I just finished my first road trip and I know there are a bunch of these types of threads, but I seem to learn something new from each one, so I'll share my experiences, both good and bad.
Charging
I picked up my 2023 MYLR in October and this was my first long drive with supercharging involved. The day before leaving I stopped by a local supercharger just to make sure everything worked, and my billing was set up correctly. I didn't want to find out a couple hundred miles from home there was some issue!
The drive was from just north of Atlanta, GA to Cincinnati, OH. Total distance of 450miles with an estimated time (without stops or traffic) of 7hr 24min.
- Left my house with 98% SOC - I normally charge to 80% daily but prior to leaving I bumped up the limit to 100% and let it ride until I headed out.
- Arrived at the first supercharger in Knoxville with 31% SOC after driving 171 miles.
- Since it was Black Friday and the location is in a shopping center, it took me about 15 minutes after exiting the highway to fight through traffic to get to the supercharger.
- The supercharger only had 1 spot left and was a 150kW model, so I had the unfortunate issue of splitting power with the car next to me. At one point the car next to me left and I watched my charge rate nearly double, but within about 2 minutes another tesla pulled in next to me and I watched the rate chop in half again.
- The navigation said it would take 20min to charge, but it took an hour to charge from 31% to 89%. However, the car did tell me that I had enough to continue my journey at about 84%, but my range anxiety got the better of me and I let it ride up to almost 90. All-in I was off the highway for about 90 minutes.
- Arrived at the second supercharge in Richmond, KY Buc-ee's with 27% SOC after 155 miles
- This went much better as there were 12 stations but only 1 other Tesla. My charge rate peaked at 246kW which I was very pleased with!
- I explored the crazy Buc-ee's and left with 90% SOC after 37 minutes of charging. Once again, the navigation told me I could leave in the mid-80s but I let it ride for a few more minutes for a reason I'll mention next.
- Arrived at my destination in Cincinnati with 38% SOC after 133 miles.
- I had intended to charge at my destination, but I FORGOT MY MOBILE CONNECTOR! Fortunately, there is a supercharger a few exits away from where I was staying so I stopped there and charged to 85% on Saturday for some local driving.
- Total Door-to-Door Time: 9hr 20min
- Departed from Cincinnati Sunday morning with 70% SOC. I was much more comfortable with the range calculations after the drive up, so I decided to trust the navigation!
- Arrived at Buc-ee's with 10% SOC.
- Again, I was one of only 2 cars there, so I was able to charge from 10% to 75% in 28 minutes and left pretty much right when the nav said I had enough charge to continue the journey.
- Arrived in Knoxville with 16% SOC (different location than the drive up)
- I was nervous because this location was completely full, however the Nav said the wait was less than 5 minutes which turned out to be about 2 minutes since someone pulled away.
- I charged 80% SOC (about 5% more than "required") in 29 minutes as I grabbed some lunch at a nearby restaurant. Maybe the lower initial SOC or a better charging infrastructure allowed me to pull almost the max charge rate even with every available charger in-use.
- The location had cleared out by then so I was not keeping anyone waiting while I put in that extra 5%!
- Traffic was pretty bad in Knoxville getting back on the highway due to Thanksgiving traffic, so I lost some time there navigating back to the interstate from the supercharger location.
- Arrived home with 16% SOC after the final 180ish mile push.
- Total Door-to-Door Time: 8hr 57min
Final Stats:
Miles Driven (including some local driving): 960mi
Total kWh Consumed: 303kWh
Average wH/Mile: 315.625
Total Supercharger Cost: $88.87 + about $8.50 in home charging costs
With my Model Y's 75kWh battery. I guess with that driving pattern the total range on a full charge would be about 238 miles. It seems low for a "rated" 330, but guaranteed the EPA testing isn't riding along at nearly 80mph at 50ish degrees ambient. I'm OK with it for what it is.
My thoughts on the Tesla for a road trip vehicle are that if you’re traveling with someone else or family and you’re planning to stop for meals or other activities while charging, the Tesla is an incredible tool for the job. However, if in my case you’re flying solo and just want to get A-to-B as fast as possible I know I could have shaved at least an hour, maybe 90 minutes off the drive by taking an ICE vehicle and stopping once in a less populated area for less than 15 minutes to grab gas and a drive-thru and keep on motoring.
My Tesla replaces an older truck that averaged 17mpg, so as far as savings the total energy cost was $97.37. Fuel @ about $2.75/ga which was the average rate on the drive would have been $155.30, so about a 40% savings in cost for me personally. But do your own math if you have a more efficient vehicle. According to my calculation for this trip, in a car that does better 27.5mpg driving an ICE vehicle would have been cheaper.
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"Left view of Tesla Model Y in Courbevoie - 2021-09-20" by Bretwa is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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