How many days are you taking to do this trip? At 80mph that’s 15 hours With no stops.
1300 miles at 300wh/mile is 390kw Each way. At $0.30 (average) that is close to your $150. If you throw in an overnight stop (or two) on the way (2 kids sitting in a call for 15 hours?) that adds in costs. $300 plus lodging there and back might start getting you close to $1000 for each round trip (meals need to be factored in as well). That makes flying only $1500 relative cost. If you don’t stop then that sounds like a pretty miserable drive to do 4 times a year.
And ABRP has that trip at 14 stops and 22 hours total Including charging. Charging more frequently has been proven to be faster overall than charging longer And less often due to taper. How long does the Tesla nav estimate?
Right now Tampa to McAllen is $300 round trip. $1200 for family of 4.
I have done that trip many times with ICE. We usually leave early morning and make it to Victoria/TX on day 1 and on day 2, we get to McAllen early afternoon.. I use Hotwire for Hotels and never pay more than $100 per night for 3.5 to 4 Star Hotels.. On the way back, we usually stop somewhere in Louisiana.. $200 for Hotels. Kids like junk food which is cheap . It's not more than $60 for the round trip.. likely much less..
The flight is $300 NOW but we can't travel NOW because kids are in school. During summer, prices are much higher. Furthermore, those $300 fares are with no bags.. With 2 kids, we need 2 bags which are $35 each way, $140 round trip for 2 bags.
I understand that charging slows down at higher SoC.. I've been driving a long range EV for 2 years now.. I prefer fewer longer stops for the simple reason that we like to dine in at sit down restaurants. As the trip is 2 days, we will stop twice (lunch and dinner) between Lakeland and Victoria/TX and between Victoria and McAllen, we stop for lunch. Each time, it will take 1 hour or more to order and eat. No reason not to charge to 100% or close to it at those 3 stops. This means that on the trip leg where we have a sit down meal, our next leg can be over 200 miles. So, in the end, only 3 extra stops with short charges other than that. So, based on my calculation and our habits, the 1330 mile trip with the Model Y should take about 30 mins to 1 hour longer than it takes us with ICE. Again, not everyone likes sit down meals on road trips but we do. So, zero time is lost charging to high SoC at those stops.. It's not just on road trips.. we dine in sit down Restaurants about 4 to 5 days even when we are not travelling. Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican, Pizza....we love dining out..
Actually, one of the reasons why I'm changing EVs is the Supercharger Network. With my current EV, I would have to drive 100 miles extra as I would have to drive via San Antonio and Laredo to get to McAllen as there are no CCS chargers on the shortest route and no CCS chargers within 140 miles of McAllen.. There are Tesla Superchargers all along the fastest route. Supercharger Network is amazing..
