Summer Road Trip

Alpine

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 24, 2022
Threads
40
Messages
415
Reaction score
862
Location
Tehaas
Vehicles
911
Country flag
The Drive
Our latest trip was to Florida from our home in north New Jersey. We drove our blue Tesla Model Y dubbed Elsa by our five-year-old daughter. It has an EPA range of 326 miles and has an average efficiency of 300 Wh/mile. My family consists of my two-year-old son, my five-year-old daughter, and our chihuahua (another benefit of driving is we don’t need to pay for a petsitter) along with my wife and me. We’re based in Bloomfield, New Jeresey, which is about a 30 minute drive from Manhattan.

Tesla Cybertruck Summer Road Trip {filename}
We left home at 7 a.m. — early enough to get a long day of driving in but not much earlier than we normally wake up so we aren’t overly tired. I put our destination in the Tesla navigation along with a stop at our hotel in Yamasse, South Carolina, and the car told me exactly where to charge and for how long. The first leg of the trip was to Baltimore. We charged the car to 90 percent (the highest recommended state of charge to maintain a healthy battery) and hit the road! The first leg is one of the longest since you have a full battery and this one took exactly 3 hours.

We arrived at the Baltimore Boston Street Supercharger at 10 a.m. with 19 percent state of charge (SOC) and plugged in. This stop was longer than normal since in addition to the usual bathroom breaks and diaper change we also had to go to Target to buy some things that we forgot (oops). Thankfully this location was right by a Target, a grocery store, and a mall. There were good food options too — Shake Shack, CAVA, and Chick-fil-a but this wasn’t a food stop for us. Since we were slow the car was ready to go well before we were and actually charged all the way back to 90 percent by the time we left at 10:38 a.m.

Electric Vehicle Market Share by Automaker
AutomakerQ1 2021Q2 2021Q3 2021Q4 2021Q1 2022Q2 2022
Tesla69,30076,23075,509115,248129,743130,047
Ford6,6146,3615,8808,2856,73415,273
General Motors9,02511,2634,515264577,217
Nissan2,9254,8042,3454,1654,3713,251
Volkswagen Group6,80511,6758,3579,0817,9328,961
Hyundai-Kia2,8294,4015,9215,24615,48017,979
Mercedes-Benz0004432,0911,959
BMW3405114261991,1711,082
Stellantis000000
Volvo/Polestar4352,1532,4302,9863,0924,518
Rivian0009201,2274,467
Lucid000125460482
Total US EV sales98,832118,233106,562147,799173,561196,788
Source: Yaa Electric Vehicle Sales and Market Share (US – Updated Monthly)

Since we had another full battery the navigation re-routed us to a charger farther away. My wife and I switched places and she drove us to our next stop in Petersburg, Virginia, at a Sheetz. We hit some traffic so this leg took just over four hours including a stop at McDonalds to pickup lunch for the kids (they get it once a trip!). Unlike an internal combustion car an electric car doesn’t waste energy on the drivetrain while sitting still since the motors only use electricity when you are accelerating so traffic doesn’t cause issues with range (of course you do use electricity to run the HVAC system and the infotainment system). We arrived at 2:39 p.m. with 15 percent SOC. The wife and I grabbed a salad at Sheetz and we ate quickly to get back on the road. We left at 3:10 p.m. with 83 percent SOC.

Tesla Cybertruck Summer Road Trip {filename}
I drive us to our next stop in Smithfield, North Carolina where we arrived at 5:10 p.m. with 27 percent. It was another Sheetz so we decided to wait until the next stop to eat dinner. We did a quick “pit stop” — I change the two-year-old’s diaper and walk the dog while my wife takes our daughter to the bathroom, then we switch places. We got back on the road at 5:32 p.m. with 75 percent SOC.

Just one more stop in Florence, South Carolina, before our overnight stay. There was a Chipotle close by but too far to walk to so we ordered ahead using their mobile app and picked up our food on the way (we used their bathroom as well). This stop was at a mall with great up front parking — I feel guilty when the Superchargers use good parking spots and there was a Tesla parked there not charging taking advantage of them — not a good look. We arrived with 21 percent and charged to 75 percent while we ate. I booked our hotel on hotels.com and we left at 8:11 p.m.

Tesla Cybertruck Summer Road Trip {filename}
One “hack” in electric car road-tripping is finding hotels with destination chargers. Some hotels install level 2 charges that are often free to use if you stay at the hotel. At the moment it’s a great perk and gets people through the door but in the future hotels will be able to use these as ancillary revenue and in essence become energy providers. I consider myself lucky in that I have never encountered a charger that was broken, in-use, or worse — blocked by a car that isn’t charging. Seeing as this is a a risk I always find a hotel with both a destination charger and a close-by Supercharger just in case. With a recent update hotels.com added a filter to find hotels with an EV charger which helps significantly particularly since I am also looking for a hotel that allows pets. I use both the Plugshare app (a crowd sourced app with the goal to show every charger in the world) to find a destination charger close to a Supercharger and hotels.com to see if they accept pets. I usually find two hotels so we have options if we need to stop early or if one hotel is booked for the night.

Tesla Cybertruck Summer Road Trip {filename}
We arrived at our hotel — a Best Western in Yamasse, South Carolina — at 10:18 p.m. with 24 percent SOC. The hotel has three plugs — two Tesla and one J1772. To my surprise none of them were in-use and nobody was parked there. We plugged in and started charging at 7kW which is enough to get a full charge overnight.

We woke up at 6 a.m., ate the free breakfast at the hotel and were on the road at 6:45 a.m. My daughter is a continental breakfast connoisseur and was pleased with the frankly sub-par breakfast. We try to structure our two-day trips so we do the majority of the driving on day one and arrive at our destination in the early afternoon. Only two stops today!

Tesla Cybertruck Summer Road Trip {filename}
We arrived at the first stop in Kingsland, Georgia, at 9:28 a.m. with 29 percent after a stop at Starbucks and charged for 17 minutes to 68 percent. This charger was at a very strange location — a police station with a hotel across the street. My son had a blast looking at all the police cars but we chose to use the hotel for our bathroom break. This brings up the topic of bathrooms at the chargers — you are at the mercy of the location to provide a bathroom and if the location is closed there is no bathroom available. This isn’t usually an issue but there was one time we charged at 2 a.m. and the gas station was closed. We only had 1 percent battery remaining and were in the middle of the Poconos and the only other option was a Wendy’s which was also closed — this was the only mistake I’ve made road-tripping in an electric car.

Tesla Cybertruck Summer Road Trip {filename}
We left Kingsland at 9:45 a.m. en route to our final charge in Ocala, Florida. This leg includes our first freeway change of the entire trip (you take I-95 all the way from New Jersey to Tallahassee) and annoyingly the majority of this leg is on a county road with constant slow-downs and traffic lights. Despite this we arrived in Ocalla, Florida, at 11:58 a.m. with 13 percent SOC. This was our lunch stop at a Wawa so we ordered curb-side in their app and the food was delivered to the charger. We ate at the picnic tables and took some time here — we wanted to arrive at my Mom’s house with some battery left so we didn’t have to immediately find a charger. We charged all the way up to 90 percent and hit the road for our final leg. We arrived at my Mom’s house in Brandon, Florida, at 2:10 p.m. with 55 percent SOC. The kids were in the pool before we finished unpacking the car.

When we arrive at our destination people usually ask if we’re tired from the drive and our response is always no. Our car has Tesla’s Enhanced Autopilot which is designed to be self-driving from freeway on-ramp to off-ramp and while you do need to be alert with your hands on the wheel the whole time it requires significantly less mental energy and you arrive less tired.

Tesla Cybertruck Summer Road Trip {filename}
At the Destination
Usually when owning an electric car you don’t think about battery level. Ever. Most owners install a level 2 charger at their home which can delivery between 5 and 12 kW of power depending on your home and what’s available in the electrical panel. When we bought our Tesla we had a 7 kW charger installed in my 1931 Colonial which is more than enough — at 7 kW it takes about 8 hours to get a full charge. The only time you think about your battery level is when you need to go somewhere that exceeds your range. That sounds daunting but the car knows how far it can go and with the extensive Supercharger network the navigation will automatically route you to a charger if necessary.

Of course there is electricity everywhere and even if a plug is not intended for a car you can still charge if you have the right plug. I’m a planner (and a worrier) so I travel with the full Tesla NEMA adaptor bundle which allows me to plug into almost any plug in North America. At my mom’s house I plugged into two different outlets — for most of the trip I charged on a standard level 1 household outlet (you know, the one you use to charge your iPhone). These plugs are painfully slow with charging time is measured in days, not hours but since we were going to spend most of our time at my mom’s house this was enough most of the trip. Another great place to plug in is the clothes drier outlet — as long as the drier is electric and not gas it will have a 240v outlet and at least 30amps. This is level 2 territory and my mom’s drier is within reach of the garage. I plugged in there a couple times and was able to pull 5.5 kW which is a huge improvement over the level 1 outlet which only supplies 1.4 kW.

Tesla Cybertruck Summer Road Trip {filename}
We went on two day trips that required a full battery. The first was a date night to Anna Maria Island for the night. My mom recommended a restaurant on the beach and there just happened to be a free level 2 charger close by at a little boutique. We stopped in partially out of respect for the free charge and ended up buying a gift for my mom — turns out the building runs on solar and is carbon neutral. We walked the half mile to lunch and gained 12 kWh (about 15 percent) for free.

After lunch we headed to our Airbnb in Bradenton, just over the bridge from Anna Maria on the mainland. The garage at the Airbnb had two clothes driers with the perfect power to charge but I didn’t use them. In my opinion this falls into a grey area ethically — the owner didn’t say I couldn’t use them to charge but it’s also not listed as an amenity for this particular Airbnb. I did recommend in my review to add this as an amenity for future EV owners as a typical charge would only cost the property owner around $5 in electricity it’s a great way to stand out among the other listings.

Tesla Cybertruck Summer Road Trip {filename}
The second trip was a day at Disney World. Tampa to Orlando would use about 30 percent of the battery so we would have enough to drive there and back but since the car will be sitting in the hot sun for 8 hours running the security system and cabin overheat protection it would be close. We could stop at one of the many Supercharges along the route home but better yet Disney has EV chargers and they’re conveniently located among the handicap spots for close parking. These chargers aren’t free but they’re reasonably priced at $0.30 / kWh which is about double what I pay at home but less than most Tesla Superchargers. The only catch is a $5 / hour idle fee if your car finishes charging and doesn’t unplug. I knew roughly how long we would be there (5 year olds only last so long in the heat) so I throttled the amperage the car was pulling with the Tesla app and set it to take about 8 hours. Thankfully after a fun day we arrived to a fully charged car for about $7 (no idle fees for me!).

During the trip we drove our car exclusively since it has seven seats and moving carseats is a pain. We never had to use the Supercharger in-town, the outlets at my Mom’s house were sufficient. We had a great trip but as it came to an end we plugged into the drier outlet one last time to get a full charge before heading home.

Tesla Cybertruck Summer Road Trip {filename}
The Drive Home
When we leave to go home we wait until after lunch, drive until around midnight, sleep somewhere, and arrive home around dinner. We left at 1 p.m. and stopped to pickup salads for dinner at a place we liked while we were there. One of the complaints my wife and I have while road-tripping is the lack of healthy food options so we plan ahead and bring food when possible, we have a car fridge in the trunk filled with food and drinks.

The drive home was more or less the same as the way down. We found a great hotel with a destination charger and a Supercharger in their parking lot that allows pets. We drove until 12:12 a.m. the first day and arrived home at 5:25 p.m. the following day. Day two was the first time we have traveled on a holiday (Labor day) which worried me slightly. I have seen the photos of lines at Superchargers in California but thankfully I have never experienced this driving on the eastern half of the U.S.

Tesla Cybertruck Summer Road Trip {filename}
Takeaways
Tesla makes this experience very easy — you just follow what the car says and you won’t have any issues with range. This is one of the biggest reasons to buy a Tesla over another electric car — Tesla’s charging infrastructure is years ahead of their competition. It’s also a relatively inexpensive way to travel. We had 1,000 miles in Supercharger credits from the new car which got us to FL for free but even without those it would not have been expensive, it would have cost $180 in electricity round-trip. An equivalent gas vehicle would cost around $260 in gas for the same journey (based off 35 mpg and $4 / gallon).

Despite Tesla mass producing cars for over 10 years, I still consider us in the early days of electric car travel and I don’t believe free chargers at hotels and businesses will exist long-term. The change is accelerating and I expect the infrastructure will look very different in the next five years focusing on building from the ground up rather than adding chargers to existing gas stations. At the moment the Superchargers are usually shoved to the back of parking lots sometimes requiring long walks to bathrooms. Soon they will be a full parking lot of 50-plus chargers with dedicated cafes and bathrooms.

Tesla Cybertruck Summer Road Trip {filename}
The amenities are inconsistent — some chargers have tables and garbage cans, some have nothing — and there often isn’t grass or shade to have a picnic. These are just small annoyances that don’t ruin the experience overall. The important note is I have never once been worried about running out of battery or worried that a Supercharger will be broken — something that is unfortunately not the case for other charging networks. This is critical — even a 90 percent up-time is not enough, it needs to be close to 100 percent like Tesla.

The Charging Data
LocationArrival timeDeparture timeCharging timeArrival SOCDeparture SOCkWh gainCost
Bloomfield, NJ–7:00 AM–90%–
Baltimore, MD10:00 AM10:38 AM38m19%90%58.22$15.14
Petersburg, VA2:39 PM3:10 PM31m15%83%55.76$18.96
Smithfield, NC5:10 PM5:32 PM22m27%75%39.36$17.32
Florence, SC7:46 PM8:11 PM25m21%72%41.82$9.96
Yamasse, SC10:18 PM6:45 AM–24%90%54.12$0.00
Kingsland, GA9:28 AM9:45 AM17m29%68%31.98$6.40
Ocala, FL11:58 AM12:42 PM44m13%90%63.14$26.52
Brandon, FL2:10 PM––55%–––
One-way total177m344.4$94.30
Brandon, FL–1:15 PM––81%––
Ocala, FL2:49 PM3:12 PM23m49%85%29.52$12.40
Brunswick, GA5:55 PM6:25 PM30m19%83%52.48$15.00
Santee, SC8:52 PM9:25 PM33m14%75%50.02$17.60
Fayetteville, NC11:32 PM11:40 PM8m15%32%13.94$4.76
Benson, NC12:12 AM7:00 AM20%90%57.4$0.00
Halifax, NC8:38 AM8:55 AM17m55%80%20.5$9.24
Woodbridge, VA11:52 AM12:27 PM35m20%52%26.24$7.80
Aberdeen, MD2:08 PM2:36 PM28m24%73%40.18$18.00
Bloomfield, NJ5:25 PM––22%–––
One-way total174m290.28$84.80
Round trip total351m27m634.68$179.10
EDITOR’S NOTE: Mike Linden is the senior engineering manager of Skift
Sponsored

 

CyberGus

Well-known member
First Name
Gus
Joined
May 22, 2021
Threads
69
Messages
6,010
Reaction score
19,726
Location
Austin, TX
Website
www.timeanddate.com
Vehicles
1981 DeLorean, 2024 Cybertruck
Occupation
IT Specialist
Country flag

CyberGus

Well-known member
First Name
Gus
Joined
May 22, 2021
Threads
69
Messages
6,010
Reaction score
19,726
Location
Austin, TX
Website
www.timeanddate.com
Vehicles
1981 DeLorean, 2024 Cybertruck
Occupation
IT Specialist
Country flag
"We charged the car to 90 percent (the highest recommended state of charge to maintain a healthy battery) and hit the road!"

BTW, this is inaccurate, and I'm getting sick of seeing misinformation repeated.
 
OP
OP
Alpine

Alpine

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 24, 2022
Threads
40
Messages
415
Reaction score
862
Location
Tehaas
Vehicles
911
Country flag


Crissa

Well-known member
First Name
Crissa
Joined
Jul 8, 2020
Threads
127
Messages
16,619
Reaction score
27,680
Location
Santa Cruz
Vehicles
2014 Zero S, 2013 Mazda 3
Country flag
Thank you. I didn't think to put the link.

To a first time EV owner, i found this very helpful. If there are inaccuracies, please divulge.
That's it. The only reason you don't charge above 80% while road tripping is because the speed of charging slows down. Every percent you're charging while the speed is lowered is time you could have spent getting to the next charger.

On a day to day basis, if you have a NMC battery, keeping it as close to 60% as possible lengthens its lifetime. It's also more about 'amount of time' spent at 100% or 0% than charging to that point. If you charge it full then use it immediately, that's better than leaving it at that charge.

However... the amount of lifetime that adds is nearly nothing compared to the average lifetime of a car.

Most Teslas now use NCA or LFP batteries... We don't have good data on what's good for the NCA batteries, since their lifetimes are so long. And the LFP batteries seem to not care about sitting around at 100% at all. So the advice may be irrelevant to those.

-Crissa
 

CyberGus

Well-known member
First Name
Gus
Joined
May 22, 2021
Threads
69
Messages
6,010
Reaction score
19,726
Location
Austin, TX
Website
www.timeanddate.com
Vehicles
1981 DeLorean, 2024 Cybertruck
Occupation
IT Specialist
Country flag
Thank you. I didn't think to put the link.

To a first time EV owner, i found this very helpful. If there are inaccuracies, please divulge.
Lithium batteries will degrade (lose range) with use, that is inevitable. However, the rate of degradation will increase as you get closer to to a full charge; the most stress is induced by charging to 100% and then leaving it unused, particularly in higher ambient temperatures.

Of course, as Crissa pointed out, the advice varies with the specific chemistry. The high-iron "LiPo" cells seem to like 100% State of Charge (SoC).

The Cybertruck will have high-nickel cathodes, so you'll want to keep the SoC between 20% to 80% as much as possible. But if you need the extra range, it's fine to periodically charge to 100%.

For the most part, just drive and enjoy. Even if you intentionally adopt the worst habits, the battery will still have plenty of range for many years. I'm just annoyed by the article's insinuation that charging above 90% is "unhealthy". Just follow the manufacturer's recommendations and you'll be fine.
 

Crissa

Well-known member
First Name
Crissa
Joined
Jul 8, 2020
Threads
127
Messages
16,619
Reaction score
27,680
Location
Santa Cruz
Vehicles
2014 Zero S, 2013 Mazda 3
Country flag
Yeah, and most EVs have their battery capacity intentionally capped. My motorcycle, for instance, says it has 8.5kW worth of NMC cells... But it's only set up to use about 80% of that. So leaving it at 100% isn't really at 100%.

Every manufacturer is different, and most obscure the actual size of the battery. Tesla sells you a range, not a battery capacity. It just happens that they run conservative in the display, as well.

So it's 'healthy' to use that full 100%.

-Crissa
 

charliemagpie

Well-known member
First Name
Charlie
Joined
Jul 6, 2021
Threads
42
Messages
2,906
Reaction score
5,159
Location
Australia
Vehicles
CybrBEAST
Occupation
retired
Country flag
The article didn't state that he got divorced.

Before departing, he thought his wife said: you take the Leaf or Elsa.
 

Jhodgesatmb

Well-known member
First Name
Jack
Joined
Dec 1, 2019
Threads
66
Messages
5,119
Reaction score
7,347
Location
San Francisco Bay area
Website
www.arbor-studios.com
Vehicles
Tesla Model Y LR, Tesla Model 3 LR
Occupation
Retired AI researcher
Country flag
W
"We charged the car to 90 percent (the highest recommended state of charge to maintain a healthy battery) and hit the road!"

BTW, this is inaccurate, and I'm getting sick of seeing misinformation repeated.
We are currently on a road trip in Yosemite and I have been charging to 90% every night because I am a little paranoid about driving into Yosemite Valley (from Oakhurst). But I shouldn’t be because we have driven down 3 days now and always return with 150 miles left.

I am a bit upset about the SOC. As you may recall, we got our Model Y in March but it is now showing 280 miles at 90% instead of 300. My wife’s 2019 Model 3 now shows 250 miles at 80% and should be 270 or thereabouts. Maybe I’ll go over to Tesla when we get back and rattle their chains about this.

yosemite has been great by the way!
 


CyberT

Well-known member
Joined
May 18, 2020
Threads
5
Messages
336
Reaction score
818
Location
Orange County, CA
Vehicles
2018 Model 3 LR RWD
Occupation
Service Technician
Country flag
Wow, you told me not to read the comments, so that is exactly what I did.....

I read one comment way down the list, this was his reason why EVs are bad....

"Most gas stations are also convenience stores with limited parking. Their business model is similar to a restaurant. They need the constant flow of customers to be profitable. If they have electric vehicles tying up their parking, it cuts down on their customer flow, kind of like customers tying up a table long after they finish their meal. "

This is the reason why we shouldn't switch to EVs???? HAHAHAHAHA
 

Sirfun

Well-known member
First Name
Joe
Joined
Dec 28, 2019
Threads
55
Messages
2,389
Reaction score
4,876
Location
Oxnard, California
Vehicles
Toyota Avalon, Chrysler Pacifica PHEV, Ford E-250
Occupation
Retired Sheet Metal Worker
Country flag
W

We are currently on a road trip in Yosemite and I have been charging to 90% every night because I am a little paranoid about driving into Yosemite Valley (from Oakhurst). But I shouldn’t be because we have driven down 3 days now and always return with 150 miles left.

I am a bit upset about the SOC. As you may recall, we got our Model Y in March but it is now showing 280 miles at 90% instead of 300. My wife’s 2019 Model 3 now shows 250 miles at 80% and should be 270 or thereabouts. Maybe I’ll go over to Tesla when we get back and rattle their chains about this.

yosemite has been great by the way!
We went there in June, and really enjoyed the whole trip. Bass Lake is near Oakhurst, and it's beautiful too.
BTW. Do you think the range you are talking about is projected range. That can be based on prior driving.
Tesla Cybertruck Summer Road Trip basspano2
 
Last edited:

Jhodgesatmb

Well-known member
First Name
Jack
Joined
Dec 1, 2019
Threads
66
Messages
5,119
Reaction score
7,347
Location
San Francisco Bay area
Website
www.arbor-studios.com
Vehicles
Tesla Model Y LR, Tesla Model 3 LR
Occupation
Retired AI researcher
Country flag
We went there in June, and really enjoyed the whole trip. Bass Lake is near Oakhurst, and it's beautiful too.
BTW. Do you think the range you are talking about is projected range. That can be based on prior driving.
Tesla Cybertruck Summer Road Trip {filename}
We are staying at Bass Lake and just came back from a walk along its shores. We went to Duceys last night and liked it a lot. Today we are chilling because it is supposed to be raining harder in the valley and I have to scope out our next hike.

with the estimated mileage I just go by what it says on the display. We are charging in Oakhurst (to 250) and when we get back we are at 150, so the round trip into the valley and back is 100 on the display. Not bad at all. The first day we found an empty spot at the 2 Ahwahnee chargers (hosted by Rivian) and charged there while we visited the hotel. Got back the miles we needed to get back to the park entrance and then some.
 

CyberGus

Well-known member
First Name
Gus
Joined
May 22, 2021
Threads
69
Messages
6,010
Reaction score
19,726
Location
Austin, TX
Website
www.timeanddate.com
Vehicles
1981 DeLorean, 2024 Cybertruck
Occupation
IT Specialist
Country flag
I am a bit upset about the SOC. As you may recall, we got our Model Y in March but it is now showing 280 miles at 90% instead of 300. My wife’s 2019 Model 3 now shows 250 miles at 80% and should be 270 or thereabouts. Maybe I’ll go over to Tesla when we get back and rattle their chains about this.
Since you've got a year or more to wait for your Cybertruck, you have plenty of time to read this megathread over on TMC:

https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/thr...ciency-how-to-maintain-battery-health.166549/
 

JBee

Well-known member
First Name
JB
Joined
Nov 22, 2019
Threads
18
Messages
4,772
Reaction score
6,147
Location
Australia
Vehicles
Cybertruck
Occupation
. Professional Hobbyist
Country flag
Don't forget large changes it state of charge also reduce cycle life. You can get 3x the cycle life (charge-discharge cycles) if you limit your cycling to 15-80% DoD of the battery capacity. Also rate of discharge is also a factor.

Tesla Cybertruck Summer Road Trip images (4)


Think of a battery like a rubber band.
Sponsored

 
 




Top