go ahead and sign up with Tesla's Destination Charger program, so it could be a win/win of them offering the service so travel to Rochester would be easy and convenient with a Tesla and attracting some business from Tesla owners, and here you are, a Tesla owner traveling to Rochester, but you're ignoring them and booking somewhere else and now worrying about charging. Help them out, man!

This is important but please also let the hotel manager know that you're staying at their hotel BECAUSE they have an electric car charger. They love to hear that positive feedback and the word does get around to other hotels.