June 2025. American Southwest.

This spring I reached 7 years in my Model 3 and celebrated the occasion with a road trip to visit National Parks and landmarks in the American Southwest. I’ve gone on similar trips when the car was new, and several times a year I go on regional trips that require a supercharging stop. But now I was approaching 100,000 miles on the odometer and wanted to know how well the car would handle a longer trip. Would I still get fast DC charging speeds while driving hundreds of miles and supercharging 2 or 3 times per day? Would I have to wait in line to charge since more cars use the Supercharging network now? Would newer charging stations be in good locations? And what about that electric cooler I picked up, would it drain my battery? (spoiler alert: No). My goal was to Combine an EV road trip with meeting friends from the east coast, spending time in the great outdoors, and testing how well my 7-year-old EV would handle the trip.

The Car

2018 Model 3, RWD, 18″ wheels. The odometer is now at 101,000 miles and rated range with a full charge is 272 miles. Note that rated range is based on an EPA estimate of energy use/mile. Over 100k miles I’ve averaged 15-20% over EPA rating. YMMV.

The Trip

Visiting National Parks. This was a milestone birthday celebration with a group of friends to hike, bike, and kayak in National Parks in Arizona and Utah. My east coast friends flew in to Phoenix and drove to the Grand Canyon. One friend drove with me from the Sacramento area and we stopped at a few more National Parks and landmarks along the way. We took turns driving and my friend served as DJ. Somehow I’d missed the whole Yatch Rock thing and it set the perfect vibe for this road trip. Also, Ray Parker Jr. and Raydio – 2 thumbs up.

National Parks and Landmarks Visited

We stopped at Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park to check out Moro Rock and giant sequoias; the Hoover Dam; the Route 66 Museum in Kingman; hiked in the Grand Canyon; kayaked on the Colorado River in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area; rented eBikes in Zion National Park; hiked in Bryce Canyon National Park; saw slot canyons near Page; checked the temperature in Death Valley (it was hot); and stopped at Mammoth Lakes, Mono Lake, and Lake Tahoe. It was a good trip.

Supercharging

Supercharging stops averaged 18 minutes for the whole trip. I supercharged 11 times at 10 locations and my car charged the same on this road trip as before. I noticed charging power over 220 kW, but didn’t stick around to check the highest charging speed. I averaged 148 miles between superchargers.

I paid $163 for charging on this trip.

I didn’t have to wait in line for superchargers. The superchargers were busy but no waiting. I saw cars from different manufacturers at most stops and that was good to see. However, twice I saw a single car taking up 2 supercharger stalls because their charging port was on the opposite side of the car and parking like that was the only way the driver could get close enough to plug in. Luckily that didn’t prevent anyone else from charging those times, but it can be a problem until Mfg’s establish common standards for length of charging cables and/or charge port location.

Energy Use

I used 581 kWh of electricity to drive 2,181 miles. The car reported using about 460 kWh for the trip (see odometer above under ‘Buddy Trip’). But that number represents only energy used from the battery pack. Getting those 460 kWh into the pack used more energy. Charging an EV involves converting AC to DC, which results in losses. Supercharger stations convert electricity to DC before sending it to an EV – a process that is about 92% efficient. As a result, 100 kWh of electricity are used for each 92 kWh sent to an EV. Level 2 conversion of AC to DC occurs in your car and is less efficient – about 85%. So 100 kWh are used for each 85 kWh stored in the pack. Level 1 charging is less efficient – about 70%. I recorded energy sent to my car on this trip from Supercharging, Level 2 charging, and Level 1 charging, and added charging losses to get a more accurate estimate of the total amount of energy used.

Two thirds of my energy came from supercharging. The rest came from my home and from Level 1 and 2 overnight destination charging at places we stayed.

Comparison: 1 gallon of gas contains the same amount of energy as 33.7 kWh of electricity. So using 581 kWh of electricity for this trip is like using 17 gallons of gas to drive 2,100 miles (that’s like getting 125 MPG).

Emissions

Charging my car produced 344 lbs of CO₂ emissions. Where you charge on a multi-state road trip impacts total emissions since each state utilizes a different mix of fossil fuel and renewable power plants for their grid. I kept track of how much electricity I got from charging in each state and looked up CO₂ emissions from generating electricity in those states. The Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration publishes this data as pounds of CO₂ emissions released per MWh of electricity generated in each state. The EIA lists the data by state, by year, and includes other emissions produced by electricity generation like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. I focused on CO₂ since it is a potent heat trapping gas, and is useful for comparing EV emissions with those from gas powered cars.

In summary, I drove 2,181 miles and used 581 kWh of electricity. Generating electricity in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah to charge my car released 344 lbs of CO₂.

How Does This Compare to a Gas Powered Car?

The average 25 MPG car produces 5 times more CO₂ than my EV. Calculating emissions from gas powered cars is much simpler. Burning one gallon of gas releases 19.6 lbs of CO₂. So you just need to know the number of gallons of gas used. The average car in the US gets 25 MPG. So a 25 MPG car traveling 2,181 miles would burn 87 gallons of gas and release 1,710 lbs of CO₂ into the atmosphere – 5X more than my EV. I also calculated emissions from more efficient cars and larger less efficient SUVs that are popular (see below).

Why is This Important?

Transportation accounts for nearly 1/3 of carbon emissions in the US. There’s about 300 million vehicles on the road in the US, and hundreds of millions more around the globe. The average person in the US drives about 13,000 miles per year in a car that gets 25 MPG. New sedans are more efficient, but pickup trucks and SUVs are the most popular vehicles on the road and these vehicles lag behind in efficiency. Even with improved efficiency for gas burners, EVs are much better for daily driving, road trips, and over their full life cycle.

My EV makes less pollution today than it did 7 years ago because the electric grid has been getting cleaner. That doesn’t happen with gas powered cars – a car that gets 25 MPG today will get 25 MPG 7 years from now.

The average gas-powered car in the US releases over 200 lbs of CO₂ into the atmosphere every week. Multiple that by the millions of vehicles on the road, every day, all year long, and those emissions add up quickly to 35 billion tons of CO₂ injected into the atmosphere each year – by vehicles in the US. This man-made process is dramatically increasing the level of CO₂ in our atmosphere.

We pump fossil fuels out of the earth and transfer that carbon into the atmosphere. Our current mode of transportation consists of pumping fossil fuels out of the earth and burning them. This takes carbon that was deposited in the earth over a period of millions of years and rapidly transfers it to the atmosphere through a 100% man-made process. The climate has gone through ice ages and warm phases in the past. However, previous climate change events were caused by natural events like prolonged volcanic activity, changes in solar activity or the Earth’s orbit, and perhaps even asteroids. Those climate changes brought drastic consequences including species extinctions that are best avoided.

Climate change can be avoided. Burning fossil fuels on a large scale tips the balance of the earth’s atmosphere and ecosystems, and it is entirely under our control. More sustainable solutions are available and worth developing. The good news is that the US grid has been improving.

Thoughts on EVs from my Friend

The friend who drove along with me does not have or plan to get an EV. We took turns driving but didn’t talk much about my car during the trip – except for those WTF moments when phantom braking reared its ugly head. He spun up good tunes, enjoyed the landscapes, and observed. At the end of the trip I asked for his thoughts, the pros and cons. Here’s his report:

Pros: Pleasantly surprised by how quick the car charged at the Superchargers, by the easy access to chargers along major routes, the location of chargers, amenities, and by not having to wait for charging. Cons: Cruise control was terrible. I’ve had TACC in my past 3 cars and never had a problem with it. The phantom braking is a safety issue and it was annoying as heck.

Conclusion

There is nothing extraordinary about making this trip in an EV today. ‘Regular’ cars do this all the time, and that’s the point: EVs are just cars (that produce fewer emissions). My EV has held up well. At 100,000 miles it’s reliable, takes care of commuting, chores, family outings, and is still road trip worthy. It takes me places I like to go while greatly reducing emissions. If you haven’t considered an EV yet, there are a lot of options for ~300 mile EVs on the US market from Chevy, Ford, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Toyota, Tesla, VW (and more expensive models from Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Lucid, Mercedes, Polestar, Porsche, Rivian, and Volvo). My advice? Check it out.

Finally, I like sharing pics so I’ll end the post with a couple highlights from the trip: