Trip report: Santa Cruz, CA to Lovell, ME

[whizfish]

I drove from California to Maine earlier this month in a MYLR, just me and the dog. I don’t know exactly how many miles, how many hours, how many Kwh, how many times I stopped to charge, how much time I spent charging, how much it all cost, or how much carbon I saved. I just know that I got here safely and it was pretty simple to do. I’m trying not to let my MYLR become a new “hobby”, but I do have a few subjective observations:

— Each long day of driving (there were 5, and 2 short days) probably took an extra hour or two compared to ICE due to charging. The dog was happy to get out and romp every couple hours or so.

— I subscribed to FSD for the trip. I’ll cancel it before the second month kicks in. Auto lane change was kind of nice, but I think basic autopilot will suffice. Autosteer and dynamic cruise control definitely cut down on fatigue. It might be worth subscribing to enhanced autopilot, but not FSD.

— Phantom braking was definitely a problem. It seemed to happen less when “navigate on autopilot” was turned off, but I can’t be sure.

— Finding chargers was a snap, but I was on major arteries the whole way.

— With a house in CA and house in ME, six months spent in each, I’ll be making this driving every spring and fall for the next decade or more, as I have been the last couple years. It takes longer but it’s easier in the Tesla than it was in the 2001 Tacoma. I’m satisfied.

Dan
p.s. Sorry to disappoint those of you who want to hear all the nitty gritty statistics. I’m too disorganized to pull all that together, and just not that motivated.

"File:Victor (Rochester) NY Tesla Supercharger at Eastview Mall with three Model S sedans.jpg" by B137 is marked with CC0 1.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail

 

[tashtibet]

that's my style-never look or bothered of minute details or numbers just enjoy & charge when I've to! Switched to EVs since 2016.

 

[ModelNforNerd]

I drove from California to Maine earlier this month in a MYLR, just me and the dog. I don’t know exactly how many miles, how many hours, how many Kwh, how many times I stopped to charge, how much time I spent charging, how much it all cost, or how much carbon I saved. I just know that I got here safely and it was pretty simple to do. I’m trying not to let my MYLR become a new “hobby”, but I do have a few subjective observations:

— Each long day of driving (there were 5, and 2 short days) probably took an extra hour or two compared to ICE due to charging. The dog was happy to get out and romp every couple hours or so.

— I subscribed to FSD for the trip. I’ll cancel it before the second month kicks in. Auto lane change was kind of nice, but I think basic autopilot will suffice. Autosteer and dynamic cruise control definitely cut down on fatigue. It might be worth subscribing to enhanced autopilot, but not FSD.

— Phantom braking was definitely a problem. It seemed to happen less when “navigate on autopilot” was turned off, but I can’t be sure.

— Finding chargers was a snap, but I was on major arteries the whole way.

— With a house in CA and house in ME, six months spent in each, I’ll be making this driving every spring and fall for the next decade or more, as I have been the last couple years. It takes longer but it’s easier in the Tesla than it was in the 2001 Tacoma. I’m satisfied.

Dan
p.s. Sorry to disappoint those of you who want to hear all the nitty gritty statistics. I’m too disorganized to pull all that together, and just not that motivated.

I'm just up the road in Norway, good job timing it to miss mud season, lol

 

[whizfish]

I'm just up the road in Norway, good job timing it to miss mud season, lol

Thanks! We're on Kezar Lake which rose several feet after heavy rains. Lots of road damage and some flooded houses and camps. It came within a few feet of our house but it had started to recede by the time we got here. It's nearly back to normal for this season after having dropped 3ft or more since we arrived 10 days ago.

 

[ModelNforNerd]

Thanks! We're on Kezar Lake which rose several feet after heavy rains. Lots of road damage and some flooded houses and camps. It came within a few feet of our house but it had started to recede by the time we got here. It's nearly back to normal for this season after having dropped 3ft or more since we arrived 10 days ago.

We're on North Pond in Norway. The roads have all been patched, and we took care of a bunch of downed trees and limbs. Put the boat in the water today. Time to enjoy summer.

 

[LAFrank]

I’ve done the Los Angeles to Salisbury Beach, MA journey for the last 5 years in a Model X with just my dog. It’s 3100 miles and I drive 1000 miles a day for 3 straight days. We stop every few hours to pit stop, charge and stretch our legs. There is plenty of room to get some sleep when we need it. The truck stop shower in Iowa is greatly needed. Autopilot makes all that driving a little more doable - although my 2022 X isn’t any better than my previous 2017 X. Maybe we will meet on the return trip!

 

[RichAZ/CapeCod]

Might as well share my wife's and my routine AZ~Cape Cod (AZ return in the Fall) trek done earlier this month. Routine trip, easy peasy charging all the way. I update my book Electric Cars What About Them?!? every time we do such a run, just to keep people up on what the charging infrastructure is doing.

Arizona to Cape Cod~Tesla Model Y~2842 Miles​

(May 2nd~7th 2023)​

I would have liked to tease you with some suggestion that this six-day trip entailed numerous death-defying adventures while taking one of those new-fangled EVs from AZ to Cape Cod. But I’d be fibbing. The trip was absolutely uneventful (dare I say boring, but in a positive way!). All twenty-four (24) Superchargers used worked perfectly, our Tesla model Y performed flawlessly, the motels were comfortable and the trip was otherwise unremarkable.

The route we took had us driving from Green Valley AZ (south of Tucson), east to Deming NM, then north to Albuquerque, due east till around Pennsylvania then through New York, over the Bear Mountain Bridge, through Connecticut, past Rhode Island and then on to Massachusetts and Cape Cod.

The actual roads driven: 10>25>40>44>55/70>119/22>99/80>81>84>90>495>25/6​

Just a few general observations:

• We used this “northern” route, trying to keep away from cities to the extent possible. One headache we had was when traveling through St. Louise Missouri. The confusing and twisting mix of major roads there gave me some white knuckle time.
• Eating on the road. We experimented with purchasing sandwiches for our nightly meal. Much lighter fare than if we had eaten at local restaurants and we found we both felt much better during the trip forgoing eating out at the end of each day’s ride.
• The Tesla Supercharger infrastructure continues to impress us. Solid and reliable are the two words which best describes this system. We only came up two locations which were “crowded.” None the less, we never missed driving to an open charger. In State College Pennsylvania our luck was to stop in at the Supercharger there (nice place by the way) on graduation day! There was one open slot, which we took, but others had a short wait as people charged up and departed the location. As this was a 250 kW V3 site, everyone was receiving max power, so things moved along nicely.

The charging infrastructure is expanding out at an impressive rate. There was never a time we had a concern about locating a Supercharger. Indeed, most of the time we picked and chose which places to stop as we wished. Things in the EV world are indeed looking up!

Twenty-four (24) Superchargers were used during trip which cost $308 dollars. Around 11ȼ a mile.​

An ICE auto, getting 25 mpg, with fuel at $3.70 per gallon, would have cost around $420 dollars.

What follows are the boring basic stats from this road-trip.

Arizona to Cape Cod ~ 24,403 miles to 27,245 miles (SC=Supercharger)

Charger Stop Time Fm/To SoC

Day One fm~to: AZ/Santa Rosa NM 24,403~24,987 miles (584) 1- SC 6 min 59%~76% 2- SC 24 min 23%~79% 3- SC 15 min 16%~65% 4- SC 13 min 31%~67% 5- SC ? min 23%~79%

Day Two fm~to: Santa Rosa NM/Stroud OK 24,987~25,478 miles (491) 1- SC 30 min 23%~90% 2- SC 14 min 49%~79% 3- SC 13 min 35%~67% 4- SC 10 min 41%~55%

Day Three fm~to: Stroud OK/Collinsville IL 25,478~25,947 miles (469) 1- SC 18 min 30%~74% 2- SC 10 min 45%~61% 3- SC 15 min 23%~61% 4- SC 15 min 22%~30%

Day Four fm~to: Collinsville IL/Cambridge OH 25,947~26,445 miles (498) 1- SC 13 min 27%~62% 2- SC ? min 33%~90% 3- SC 26 min 35%~87% 4- SC 19 min 19%~67%

Day Five fm~to: Cambridge OH/Middletown NY 26,446 ~26,920 miles (474) 1- SC ? min 20%~76% 2- SC 22 min 28%~81% 3- SC 15 min 28%~65% 4- SC 23 min 38%~82%

Day Six fm~to: Middletown NY/Cape Cod MA 26,920 ~27,245 miles (325) 1- SC 7 min 40%~57% 2- SC 14 min 22%~66% 3- SC 30 min 32%~89%* *Food shopping in Orleans MA. Didn’t really need a charge.

 

[Midpack]

Great example, details really not necessary. It may/not be a little more inconvenient to long distance road trip with an EV, but it's not as bad as haters want to believe.

 

[dcantato]

Great example, details really not necessary. It may/not be a little more inconvenient to long distance road trip with an EV, but it's not as bad as haters want to believe.

From what I've been able to tell - if you drive like it's not a race car and you have LR it's almost like the range is the perfect amount of time to spend driving to resting ratio wise. Call it 300ish miles which is about 3-4 hours of driving before you need a charge then 15-30 minutes to get refreshed and shake it out before repeating.

 

[jcanoe]

From what I've been able to tell - if you drive like it's not a race car and you have LR it's almost like the range is the perfect amount of time to spend driving to resting ratio wise. Call it 300ish miles which is about 3-4 hours of driving before you need a charge then 15-30 minutes to get refreshed and shake it out before repeating.

Plan to stop and use a Supercharger every 2 to 2.5 hours, 3 hours at the outside. Supercharging to 80% will take more than 15 minutes, less than 30 minutes. Expect at least 13% less than the EPA estimated combined city/highway range of 330 miles in real world highway driving, so ~287 miles when charged to 100%. Charged to 80% as when Supercharging that works out to a usable range of ~230 miles (in fair weather.)

 

[MichaelP90DL]

I drove from California to Maine earlier this month in a MYLR, just me and the dog. I don’t know exactly how many miles, how many hours, how many Kwh, how many times I stopped to charge, how much time I spent charging, how much it all cost, or how much carbon I saved. I just know that I got here safely and it was pretty simple to do. I’m trying not to let my MYLR become a new “hobby”, but I do have a few subjective observations:

— Each long day of driving (there were 5, and 2 short days) probably took an extra hour or two compared to ICE due to charging. The dog was happy to get out and romp every couple hours or so.

— I subscribed to FSD for the trip. I’ll cancel it before the second month kicks in. Auto lane change was kind of nice, but I think basic autopilot will suffice. Autosteer and dynamic cruise control definitely cut down on fatigue. It might be worth subscribing to enhanced autopilot, but not FSD.

— Phantom braking was definitely a problem. It seemed to happen less when “navigate on autopilot” was turned off, but I can’t be sure.

— Finding chargers was a snap, but I was on major arteries the whole way.

— With a house in CA and house in ME, six months spent in each, I’ll be making this driving every spring and fall for the next decade or more, as I have been the last couple years. It takes longer but it’s easier in the Tesla than it was in the 2001 Tacoma. I’m satisfied.

Dan
p.s. Sorry to disappoint those of you who want to hear all the nitty gritty statistics. I’m too disorganized to pull all that together, and just not that motivated.

View attachment 942345
"File:Victor (Rochester) NY Tesla Supercharger at Eastview Mall with three Model S sedans.jpg" by B137 is marked with CC0 1.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail

Tesla was unable to tell me which version of FSD is available for the monthly fee. But I bought it for a month a while back and was unimpressed. I thought it was dangerously bad. And it was nice to get basic Autopilot back.

 

[tivoboy]

Plan to stop and use a Supercharger every 2 to 2.5 hours, 3 hours at the outside. Supercharging to 80% will take more than 15 minutes, less than 30 minutes. Expect at least 13% less than the EPA estimated combined city/highway range of 330 miles in real world highway driving, so ~287 miles when charged to 100%. Charged to 80% as when Supercharging that works out to a usable range of ~230 miles (in fair weather.)

Indeed, driving at least 10% faster than posted, and usually not less than 80, I get about 88% efficiency. So, I usually just take indicated miles and reduce by 15%, in the end it end up a slight bit better than planned. That’s with me (250), she (130) and usually about 80 lbs in additional weight. Bags, food, backpacks, tech, etc.

 

[ModelNforNerd]

Tesla was unable to tell me which version of FSD is available for the monthly fee. But I bought it for a month a while back and was unimpressed. I thought it was dangerously bad. And it was nice to get basic Autopilot back.

I'd never leave basic AP if they'd just give us back the driver initiated lane changes. That's why they don't give it to us. For me, that one addition makes AP the sweet spot for highway travel. Even with vision based AP, compared to USS, I have no other complaints so far.

 

[Ocelot]

I’ve done the Los Angeles to Salisbury Beach, MA journey for the last 5 years in a Model X with just my dog. It’s 3100 miles and I drive 1000 miles a day for 3 straight days. We stop every few hours to pit stop, charge and stretch our legs. There is plenty of room to get some sleep when we need it. The truck stop shower in Iowa is greatly needed. Autopilot makes all that driving a little more doable - although my 2022 X isn’t any better than my previous 2017 X. Maybe we will meet on the return trip!

Hi there. Just curios about your comment with respect to no differences between your two model X. I have a 2016 p90 d, and sometimes debate about getting a newer one, although hard to justify the cost. Was hoping for a bit more range (highway we get maybe 250km-300km max) and faster charging. The shorter range is the hard one on road trips as supercharger takes longer when we have to charge above 80 per cent. , which is often.

 

[LAFrank]

Sorry, I was strictly saying that the autopilot for highway driving hasn’t improved over the last 5 years. I had enhanced autopilot on my 2017 model X, but do not have FSD on my 2022. I’m just disappointed that the autopilot has not improved for my highway needs. The 2022 is much better in every other way - ventilated seats are much more comfortable, performance and range are amazing, yoke steering wheel, screens and computer speed, etc. Well worth upgrading!

Hi there. Just curios about your comment with respect to no differences between your two model X. I have a 2016 p90 d, and sometimes debate about getting a newer one, although hard to justify the cost. Was hoping for a bit more range (highway we get maybe 250km-300km max) and faster charging. The shorter range is the hard one on road trips as supercharger takes longer when we have to charge above 80 per cent. , which is often.

 

[Ocelot]

Sorry, I was strictly saying that the autopilot for highway driving hasn’t improved over the last 5 years. I had enhanced autopilot on my 2017 model X, but do not have FSD on my 2022. I’m just disappointed that the autopilot has not improved for my highway needs. The 2022 is much better in every other way - ventilated seats are much more comfortable, performance and range are amazing, yoke steering wheel, screens and computer speed, etc. Well worth upgrading!

Ah. thanks for clarifying. Although I was somewhat happy to interpret it the way i did (not missing out), now back to saving up.

 

[jmcdono362]

I’ve done the Los Angeles to Salisbury Beach, MA journey for the last 5 years in a Model X with just my dog. It’s 3100 miles and I drive 1000 miles a day for 3 straight days. We stop every few hours to pit stop, charge and stretch our legs. There is plenty of room to get some sleep when we need it. The truck stop shower in Iowa is greatly needed. Autopilot makes all that driving a little more doable - although my 2022 X isn’t any better than my previous 2017 X. Maybe we will meet on the return trip!

Might be worth subscribing to $20/month Planet Fitness too for the showers! You can use any of their Gyms.

 

[jmcdono362]

Hi there. Just curios about your comment with respect to no differences between your two model X. I have a 2016 p90 d, and sometimes debate about getting a newer one, although hard to justify the cost. Was hoping for a bit more range (highway we get maybe 250km-300km max) and faster charging. The shorter range is the hard one on road trips as supercharger takes longer when we have to charge above 80 per cent. , which is often.

You might want to see if there's a Model X rental nearby your area, with services such as Turo. Then you can take the time and see if a new one is worth the cost.

 

[miam185]

Might as well share my wife's and my routine AZ~Cape Cod (AZ return in the Fall) trek done earlier this month. Routine trip, easy peasy charging all the way. I update my book Electric Cars What About Them?!? every time we do such a run, just to keep people up on what the charging infrastructure is doing.

Arizona to Cape Cod~Tesla Model Y~2842 Miles​

(May 2nd~7th 2023)​

I would have liked to tease you with some suggestion that this six-day trip entailed numerous death-defying adventures while taking one of those new-fangled EVs from AZ to Cape Cod. But I’d be fibbing. The trip was absolutely uneventful (dare I say boring, but in a positive way!). All twenty-four (24) Superchargers used worked perfectly, our Tesla model Y performed flawlessly, the motels were comfortable and the trip was otherwise unremarkable.

The route we took had us driving from Green Valley AZ (south of Tucson), east to Deming NM, then north to Albuquerque, due east till around Pennsylvania then through New York, over the Bear Mountain Bridge, through Connecticut, past Rhode Island and then on to Massachusetts and Cape Cod.

The actual roads driven: 10>25>40>44>55/70>119/22>99/80>81>84>90>495>25/6​

Just a few general observations:

• We used this “northern” route, trying to keep away from cities to the extent possible. One headache we had was when traveling through St. Louise Missouri. The confusing and twisting mix of major roads there gave me some white knuckle time.
• Eating on the road. We experimented with purchasing sandwiches for our nightly meal. Much lighter fare than if we had eaten at local restaurants and we found we both felt much better during the trip forgoing eating out at the end of each day’s ride.
• The Tesla Supercharger infrastructure continues to impress us. Solid and reliable are the two words which best describes this system. We only came up two locations which were “crowded.” None the less, we never missed driving to an open charger. In State College Pennsylvania our luck was to stop in at the Supercharger there (nice place by the way) on graduation day! There was one open slot, which we took, but others had a short wait as people charged up and departed the location. As this was a 250 kW V3 site, everyone was receiving max power, so things moved along nicely.

The charging infrastructure is expanding out at an impressive rate. There was never a time we had a concern about locating a Supercharger. Indeed, most of the time we picked and chose which places to stop as we wished. Things in the EV world are indeed looking up!

Twenty-four (24) Superchargers were used during trip which cost $308 dollars. Around 11ȼ a mile.​

An ICE auto, getting 25 mpg, with fuel at $3.70 per gallon, would have cost around $420 dollars.

What follows are the boring basic stats from this road-trip.

Arizona to Cape Cod ~ 24,403 miles to 27,245 miles (SC=Supercharger)

Charger Stop Time Fm/To SoC

Day One fm~to: AZ/Santa Rosa NM 24,403~24,987 miles (584) 1- SC 6 min 59%~76% 2- SC 24 min 23%~79% 3- SC 15 min 16%~65% 4- SC 13 min 31%~67% 5- SC ? min 23%~79%

Day Two fm~to: Santa Rosa NM/Stroud OK 24,987~25,478 miles (491) 1- SC 30 min 23%~90% 2- SC 14 min 49%~79% 3- SC 13 min 35%~67% 4- SC 10 min 41%~55%

Day Three fm~to: Stroud OK/Collinsville IL 25,478~25,947 miles (469) 1- SC 18 min 30%~74% 2- SC 10 min 45%~61% 3- SC 15 min 23%~61% 4- SC 15 min 22%~30%

Day Four fm~to: Collinsville IL/Cambridge OH 25,947~26,445 miles (498) 1- SC 13 min 27%~62% 2- SC ? min 33%~90% 3- SC 26 min 35%~87% 4- SC 19 min 19%~67%

Day Five fm~to: Cambridge OH/Middletown NY 26,446 ~26,920 miles (474) 1- SC ? min 20%~76% 2- SC 22 min 28%~81% 3- SC 15 min 28%~65% 4- SC 23 min 38%~82%

Day Six fm~to: Middletown NY/Cape Cod MA 26,920 ~27,245 miles (325) 1- SC 7 min 40%~57% 2- SC 14 min 22%~66% 3- SC 30 min 32%~89%* *Food shopping in Orleans MA. Didn’t really need a charge.

To record your stop by stop data, did you just write that down at your stops?
How did you plan your trip? Did you use evtripplanner or just the Tesla itself?

Also, you have a book, or a blog?

Thanks for your time and love what you have shared.

Miam

 

[RichAZ/CapeCod]

I just got a new job that is 50 miles away from my house. I don't have a home charger or anything.
I currently drive a C7 Corvette year round here in RI.
I will not be selling the vette, just adding a Model 3 to the stable.

I plan to buy new.

Is there any advice or things I should know about the car before buying?
Reliability?
Quirks?
Anything at all....

I plan to only use the car to get to work and back. C7 will be used for everything else.
Getting a quote for a car charger to be installed in my garage on Friday.

Thanks for any insights and help that can be provided!

To record your stop by stop data, did you just write that down at your stops?
How did you plan your trip? Did you use evtripplanner or just the Tesla itself?

Also, you have a book, or a blog?

Thanks for your time and love what you have shared.

Miam

I record my stops in an EV Trip Log I created. Makes keeping all my trip data in one neat location easy. Six bucks on Amazon and find my little log very handy. (see below)

Amazon.com

I also have a book out, which I update every six months, in order to keep track of the rapid changes in the EV world. Electric Vehicles: What About Them?!? See below:

Amazon.com

I use mostly PlugShare for general trip planning. For my purposes I find it a tad more useful than A Better Route Planner. But that's just me. In truth, with so many Tesla Superchargers out there now there is little reason not to just jump in your Tesla and go wherever you wish (within reason!).

Rich