A Tesla Model 3 Road Trip

by Roderick W. Smith, rodsmith@rodsbooks.com

Originally written: June 10, 2019; last Web page update: December 11, 2019

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Introduction

This page exists to document my experiences driving a long-distance (1831 miles, round trip) road trip in a Long Range (LR) Rear-Wheel Drive (RWD) Tesla Model 3. Many people who are new to electric vehicles (EVs) have qualms about the vehicles' ability to handle such trips. In some cases, those reservations are well justified. In other cases, though, an EV can handle road trips just fine. Having done it once in my Tesla, I can say with certainty that my Model 3, with an official EPA range of 325 miles, falls into the latter category, at least for me.

Before proceeding further, some caveats are in order. For one thing, I'm a relatively new EV owner. Although I leased a Chevy Volt before buying my Tesla Model 3, the Volt is a plug-in hybrid, so I could drive it on road trips much like any other gas-powered car. Thus, my experience with full EV ownership, and especially driving road trips in an EV, is still quite limited. Most importantly, my road trip covered several eastern states of the United States; but some Californian Superchargers are much more crowded, which would impact their availability there. Superchargers are also rare to nonexistent in some areas, with North Dakota being a big gap in the continental United States, although Tesla claims several sites are planned to open in that state soon. Also, my road trip occurred in late May of 2019. EVs aren't as efficient in cold weather, which would impact the charging speed and driving energy efficiency. Another caveat is that my car is an LR RWD Tesla Model 3 with the 18-inch aero wheels. This configuration has a theoretical range of 325 miles, which is the longest-range Model 3. Like all Teslas, it can use Tesla's Supercharger network, which makes it one of the best EVs (perhaps the best EV) for driving a road trip like mine. Few non-Tesla EVs will work as well for road trips, although some may be adequate, as I describe near the end of this page.

Before proceeding further, it's worth reviewing some terminology. If you're already familiar with EVs and the terms used to describe them and their charging infrastructure, feel free to skip this section.

• Electric vehicle (EV) — As used here, this term refers to a fully electric vehicle, such as a Tesla, Nissan Leaf, or Chevy Bolt. Full EVs like this are also sometimes called battery electric vehicles (BEVs).
• Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) — This type of vehicle has both a gas engine and an electric drivetrain, including a plug for charging the car. Such cars can typically travel 20–55 miles on electricity, often with limitations regarding speed and temperature. A PHEV can be driven on a road trip just like other ICE vehicles, so this page isn't really relevant to them. Examples include the Chevy Volt, Toyota Prius Prime, and Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid.
• Internal combustion engine (ICE) — This term refers to a conventional gasoline or diesel engine, such as those that power most cars on the road today. On this page, I use "ICE vehicle" and "gas vehicle" (or similar terms) more-or-less interchangeably, but diesel-powered cars have all the same characteristics as gas cars, at this page's level of analysis.
• Power (kW) — In electrical terms, power refers to the rate of flow of electricity from one location (such as an EVSE or DC fast charger) to another (such as a car). The unit most often used for this in the EV world is the kilowatt (kW). A gasoline equivalent might be gallons per minute. As a general rule, charging equipment capable of delivering higher power is better than equipment that delivers lower power, at least in the context of a road trip.
• Energy (kWh) — Energy is how much electricity is stored, or how much has been transferred in a given period of time. It's the equivalent of gallons of gasoline. The unit in the context of EVs is kilowatt-hours (kWh). Note that the "hour" unit of time in this measurement is reversed from what you might be familiar with in measures such as miles per hour (mph) or gallons per minute (gpm). Both kW and gpm are instantaneous measures, whereas kWh and gallons are measures of capacity. Because of the way they're defined, though, the time unit is a part of the name of kWh, denoting the multiplication of kW over time; but the time unit denotes the division of gallons in gpm (or of miles in mph). This difference in placement of the time name can be confusing if you're not already familiar with electrical power and energy measurements.
• EVSE — This term is an acronym for electric vehicle supply equipment, which is a device that draws on AC power and delivers it to the car. An EVSE typically charges a car at 10kW or less, although some exceed that speed. Broadly speaking, there are two types of EVSEs:
  • Level 1 — A Level 1 EVSE delivers 120v current, typically from a wall outlet, at about 1.4kW. Such EVSEs are painfully slow; a full charge of a ~300-mile EV would take days on such a device.
  • Level 2 — A Level 2 EVSE delivers 200–240v of current, typically at a higher amperage than a Level 1 EVSE, resulting in 3–10kW operation, and so can fully charge most EVs overnight.
  EVSEs also vary in their connector types. Most use the J1772 standard, but Tesla uses its own connector. Tesla provides an adapter so that Tesla EVs can charge on J1772 EVSEs.
• DC fast charger — These devices charge an EV at maximum rates of 20–350kW, which is fast enough to charge an EV from near-empty to 80% in between a few minutes and an hour or two. Cars typically taper their charge rate to reduce heat buildup that can damage the bettery; when the battery is close to depleted, the charge rate is high, but it drops as the state of charge increases. Thus, most owners do not fully charge their vehicles at DC fast chargers; instead, they charge as much as is needed or convenient and then move on. DC fast chargers are sometimes referred to as Level 3 chargers, but that's not technically correct. Three incompatible DC fast charger standards are common in North America....
• Supercharger — This is Tesla's variety of DC fast charger. The version 2 (v2) Superchargers that dominate today can deliver 72kW (for urban Superchargers often found in parking garages) to 150kW (for those found along travel routes). Tesla is beginning to deploy v3 Superchargers, which are capable of delivering 250kW of power. Tesla owns the Supercharger network. A pair of sub-terms are relevant, too:
  • Stall — A Supercharger stall is a parking spot and associated hardware capable of charging a single Tesla EV.
  • Station — A Supercharger station (or a site) is a map location at which Supercharger stalls are located. Most Supercharger stations hold at least six stalls. As of December 11, 2019, Tesla claims to operate 1,636 stations worldwide with 14,497 stalls, for an average of more than 8 stalls per station.
• Combined Charging System (CCS) — This is a variety of DC fast charger that's used by all North American and European manufacturers except Tesla; and also by Hyundai and Kia in their latest models. CCS can theoretically deliver up to 350kW of power, but most deployed units are limited to 25kW or 50kW. Many of those currently being deployed are capable of 150kW, but most current CCS vehicles are limited to 50kW or 75kW. Most CCS stations are owned by third-party networks such as ChargePoint, EVgo, and Electrify America, not by automakers, although some are installed at car dealerships. There are incompatible European and North American variants of CCS.
• CHAdeMO — This is a DC fast charging system used by Japanese automakers (which means, basically, the Nissan Leaf at the moment). Kia and Hyundai used to use CHAdeMO, but have recently switched to CCS. The latest version of CHAdeMO is theoretically capable of delivering up to 400kW, but most currently-deployed stations and cars are limited to 50kW. The same networks that provide CCS stations also provide CHAdeMO stations, often at the same locations.

For the most part, DC fast charging standards are incompatible — for instance, you can't charge a Chevy Bolt (which uses CCS) on a CHAdeMO or Tesla DC fast charger. There are some exceptions, though. In Europe, Tesla is converting to the European version of CCS. European Model 3s are delivered with the European variant of CCS, Tesla is planning to release a European CCS adapter for their Model S and X, and new European Superchargers have both Tesla and CCS plugs. (Many Tesla owners hope Tesla will release a North American variant of their CCS adapter, but to the best of my knowledge, Tesla has announced no plans to do so.) Tesla also makes a CHAdeMO adapter to enable Teslas to charge on CHAdeMO equipment; however, this adapter is expensive ($450), at it tops out at 50kW.

Tesla developed its Supercharger network explicitly to enable inter-city travel. The CCS and CHAdeMO networks, by contrast, have been developed in a more haphazard manner, and initially with the intent of providing owners of relatively short-range (ca. 100 miles) EVs a means to get a quick boost if they needed a bit more range in a long day of local driving. Thus, CCS and CHAdeMO aren't as well-suited to inter-city travel. That said, Tesla is now deploying more urban Superchargers, and the CCS and CHAdeMO networks are expanding to better support inter-city travel. Enabling such travel is one of the goals of Electrify America.

Figure 1: A road trip from Woonsocket RI, to Oberlin OH, to Cincinnati OH, and back to Woonsocket RI. This map, from A Better Route Planner, shows Tesla Superchargers along the route, with ones in red being the recommended stops. The leg in red allegedly requires a maximum speed of 68 mph to arrive with over 10% charge; but I arrived with 25% charge, so A Better Route Planner was very conservative on that leg.

The purpose of my trip was two-fold: To attend an Oberlin College alumni reunion in northern Ohio; and to visit my sister in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thus, my trip involved three legs: From my house in Woonsocket, RI to Oberlin, OH (664 miles); Oberlin, OH to Cincinnati, OH (219 miles); and Cincinnati, OH to Woonsocket, RI (837 miles). The theoretical trip distance is therefore 1720 miles; but I did some driving at each of the major stops, plus took some wrong turns, which turned the trip into an 1831-mile journey. The overall trip is shown in Figure 1.

The year 2019 is still fairly early days in the EV world, so EV owners are well-advised to do some planning before embarking on a road trip like mine. As I do trips to Oberlin and Cincinnati fairly often, I did this planning before even buying my Model 3, so I was confident that the car would be able to handle the task. Challenges that can face EV owners, but that are rare for ICE cars, include:

• A scarcity of chargers — When driving beyond the car's rated range, you probably want to use one or more DC fast chargers. Tesla's Superchargers are placed with an eye to enabling inter-city travel, covering most of the continental United States and Europe, and with a growing presence filling gaps and less-developed markets. There are still some gaps in Tesla's Supercharger network, though; and there are bigger gaps in CCS and CHAdeMO coverage. The importance of a gap depends on the specific car's range.
• Slow car DC fast charge rate — DC fast charge speed is determined by both the car's capabilities and those of the DC fast charger into which it's plugged. Tesla's long-range Model 3 can handle up to 250kW, but many other cars (including current versions of Tesla's Model S and Model X, the SR, SR+, and MR versions of the Model 3, and most non-Tesla vehicles available in 2019) are more limited, with top speeds of between 50kW and 200kW. Typically, a car's maximum DC fast charge rate is limited by hardware factors such as the thickness of wires in the charging system, so it's not easily upgraded, although there are some limited exceptions to this rule. Fortunately, both Tesla and other manufacturers are increasing their cars' maximum DC fast charge speeds with each new model, so EVs introduced in the next few years will likely charge plenty fast enough for most people.
• Slow DC fast charger speed — Not all DC fast chargers are created equal. Tesla's Superchargers are among the fastest, with speeds ranging up to 150kW. (The version 3, or v3, Superchargers are beginning to be deployed, with speeds of up to 250kW.) The CHAdeMO and CCS DC fast chargers used by other manufacturers mostly top out at 50kW, but some units are rated for 100kW or more. (Most Electrify America stations provide CCS units capable of delivering 150kW and/or 350kW.) CCS can theoretically handle up to 350kW, and CHAdeMO may eventually provide up to 400kW, but few or no units that can deliver those speeds have yet been deployed in North America. In all cases, those are top speeds; in practice, a car with a nearly-depleted battery will charge at or close to the minimum of the car's and the DC fast charger's top speed, then ramp down depending on the car's abilities. In some cases, particularly with Teslas, the speed may be limited by pairing; Tesla links its two adjacent charger stalls, with a maximum of 150kW per stall. Thus, if a site is over half full, you're likely to begin your charge session at a reduced rate of charge speed, since you'll be sharing that 150kW with a neighboring car. As network operators deploy new and better stations, existing cars can benefit from increased speed if the cars are capable of handling it. For instance, as 100kW and faster CCS chargers become more common, cars like the Hyundai Kona, which can handle about 75kW, will charge faster than they would at older 50kW stations.
• Occupied or broken hardware — Because even DC fast charging is slower than filling a gas tank, waiting for a charging stall to open up can take a while, if all the stalls at a station are occupied. This phenomenon is rare for Teslas except at a few sites in California, since Tesla typically builds half a dozen or more stalls per station. With CCS or CHAdeMO vehicles, you might be more likely to wait, since the networks that deploy these DC fast chargers often build just one or two stalls per site. Similarly, if a DC fast charger is broken, you may be significantly delayed as you re-route or make do with a slower charging option.
• Degraded range — Factors such as the weather (especially cold) and driving uphill can significantly reduce the range of any vehicle, but this is especially true of EVs. If you don't take this effect into account, you may be in for an unpleasant surprise. Contrary to common concern, most EVs' batteries last for many years before they become significantly degraded, but even a modest amount of degradation can be important in planning a road trip. Degradation of 5% or so in the first year is not uncommon, but it usually levels out after that point. Software such as A Better Route Planner (described shortly) take these factors into account.

To help plan a trip, several tools are useful, including:

• Google Maps — This tool, of course, is useful on any road trip; however, its EV-specific features are limited.
• A Better Route Planner — This is an EV-specific route planner that has data on EV charging locations, the range and energy efficiency of most EVs, altitude changes, and so on. This makes it an excellent tool for planning a trip in an EV. Unfortunately, as of mid-2019, it's available only as a Web site, not as a mobile app, which makes it harder to access on the road. (You can of course use it on a smart phone, but the user interface is awkward when used in this way.)
• PlugShare — Like A Better Route Planner, PlugShare provides a tool for planning a trip, taking EV charging infrastructure into account. It's less sophisticated than A Better Route Planner, but a mobile version is available, which makes it handy for finding your way to a nearby charging station, including nearby hotels with Level 2 charging available.
• Your car's built-in navigation — Most EVs include built-in navigation systems that can locate EV charging; however, in most cases these tools are limited in their abilities. Teslas are likely the best in this respect; the Tesla navigation tool will, if you enter a destination beyond the current range, suggest a charging stop. Some EVs, like the Chevy Bolt, lack built-in navigation at all, so you'll have to rely on other tools to plan your trip, and to help you navigate to an EV charging station once you're on the road.

I took advantage of all of these resources when planning my trip; however, Tesla's Supercharger network is dense enough along my route that I decided to not slavishly follow a pre-planned schedule of stops. Instead, as I approached a point where I knew I'd want to stop for my own needs, such as eating, I used the Tesla's navigation system to find the next Supercharger on my route, and went there. I also used PlugShare to locate overnight Level 2 charging spots, and sometimes to plan a subsequent meal stop at a Supercharger.

Although I'm comfortable driving the 656 miles from Woonsocket to Oberlin in one day, I took that leg in two days, simply because of scheduling reasons. This had the side effect of giving me the opportunity to do a Level 2 overnight charge at a hotel. The 218 miles from Oberlin to Cincinnati is an easy one-day trip that did not even require a charge stop, although I added one for reasons described shortly. The 833 miles from Cincinnati to Woonsocket can be done in one day, but it's long enough that I prefer to break it into two days, even in a gas-powered car.

To understand an EV road trip and its charging needs, consider this: When you start, the car is likely to be fully charged, and can drive its range before needing a charge. For my Model 3, that's 325 miles. Any distance travelled in a day beyond that range must be done on DC fast charging. For a long day's driving of, say, 650 miles in a Model 3, that means 325 miles on the original charge and 325 miles on Supercharging. If an overnight stop can take advantage of a Level 2 EVSE, the process repeats the next day. For a Tesla Model 3 with a 75kWh battery pack, if we assume an average DC fast charge rate of 75kW, that means a total daily stop time of one hour to travel 650 miles (half on the original charge and half on Supercharging). This rough analysis omits a margin for safety in the range calculation and is very approximate in terms of the charge rate, but it gives some understanding of how a long road trip can be possible in an EV. Driving 650 miles at 65 miles per hour takes 10 hours, so a Tesla Model 3 adds one hour to that time (or less — maybe half an hour, if charging is restricted to the optimal period of the charge curve) — but I, for one, require more than that time to eat, use the bathroom, and rest. The upcoming section, Speculating About Other EVs, covers these issues for non-Tesla EVs. In brief, most non-Tesla EVs are less optimized for road trips than is the Model 3, but for the best of them, road trips are still possible with little or no extra time added, depending on the route and your preferences of when and how long to stop.

In practice, my road trip involved several stops to charge:

• Woonsocket to Oberlin

  Note: Tesla recommends charging to somewhere between 80% and 90% for day-to-day use, and to charge to 100% only when a high state of charge is desirable, such as for road trips. I put off charging past 100% until shortly before departing for this reason, but that may have been over-cautious. Manufacturers vary in their recommendations about daily charging procedures.

  • Home — I normally charge my car to 85%, so prior to departure, I charged from that to 100% in 1:54 (12kWh for $2.78).
  • Albany, NY Supercharger — I stopped here for dinner and charged from 50% to 91% in 34 minutes (32kWh for $8.64).
  • Ramada East Syracuse, NY — I stopped here for the night and charged from 41% to 90% overnight and then to 99% in the morning (47kWh for $0.00).
  • Erie, PA Supercharger — I stopped here for lunch and charged from 25% to 82% in 29 minutes (46kWh for $6.89).
  • Strongsville, OH Supercharger — This stop brought my charge from 50% to 82% in 21 minutes (24kWh for $4.40).
  • Oberlin, OH public Level 2 EVSE — This was my final destination for this leg, but I wasn't certain I'd be able to charge here. As it happened, the EVSE was available, on and off, throughout my visit. I charged initially to 90%, then to 93% shortly before departing (18kWh in 2:35 for $0.00).
• Oberlin to Cincinnati
  • Cincinnati, OH Supercharger — I stopped here for a brief break and quick charge before reaching my sister's house, a few miles away. I charged from 31% to 64% in 14 minutes (26kWh for $3.38).
  • My sister's house — I was able to do two Level 1 (120v) charges here, from 60% to 81% and then from 59% to 72% (33kWh in 25:39 for $0.00, although my sister probably paid about $3 or $4).
• Cincinnati to Woonsocket
  • Cambridge, OH Supercharger — I stopped here for lunch and charged from 21% to 85% in 36 minutes (52kWh for $7.44).
  • Somerset, PA Supercharger — I wanted a break from driving and so stopped here for 19 minutes and charged from 40% to 74% (27kWh for $4.68).
  • Harrisburg, PA Supercharger — I stopped here for dinner and charged from 39% to 81% in 24 minutes (36kWh for $6.37).
  • Holiday Inn Express & Suites Mount Arlington, NJ — I stopped here for the night and charged from 39% to 90% and then from 90% to 97% (48kWh for $0.00)
  • Home — Upon reaching home, I charged from 28% to my normal 85% state in 3:23 (46kWh for $10.58)

In addition to these stops, I made a few shorter stops to use the bathroom, and in one case (on my final leg home) to each lunch, without charging at all. Note that most of my stops did not fully charge the car. This is unlike how I, and I expect most people, would fuel an ICE vehicle on a road trip. Because the rate of charging an EV on a DC fast charger tapers off over time, attempting to charge past a certain point ends up wasting time. Instead, the driver should charge until there's enough charge to reach the next charge point (plus a margin for safety) and until the driver is done with whatever other tasks, such as eating, at the current stop. In my case, I never really needed to wait for my car to reach a given charge point, although I did so twice out of caution. I stopped at Strongsville, OH to be sure I'd have sufficient charge should the EVSE at Oberlin be unavailable during my visit. This proved not to be an issue, so I wasted some time and money on that stop. I stopped at the Cincinnati Supercharger because I knew I'd be able to charge only at Level 1 rates at my sister's house, and I wouldn't be there for long enough to fully charge. Thus, I wanted to have enough charge upon arrival. In both cases, the stops were not solely for charging purposes, though; I rested and ate snacks at those stops.

The remaining charging stops were all motivated by my own needs for food or rest as much as for anything else, so I would have made similar stops had I been driving an ICE vehicle. These stops would not have been identical, though; in an ICE car, I would likely have used service areas on the NY Thruway or stopped at whatever exit was convenient or had a restaurant at which I'd have wanted to eat. On this road trip, I was constrained by the locations of Tesla Superchargers. This wasn't a problem; most of the Superchargers had at least two restaurants within easy walking distance. I did end up walking a bit further to eat than I would have in a gas car, though — about a block or so, on average. For the most part this wasn't a problem for me, but it was pouring rain at the Harrisburg, PA stop, so I got a bit wet at that stop. If you're dead set on eating a particular restaurant's food, your best bet might be to get the food to go before reaching the Supercharger, then eat it there, either in the car or outside, weather permitting.

Dividing the total Supercharger charges (243kWh) by their charge times (177 minutes, or 2.95 hours) yields an average charge rate of 82kW. That's significantly less than the 150kW maximum charge rate of the current v2 Superchargers, but it's more than you'll get in most non-Tesla EVs available in 2019, even under optimal conditions. No doubt the average charge rate was brought down by the fact that it took me longer to eat than I needed to charge. Had I left after a shorter period, on average, the charge rate would be a bit higher. There would have been little point to this, though, as I needed the time to eat.

I was rather conservative on this trip about driving the state of charge of my battery pack too low. In theory, I could have driven from home to the Ramada in East Syracuse on one charge, which would have saved me some money, if not time, since I still needed to eat; but if that hotel's one EVSE had been occupied, I might have been in trouble. Likewise, stopping for a bit longer in Somerset PA would have given me enough range to reach the hotel in New Jersey without charging in Harrisburg PA. I wasn't certain how long I'd want to drive for the rest of the day when I stopped at Somerset, though.

In total, I spent 35:41 on the road on this trip, of which 30:29 was actual drive time and the remaining 5:12 was time spent stopped. (These figures do not include overnight stays or time I spent driving at my destination points.) Of this 5:12 stopped, 2:57 was spent charging — but during that charging time, I also ate, used the bathroom, and so on; I did not spend that time tapping my foot waiting for the car to charge, as I would when fueling a gas-powered car. In sum, then, driving my Tesla Model 3 altered the details of my road trip stops compared to driving an ICE vehicle, but the broad outlines remained the same, and the total time spent on the trip did not change much, if at all.

The preceding section notes the costs of my various charges. These can be broken down into three categories:

• Home Level 2 charging — I consumed a total of 58kWh at home for $13.36 ($0.23/kWh). Rhode Island has the second most expensive electric rates in the United States, and I pay more on top of that for a "green" power plan, so my costs are high.
• On-the-road Level 1 and Level 2 charging — The two hotels at which I stayed both had Level 2 EVSEs that were "free" to use. There's also a free Level 2 EVSE in Oberlin. I was able to do Level 1 charging at my sister's house, too, and she didn't charge me for that, although it probably cost her about $3 or $4. All told, I got 146kWh of electricity for "free." I put "free" in quotes because I did, of course, pay for my lodging at those two hotels, so the electricity wasn't really any more free than the breakfasts or shampoo I consumed. It didn't cost me more than it would have cost me to stay at the same hotels had I been driving a gas-powered car, though. (Some hotels have EVSEs that charge for electricity, so some road trips would have a cost attached to such stays.)
• On-the-road Supercharging — I consumed 243kWh of electricity at Superchargers at a total cost of $41.80. This works out to $0.17/kWh — less than I pay at home, but more than the national average, and likely more than the average rates in any of the areas in which I Supercharged. It deserves mentioning that in many areas, DC fast charger operators are legally forbidden from selling electricity, so Tesla charges based on how long you're plugged in, typically in two tiers depending on the charge rate (above vs. below 60kW).

Adding up all of the above, I paid $55.16 for 447kWh of electricity, for an average rate of $0.12/kWh. That electricity propelled me 1831 miles, for a cost of $0.030/mile in "fuel." For comparison, a car that delivers 30 mpg would have cost $0.094/mile, or $172, for my trip, at the national average gas price of $2.825/gallon; and a Toyota Prius Eco's 53 mpg highway would have cost $0.053/mile, or $98, for my trip. Of course, it would take a lot of road trips like this to cover the extra cost of a Tesla Model 3 vs. a Toyota Prius! Also, I picked hotels that offered Level 2 EVSEs. These may have been more expensive than the hotels I might have used had I been driving an ICE vehicle.

Of course, there's more to a road trip than where you stop to fuel up or how much it costs to do so. Teslas are renowned as high-tech driving machines, and some Tesla features seem like they'd shine on a long road trip. Do they?

Note: During this trip, my car was running Tesla's 2019.16.2 software. Tesla pushes software updates fairly frequently, and these updates often affect how well features such as Autopilot work. Thus, many of the comments in this section have a rather short "shelf life," as it were.

My experience is generally positive, but not without caveats. My car has all the high-tech "goodies" — both Autopilot, which is Tesla's brand of adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assist; and Full Self-Driving (FSD), which adds the ability to handle interchanges and to suggest lane changes, a feature that Tesla calls Navigate on Autopilot (NoA). (FSD does a few other things that aren't relevant to this page, and Tesla claims it will eventually do much more, but for now, it's still limited in what it adds.) Autopilot is indeed a useful tool for highway cruising between cities. I drove with Autopilot active from Woonsocket to Oberlin and then on to Cincinnati, and it was quite helpful. Autopilot requires that the driver apply light torque to the steering wheel. Without that input, it will complain and then eventually shut off and bring the car to a halt. Resting a hand on the wheel is sufficient to avoid these complaints. As a driver assistance package, Autopilot should not be used as a substitute for human attention, but it can make for a less fatiguing experience. On Teslas with the FSD package, Autopilot can change lanes when you tell it to do so (by using the turn-signal lever). This process usually works fine, but it can be a bit slow and overly-cautious in moderate to heavy traffic.

One problem of Autopilot is "phantom braking" — the car will slow suddenly and for no good reason. This often happens when a truck is passing, or when passing a truck. It can also happen when traffic is merging. The latter might be a case of the car being overly "polite," but more often than not, doing nothing or accelerating slightly would be the better choice.

I'm less happy with Navigate on Autopilot. This feature tends to suggest unnecessary lane changes and is very bad at anticipating when a lane change might be optimally timed. It may suggest a merge into a faster lane despite the fact that a car is rapidly approaching in that lane, making such a lane change unsafe. Although NoA can handle most highway interchanges, it does so quite slowly and jerkily. It also shifts into the exit ramp lane very suddenly — much more suddenly than it handles ordinary lane changes, and without asking for confirmation, even when it's configured to require confirmation for lane changes. Overall, my experience, both on this road trip and in my day-to-day driving, is that NoA adds to the stress of driving, rather than reducing it. I prefer to drive with NoA inactive, although I made a point of testing it out for most of the Cincinnati-to-Woonsocket leg of my trip.

In heavy rain, Navigate on Autopilot deactivates, but Autopilot generally continues to work until visibility gets very bad.

A big caveat about Autopilot and Tesla's FSD suite is that they must be used responsibly. The media is eager to report crashes while Teslas are operating with Autopilot active, which tends to exaggerate the severity of the problem, since non-Autopilot crashes receive less attention, overall. Still, Autopilot is not perfect, and driver overconfidence in the system's abilities can be fatal — literally. Used as intended, Autopilot can be a boon; but it's not yet good enough to let you relax your attention to what's happening on the road.

One of Tesla's biggest advantages is that the company delivers software updates over the air, and these updates both improve existing features and add new ones. I have no doubt that NoA will be greatly improved in half a year or a year, and there are likely to be more driver assistance features. Tesla is promising the ability to drive on city streets without human intervention in a matter of months to a year or two. The company and its CEO, Elon Musk, have a reputation for offering timelines that prove to be optimistic, but they do usually deliver on their promises eventually.

In a more mundane realm, Tesla's in-dash navigation system has generally worked well for me. It links to the owner's cell phone via an app, and it's possible to throw an address from another app to the car by telling the cell phone to use the Tesla app as a map program. This was very handy for me on my road trip, since I could send the address of a charge station from the PlugShare app to my car, or to send my sister's address to the car via my phone's address book. One problem with the navigation system, though, is that it sometimes doesn't give explicit instructions on which fork to take when the highway splits in two. Twice on my return journey, I had to guess about which fork to take. Once, I was on Navigate on Autopilot, and that system seemed indecisive; it was driving straight down the middle of the fork until I took control and picked one fork (the wrong one, as it happened).

One less high-tech issue is that, because I didn't pull into a single gas station on this entire trip, I had no chance to clear the bugs from my windshield. I encountered enough rain that the rain and my windshield wipers cleared most of the bug corpses from time to time, but there was still considerable buildup between rainfalls. Buying a squeegee, window cleaning fluid, and a towel is likely to be a worthwhile investment for road trips. Likewise, because EVs have much smaller front grilles than most cars, their front ends become bug graveyards rather rapidly, and this takes a little extra attention when washing the car after returning home.

Like all EVs, the Model 3 generates no engine noise, since there is no engine. The electric motor does produce some noise, but it's much quieter than an ICE, particularly when accelerating. This makes for a more pleasant driving experience. On the other hand, wind noise at highway speeds is louder in the Model 3 than in many other cars. When cruising at a steady highway speed on level ground, the Model 3 is louder than my previous car, a Chevy Volt, for this reason; however, when accelerating or going uphill on gas power, the Volt's ICE was much louder than the Model 3's wind noise. Overall, I'd give the nod to the Model 3 as being a quieter car than the Volt for a road trip, but not by much.

Such details will differ depending on the brand and model of EV you're driving. Tesla's systems are famously (or notoriously, depending on your opinion) different from other automakers', so driving a Tesla anywhere is a somewhat unusual experience. Actual on-the-road time with most non-Tesla EVs will be quite similar to the driving experience in a similar ICE vehicle, with the exception of the lack of engine noise and some differences in acceleration and handling. The biggest differences between a road trip in, say, a Hyundai Kona EV vs. a gas-powered Kona will be in when, where, and how long you stop.

Although I've written this page to document my experiences with a Tesla Model 3, it may be helpful to owners (or potential owners) of other EVs. Broadly speaking, the experience of driving any EV on a long-distance trip should be similar to mine on this trip; however, the details will differ depending on the car, the route taken, the weather, and so on. Your personal preferences for time spent stopped to time spent on the road will be critical in determining whether a given EV will meet your needs.

Some figures from the preceding description are informative: I spent a total of 35:41 on the road, of which 30:29 was drive time and 5:12 was time spent stopped. Of the time stopped, 2:57 was charge time (during which I also did things I'd do on any road trip), and 2:15 was time stopped but not charging. This means that for every hour I spent driving, I spent an additional 10 minutes, or 17%, of my on-the-road, wheels-spinning drive time, stopped. This is actually less time than I've spent stopped on some previous road trips; I spent an extra 20% of the time stopped on my previous most recent visit to my sister, for instance.

In June of 2019, I entered my trip parameters into A Better Route Planner and asked it to compute routes for my Tesla and for several other cars: the 2019 Hyundai Kona EV, the 2019 Chevy Bolt, and the 151-mile 2019 Nissan Leaf. I included my overnight stops as waypoints, with manually-overridden charging data. For an LR RWD Tesla Model 3, A Better Route Planner computed a route that was faster than I took in reality, because it did not account for my own needs for rest, and the tool underestimated slowdowns because of traffic and wrong turns: 1:59 spent charging and a total trip time of 28:17, vs. the 35:41 I actually took. Table 1 presents the results of the computations for all four EVs. As you can see, in my initial calculations, the Model 3, Kona, and Bolt all came in at under the 35:41 I actually took on the drive, although the Bolt, at 34:31, was close enough that it would almost certainly have taken a little longer for the trip, in real-world conditions. The Kona happened to exactly match the 5:12 I spent stopped, so in theory it would have (barely) not slowed me down; but in practice it would almost certainly have taken me a little longer. The 2019 Bolt required about two more hours of charging than I spent stopped, so in the real world it would almost certainly have slowed me down — but over five days of travel and a dozen or so DC fast charging stops, that extra time would not have been a huge burden, I expect. (The 2020 Bolt adds 21 miles of range, which improves matters a bit; more on that later.)

In the six months after I wrote this page in June of 2019, some new CCS and CHAdeMO DC fast charging stations have opened up. These new stations have the potential to help the non-Tesla vehicles, so I ran the calculations again in December. (Note that I did not adjust the weather conditions for the calculations; I was simply trying to evaluate the effect of six months' growth in DC fast charging networks, not recalibrate the expected results for winter weather.) The results are shown in Table 1 alongside the estimates from six months earlier. The Model 3 LR RWD's estimates are almost unchanged; the difference is likely because of traffic (if A Better Route Planner uses traffic data), changes the site's algorithms, or some subtle difference in my data entry. The Hyundai Kona's total estimated travel time dropped by three hours, with a reduction in charging time of almost two hours, probably because some of the new stations can charge the car at its maximum of about 75kW and there's less need for driving slowly between stations. The Bolt also benefitted, but not as much — its total drive time dropped by only 26 minutes, with a 21-minute reduction in charge time. This new result puts the Kona comfortably under my real-world actual drive time of 35:41 and stop time of 5:12. Although the Bolt is estimated to require an extra three hours of charging time and close to five extra on-the-road hours compared to the Model 3, the modest savings it sees from the new DC fast charging stations are still welcome.

Figure 2: My road trip from Woonsocket RI, to Oberlin OH, to Cincinnati OH, to Woonsocket RI, as calculated for a Nissan Leaf with 151-mile range.

The short-range (151-mile) Nissan Leaf is another story. In June of 2019, A Better Route Planner built a very awkward route because of a dearth of CHAdeMO DC fast chargers along I-90 in New York State at that time, as shown in Figure 2. This route adds about 170 miles to the trip. (The Kona and Bolt could manage this gap in I-90 DC fast charger coverage because of their extra ~100 miles of range.) Segments shown in red in Figure 2 require driving at slow speed to reach the destination; however, there are CHAdeMO chargers along some of these segments, so faster speeds could be used if those chargers were employed. This would add time for the charging, though.

Figure 3: A variant road trip from Woonsocket RI, to Oberlin OH, to Cincinnati OH, to Woonsocket RI, as calculated for a Nissan Leaf with 151-mile range.

Removing the hotel stop in East Syracuse and adding a stop at the same hotel I used on the return trip resulted in an alternate route that's better for the 151-mile Leaf. This cut the CHAdeMO charge time to 10:38 and the total trip time to 40:42. For unknown reasons, the same trip calculations in December increased the Leaf's travel time along this route. Maybe a critical station has closed or A Better Route Planner made some changes because of traffic, construction, or other transient issues. Alternatively, perhaps A Better Route Planner has updated its model of the Leaf's charging capabilities.

In practice, the 151-mile Nissan Leaf might require adding at least one more travel day to this trip, and with that, another hotel stop and overnight Level 2 charge. This would likely reduce the travel (driving and charging) time compared to what I've computed; but I haven't tried to figure out where the extra overnight stop(s) should be placed.

Note that the 151-mile Leaf is the base version of the car. The higher-end "e+" variant has a larger battery with a 226-mile range and faster CHAdeMO charging. Although I did not compute charge and travel times for it in June, I've added those figures from December to Table 1. I've also added the Tesla Model 3 SR+ and the 2020 Chevy Bolt (which increases the car's range from 238 to 259 miles) for comparison. As you can see from Table 1, the Model 3 SR+ looks similar to the Hyundai Kona, whereas the Leaf e+ is in-between the Bolt and the 151-mile Leaf. The 2020 Bolt looks a lot like the Kona did in June. The 2020 Bolt is still limited to barely over 50kW charging, which most of the available stations did to the Kona in June; and the increased range brings the Bolt to range parity with the Kona.

When considering how capable a car is of road trips, both range and DC fast charging are important. Every mile of extra range is one more mile that you don't have to cover using a DC fast charger, once you exceed the car's range. Extra range will also help you reach the next DC fast charger, if they're far apart. A car with a faster DC fast charging rate will reduce the time spent at fast chargers. Which factor is more important depends on your trip and your personal preferences. If your trip is 200 miles, then the extra range of a car with 200 or more miles range vs. a lower-range car may be more important than charge rate; but on a cross-country journey, a car with the best DC fast charging rate may be the most critical factor. In practice, both factors tend to improve in lockstep. Beyond a certain point, though, extra DC fast charging speed doesn't gain you much — I spent more time stopped than I did Supercharging, so faster Supercharging would not have benefitted me on this trip. Note also that energy efficiency can play a role; at the same rate of charge, a Tesla Model 3 will acquire more miles of range than the much heavier and less energy-efficient Tesla Model X, for instance. In this rather long YouTube video, a long-distance race between a Model X and a Hyundai Kona resulted in a virtual tie, despite the Kona's much slower charge rate (in kW).

I don't mean to pooh-pooh the idea of driving a road trip in a car like a Kona, Bolt, or even a 151-mile Leaf. On paper, the extra time required to charge these cars compared to my Model 3 may seem like a big deal; but that time is spread across a road trip with a lot of miles driven over quite a few hours. If you must spend an extra half hour stopped two or three times a day, is that really so awful? That's extra time to rest, which may improve your safety. You'll be able to do interesting or productive things, too, like read a book, check your Facebook feed, plan where to go next, etc. If you only do one or two road trips a year, an extra few hours on the road each year may be a small price to pay compared to the extra $10,000 or $20,000 that a Tesla Model 3 would cost. Compared to an ICE vehicle, you must also factor in the time wasted at gas stations when you're not on a road trip. That time is spent in small chunks, but it can add up. If you spend ten minutes a week fueling an ICE car, that's 8.7 hours a year, which is comparable to the extra time the 151-mile Leaf would take on my road trip compared to a Model 3 or an ICE car.

One more consideration is that the cost to use Tesla's Superchargers is currently less than the cost to use most CCS and CHAdeMO fast chargers. (There are exceptions to this rule, though.) Tesla offers promotions that can further reduce fast charging costs. Currently, using a promotion code earns both the buyer and referrer 1,000 miles of free Supercharging. (Tesla periodically changes details of its referral program. See the program's official page for details. My code is roderick45041, if you care to take advantage of this offer using my code.) Of course, Teslas are more expensive than most other EVs, so it would take a lot of DC fast charging to make this factor important.

Other EVs are beginning to enter the realm where they can be useful road-trip vehicles, too. The best of them may be able to match a Tesla in real-world road-trip travel speed, given that a person is likely to need more time stopped to eat and use the facilities than a Tesla does to charge. Under less-than-optimal conditions, though, such as in cold weather, most non-Tesla EVs will slow down a driver who expects to spend no more than about 20% of on-road, wheel-spinning time stopped. Even under ideal conditions, many non-Tesla EVs will slow down a road trip. Using A Better Route Planner prior to purchasing a car will help you evaluate its suitability for your roads trips. Using the same tool prior to embarking on a road trip will help you figure out an optimum route and identify good places to stop and charge.

One notable caveat is that I have yet to attempt this road trip in cold weather, which will reduce both the car's energy efficiency and the DC fast charging rate. Given the extent to which my Model 3 exceeded my charging speed needs on this trip in May, I expect it will be able to handle a similar trip in the winter without problems. I'm less certain that most other current EVs, such as the Hyundai Kona, would work as well in the winter. As both EV charging infrastructure and the cars' charging systems improve, though, non-Tesla EVs will become quite capable of long-distance travel even in the winter.

The importance of infrastructure improvements should not be under-emphasized. The fact that new and faster DC fast charging stations came online in the second half of 2019 made for a dramatic improvement in the travel time estimates for both the 151-mile Nissan Leaf and the Hyundai Kona. I wouldn't expect to see similarly dramatic improvements for these cars on this route in the future, but smaller improvements are likely; and there are likely to be dramatic improvements for other cars and on other routes over the next few months and years.

I've referred to several resources in the preceding discussion. This section summarizes the most important of these, and some others that may be helpful.

• Tesla's Supercharger page includes a map of Supercharger locations (including planned stations) and other basic information on Supercharging.
• The ChargePoint site provides information on that network of CCS and CHAdeMO DC fast chargers.
• The Electrify America site provides information on that network of CCS and CHAdeMO DC fast chargers.
• The EVgo site provides information on that network of CCS and CHAdeMO DC fast chargers.
• The Supercharger SuperGuide article describes how Tesla Supercharging works in more detail.
• The Wikipedia page on Tesla's Supercharger describes this network in broad strokes.
• The Wikipedia page on CCS describes this standard in broad strokes.
• The Wikipedia page on CHAdeMO describes this standard in broad strokes.
• PlugShare is a useful resource for locating public charging locations, including Level 1, Level 2, and DC fast charging locations.
• A Better Route Planner is a tool for planning EV road trips. It originated as a Tesla-only site, but now supports a wide variety of EVs. Its emphasis is on planning long-distance trips, so it helps you locate DC fast chargers along a route, but it doesn't help you locate Level 1 or Level 2 EVSEs.

copyright © 2019 by Roderick W. Smith

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