Five lessons from 2,400 miles of road trips with two Teslas

Above: Tesla Model S

Image Credit: Daniel Piraino via photopin


Think crossing the country to find the Californa Dream. Think Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. Think buddy movies.


More prosaically, think about driving 600 miles to visit friends or relatives, because flying would mean a connecting flight and TSA security theater–and there are no trains.

Battery electric cars make those kinds of road trips impossible, the spontaneity 10-minute refueling enabling hundreds, thousands of miles at a stretch.

Or do they?


Both were made possible by Tesla Motors’ ambitious plans to install a nationwide network of Supercharger DC quick-charging stations that work so far only with its Model S electric luxury sedan.

Both of our authors relied on Supercharger stations to give them free recharges of up to 80 percent capacity in 20 to 30 minutes. It’s a benefit unique to owning a Tesla Model S, as long as buyers equip their cars with Supercharger capability.



(1) It’s Superchargers or nothing; Level 2 charging isn’t adequate.





Temperate West Coast weather meant that George Parrott had to use his cabin heater less than David Noland on the East Coast. Heating is really the Achille’s Heel of today’s battery-electric cars, using lots of energy to warm a fairly large cabin through resistance heaters.


Moral: To stretch your trip, drive at 60 or 65 mph rather than 75 mph (where it’s safe and practical), and pack a parka if it’s cold.

The hills and headwinds you just have to accommodate.

(3) At a Supercharger location, amenities count.




Most Superchargers offer most of these, but it can be a challenge: West Coast road-tripper George Parrott notes that to reach the Woodburn Outlet Mall–where the Woodburn, Oregon, Supercharger is supposedly located–requires hiking a third of a mile through, among other things, the service area of a car dealership.

Considerably closer to those Superchargers are an Arby’s, an Elmer’s Restaurant, and a Starbucks, however, so the basics are covered. But for any road-trippers who might plan on a couple of hours of outlet shopping as a bonus, the challenge was greater than expected.


This was Noland’s painful discovery.


But his car has the smaller 60-kWh battery pack, and the margins were just too close–hence his need to top up at the Nissan dealers’ slow Level 2 charging stations.


Today’s Supercharger spacing does make us wonder, however, how practical they’ll be if Tesla is able to introduce its less expensive next model, in 2017, which is expected to offer about 200 miles of range.

(5) Even electric-car owners want to take road trips occasionally.


That’s largely true, but if you have a big, stylish, comfortable electric luxury car like the Tesla Model S, it’s a natural to want to use that car as much as possible–including for the occasional longer trip.



Leave us your thoughts in the comments below.

This story originally appeared on Green Car Reports.

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