I typically don't take my Tesla on long road trips... trips that require more than one courtesy supercharger stop (Houston or New Orleans). I made an exception this trip and I'm glad I did. Here's my experience:
We left Lafayette Thursday morning on a fullish charge. I'm paranoid and never charge to 100%. On this trip I charged to 95% and left the garage within 30 minutes of reaching that charge. Lafayette to Shreveport is about 212 miles which is well within the ~250 miles I charged to, but I didn't want to risk an issue and not having some reserve. Alexandria is about 89 miles from Lafayette and it solves for some range anxiety. The Alexandria supercharger was a little tricky to find. It was tucked away from the main parking area for the Holiday Inn Downtown. Only one ICE'd spot, so I didn't mess with him.
We spent about 15 minutes charging and headed for Shreveport. That trip was only about 125 miles, so it was easy. The superchargers are right off I-49 in the shopping mall parking lot. Easy to find, easy to access and no ICE'rs.
Another 15+ minute charge while we ate inside the mall. Next hop was Shreveport, LA, to Lindale, TX, about 105 miles away. This was an interesting spot behind a Collin's Street Bakery. Only 3 spots and two were being used by Model X's when I got there, but one of them left as I was backing in.
Quick 10-15 minute charge while we checked out the store. You can just barely see it on the back wall of the store, but Tesla owners get a free tea or coffee inside. Cool little stop. We could have made it fine to our Dallas destination without another stop, but I wanted a good charge at our destination, so we stopped in Arlington, which was on the way.
This is one of the nicest supercharger locations I've been too. Gorgeous view of the Cowboys stadium, the lake and Six Flags. Lot's of spots and no ICE. I saw a max of 6 cars charging at once.
After our visit in Dallas was done, we left Sunday afternoon. We didn't want to retrace our steps, so we started our trip charging at the charging spot in Grapevine, which was also listed as a Service Center. We found the building easily, but had to drive around a bit to find the chargers.
In, what I assume is, the employee parking lot behind the building were 5 charging spots, one of which was ICE'd. But they were regular wall chargers like I have at home.
I plugged in one just to make sure and it charged at 40amp max. I left it charging and went inside to inquire. Surprisingly, they had a Midnight Silver Model 3 on the floor. Apparently 1 of 14 available for display in the US. I talked to one of the reps and he said the ICE was an employee holding a spot for a car getting ready for delivery. He also said there was a brand new supercharging area around the corner, but it wouldn't be ready until next week! He suggested the Arlington superchargers, which was fine as it was on our way out. While we were there, we walked down to the new chargers with a quick stop at JambaJuice.
I tested a couple and they weren't powered on yet. Darn. So we headed towards Arlington and had a pleasant trip until we got to Lindale. We were travelling on I-20E and when we got to the correct exit, it was closed, but it looked like the exit from I-20W was open, so we went to the next exit, went over the Interstate and started back on I-20W. It turns out that exit was closed as well. Now I'm getting a little nervous because I have about 50 miles of estimated range and no apparent way to get to the charger. I continued on I-20W until the next exit, which was quite a ways and headed North to the back roads. And these were some shocking back roads! About as wide as the car, barely asphalt and no lines. I was using the maps on the display trying to find a way to navigate my way through. The navigation wasn't much help as it kept telling me to turn around and take the exit. I choose a couple roads that ended up being dead ends in some gated and fenced community. Eventually the navigation figured it out and got me to the charger with about 13 miles left. I let the car charge for almost an hour while we ate dinner in Collin's. The rest of the trip was uneventful thankfully.
How would you handle a situation like that? My backup plan was to find an RV park and spend a couple hours there. I have an adapter to charge from an RV plug, but that would be pretty slow.
We left Lafayette Thursday morning on a fullish charge. I'm paranoid and never charge to 100%. On this trip I charged to 95% and left the garage within 30 minutes of reaching that charge. Lafayette to Shreveport is about 212 miles which is well within the ~250 miles I charged to, but I didn't want to risk an issue and not having some reserve. Alexandria is about 89 miles from Lafayette and it solves for some range anxiety. The Alexandria supercharger was a little tricky to find. It was tucked away from the main parking area for the Holiday Inn Downtown. Only one ICE'd spot, so I didn't mess with him.
We spent about 15 minutes charging and headed for Shreveport. That trip was only about 125 miles, so it was easy. The superchargers are right off I-49 in the shopping mall parking lot. Easy to find, easy to access and no ICE'rs.
Another 15+ minute charge while we ate inside the mall. Next hop was Shreveport, LA, to Lindale, TX, about 105 miles away. This was an interesting spot behind a Collin's Street Bakery. Only 3 spots and two were being used by Model X's when I got there, but one of them left as I was backing in.
Quick 10-15 minute charge while we checked out the store. You can just barely see it on the back wall of the store, but Tesla owners get a free tea or coffee inside. Cool little stop. We could have made it fine to our Dallas destination without another stop, but I wanted a good charge at our destination, so we stopped in Arlington, which was on the way.
This is one of the nicest supercharger locations I've been too. Gorgeous view of the Cowboys stadium, the lake and Six Flags. Lot's of spots and no ICE. I saw a max of 6 cars charging at once.
After our visit in Dallas was done, we left Sunday afternoon. We didn't want to retrace our steps, so we started our trip charging at the charging spot in Grapevine, which was also listed as a Service Center. We found the building easily, but had to drive around a bit to find the chargers.
In, what I assume is, the employee parking lot behind the building were 5 charging spots, one of which was ICE'd. But they were regular wall chargers like I have at home.
I plugged in one just to make sure and it charged at 40amp max. I left it charging and went inside to inquire. Surprisingly, they had a Midnight Silver Model 3 on the floor. Apparently 1 of 14 available for display in the US. I talked to one of the reps and he said the ICE was an employee holding a spot for a car getting ready for delivery. He also said there was a brand new supercharging area around the corner, but it wouldn't be ready until next week! He suggested the Arlington superchargers, which was fine as it was on our way out. While we were there, we walked down to the new chargers with a quick stop at JambaJuice.
I tested a couple and they weren't powered on yet. Darn. So we headed towards Arlington and had a pleasant trip until we got to Lindale. We were travelling on I-20E and when we got to the correct exit, it was closed, but it looked like the exit from I-20W was open, so we went to the next exit, went over the Interstate and started back on I-20W. It turns out that exit was closed as well. Now I'm getting a little nervous because I have about 50 miles of estimated range and no apparent way to get to the charger. I continued on I-20W until the next exit, which was quite a ways and headed North to the back roads. And these were some shocking back roads! About as wide as the car, barely asphalt and no lines. I was using the maps on the display trying to find a way to navigate my way through. The navigation wasn't much help as it kept telling me to turn around and take the exit. I choose a couple roads that ended up being dead ends in some gated and fenced community. Eventually the navigation figured it out and got me to the charger with about 13 miles left. I let the car charge for almost an hour while we ate dinner in Collin's. The rest of the trip was uneventful thankfully.
How would you handle a situation like that? My backup plan was to find an RV park and spend a couple hours there. I have an adapter to charge from an RV plug, but that would be pretty slow.
