Tips and tricks for road trips in a Tesla

An electric road trip would hardly be possible without Tesla’s network of Superchargers, which can recharge a battery to half-full in less than 30 minutes, or to 80% in about 45. Templeton notes that “the range anxiety which vanishes in urban driving with a large-battery car returns to you on rural road trips. You will certainly never see a trip report from a gasoline car owner that spends half its time talking about the hunt for suitable gas stations, or how the availability of gas changed their plans.”

Templeton finds that depending on Superchargers has its drawbacks. For one thing, it can limit your dining choices to what’s available near Supercharger stations — usually generic chain restaurants. That’s a sacrifice for a traveler who likes to sample the local cuisine. This problem can be mitigated by taking out food from an interesting restaurant and eating it at the nearest Supercharger station, or by simply using Supercharger stops for something other than meals — watching videos, reading or shopping (many chargers are located near shopping malls).

It may sound strange, but in a way, the most efficient use of time may be to stop more often and charge to just over 50 percent. That’s because Superchargers charge at full power only when the battery is below half-full (it’s also better for the battery to keep the state of charge between 20 and 70 percent). “If you stop more often and only fill up to say 60–70%, you will spend less time charging,” Templeton writes. “However, the time needed to divert to and from the charging station and get a stall may counter that.”

It’s also important to consider how busy a particular station is. “Truly full stations might have a line of unknown length (though this is rare at rural stations.) Half-full stations are ideal, since charger stalls come in pairs that share power, and you get the fastest charging only if you get an unpaired stall, or are at least the first of a pair to arrive.”

Another surprising conclusion is that Tesla’s new V3 Superchargers won’t help the situation as much as you might expect, because they only speed up the first part of your charging. “The fastest approach would be to use [V3 Superchargers] for ‘time optimal’ supercharging, where you only recharge from 10% to 60%, which might take as little as ten minutes, plus the time to get to and from the Supercharger and park,” says Templeton. However, “as counterintuitive as it seems, if you coordinate your eating/shopping correctly, shortening the supercharge offers minor to zero value! It adds value only when you want to avoid the meal or shopping trip at the Supercharger, and prefer to just take it as downtime from your road trip.”

While it’s sometimes necessary to stop at a Supercharger, “destination charging” while you sleep is actually superior, says Templeton. You can dine wherever you want, you don’t lose the miles between the Supercharger and your hotel, and slower charging is better for your battery health. “When it works, [destination charging] is low-hassle, just like charging at home, the way it should be.”

Even when you find a hotel with charging, there may be bumps in the road. Few if any hotels have more than a few spaces, so in EV-heavy regions, you can’t count on getting a slot. However, in most areas the chargers are lightly used, and some hotels will reserve one for you. Templeton notes, as others have, that the bigger problem is being ICEd out of a charging spot by a gas-burner.

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