First Tesla Road Trip. A Quick Recap

Gone_2022

TCG Elite Member
Sep 4, 2013
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Good Afternoon Fellow TCG Warriors at work.



I recently just took my first road trip in my Model S and I thought I would share my feedback and thoughts from the trip. Seeing as it was my first not ICE roadtrip.



The Trip was from the Chicago area to Nashville, TN. Approx 500ish miles 1 way. Along the route each way the car wanted us to stop 3 times. We wanted to see would these stops be an inconvenience? Would they hinder the trip and make it annoying? We shall see...







I started the trip from our house with a 100% full charge on the 75D Model S. It stated I had approx 257 miles in the battery and according to the navigation we would not have to stop until all the way down by Effingham, IL. However the dash said we would arrive there with only 6% battery remaining.



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Now I was a little nervous about that as that leaves very little buffer, however from everything I read on the forums people said set the navigation and relax. So that is exactly what we did and boy did the car perform. By the time we reached Effingham, IL the % remaining in the battery had climbed from 6% to 18%. Now I was not on an eco drive by any means. Most time I had the cruise set to 80 MPH, A/C blasting etc.

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We plugged in at the Effingham supercharger and went to the restrooms. The dash said about 20 mins to stay there to continue our trip. However after about 10 minutes we already had enough energy to make it to Mount Vernon, IL. The car was charging at about 99 kw's and 320 miles per hour. So we unplugged and headed off.

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The longest stop on the trip both ways was Mount Vernon, IL. Both times it wanted us to stay there about 35-40 mins before continuing on the trip. However this worked out perfect. Both times we planned that we would have lunch there. It was about 11:40 when we arrived at the Mount Vernon supercharger. We plugged in and hit of BWW for lunch. By the time we got the check it was already 10 minutes past when the car told me we could leave, and I had about 235 miles in the battery when I unplugged. Tons more than needed to get to the next stop.



The next and final stop was Kuttawa, KY. Again the % remaining in the battery climbed while we were driving. It started out at 28% and eventually got close to 40% when we arrived. The Kuttawa charger I will admit had very little to do or see while we were there. It was a basic gas station and a few hotels. No real areas to walk around or things to see. After we hit the restroom we basically sat or walked around the lot for 10 minutes to stretch our legs. It was a slight inconvenience but nothing really to mention.

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So... while we waited I snapped a pic of the superchargers. For some reason these were not hidden behind a fence. So if you ever wondered what they looked like. Here they are

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After that stop we continued on to Nashville. Where we checked in and had dinner next to the local Tesla store! They happened to have both superchargers and normal fast wall chargers, so I plugged in while we had dinner and got even more free juice. We also saw a crap ton of new Model 3's on the road trip as well as at the Tesla store. They were everywhere in the parking lot. The tesla store also provides free water etc to those traveling or buying cars.


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Charging starts to slow as you get more full. Started around 99kws and at 170ish miles in the tank it dropped to the 60s. Still stupid fast




Overall Thoughts (Positive): The car performed flawlessly and at the end of the trip both coming and going I was not tired or fatigued like I may be if we were Gas road warriors. What we found out, was the car extremely overestimates the energy you will need to reach a destination. Each time we set out, the % remaining in the battery would climb as we drove on. Again, at no time were we eco driving. I will admit if we did not stop for lunch in Mount Vernon.... the 35 minute charge would have been a little odd to just sit there. But that long charge actually worked out while we ate. In the very beginning I was slightly nervous about the trip, but half way through I knew everything would be perfectly fine.



I would not hesitate to take this car coast to coast on a trip.



Negative: The only negative thing I have to say is, its a new way of thinking planning your trip or route for chargers. The navigation does it automatically for the roadtrip part and directs you to the chargers.... however once you reach your destination you have to have planned to have enough juice. If Nashville didnt have a supercharger I would have arrived with only 20% remaining, which was not enough to turn around back to Kuttawa, KY.



Is that an inconvenience? Possibly. However its just a new way of thinking out a trip. You do more planning up front.



As always if you guys have any questions on the trip or how the car performed post it below!





Oh and thats 1000 Miles covered for absolutely $0 dollars. (Insert Expensive car joke here) But seriously it felt awesome to not pay 1 dime for fuel on the trip.
 

Gone_2022

TCG Elite Member
Sep 4, 2013
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7,525
I do find it impressive (tho in todays tech world maybe not that impressive) that the Nav intelligently plans everything for you.



It does each section in legs. So basically it routed us to the first charger. We plug in and on the screen it tells you how long to continue the trip. When it’s ready you unplug and the navigation starts all over again to bring you to your next stop. It’s creepy actually
 

Yaj Yak

Gladys
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May 24, 2007
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I think it's neat that it plans everything intelligently for you, I didn't know that was a thing. That's really impressive.

I do a similar drive 8-10 times to kentucky, maybe even more per year. I always try to do the trip in one stop or two at most. It's 550 miles and takes between 7 and a half and 10 hours depending on how clusterfucked chicago traffic is...

that being said, getting slowed down to recharge more than I'd want to stop would annoy the shit out of me personally, albeit as logic-lacking as that may sound, me personally, would not enjoy that.

Past that, I like being able to rally my own route, away from storms, construction, accidents, etc, when they occur, and I wouldn't be able to do that with this setup.

Like [MENTION=7923]CTC DEEZUL[/MENTION], I wouldn't want to get "stranded".


I love taking my bmw, because it has 650 miles of range when full on the highway.. I don't have to get gas if I don't want to.


Sweet write up again though.
 

Gone_2022

TCG Elite Member
Sep 4, 2013
13,094
7,525
I wonder if they'd ever renege on that.



I mean I guess maybe they could? But it was in the contract when I purchased the car. Idk if there are loop holes to get out of that.

I doubt they will. The model 3 already has to pay for charging. They have under 250k cars on the road right now. They could have all new cars pay for it and be fine over time.

I believe some of the businesses these are around chip in for the cost as well
 

CMNTMXR57

GM, Holden & Chrysler Mini-Van nut swinger
Sep 12, 2008
26,148
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Elgin
As well as local government subsidizing. We have a ton of electric charging stations here, both in the garages as well as out in the visitor lot, and given our state of finances, I know we didn't pay to have all that infrastructure installed without a little palm greasing from either Springfield or Washington D.C.
 

Gone_2022

TCG Elite Member
Sep 4, 2013
13,094
7,525
could you have fully charged at the first station and skipped the second station all together, or would that have taken a lot more time?



Yes but it would have taken a lot more time. The general rule of thumb is to only charge as much as you need to reach the next supercharger. From like 5%-60% battery it charges super fast. I’m taking like 100 miles back in the pack in a matter of minutes. After that it slows down gradually as it reaches a higher state of charger. By the time you hit 90% charged it’s only going about 30kws per hour vs the 100kws it may have started with.

Unless you are sitting in one spot for a reason. Lunch/dinner etc. it’s best just to move on and follow the nav
 

10sec

I haz dat teddy bear smile.
TCG Premium
Jul 26, 2008
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This is awesome, but people are stubborn and don't like any inconveniences at all, so it will be a long time until it's accepted.

For example, a coworker of mine said "I'll buy one of those when they can go anywhere I want to go, like my GASOLINE car"

To which I replied, when is the last time you've driven more than 200 miles in one trip.

He has no answer, he's literally never driven that far as long as he can remember, yet old stubborn people "Doesn't matter, what IF I want to go, it'll never do it"

:picard: Whatever.
 
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