Road Trip - Model Y

We took our first road trip in a 2023 Model Y LR during the recent winter weather. We went from Chicago-land to Northern Florida and back. Before we went, I read every thread here about traveling with the Tesla, so thought I'd share some notes to try to help someone else. Here's what we learned; good, bad, and ugly.

Good

• The Tesla map is awesome.
• The recommendations for charging on the map were spot on. It was insanely cold (1 F) when we left and was under freezing our entire trip. The car got every stop right and it was amazing to see how many spaces were open in every stop.
• Plug and charge with no credit card slide and not having to answer 14 questions about car washes and receipts was great.
• Our stops generally had good services nearby.
• It was nice to have to stop every 1.5 - 2.5 hours for a break and to stretch our legs. I really enjoyed the pace of travel.
• Electrify America was a great back-up for us and their app is super-easy to use.
• It was fun to stay overnight at the Tru hotel in the Atlanta area and wake up with a full battery!
• Do I even have to mention how much more fun it is to drive the Tesla? One pedal driving on mountain roads was especially nice.

Bad

• I wish I could use the PlugShare map in an automated way in my Tesla. We wanted to use 1-2 Electrify America stops and our car didn't know we were going to charge there so couldn't update what we'd have left at the next charger until we "filled up" at the 3rd party stop. Not awful, but it would've made our trip better.
• For us, we calculated that it takes about an extra hour of travel time every 5 hours of trip time. For a day-long trip, that's not bad. For our 17 hr trip, it made a big difference. It's a bit of a contradiction to the positive above, but both can be true.
• The wipers aren't the best. For the price of the car, the wipers with fluid left some streaks, even after extra runs. They got LOTS of action on our way down to Florida.

Ugly

• The worst part for me is that with an ICE vehicle you can watch the exits and choose one with specific services you want. We had to stop so much we didn't really want to get off on more exits and delay our already really long drive.
• Autopilot was atrocious. On the way down, when it was icy and super-cold, it was unusable. The wipers went off incessantly, even thought there was no snow or rain falling. On the way back, it was OK, but would turn off every time a semi was in the lane next to me. I'd like to request Manual Cruise Control back.
• I'm so afraid to wash the damn car that we spent a ton of time searching and driving around towns trying to find self-serve car washes. Turns out, they're not really advertised or even locatable online in many cases. Upon returning to Chicagoland I've decided "f-it" and am just going to my last car wash. I took my Nissan at least weekly and never had a problem. If my twice as expensive car can't be washed in the winter, it shouldn't be sold in the midwest. I'll hand wash it in the summer.

My summary is that we loved the driving experience but will likely not want to spend another really long road trip in it until electric charging becomes more prolific. We definitely don't regret it, though. Our dog got to come along, and she would've had to stay home if we flew like we usually do. And, we learned SO MUCH about the Tesla and its range in a variety of weather conditions.

"Tesla Model Y Dual Motor Deep Blue Metallic (1)" by Damian B Oh is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog thumbnail.

 

[Brian-MS90D]

I appreciate your reply and agree with your assessment of my critique. I spent literally hours reading posts and blogs about EV road-tripping before setting off on our trip and my review was solely meant to share my experience, not intended to criticize Tesla. I'm a seeker of information so I figured it may help others. I agree that the Supercharger network is amazing and that we're early on in the evolution of what we'll see!

I absolutely use car wash mode. My understanding is that the door trim and the paint quality on my Tesla is not of the same material and quality of my ICE and that I should not use tri-foam (impossible where I live) or car washes that have brushes. I get that lots of people have always used only touch-free car washes but I have not and have never had issues. All the posts I've found have recommended washing at home. That's a great suggestion, but not realistic in the upper midwest in the winter months (at least not for me). I'd very-much appreciate hearing from others who either use "normal" car washes successfully or recommendations for car washes that work in Naperville, IL!

Regarding washing, there may be merit to the claims that Tesla uses a softer paint. I don't think so. I had a black 2013 VW Touareg until just last year and put it through the car wash constantly. The paint was DESTROYED. Similar experience with previous vehicles (although not owned as long).

I hand wash all my cars now with Optimum (I have a garage).

I have a lot of friends that take their Tesla through the car wash. The car wash is going to destroy any car's paint. Those pads collect all the grime and then just scrape them against your car's paint.

 

[gr2020]

I get that lots of people have always used only touch-free car washes but I have not and have never had issues. All the posts I've found have recommended washing at home.

TBH, I’ve never found a car forum (Tesla or otherwise) where this isn’t the suggestion. If you ask only people who are into their car enough to hang out on car forums, they’re all going to say hand wash your car every week (or more!). I have to believe normal people just wash their cars where it’s convenient for them.

 

[tengtengvn]

In the US, it shows EVGo CCS chargers with the built in Chademo adapter. When I want to charge at EA, I simply navigate to the nearby SuC for pre-conditioning then use my phone for navigation.

In some areas, EA is significantly cheaper. If Urban SuC is the only option or the V2 is crowded, EA / EVGo / Chargepoint 150kW stations are all faster alternatives.

 

[Yelobird]

TBH, I’ve never found a car forum (Tesla or otherwise) where this isn’t the suggestion. If you ask only people who are into their car enough to hang out on car forums, they’re all going to say hand wash your car every week (or more!). I have to believe normal people just wash their cars where it’s convenient for them.

Agreed. I have run my 2020 MY through the car wash Many times (40 or more ) with touch less and never had an issue. None.

 

[Will Z]

And yet, it's not. I live in a rural area about an hour from town, so I go to town every 2 or 3 weeks, with occasional added trips to the airport, doctor visit, Mexico, etc. I hate having to go somewhere. It's like walking through a mine field in a very uncomfortable uniform. Because the car's driving behavior is so erratic, unpredictable, inconsistent and dangerous.

If it is in fact dangerous, why would you continue to use it?

Need to wait in a queue for the bank, pharmacy, or other drive thru? Can't do that because the safety score will ding me for following too closely and raise my insurance premium. (I had a 100% safety score for 4 years with my Kia and low insurance rates.)

Being penalized for driving the car as it should be driven in those circumstances (e.g. drive thru), confirms my concern over allowing any kind of constant driver behavior evaluation from being done. I get that it is a requirement to use the FSD capabilities, but why would you want your insurance premiums tied to something like that? It gathers more data, but it doesn't sound like it actually provides meaningful understanding of what would really be risky behavior. It would be interesting to be able to get the feedback of what it thinks is risky behavior, but only for my personal consideration-- not as information that is ready to be used to as objective reasoning for determining insurance premiums.

I can't imagine why all the whining I see is about trivial stuff, unless other Tesla's behavior is very different from mine? And I have no problems with the trivial stuff, it all works wonderfully, only the life threateningly dangerous stuff is an issue for me and nobody else seems to be focused on that?

The "trivial" stuff adds up and is often unavoidable (and more easily corrected) unlike the using the Faux Self Driving capabilities.

 

[dachshund]

I hate having to go somewhere. It's like walking through a mine field in a very uncomfortable uniform. Because the car's driving behavior is so erratic, unpredictable, inconsistent and dangerous.

Need to wait in a queue for the bank, pharmacy, or other drive thru? Can't do that because the safety score will ding me for following too closely and raise my insurance premium.

What does this mean? Are you using autopilot or FSD while queued up behind stopped traffic? Or is this while driving manually?

 

[legendsk]

What does this mean? Are you using autopilot or FSD while queued up behind stopped traffic? Or is this while driving manually?

When I'm waiting in a queue, I wouldn't dare use FSD or autopilot. Other cars are close, the drive thru lane is narrow. . . . . If the car whips the steering wheel a full turn one way or the other and goes full throttle because it thought it saw something, a moving shadow, a cat, a reflection off of a sign, etc., in such close quarters, even on high alert, I couldn't possibly fight it for possession of the wheel or stomp hard enough on the brakes fast enough to avoid, a curb, a wall, the car in front, etc. But with only 10 or 15 feet between me and the car in front = "following too closely", ding, ding, ding, next month insurance will be 25% higher.

If there is traffic 10 seconds away from me, I need to stay in manual. If oncoming traffic is a 1/2 mile away, I don't care much if the car suddenly lurches over into their lane. Probably worries them a little, but I have plenty of time to get it back into my lane. I used to play along with that and hit the report camera icon, but they took the icon away and after 6 months of reporting the same problems without anything changing, I do most of my driving in manual. On just the right kind of conditions, no passengers, roadway, traffic, time of day, direction of sun, humidity, temperature, etc., it does pretty well and is safe enough and interesting to watch it drive itself. I do believe eventually self driving will become real, but by then the car may be old and worn out or obsolete enough it can't be upgraded for a practical cost.

 

[Brian-MS90D]

When I'm waiting in a queue, I wouldn't dare use FSD or autopilot. Other cars are close, the drive thru lane is narrow. . . . . If the car whips the steering wheel a full turn one way or the other and goes full throttle because it thought it saw something, a moving shadow, a cat, a reflection off of a sign, etc., in such close quarters, even on high alert, I couldn't possibly fight it for possession of the wheel or stomp hard enough on the brakes fast enough to avoid, a curb, a wall, the car in front, etc. But with only 10 or 15 feet between me and the car in front = "following too closely", ding, ding, ding, next month insurance will be 25% higher.

If there is traffic 10 seconds away from me, I need to stay in manual. If oncoming traffic is a 1/2 mile away, I don't care much if the car suddenly lurches over into their lane. Probably worries them a little, but I have plenty of time to get it back into my lane. I used to play along with that and hit the report camera icon, but they took the icon away and after 6 months of reporting the same problems without anything changing, I do most of my driving in manual. On just the right kind of conditions, no passengers, roadway, traffic, time of day, direction of sun, humidity, temperature, etc., it does pretty well and is safe enough and interesting to watch it drive itself. I do believe eventually self driving will become real, but by then the car may be old and worn out or obsolete enough it can't be upgraded for a practical cost.

AP/FSD isn't perfect (or even great), sure. However, that's quite an exaggeration on the danger of using it. When the car does something stupid, I squeeze my hands (on the wheel). That's it. It takes minimal force/grip. The reaction time to squeeze my hands is well under 1 second; nearly instant. My reaction time to press the brake is far, far, far faster than AP/FSD moves. It's not even close.

I think you're really being dramatic regarding the safety of it (or not paying enough attention or your hands are not on the wheel, which is your fault).* Regarding annoyance or dings for Tesla insurance ratings, I get ya there.

* Tesla is allegedly going to end the hands-on-the-wheel requirement in January. Seems premature to me, but we'll have to see how the driver eyes monitoring does in lieu of hands on the wheel. The government prefers the eye monitoring, which I don't understand. Faster to squeeze my hands than move my hands up and grab a moving wheel (because they were in my lap). Maybe you're position will have more merit when Tesla drops the hands-on-the-wheel requirement if AP/FSD does not simultaneously and dramatically improve.

 

[AsharpV]

Definitely recommend keeping your EV road trips in the warmer months. More fun & more range

 

[wayner]

• It was insanely cold (1 F) when we left and was under freezing our entire trip.

You're from Chicago and you find 1F to be insanely cold??? That's 10-ply.

 

[joetomasone]

I've taken two very long road trips - central Florida to Wyoming and back - and I absolutely loved doing it in my 2019 Model 3.

Like the OP, I liked the pace of travel and loved that I did not feel totally exhausted and completely sick of driving at the end of 15 hours on the road. I felt like I could keep driving all night, and the pace of travel and Autopilot had a lot to do with that.

Charging: We planned bathroom breaks and meals around charging. I think we had one sole instance where a Supercharger did not offer either of those - at the back side of a deserted mall long past closing time - but with more and more being built at places like Wawa and Buc-ees, I'm not overly concened about this. Never had an issue getting a charge, either. As for the time consumed, I see that as balancing out the amount of time I do NOT spend at a gas station weekly adding up and being matched in 25 minute spurts on road trips. But to be honest, that break after 2-2.5 hours in the car makes everyone happier, especially my older kids in the smaller Model 3 back seat. Plugshare for me is limited to finding hotels and other places with L2 charging, which came in handy at a number of places we visited such as Yellowstone and Mount Rushmore.

Now, it must be said that these trips were taken in summer, so I did not deal with any issues related to cold or snow, but I did find that having a windshield wiper tool and some cleaner to use during charging definitely cut down on the wipers coming on and trying to keep the widnshield clear. You can definitely turn the auto wipers off; the option shows up briefly when turning them on.

 

[charlesoris]

Shouldn't this thread, with lots of useful data points, be featured in the Road Trips subforum?

 

[uat75035]

What charging adapters do you recommend bringing when going on a long trip?

 

[BitJam]

What charging adapters do you recommend bringing when going on a long trip?

It depends a little on where you're going, where you're staying, and what you're going to do. For driving the main thing to get is the CCS to Tesla adapter although most people should get by fine without it. For destination charging, you want the Mobile Connector (that AFAIK still comes with NEMA 5-15 and 14-50 adapters). For staying at RV and camping sites you may want to also get the Tesla 14-30 adapter and a 14-30 (female) to TT-30 (male) adapter.

 

[Evpowerdan]

You realize that the Model 3 has...err...special wheels that contact the curb before the tire's sidewalls do, unlike every other car I've driven? In every other car, you had to hit the curb REALLY hard to damage the wheels. In the Model 3? Just touching the curb at 0.1 mph will damage them. Expecting a human driver to be perfect every time is just stupid especially when it costs $160 to repair the damage each time from a minor mistake.

Most newer sport sedans have similar rims and tire profile - whacking curbs always hits the rim. You can always go wider then standard to protect the rims.

They are not cheap but you can cut your wintertime range loss in half with products from EVinsulate that insulate your battery and your roof. If Teslas had been designed and built in Canada then these things would have been standard equipment.

Have you tired those EVinsulate panels for the 3/Y roof? Do they work better then a removable shade?

 

[BitJam]

Have you tired those EVinsulate panels for the 3/Y roof? Do they work better then a removable shade?

For blocking the heat of the sun, an opaque shade is far better than the double pane roof. For keeping the car warm in the winter the double pane roof is far better. The double pane does take the edge off the summer heat since the roof alone is almost too hot to touch while the inner pane is merely warm.

This morning the temperature rose from 31F to about 50F now. The inside of the car is 84F. I turned on the AC. I live in the desert at 6000 feet (about 1.8 km) so the sun here is absolutely brutal.

 

[LM5SBP7]

Just wanted to add. The roadtrips are okay getting there, but getting home, I just wanted to get it over with. Especially with those 20-30 minute charging stops. That's how I felt the first couple roadtrips. But that's the life you have to get used to and eventually you just need to understand that's how it is. And it could be worse, you could be using Electrify America where it's more so miss than hit compared to a super charger network.

 

[RichAZ/CapeCod]

Back to car washing. I've found touch-less washing to be more than adequite to keep my Teslas nice and clean. And no paint damage.

Rich

 

[howardnj]

We took our first road trip in a 2023 Model Y LR during the recent winter weather. We went from Chicago-land to Northern Florida and back. Before we went, I read every thread here about traveling with the Tesla, so thought I'd share some notes to try to help someone else. Here's what we learned; good, bad, and ugly.

Good

• The Tesla map is awesome.
• The recommendations for charging on the map were spot on. It was insanely cold (1 F) when we left and was under freezing our entire trip. The car got every stop right and it was amazing to see how many spaces were open in every stop.
• Plug and charge with no credit card slide and not having to answer 14 questions about car washes and receipts was great.
• Our stops generally had good services nearby.
• It was nice to have to stop every 1.5 - 2.5 hours for a break and to stretch our legs. I really enjoyed the pace of travel.
• Electrify America was a great back-up for us and their app is super-easy to use.
• It was fun to stay overnight at the Tru hotel in the Atlanta area and wake up with a full battery!
• Do I even have to mention how much more fun it is to drive the Tesla? One pedal driving on mountain roads was especially nice.

Bad

• I wish I could use the PlugShare map in an automated way in my Tesla. We wanted to use 1-2 Electrify America stops and our car didn't know we were going to charge there so couldn't update what we'd have left at the next charger until we "filled up" at the 3rd party stop. Not awful, but it would've made our trip better.
• For us, we calculated that it takes about an extra hour of travel time every 5 hours of trip time. For a day-long trip, that's not bad. For our 17 hr trip, it made a big difference. It's a bit of a contradiction to the positive above, but both can be true.
• The wipers aren't the best. For the price of the car, the wipers with fluid left some streaks, even after extra runs. They got LOTS of action on our way down to Florida.

Ugly

• The worst part for me is that with an ICE vehicle you can watch the exits and choose one with specific services you want. We had to stop so much we didn't really want to get off on more exits and delay our already really long drive.
• Autopilot was atrocious. On the way down, when it was icy and super-cold, it was unusable. The wipers went off incessantly, even thought there was no snow or rain falling. On the way back, it was OK, but would turn off every time a semi was in the lane next to me. I'd like to request Manual Cruise Control back.
• I'm so afraid to wash the damn car that we spent a ton of time searching and driving around towns trying to find self-serve car washes. Turns out, they're not really advertised or even locatable online in many cases. Upon returning to Chicagoland I've decided "f-it" and am just going to my last car wash. I took my Nissan at least weekly and never had a problem. If my twice as expensive car can't be washed in the winter, it shouldn't be sold in the midwest. I'll hand wash it in the summer.

My summary is that we loved the driving experience but will likely not want to spend another really long road trip in it until electric charging becomes more prolific. We definitely don't regret it, though. Our dog got to come along, and she would've had to stay home if we flew like we usually do. And, we learned SO MUCH about the Tesla and its range in a variety of weather conditions.


View attachment 894545
"Tesla Model Y Dual Motor Deep Blue Metallic (1)" by Damian B Oh is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog thumbnail.

Nice write up! I too took a long distance round trip from NJ to Florida last month. I found autopilot very useful and used it frequently over the two day 1245 mile trip. I recharged every 1.5 to 2 hours and found many more charge stations than I expected along I 95. The total trip added about three hours but in the past I never tracked the time for bathroom stops.
I have compiled a list of them with their addresses so on my next trip I will navigate to each one so the battery is preconditioned and warmed up for my arrival. I also used my CC1 adapter for the Florida FPL Evolution 350 kWh chargers which are cheaper and faster the the Tesla 250kWh chargers.
I hand washed my Y in Florida and I hand wash it here in NJ when the temp is above freezing.
I recently had my tires rotated at a Tesla SC and they washed my car just like Infiniti did when I brought in my previous ICE vehicle.

 

[michaelk1215]

Thanks for the info. I also took a recent trip in my new Y performance from Atlanta to south Florida (not as long as yours). Very bad experience. Even when we pulled into a 250kw super charger it never stayed at that level. With no other cars near mine we charged around 112kw - 122kw. 30 minute minimum every time we pulled into a charging station. The phantom breaking in auto pilot or cruise control was ridiculous. Multiple times during the trip down and the return trip. Didn’t want to even use cruise control during the trip. 13 hours on the way home for a trip that takes 8.5. Charging station stops had us hit rush hour in 2 cities on the way home and if u it atlanta rush hour south of the city, you are screwed. Set up service call with tesla when I got back and they said I still had FSD Beta on my car (tried it for 2 months) although the screen and functionality was not present any longer. Sort of landed on it is buggy and the 2 recent updates “should” fix it. It was a big disappointment as I bought the car for the tech package and feel a bit underwhelmed in the early day. Range on EV’s need to increase and I need to learn what needs to happen in order to only spend 15 minutes at a 250kw charging station and get enough charge to get on my way.