Dear Tesla Community (including those to-be!),
We just returned from our first all-electric West Coast road trip. We covered over 2,000 miles of road over 8 days. It even included 3 ferry rides ... with the Tesla! I'm from the SF Bay Area, and we drove to Portland, Seattle, Victoria (hence ferries), Vancouver, and back via overnight in Eugene.
I thought a lot about how to write up this trip, including documenting each charge leg with stats on a spreadsheet. That's how I usually am-- data driven and analytical. But as I came home from this trip, I realized, this was a really easy trip and the charging planning was quite unremarkable. In fact, it was more pleasant and just as fast as with a gas car (see trip cadence below). So instead, I'm going to give you a couple bullet points, and these glorious pictures.
Noteworthy things about road tripping with a Model S85D:
Here are some pictures. I had a hard time filtering it down from hundreds because there was so much beauty in the Pacific Northwest (I am originally from there so yea, I'm biased). I also am not posting anything you can find on Google, e.g., beautiful pictures of the Vancouver skyline.
The Westin Portland with HPWCs. The blue Tesla is not mine, but a co-guest:
Portland mixes old and new:
Multnomah Whiskey Library, Portland:
Bainbridge Island Ferry from Seattle:
Cloudy Seattle morning:
Sitka and Spruce (restaurant) teaser plate in Seattle:
The best car ever made (until 1 month after it came out ... damn), waiting at Port Angeles for the ferry:
The Oak Bay Beach Hotel, Victoria (with HPWCs):
Our room at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel (Victoria):
View from our room in Victoria:
The Empress, Victoria:
Craigdarroch Castle (it looks prettier with a Tesla in front, don't it?), Victoria:
View from Grouse Mountain, North Vancouver (after hiking the Grouse Grind in 1h23m):
But ... in the interests of moderate bandwidth brevity, that's all I'll post for now.
And finally, ok, I lied. I'll give you a little charging/supercharger data.
- The trip from the SF Bay Area to Portland takes 10.5 hours according to Google if you drive straight without breaks. We did it in 12.0 hours door-to-door with a maximum speed of limit +10mph.
- It is possible to go from San Mateo --> Corning SC without stopping in Vacaville in an 85D.
- It is possible to go from Shasta SC --> Vacaville SC in the summer in an 85D without stopping at Corning SC because it's downhill; 15 RM on arrival.
- The whole trip, I averaged 328 Wh/mi. The electricity was free, but if I had to pay PG&E prices at home, this 2,000-mile trip would have cost about $70 in fuel. Amazing.
- All SCs we used (we did use every single one on I-5 at some point) were the 120kW variety and there was never waiting for a spot.
- Range mode saves about 3%.
- Bathrooms at any business near an SC is far superior to the best gas station.
I hope you enjoyed this write-up and you go take an all-electric road trip too. Gasoline is dead.
- K
PS: I don't know how to get rid of these attached pictures below with the wrong orientation.
We just returned from our first all-electric West Coast road trip. We covered over 2,000 miles of road over 8 days. It even included 3 ferry rides ... with the Tesla! I'm from the SF Bay Area, and we drove to Portland, Seattle, Victoria (hence ferries), Vancouver, and back via overnight in Eugene.
I thought a lot about how to write up this trip, including documenting each charge leg with stats on a spreadsheet. That's how I usually am-- data driven and analytical. But as I came home from this trip, I realized, this was a really easy trip and the charging planning was quite unremarkable. In fact, it was more pleasant and just as fast as with a gas car (see trip cadence below). So instead, I'm going to give you a couple bullet points, and these glorious pictures.
Noteworthy things about road tripping with a Model S85D:
- Charging is super easy-- just drive 2 hours, take a 10-minute break at Starbucks for coffee/snack/bathrooms, drive another 2 hours, take a 30-minute lunch break. With this cadence, there is no way you can actually run out of charge.
- Book hotels with HPWCs or L2 charging to save you any hassle and give you the ability to skip SCs if you wish.
- Portland is really cool. Perfect juxtaposition of industrial brick with modern glass. Apparently Californians are disliked for driving up real estate prices. It's true, we are tempted to move there after seeing Portland again from a 2015 perspective.
- Teslas are not very common outside the Bay Area ... people ask you about them extensively. In the Bay Area, it's more common than a Toyota Camry.
- TACC isn't optional ... it's so stress-relieving to free up your feet and your mind from that monotonous task of keeping distance. It's really a safety feature in my opinion for long trips.
- 3G and the in-car browser works in Canada; great for using Yelp to find good eats.
- 21" wheels with ContiSilent tires were perfectly awesome to drive on for 40 hours.
- There is free charging everywhere in Canada.
Here are some pictures. I had a hard time filtering it down from hundreds because there was so much beauty in the Pacific Northwest (I am originally from there so yea, I'm biased). I also am not posting anything you can find on Google, e.g., beautiful pictures of the Vancouver skyline.
The Westin Portland with HPWCs. The blue Tesla is not mine, but a co-guest:
Portland mixes old and new:
Multnomah Whiskey Library, Portland:
Bainbridge Island Ferry from Seattle:
Cloudy Seattle morning:
Sitka and Spruce (restaurant) teaser plate in Seattle:
The best car ever made (until 1 month after it came out ... damn), waiting at Port Angeles for the ferry:
The Oak Bay Beach Hotel, Victoria (with HPWCs):
Our room at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel (Victoria):
View from our room in Victoria:
The Empress, Victoria:
Craigdarroch Castle (it looks prettier with a Tesla in front, don't it?), Victoria:
View from Grouse Mountain, North Vancouver (after hiking the Grouse Grind in 1h23m):
But ... in the interests of moderate bandwidth brevity, that's all I'll post for now.
And finally, ok, I lied. I'll give you a little charging/supercharger data.
- The trip from the SF Bay Area to Portland takes 10.5 hours according to Google if you drive straight without breaks. We did it in 12.0 hours door-to-door with a maximum speed of limit +10mph.
- It is possible to go from San Mateo --> Corning SC without stopping in Vacaville in an 85D.
- It is possible to go from Shasta SC --> Vacaville SC in the summer in an 85D without stopping at Corning SC because it's downhill; 15 RM on arrival.
- The whole trip, I averaged 328 Wh/mi. The electricity was free, but if I had to pay PG&E prices at home, this 2,000-mile trip would have cost about $70 in fuel. Amazing.
- All SCs we used (we did use every single one on I-5 at some point) were the 120kW variety and there was never waiting for a spot.
- Range mode saves about 3%.
- Bathrooms at any business near an SC is far superior to the best gas station.
I hope you enjoyed this write-up and you go take an all-electric road trip too. Gasoline is dead.
- K
PS: I don't know how to get rid of these attached pictures below with the wrong orientation.
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