Tesla

Moving a "longish" post from Reddit in 2022 to Lemmy to preserve it. Going to remove the reddit content which they no longer deserve. Has some good details and charging stats doing a longish road trip in a MYP, might help others get over range anxiety. Added a few small updates here and there as well.

I (in 2022) finished a ~4,400km/2,700 mile round-trip from Vancouver, BC to Las Vegas, NV, and wanted to share a few thoughts on the whole experience.

The family was off with the kids to see the grandparents, so I thought it was the perfect time for a solo (post-Covid?!) road-trip to take the Model Y Performance for our first long trip together (it hasn’t been out of the country since I’ve bought it) and learn the ins-and-outs of EV road-tripping without the added stress of trying it for the first time with family.

All driving to now has been city driving with very short road-trips (a few hours) to see family. Nothing very long distance, and this was the first time since I've had the car (2 years) I've really needed supercharging as opposed to once just to try it out.

Charging times depend on supercharger capacity, weather conditions, and the number of other cars charging at the same time.

Vancouver to Vegas

• Vancouver (99%) to Federal Way, WA (24%), charged to 93% (39 min)

Going over the border caused the navigation system to lose connectivity for about 30 min as it switched from Canadian cell data to US. Seemed to confuse the car for a bit with regards to chargers to use, but it sorted itself out once data was back.

Border guards took longer than normal to clear me, but probably because it wasn’t busy so they were bored. I’ve got a Nexus card for expedited clearance.

• Woodburn, OR (13%), charged to 58% (34 min)
• Eugene, OR (15%), charged to 71% (27 min)
• Riddle, OR (21%), charged to 81% (27 min)
• Medford, OR (38%), stopped for the night
• Charged the next morning to 72% (29 min)

The Medford Starbucks was closed when I departed, tears were shed.

Going over the Siskiyou Summit was very dicey, windy and blowing snow. Sure glad I stopped in Medford overnight and didn't try and tackle this segment the previous night when it was blowing rain, snow, and dark.

• Mt Shasta, CA (17%), charged to 84% (37 min).

This Starbucks was open!

This section was a little stressful, still lots of snow on the road, and I had switched back to my Uberturbine 21" rims with performance tires, not the best fit for snow, so I was driving extra carefully. Very beautiful area to drive in though!

• Susanville, CA (17%), charged to 70% (18 min)
• Reno, NV (26%), charged to 79% (25 min)
• Hawthorne, NV (31%), charged to 86% (27 min)
• Tonopah, NV (36%), charged to 92% (25 min)
• Las Vegas (16%), charged to 58% (15 min)

Hotel, charged myself with food and drink to 100% after a crazy-long check-in line.

2169km, 410.2kWh used, 206Wh/km (net), 189Wh/km (gross). 21hrs 25 min in 2 days of driving. Maintained my safety rating of 99 throughout!

Returning to Canada

• Departing Vegas (83%), Beatty NV (13%), charged to 78% (29 min)
• Tonopah, NV (20%), charged to 68% (23 min)
• Hawthorne, NV (24%), charged to 80% (28 min)
• Reno, NA (30%), charged to 67% (20 min)
• Susanville, CA (26%), charged to 87% (30 min)
• Klamath falls, OR (16%), charged to 79% (33 min), stayed overnight
• Klamath falls morning top up to 83% (23min)

Very cold this morning, well below freezing, decided to get a good battery charge as there was a long run in the snowy mountains where charging wasn't available. This was probably the most anxious part of the trip, I didn't have a good roadside safety kit, or a flat repair kit, which would've left me in a tough state if I had a flat, or insufficient charge.

• Bend OR, (22%), charged to 97% (42 min)

This was a fun segment, lots of "mountain" driving with hills and curves which was a total blast in a Tesla.

• Yakima, WA 18%, charged to 60% (14 min)

• Leavenworth, WA (20%), charged to 52% (22 min), morning top up to 75% (30 min)

Nice town to say in, touristy, but comfy.

• Arlington, WA (11%), final charge to 63% (14 min)

Side trip to visit the Boeing Factory store to pick up more family gifts and replace a coffee mug the kids had broke.

• Home, Vancouver Canada (25%)

No border issues at all, though Canada Customs confiscated the warm sunny weather I returned to Vancouver with. We’re only allowed to have cold and rain up here it seems.

Total round-trip supercharging (including driving around in Vegas ) was $416.5 Cdn (~$332 USD). Still ½ the cost of a plane ticket when I searched it. May have been cheaper options I didn't see, wasn't concerned. This trip wasn't about money.

2243km, 432.8kWh, 202Wh/km (net), 193Wh/km (gross). 21hrs 59 min in 3 days of driving.

Still maintained safety rating of 99 throughout, even after almost a week of driving in Vegas!

No FSD beta release yet, still waiting for my Canada FSD Beta ticket to punch! [edit, 2023 got it now)

Closing remarks

• Its easy to forget what an amazingly large continent we live on until you drive even a small portion of it! Such a long drive and so much variety in the landscape!

• American roads are totally made for road-tripping. Mostly divided highways throughout WA down to CA. Highways from CA through to Vegas had lots of undivided highways where I did do more manual control with heavy traffic in the opposite direction.

• Autopilot sure made things easier, I did a 14 hour day of driving from Medford OR, to Las Vegas, and still had enough energy to stand in line for ~1 hour to get my hotel check-in because MGM’s mobile App sucks and didn’t work for “skipping the line”.

• I did put an air mattress and pillow in the back of the car, so I could lie down for a bit during charging breaks. Was handy.

• If (when?) I do this again, I’ll ensure I’m carrying at least a basic tire repair kit with the spray-sealant and basic survival kit (space blanket, stuff to make fire, rope, and so many knives!) if any part of the trip includes going through areas where the climate makes breaking-down extra-dangerous (for the record, I wasn’t worried about any faults with the car itself, but can never tell about tire damage, etc).

• A super-long road trip probably isn’t for a family like mine with 2 kids under 4 years, they’d probably be fine when they’re a bit older. Charging stops are great for getting out and shaking out the muscles, but watch for that weather. Oregon and Washington State were still cold!

• I did all of my charging planning through the onboard Nav system, which has a few charging blind-spots (particularly with regard to taking climate into account. Battery life is significantly reduced with cold weather, and to a lesser extent by wind, and the car should be able to plan for this, or offer an extra safety margin (it seems to shoot for ~20%, but there are times I’d like a bit more, especially if I had family with me).

• The onboard nav did have a few data outages coming back up through Oregon and into southern Washington state. Guess dead spots, or 3G only which didn't load? Think 3G is pretty much dead now?

• Can hear some bangs and thumps from the battery pack as it supercharges and discharges, especially with weather temperature changes.

• I did smell an “ethylene glycol” anti-freeze smell once or twice while charging but was unable to determine if it was from a gas station nearby, or my own car. There was no puddles/leaking underneath mine. I know the batteries are liquid-cooled, so perhaps it was just battery venting while supercharging?

• I drove the speed limit most of the time because getting an expensive speeding ticket in another country was not part of my vacation plan. If you live in the US, you might push a harder than I did.

• Charging time was about 2.5hrs per day each way while driving. Most of it coincided quite nicely with rest breaks, so none of it ever felt like it was excessive. In a few places I charged a little extra long past what Tesla recommended to give myself some extra margin, particularly with weather conditions not accounted-for in older software.

Thanks to Tesla and the Teslamate Docker (running on my unRAID server) for the stats!