Roadtrips in Tesla Model Y
This post is not about Musk, it's about Tesla.
I just finished my 3rd road trip of the year, with over 5000 miles driven up and down the East Coast. There is no other EV on the market that you can reliably take on a road trip. Rivian is coming the closest, yet only because of the Tesla super charger network.
The availability of the chargers is unparalleled and Tesla is a lot more aggressive about the speed of charging vs other manufacturers:
Model Y - 250kW
Rivian R1T - 180kW
Ford Mach-e - 160kW
On the most recent trip that spanned about 21 hours of driving, the total charging time was 3 hours. Google maps estimated it to be about a 9.5 hour trip each way in a gas vehicle and in my ICE vehicle it would require almost 2 tanks of gas to get to the destination. I think it is fair to say that optimistically, with stops for gas, restroom, and food would require about 45 minutes at minimum. It feels like a very optimistic estimate, but if using that as a baseline, driving an EV only added 90 minutes round trip. This is not bad at all!
The longest stop on the last trip was 52 minutes, which only was this long due to how busy the restaurant was. We charged up to 96% which is not what we would usually do on a trip. Usually you get to 65-75% and leave. And the shortest stops were 4 and 7 minutes.
In total, we stopped 10 times round trip with an average of 18 minutes per stop. The amount spent on superchargers was $114.35 cents.
If your road trip style is to drive non stop until the tank is empty - EVs are definitely not it. But that's also not an enjoyable approach to me. I appreciate taking a little stretch/break while the car is charging. It's a nice way to break down the drive, and it works out even better when you stop for a meal.