My 8169 mile cross country road trip experience

Press release

Embracing Adventure: From Coast to Coast in a Tesla



Ukiah, California - April 2023 - In a spirited pursuit of adventure, I embarked on an epic cross-country journey from Northern California to the picturesque West Quoddy Head Lighthouse in Lubec, Maine. With a mere two weeks to spare before commencing a new chapter in my professional life, the open road beckoned, and I heeded the call.

Thirteen Days of Boundless Exploration

Over the course of thirteen exhilarating days, I covered an average of 628 miles each day. My journey began in the charming town of Ukiah, California, leading me south to Bakersfield and then eastward, venturing into the depths of Death Valley. After recharging, compliments of a stay at Harrah's in Las Vegas, I headed for the mighty continental divide, and then forging ahead through the heartland of America at a swift 85 miles per hour.

Efficiency and Convenience on the Road

No meticulous planning was needed for this road trip, the Tesla told me at each charging station how long I needed to charge to make it to my next stop. However, with the goal of minimizing charging time I typically would charge when the Tesla was about 20% State of Charge (SOC) . Typically, I covered about 90 miles before stopping to recharge for about 10 to 15 minutes--just long enough for bathroom breaks and snacks.

From Deserts to Snowstorms: A Whirlwind of Scenic Diversity

The journey unfolded with a backdrop of diverse and awe-inspiring landscapes. The route tested my mettle with scorching desert heat, torrential rainfalls, blinding snowstorms, and moments of breathtaking beauty that left an indelible mark on my memory.

East to West and Beyond

Reaching the easternmost point at West Quoddy Head Lighthouse in Lubec, Maine (most eastern point in the US), was a moment of triumph. However, the adventure was far from over. I then turned my gaze northwest, crossing into Canada with the ambitious goal of experiencing the renowned Trans-Canada Highway. This vital artery connects the eastern and western coasts of Canada, and I marveled at the preponderance of trucks on this vital route.

Seamless Supercharging and a Minimalist Budget

Throughout the journey, the longest stretch between Tesla superchargers was a mere 120 miles. With the dependable network of charging stations, I encountered no issues. Along the way, I utilized over 80 Tesla superchargers, enjoyed the convenience of two complimentary hotel L2 chargers, and, on one occasion, took advantage of 110 charging overnight. Remarkably, not a single Tesla supercharger was out of order during the entire trip. The total cost for supercharging came in at approximately $1,000.

Embracing the Future of Driving: Autopilot in Action

Autopilot technology took the wheel, managing more than 95% of the driving duties, rendering the journey a remarkably relaxing experience. The verdict was clear: road-tripping in a Tesla is not just feasible but an absolute delight.

In the age of electric mobility and with a spirit of adventure as my compass, my epic journey stands as a testament to the boundless possibilities and thrilling experiences that electric vehicles offer. The road less traveled becomes an open invitation, and I embraced it wholeheartedly, leaving a trail of stories and memories in my wake. The world is waiting to be explored, and a Tesla makes the journey an unforgettable experience.

 

[El joe]

Great recap. Thanks for sharing!

 

[ionsphere]

Press release

Embracing Adventure: From Coast to Coast in a Tesla



Ukiah, California - April 2023 - In a spirited pursuit of adventure, I embarked on an epic cross-country journey from Northern California to the picturesque West Quoddy Head Lighthouse in Lubec, Maine. With a mere two weeks to spare before commencing a new chapter in my professional life, the open road beckoned, and I heeded the call.

Thirteen Days of Boundless Exploration

Over the course of thirteen exhilarating days, I covered an average of 628 miles each day. My journey began in the charming town of Ukiah, California, leading me south to Bakersfield and then eastward, venturing into the depths of Death Valley. After recharging, compliments of a stay at Harrah's in Las Vegas, I headed for the mighty continental divide, and then forging ahead through the heartland of America at a swift 85 miles per hour.

Efficiency and Convenience on the Road

No meticulous planning was needed for this road trip, the Tesla told me at each charging station how long I needed to charge to make it to my next stop. However, with the goal of minimizing charging time I typically would charge when the Tesla was about 20% State of Charge (SOC) . Typically, I covered about 90 miles before stopping to recharge for about 10 to 15 minutes--just long enough for bathroom breaks and snacks.

From Deserts to Snowstorms: A Whirlwind of Scenic Diversity

The journey unfolded with a backdrop of diverse and awe-inspiring landscapes. The route tested my mettle with scorching desert heat, torrential rainfalls, blinding snowstorms, and moments of breathtaking beauty that left an indelible mark on my memory.

East to West and Beyond

Reaching the easternmost point at West Quoddy Head Lighthouse in Lubec, Maine (most eastern point in the US), was a moment of triumph. However, the adventure was far from over. I then turned my gaze northwest, crossing into Canada with the ambitious goal of experiencing the renowned Trans-Canada Highway. This vital artery connects the eastern and western coasts of Canada, and I marveled at the preponderance of trucks on this vital route.

Seamless Supercharging and a Minimalist Budget

Throughout the journey, the longest stretch between Tesla superchargers was a mere 120 miles. With the dependable network of charging stations, I encountered no issues. Along the way, I utilized over 80 Tesla superchargers, enjoyed the convenience of two complimentary hotel L2 chargers, and, on one occasion, took advantage of 110 charging overnight. Remarkably, not a single Tesla supercharger was out of order during the entire trip. The total cost for supercharging came in at approximately $1,000.

Embracing the Future of Driving: Autopilot in Action

Autopilot technology took the wheel, managing more than 95% of the driving duties, rendering the journey a remarkably relaxing experience. The verdict was clear: road-tripping in a Tesla is not just feasible but an absolute delight.

In the age of electric mobility and with a spirit of adventure as my compass, my epic journey stands as a testament to the boundless possibilities and thrilling experiences that electric vehicles offer. The road less traveled becomes an open invitation, and I embraced it wholeheartedly, leaving a trail of stories and memories in my wake. The world is waiting to be explored, and a Tesla makes the journey an unforgettable experience.



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Loved your tale of adventure! Is that a MY you're driving? Didn't see it anywhere in your description but this all made me want to hit the road!

 

[GBMaryland]

That is a really cool trip.

The one thing that was really interesting to me, given the cost of the Tesla supercharging: if you have a gasoline powered car and gas is roughly 4 dollars a gallon, any hybrid is cheaper to operate by about $100 for that trip.

We have a Subaru ascent (as well as a Tesla), which gets roughly 20 miles to the gallon, and to do that trip would cost something in the order of around $1650. When you end up with a more highly efficient vehicle that number starts to get very close to what Tesla charges for supercharging.

what are the things I’m less and less impressed by is that as Tesla has more and more of the market share, the cost to supercharge has become much more close to 60% of the cost of gasoline.

 

[dcfas]

Wow. What an adventure! I don’t know if I could handle driving over 600 miles per day for nearly a two week period. I wonder if you could have traveled east rather than so far south at the beginning of your trip without charging issues. Thank you for sharing!

 

[Lost Petrol]

Your Tesla looks like a Model 3 in the pictures, but is it a Long Range, Standard Range, Mid Range, or ...?
How much did you use Cruise Control and Lane Keeping?

 

[Petercho]

Your Tesla looks like a Model 3 in the pictures, but is it a Long Range, Standard Range, Mid Range, or ...?
How much did you use Cruise Control and Lane Keeping?

Model Y LR. FSD 95% with automatic lane changes started after an update.

 

[Petercho]

That is a really cool trip.

The one thing that was really interesting to me, given the cost of the Tesla supercharging: if you have a gasoline powered car and gas is roughly 4 dollars a gallon, any hybrid is cheaper to operate by about $100 for that trip.

We have a Subaru ascent (as well as a Tesla), which gets roughly 20 miles to the gallon, and to do that trip would cost something in the order of around $1650. When you end up with a more highly efficient vehicle that number starts to get very close to what Tesla charges for supercharging.

what are the things I’m less and less impressed by is that as Tesla has more and more of the market share, the cost to supercharge has become much more close to 60% of the cost of gasoline.

My brother pays 5 cents per kilowatt hour so a model Y full charge would cost last than $4

 

[Petercho]

Wow. What an adventure! I don’t know if I could handle driving over 600 miles per day for nearly a two week period. I wonder if you could have traveled east rather than so far south at the beginning of your trip without charging issues. Thank you for sharing!

https://digitalassets.tesla.com/tesla-contents/image/upload/h_1620,w_2880,c_fit,f_auto,q_auto:best/Supercharger-Locations-Hero-Desktop-NA

Going west to east across Nevada has only 2 routes. Northern or southern route so I went east via the southern route and west via the northern route. There is nothing in the middle of Nevada except for bomb testing sites : ).

 

[ionsphere]

My brother pays 5 cents per kilowatt hour so a model Y full charge would cost last than $4

Where does brother lives that he gets those kind of rates?!

 

[pipestem]

Car camping ?

 

[ionsphere]

Car camping ?

I'd like to hear more about this too. I'm assuming you didn't use a fitted tent, the kind I've seen that actually fit on the back of Tesla's open trunk, and that you stopped at highway rest stops along the way, and had some kind of mattress that fit the back of your MY that your son and you shared. Please update us if possible.
I have considered doing this but my spouse is a big snorer and I don't think I would get much sleep. Otherwise it really appeals to me. Simple minimal amount of time setting up sleeping saves a lot of money and get back on the road quickly with needed rest.
Looking forward to your and anyone else's thoughts about these kinds of endeavors.

 

[mknmike]

Where does brother lives that he gets those kind of rates?!

I have no idea of his brother’s location, but it’s probably that it’s not including the fees for transmission and having a meter etc. I am a Delmarva Delaware customer and pay far higher than the rates shown on this sheet if you just divide the variable portion of my bill by the number of KWh used. But this sheet does show $0.04 for EV off peak charging. https://www.delmarva.com/SiteCollec...3/DP-DE_Res Elec Bill Insert_Summer2023-A.pdf

I have requested from Delmarva the information on the TOTAL cost, and they have yet to respond to me. Notice that there’s a fee for the extra meter and a premium you need to pay if you charge your vehicle at peak times.

 

[ionsphere]

I have no idea of his brother’s location, but it’s probably that it’s not including the fees for transmission and having a meter etc. I am a Delmarva Delaware customer and pay far higher than the rates shown on this sheet if you just divide the variable portion of my bill by the number of KWh used. But this sheet does show $0.04 for EV off peak charging. https://www.delmarva.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/My Account/MyBillUsage/BillInserts/2023/DP-DE_Res Elec Bill Insert_Summer2023-A.pdf

I have requested from Delmarva the information on the TOTAL cost, and they have yet to respond to me. Notice that there’s a fee for the extra meter and a premium you need to pay if you charge your vehicle at peak times.

That's a good point actually my electric bill says I'm pay $0.8¢ but really when you add in everything else I'm paying about 0.13- 0.15¢ for kilowatt hour, depending on the season

 

[mknmike]

That's a good point actually my electric bill says I'm pay $0.8¢ but really when you add in everything else I'm paying about 0.13- 0.15¢ for kilowatt hour, depending on the season

I seem to read that the supposed cost of electricity for an EV like a M3 RWD is about 1/4 the cost of fuel for a similar ICE vehicle. True? And if so, what rate for electricity do you think they use? I will grab my bill and take a look at how much BS the nominal rate is.

 

[mknmike]

I have no idea of his brother’s location, but it’s probably that it’s not including the fees for transmission and having a meter etc. I am a Delmarva Delaware customer and pay far higher than the rates shown on this sheet if you just divide the variable portion of my bill by the number of KWh used. But this sheet does show $0.04 for EV off peak charging. https://www.delmarva.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/My Account/MyBillUsage/BillInserts/2023/DP-DE_Res Elec Bill Insert_Summer2023-A.pdf

I have requested from Delmarva the information on the TOTAL cost, and they have yet to respond to me. Notice that there’s a fee for the extra meter and a premium you need to pay if you charge your vehicle at peak times.

I seem to read that the supposed cost of electricity for an EV like a M3 RWD is about 1/4 the cost of fuel for a similar ICE vehicle. True? And if so, what rate for electricity do you think they use? I will grab my bill and take a look at how much BS the nominal rate is.

Time consuming as all heck to get through my example of a very simple $61.69 power bill for 145 KWh ($0.43/KWh if you look at it that way), but $15.04 is a fixed price customer fee for having a meter, which makes the portion that’s somehow related to KWh $0.32/KWh (but that also includes the 2% tax on the $15.04. They don’t try to make it easy to see what you actually pay per KWH by not putting the 2% in just one area or on the entire bill. Instead they add it on where you have to break it out of the different portions of the bill. They also charge a negligibly small different amount for your first 500 KWh in some cases. Anyway, there’s a HUGELY CONFUSING item that accounts for literally about 1/3 my electric bill which is apparently based on the PREVIOUS MONTH MAX HOUR USAGE. For me, it’s 4.5 KW on one property and 11.1 on another. I had to scroll through every day of usage to find the max hour for the previous month. In the $61.69 bill, this was $26.70 of that (but also gets the 2% tax on it, but only after being combined with a per KWh cost). You might argue that charging a Tesla would probably bump up your max usage, and affect this number. So it’s easiest to divide that by KWh even though that’s not how it works. So for me on this $61.69 bill:

$15.04 flat fee
$26.70 based on max hour from previous month. 4.15 kW x $6.43
For me, despite what the rate change sheet link posted above says, I add up $0.1874884 per kWh which also gets a 2% tax, which is more like $19.124/KWh

So for me, even though Delmarva Power claims to charge only $0.07-0.08/KWh, you can see that it’s over ~$0.19. They have a big chunk based on max usage. On another property, that’s 11.1 x $6.43 for $71.40 (of $247.17). Gotta figure we are using a bunch of that already, but clearly need to charge off peak only to avoid increasing this number. It can be done. Also, the other $15.04 x 1.02 also is static. So, I’m just going to run with the number I remember being in my head: $0.20/KWh. If I was to add a second meter to reduce my nominal rate from the $0.07-8 down to $0.04, I might save about $0.04/KWh, but all the other $0.16/KWh are probably still going to be there.

The portion PURELY RELATED TO kWh USED for me is $0.1293304. If I can somehow charge without increasing my peak usage, perhaps that could be my minumal cost. And if I also add another meter, I might be able to charge only at night and bring that down by another 3-4 cents. It could get as low as about $0.09/kWh, but I don't think you can count on that. $0.20 seems more practical when you know that $0.19 is a Chargepoint price too.

So let’s use my 20 cents per kWh. I see a bunch of EVs on a list, and the M3 has the lowest kWh/mile at 0.24. So if it costs $0.2/KWh then it’s 0.2*0.24 = $0.048/mile

Gas right now where I buy gas is $2.99.9. I think that 30 MPG is fair since I had a 1998 Honda Civic that would do that. $3/30mile = $0.10/mile.

So it seems that I MIGHT still be able to argue that at $3/gallon, a M3 is like getting 60 MPG. Or, at $1.50/gallon, EVs electricity is no cheaper than gas for an ICE vehicle. In fact, Supercharging prices only would be similar to that of gas probably.

Sorry for the high Jack.

 

[charlesoris]

@Peter Cho Were you the only driver? Did you have company with you?
Planning a similar trip in June, 2024
TIA

 

[Lost Petrol]

@mknmike

I set my M3 to charge at only 12 amps at home (even though my home circuit and EVSE would support 32 amps), to lower the "Transmission Capacity Charge".

 

[ionsphere]

@mknmike

I set my M3 to charge at only 12 amps at home (even though my home circuit and EVSE would support 32 amps), to lower the "Transmission Capacity Charge".

That's an interesting concept. Do you know if it's saving much at all? I don't know how that would change the transmission capacity charge to lower your amperage that you charge at...

 

[mknmike]

That's an interesting concept. Do you know if it's saving much at all? I don't know how that would change the transmission capacity charge to lower your amperage that you charge at...

Since they are apparently charging for the max amp / watt usage in the highest usage hour of the month, as long as you don’t exceed that, charging the car should not increase the fee.

Example: let’s say you set the car to draw 4 kW.

Let’s say you have a max usage of 10 kW from running the AC and other things in your house at peak usage times. If I charge at that time, I’d get charged 14x instead of 10x.

In that month, if I only charged when the rest of my house was using 6 kW or less, then I still get charged 10x instead of 14x.

X for me is like $6.23 or whatever I posted above.

So simply charging off MY peak usage hours will decrease my costs.

This could be an example of how batteries could be used in any house to flatten out usage to eliminate peaks.

Sorry to go OT.