Thoughts after 650 mile one-day Tesla drive

[Mod3forMe]

Most people don't drive 900 miles with only 30 min of down time. We are absolutely there, today, for the way that the majority of people drive long distance.

Years ago, I drove 900 miles in one day. It was an insane thing for me* to do and I would never do it again. Before the end, I was exhausted and had become a real danger to myself and others. I tell “most people” that I drove over 600 miles in a day and they’re impressed. Even that isn’t something most people would do. For most people, 900 miles in a day is WAY outside the envelope of things they would ever consider doing. It isn’t something with a statistically significant effect on EV adoption.

* Not saying driving like that isn’t something YOU can’t do safely. I don’t know you and recognize that some people can do things I can’t.

We did a 17 hour drive from Detroit area to Orlando this spring (4 drivers). In an EV I don't think it would be possible in a single day. Our stops were quick and only filled the gas tank once on the way. Even with an EV I think I would rent an ICE car for a trip like that.

Yes that is an extreme trip. I love driving/road trips.

I do agree the EV is nearly there for MOST people. The big issue is charging locations. In time that will change as more options come about.

 

[listairee]

(3) It wasn’t clear to me when penalty charges would apply. My charge during lunch was done before I could get back to my car. There were plenty of open spots, so nobody was being prevented from charging if I was late. But did the $1 a minute penalty apply? Yes? No? I couldn’t tell. I would have liked to know if I needed to rush getting back from lunch or not.

Idle fees apply ($0.50/minute) when a Supercharger station is at least 50% full, and double ($1/minute) when the station is 100% full.

 

[Nocturnal]

Agreed. I just did an 8 hour roadtrip (each way) and found the charging not to be a huge deal. Charging over lunch is sometimes more convenient than getting gas. Stopping to charge 20 minutes, stretch, take a bio break etc. actually felt good. I wasn't forced to "make good time" so it really broke up the drive. The only frustrating part was the 15 degree weather hurting my efficiency.

I also like to remind people that even if my twice a year trip takes an extra 2 hours, I save 15-20 minutes a week by not stopping for gas. Net time savings is huge.

 

[EVDRVN]

I would run into problems on the very first day. From Bay Area to Santa Barbara on Highway 1. There are 2 chargers on the way, one in Gilroy and one in SLO. We never stop at any of these locations. Same applies for most of the days on the trip.
Second issue: heat in the desert decreases the range, and there are very few chargers there.

I just did that trip and no need to stop at SLO or Gilroy. I've also done death valley and all around the CA desert, no issue with range decrease.

 

[acoste]

I just did that trip and no need to stop at SLO or Gilroy. I've also done death valley and all around the CA desert, no issue with range decrease.

Trip planner didn't come up with the charger in Monterey.
So how do you visit Monterey downtown while charging the car 3 miles away? We usually spend time in Monterey and many stops on HW 1. As for the desert it loses range even when stopped since it needs to cool the batteries.

 

[ucityglass]

We concur with comments re: nav system limiting choices of supercharger stops. We prefer shorter, more frequent stops; like to take advantage of fast charging at low end. But in any case, please list all superchargers along route, allowing the user to choose.

 

[Aieukl378]

So I drove from Los Altos CA to Portland OR on Tuesday, a drive of over 650miles. My thoughts:

(1) ICE cars are so screwed. The entire negative story about EV’s is that their long re-charging times and range limitations make them impracticle for long trips. But, I drove this trip in a Tesla in about the same time I used to drive it in ICE cars, even though I spent far more time charging the EV than I used to spend pumping gas. Why? I had to stop periodically for human reasons: restrooms, food, stretching my legs, checking email; all of these things had to be done, no matter what drive train the car used. On this trip, it was simple to do that while charging. In fact, there were times when the car was ready to move on, but I wasn’t. The entire argument that EV charge times (at least at Tesla rates) is a barrier to adoption is just FUD fakery that won’t survive contact with reality. Customer experience will destroy this so-called problem.

(2) At least between the SF Bay area and Portland, there are enough chargers to make the trip stress-free. But, additional, NICER locations would be great. As is, you get off the highway, there is a charger right there, you charge, grab some fast food (maybe) and you get back on. But that isn’t always what you want. For example, there are fun places to eat in downtown Grants Pass OR, but the Tesla chargers at Grants Pass there are near I5, miles from downtown. No way to eat downtown while I charged. Slower destination chargers, at nicer stop points (better food, better shopping) would be a great addition to the charger network for travelling. Tesla is already on the right track with destination chargers: they just need to keep going!

(3) It wasn’t clear to me when penalty charges would apply. My charge during lunch was done before I could get back to my car. There were plenty of open spots, so nobody was being prevented from charging if I was late. But did the $1 a minute penalty apply? Yes? No? I couldn’t tell. I would have liked to know if I needed to rush getting back from lunch or not.

(4) The trip planner works too hard to minimize the number of stops. It planned the drive with only two. I manually targeted additional (but shorter) charge stops just to give me opportunities to get out of the car (see 1 above). It would be nice to be able to tell the planner that I don’t really want 4 to 5 hours of driving between stops. More stops is often better than fewer stops.

(5) ICE cars are so screwed. I’ve never had a more pleasant time on that drive, even without my suggested improvements, and even without AutoPilot, which would have fit that drive like a glove.

I wrote a similar review in regards to my first long road trip(1300 mi along the East Coast) in my first Tesla(209 mi range S60). Was blown away how it took no longer than when I did the trip with my ICE. I knew ICE cars were screwed back then. Now with 310 mi range and tons more Superchargers fuhgetaboutit ICE!

 

[shrike]

I did a 1000 mile trip, each way, a few weeks ago, and it was one of the better drives I've done. I've driven the route a few dozen times over the years in an ICE, but the drive with EV and autopilot was much more pleasant. I normally do the drive each way over a couple days. With my model 3 and supercharging, it took about the same amount of time since I would stop and rest anyway with an ICE.

Agree with OP comments about the car trip planner. There were a couple times the planner selected some long segments between chargers with expected arrival percentages in the single digits. It was a bit annoying having to manually pick shorter segments to avoid potentially not reaching the next charger.

All in all, road tripping with an EV is a now a favorite past time.

 

[eladts]

Most people don't drive 900 miles with only 30 min of down time. We are absolutely there, today, for the way that the majority of people drive long distance.

Driving 900 miles in a single day with only 30 minutes of break time might be dangerous for most drivers. In many jurisdictions there are rules that limit the amount of driving commercial drivers do for this reason.

 

[Nocturnal]

I did a 1000 mile trip, each way, a few weeks ago, and it was one of the better drives I've done. I've driven the route a few dozen times over the years in an ICE, but the drive with EV and autopilot was much more pleasant. I normally do the drive each way over a couple days. With my model 3 and supercharging, it took about the same amount of time since I would stop and rest anyway with an ICE.

Agree with OP comments about the car trip planner. There were a couple times the planner selected some long segments between chargers with expected arrival percentages in the single digits. It was a bit annoying having to manually pick shorter segments to avoid potentially not reaching the next charger.

All in all, road tripping with an EV is a now a favorite past time.

Yeah. When it's cold and late I don't like planning on arriving at a charger with just 10% because that can easily drop lower. That happened to me once on my big trip. Wound up driving at like 60mph in a 70 zone and made it with 4 miles to spare.

 

[Canikony]

While in LA we stayed in Glendale where I hit the Supercharger in the Galleria each evening, which was only two blocks away from the motel. On a day trip to Disneyland we found the EV parking on the second floor. I didn't have my ChargePoint card with me but it was nice to see that they were taking some small steps to cater to EV owners. There were only about 20 handles; much too few for the number of electric cars that I saw in the structure.
.

The best part about driving an EV to disneyland is you get REALLY good parking... at least for now.

 

[rachelhikes]

To the folks who explained how the idle fee works: Thanks!

When the app warned me that my charge was nearly complete, that would have been a great time for it to tell me the rules. Consider it a suggestion for Tesla.

 

[ℬête Noire]

One day this will be true, but for now, long road trips I am still better off in an ICE. I am a bit of road warrior, and will cover off 900miles in a day easily. With maybe 30min of total not driving time. You can't pull that off in an EV and as you say where you charge is not always the place you want to take breaks.

We are not far off from the EV being the better road trip option for most people, just not there yet.

Two weeks ago, largely on a whim only decided on the Friday, I went on a Sunday one-day 800 mile pleasure drive w/some sight-seeing. I've driven a LOT of long miles, for various reasons. At one time I was driving 10,000 mile/month for work. This was by far the easiest 800 mile trip I'd ever done as I didn't feel it at the end like most long drives...and I'm a lot older now than trips I'm comparing.

I'm actually looking forward to making the Houston to Calgary in-two-days trip that I had previously decided "well that was a thing to do, and I won't do it again" after doing it in an ICE.

 

[adaptabl]

The problem will be in a year or two as more EV's are sold is that arriving at a SC location may be a long wait just to be able to start a charge.

 

[Saghost]

The problem will be in a year or two as more EV's are sold is that arriving at a SC location may be a long wait just to be able to start a charge.

It's a problem Tesla will have to watch for, but I don't think it'll be a huge issue.

They've just about achieved the coverage they need in the U.S. now, so as they keep building they can concentrate on higher usage areas.

As they start getting significant redundancy, thru can use the Nav to direct folks to less busy sites between the busier ones, giving them a lot better utilization of the infrastructure they have.

Once they get FSD somewhat developed and have automated supercharger connections, they can reduce delays further by cycling cars through while the drivers are busy eating or whatever.

 

[chronopc]

I would run into problems on the very first day. From Bay Area to Santa Barbara on Highway 1. There are 2 chargers on the way, one in Gilroy and one in SLO. We never stop at any of these locations. Same applies for most of the days on the trip.
Second issue: heat in the desert decreases the range, and there are very few chargers there.

I haven't noticed a huge decrease in range from heat. The HVAC is very efficient. The heater on the other hand is a different story.

 

[Nocturnal]

It's a problem Tesla will have to watch for, but I don't think it'll be a huge issue.

They've just about achieved the coverage they need in the U.S. now, so as they keep building they can concentrate on higher usage areas.

As they start getting significant redundancy, thru can use the Nav to direct folks to less busy sites between the busier ones, giving them a lot better utilization of the infrastructure they have.

Once they get FSD somewhat developed and have automated supercharger connections, they can reduce delays further by cycling cars through while the drivers are busy eating or whatever.

I don't live in CA but the busiest I've seen an SC was about half. Most of the time they are empty. Adding more locations should offset the new car deliveries.

 

[CNC1]

- Superchargers are still not very common outside West and maybe East cost.
Non in my area, zero, nil
- Superchargers mainly cover bi freeway, totally different story with country roads.
- Model 3 will greatly increase load on supercharges
-I do not need more than 5 min to cover my bode needs

 

[EVDRVN]

I don't live in CA but the busiest I've seen an SC was about half. Most of the time they are empty. Adding more locations should offset the new car deliveries.

Many CA SCs have 15-30 min wait times. Most of those are full of people that live a mile away and charge from 70-90%. The SC network was originally designed for travel but some are congested with these folks and Uber drivers, etc.

 

[chronopc]

I don't live in CA but the busiest I've seen an SC was about half. Most of the time they are empty. Adding more locations should offset the new car deliveries.

The superchargers in CA are super busy. Especially ones around shopping center. I experienced first hand how terrible of an experience waiting for a charger was when I was driving a Model S loaner. One thing Tesla desperately need to add is a queue system.