June 2025. California.
2,100 mile Road trip in a 7-year old, 100,000 mile Model 3
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 still go on regional trips about 400 miles one way and 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 my car since more cars use Tesla’s charging network now? Would newer charging stations be in good locations? And what about that electric cooler I picked up – the one that plugs into the cigarette lighter – would it drain my battery? 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
I have a 2018 Model 3 with RWD and 18″ wheels. The EPA range was 310 miles when new. I have Full Self Driving (Supervised) – or FSDS, with HW3 running software V12.6.4. The odometer is at 100,000 miles.
The Trip
This was a milestone birthday celebration with a group of friends to hike, bike, and kayak in the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, the Colorado River, and slot canyons near Page. My east coast friends flew in to Phoenix and drove to the Grand Canyon. One of my friends drove with me from the Sacramento area and we stopped at a few National Parks and landmarks along the way. We took turns driving with my friend also serving as navigator and music selection. Somehow I’d missed the whole Yatch Rock thing, loved it. Also, Ray Parker Jr. and Raydio.

National Parks and Landmarks Visited
We stopped at Kings Canyon/Sequoia 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. In short, this trip was phenomenal. I’ve included a few pics from the trip at the end of the post.
Supercharging
I Supercharged 12 times at 10 locations and my car charged the same on this road trip as when it was new. I noticed charging power over 220 kW, but didn’t stick around to check the highest charging speed. I averaged 148 miles between superchargers and supercharging stops averaged just 18 minutes for the whole trip.
The superchargers I used were busy but I didn’t have to wait in line to charge. I did see cars from different manufacturers at every stop and that was good to see. However, at two stops I saw a single car taking up 2 supercharger stalls because their charging port was on the opposite side of the car and that was the only way the driver could plug in. Luckily that didn’t prevent anyone else from charging, but it will become a problem as more EVs hit the road. The mfg’s need to establish a standard for charging port location on EVs.

Energy Use
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. In total I used 581 kWh of electricity to drive 2,181 miles.

Two thirds of the energy for this trip came from supercharging. The rest came from my home and from Level 1 and 2 overnight destination charging at places we stayed.
This total kWh used is an estimate. It may be a conservative estimate and/or miss additional energy losses. For example, I charged to 90% in Mammoth Lakes for the last leg of the trip, drove 255 miles and still had 79 miles of range left in the pack – I didn’t subtract the energy remaining in the pack from the total kWh used. Nevertheless, this calculation is important for getting an accurate estimate of emissions produced to power my car on the trip.
Emissions
Where you charge on a multi-state road trip impacts total emissions since power generating plants in each state utilize different mixtures of fossil fuels and renewables to power 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 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, such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. I focused on CO2 since it is a strong 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 to charge my car. Generating the electricity for this trip in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah produced 344 lbs of CO2 emissions.
How Does This Compare to Emissions from a Gas Powered Car?
Calculating emissions from gas powered cars is much simpler. Burning one gallon of gas releases 19.6 lbs of CO2. So it’s just a matter of miles driven and gallons of gas burned.

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. The average 25 MPG car releases 5 times more CO2 emissions than my EV. I also calculated emissions from more efficient gas-powered cars and larger less efficient SUVs that are very popular (see below).

Why is This Important?
There are nearly 300 million vehicles on the road in the US, and hundreds of millions more around the globe. Transportation accounts for roughly 1/3 of total global emissions. In the US the average car drives about 13,000 miles per year in a car that gets 25 MPG. New sedans are more efficient, but pickup trucks and SUV are the most popular vehicles on the road now, and these vehicles lag behind in efficiency. Even with improvements in efficiency for gas burners, EVs are much better for daily driving and road trips, and much better over their lifetime. The electrical grid gets cleaner year by year and as a result my EV makes less pollution today than it did 7 years ago. That doesn’t happen with gas powered cars. In contrast, a car that gets 25 MPG today will still get 25 MPG 7 years from now.
By driving a gas burning car, the average driver 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 – and the CO2 stays in the atmosphere for decades. This man-made process is dramatically increasing the level of CO2 in our atmosphere.
To reiterate, we are pumping fossil fuels out of the earth at a rapid rate, burning them, and releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere through a 100% man-made process. One thing I’ve heard recently from skeptics is that the climate has always changed. That the earth has gone through ice ages and warm phases in the past, and now is no different. They conclude that thinking, worrying, or trying to do anything about greenhouse gas emissions is unnecessary. However, previous climate changes were caused by events outside of our control. Think asteroids and large volcanic eruptions. Burning fossil fuels tips the balance of the earth’s atmosphere and ecosystems, and it is entirely under our control. More sustainable solutions are available and in our reach.
Thoughts 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 about my car during the trip – except when phantom braking failures happened – and there were a couple incidents in Utah and Nevada that were downright dangerous. He just observed and at the end of the trip I asked him 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
My EV has held up well. It takes care of commuting, chores, family outings, and allows me to travel places I like to go while greatly reducing emissions. The trip was fantastic, and since I like sharing pics here are a couple highlights to end the post:







