My family and I did a road trip with our Long Range Model X from the San Francisco Bay Area to Las Vegas, NV over an extended Presidents Day weekend. I did a little Supercharger hunting on the trip, so the charging stops in this trip report aren't necessarily as efficient as possible.
We did the outbound leg in two days, starting from home Thursday evening (we all had Friday off). We decided to grab some food in Dublin on the way out of the Bay Area, but otherwise it was a straight shot to Fresno, where we stayed overnight. Before calling it a night, I rolled over to the Fresno (North Riverside Drive) Supercharger to top the battery up to 91% (we didn't need a full battery). It's generally more efficient to charge at the end of a driving day, rather than the start of a day, because the battery is still warm from the driving.
We left a little later than planned on Friday morning. We did a quick touch-and-go charging stop for a few minutes at Visalia during a restroom stop, this gave us a little bit of margin to get to Mojave via CA-99 and CA-58. On the way there, the Nav system redirected us off the freeway to get around some traffic. We found ourselves on a tiny, winding 2-lane road leading to Tehachipi Loop (famous landmark for rail fans). We stopped at an observation point for a few minutes (no trains unfortunately, but we could see a long line of stopped trucks and cars on the freeway).
After getting back on the freeway, we finally arrived at the Mojave (16940 Hwy 14) Supercharger. This site has an odd mix of V2 ("150kW"), V3 ("250kW") and urban ("72kW") stalls. When we got there, all the V2 stalls were full and but no one was using the V3 stalls. If four of the people on the V2 chargers had moved to the faster V3 chargers, it would probably have improved charging speeds for everyone. This is one of those way in which a little knowledge about Superchargers can really save some time. We plugged in but only stayed a few minutes because we wanted some different lunch options and I wanted to grab a charge at the other Mojave Supercharger.
The Mojave (Sierra Hwy) Supercharger is wedged between a Wienerschnitzel and a motel, and it's really a tight squeeze for longer-wheelbase cars. We ended up getting hot dogs for lunch, and a 23-minute charging stop (the car was ready to go before us).
At this point we were running behind schedule due to a late start and unexpected traffic, so we decided to just travel as fast as possible, sacrificing Supercharger hunting. Our next charging/rest stop was Baker, CA, a large (but V2-only) site (14 minutes). The final charging stop of the day was at Primm, NV (18 minutes).
While in Las Vegas, I visited most of the Superchargers in the Las Vegas metro area, usually during the early morning. We spent a fair amount of time off "The Strip", generally doing something involving food. Notable places were:
After two full days of fun and food, we headed back on Monday (the actual Presidents Day holiday). No Supercharger hunting, just trying to get back home. We were concerned about traffic so we left Las Vegas at 0600 with a nearly-full battery, courtesy of the Las Vegas (High Roller at LINQ) Supercharger the night before. Always good to start travel days with lots of energy.
The first charging stop was at Yermo, in the parking lot of Eddie World, a huge travel stop with tons (probably literally) of snacks and drinks. This was one of the stops we passed up on our outbound trip. We wandered around Eddie World for about 20 minutes before switching drivers and heading back out.
We then went back to Mojave (16940 Hwy 14) for our second charge stop, mostly for ease of access. Of course we made sure to plug in on one of the V3 stalls. We were here for about half an hour, which was longer than needed.
We worked our way over to I-5, and did a lunch stop at the new 80-stall Coalinga Supercharger (adjacent to Harris Ranch). In years past we'd park our old Model S at the V2 chargers and have plenty of time for a sit-down meal in the restaurant. We realized that a new Model X on the V3 chargers fills up a lot faster, so in fact I had to move the car before our food even arrived. In retrospect we should have eaten at the Harris Ranch Express BBQ. With a full battery, getting back to the Bay Area was easy.
General observations:
No issues charging at any Supercharger on this holiday weekend. I only waited at one site while doing Supercharger hunting, and that was literally less than two minutes. No waiting at all on our travel days.
The current iteration of Autopilot (FSD beta 10.69.25.2) performs adequately for long freeway trips. I still prefer to navigate through freeway interchanges manually. Flashing yellow lights on overhead freeway signs can cause Autopilot to slow down. I still think AP1 does a better job of freeway driving, subjectively.
As we’ve learned over the past 7+ years of Tesla ownership, EV road tripping doesn’t need to take much longer than ICE road tripping (if at all), if you plan rest/bathroom/meal stops in places with charging. A key idea is to be flexible.
Stats:
Distance: 1309 miles
Supercharging sessions: 18 (16 different chargers, 14 new to me, 251 lifetime total)
Supercharging cost: $162.54
Bruce.
"Tesla Autopilot Engaged in Model X" by Ian Maddox is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
We did the outbound leg in two days, starting from home Thursday evening (we all had Friday off). We decided to grab some food in Dublin on the way out of the Bay Area, but otherwise it was a straight shot to Fresno, where we stayed overnight. Before calling it a night, I rolled over to the Fresno (North Riverside Drive) Supercharger to top the battery up to 91% (we didn't need a full battery). It's generally more efficient to charge at the end of a driving day, rather than the start of a day, because the battery is still warm from the driving.
We left a little later than planned on Friday morning. We did a quick touch-and-go charging stop for a few minutes at Visalia during a restroom stop, this gave us a little bit of margin to get to Mojave via CA-99 and CA-58. On the way there, the Nav system redirected us off the freeway to get around some traffic. We found ourselves on a tiny, winding 2-lane road leading to Tehachipi Loop (famous landmark for rail fans). We stopped at an observation point for a few minutes (no trains unfortunately, but we could see a long line of stopped trucks and cars on the freeway).
After getting back on the freeway, we finally arrived at the Mojave (16940 Hwy 14) Supercharger. This site has an odd mix of V2 ("150kW"), V3 ("250kW") and urban ("72kW") stalls. When we got there, all the V2 stalls were full and but no one was using the V3 stalls. If four of the people on the V2 chargers had moved to the faster V3 chargers, it would probably have improved charging speeds for everyone. This is one of those way in which a little knowledge about Superchargers can really save some time. We plugged in but only stayed a few minutes because we wanted some different lunch options and I wanted to grab a charge at the other Mojave Supercharger.
The Mojave (Sierra Hwy) Supercharger is wedged between a Wienerschnitzel and a motel, and it's really a tight squeeze for longer-wheelbase cars. We ended up getting hot dogs for lunch, and a 23-minute charging stop (the car was ready to go before us).
At this point we were running behind schedule due to a late start and unexpected traffic, so we decided to just travel as fast as possible, sacrificing Supercharger hunting. Our next charging/rest stop was Baker, CA, a large (but V2-only) site (14 minutes). The final charging stop of the day was at Primm, NV (18 minutes).
While in Las Vegas, I visited most of the Superchargers in the Las Vegas metro area, usually during the early morning. We spent a fair amount of time off "The Strip", generally doing something involving food. Notable places were:
- Izakaya Go (Japanese-style tapas and skewers)
- Ohlala French Bistro
- Win Lee HK BBQ and Noodle (very reminiscent of actually being in Hong Kong)
- Trattoria Nakamura Ya (Japanese style Italian)
After two full days of fun and food, we headed back on Monday (the actual Presidents Day holiday). No Supercharger hunting, just trying to get back home. We were concerned about traffic so we left Las Vegas at 0600 with a nearly-full battery, courtesy of the Las Vegas (High Roller at LINQ) Supercharger the night before. Always good to start travel days with lots of energy.
The first charging stop was at Yermo, in the parking lot of Eddie World, a huge travel stop with tons (probably literally) of snacks and drinks. This was one of the stops we passed up on our outbound trip. We wandered around Eddie World for about 20 minutes before switching drivers and heading back out.
We then went back to Mojave (16940 Hwy 14) for our second charge stop, mostly for ease of access. Of course we made sure to plug in on one of the V3 stalls. We were here for about half an hour, which was longer than needed.
We worked our way over to I-5, and did a lunch stop at the new 80-stall Coalinga Supercharger (adjacent to Harris Ranch). In years past we'd park our old Model S at the V2 chargers and have plenty of time for a sit-down meal in the restaurant. We realized that a new Model X on the V3 chargers fills up a lot faster, so in fact I had to move the car before our food even arrived. In retrospect we should have eaten at the Harris Ranch Express BBQ. With a full battery, getting back to the Bay Area was easy.
General observations:
No issues charging at any Supercharger on this holiday weekend. I only waited at one site while doing Supercharger hunting, and that was literally less than two minutes. No waiting at all on our travel days.
The current iteration of Autopilot (FSD beta 10.69.25.2) performs adequately for long freeway trips. I still prefer to navigate through freeway interchanges manually. Flashing yellow lights on overhead freeway signs can cause Autopilot to slow down. I still think AP1 does a better job of freeway driving, subjectively.
As we’ve learned over the past 7+ years of Tesla ownership, EV road tripping doesn’t need to take much longer than ICE road tripping (if at all), if you plan rest/bathroom/meal stops in places with charging. A key idea is to be flexible.
Stats:
Distance: 1309 miles
Supercharging sessions: 18 (16 different chargers, 14 new to me, 251 lifetime total)
Supercharging cost: $162.54
Bruce.
"Tesla Autopilot Engaged in Model X" by Ian Maddox is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
