{"id":580,"date":"2018-07-17T21:29:30","date_gmt":"2018-07-17T21:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ventricular.org\/ItsElectric\/?p=580"},"modified":"2020-12-29T22:19:56","modified_gmt":"2020-12-29T22:19:56","slug":"1-summer-ev-road-trips-tesla-model-3-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ventricular.org\/ItsElectric\/2018\/07\/17\/1-summer-ev-road-trips-tesla-model-3-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer EV Road Trips: Tesla Model 3 Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"
July 2018. California and Nevada.<\/pre>\n
Since getting our first electric car\u00a05 years ago we’ve taken our EV on summer road\u00a0trips. Last week we took\u00a0our first road trip in our Model 3. How was it? We saw some great sites, interesting history, and beautiful vistas.<\/p>\n
Our\u00a0EV trips have sort of followed the evolution of EVs in general: First we relied on Level 2 charging, then 50 kW Level 3 charging, and now Tesla’s Supercharger network (Click here for a brief explanation\u00a0of Level 1, 2 and 3 charging<\/a>).<\/p>\n
Level 2 Trips:<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n
Five years ago when we bought our 2012 Toyota Rav4 EV we could only charge at Level 1 or 2 charging stations. So we drove to destinations that were within the range of a single charge and were close to Level 2 stations where we could charge up for local driving and the trip home. We camped in places like Bodega Bay, Stillwater Cove, and Point Reyes. The Rav4 EV was great for these trips since the rear storage area has plenty of space for camping gear and plenty of room for a family of 4 up front.<\/p>\n
Camping trips to Bodega Bay, Stillwater Cove, and Point Reyes, and a trip to see California’s Old Faithful in the Rav4 EV.<\/p><\/div>\n
EVolution: DC Charging<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n
To make our EV more useful we added\u00a0a Level 3 charging port to\u00a0our Rav thanks to\u00a0Quick Charge Power’s JdeMO<\/a><\/em>. This allowed us to charge the car in about 40 minutes instead of 4+ hours, and expanded the horizons of our EV. We used the CHAdeMO charging network in our region of California for longer trips to places like Monterey, Calaveras Big Trees State Park, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, and many many trips to the San Francisco Bay Area.<\/p>\n
Adding a DC charge port allowed us to venture further on trips to Monterey, the Sierra Nevadas, Calaveras Big Trees, Yosemite, and many trips to the Bay Area.<\/p><\/div>\n
But EVs continue\u00a0evolving and getting better. For our\u00a0latest step, we joined the ranks of families who’ve gone Full EV. In April 2018 we traded in\u00a0our gas-powered Prius\u00a0for\u00a0a Tesla Model 3. Yes, I like the Model 3. A\u00a0lot<\/em>. There’s no need for me to go over\u00a0the car in detail since\u00a0there are hundreds\u00a0of reviews out there, but I will\u00a0share this one trip with you to demonstrate 1)\u00a0how well<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0EVs with decent range and a nationwide rapid charging network handle real-world\u00a0road trips, and 2) that EVs can do much of what\u00a0you’d want from a car.<\/p>\n
Important Note<\/strong>:<\/em><\/span>\u00a0I am far from the first person to road trip in an EV. Many, many people have been making\u00a0far longer trips, for many years, up and down the West Coast<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>in all sorts of EVs,\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0clear across the country in their Teslas thanks to the Supercharger network<\/a>. One recent\u00a0example that comes to mind is\u00a0the\u00a0Model 3 owner who\u00a0drove over 18,000 miles to catch a ballgame in all 30 MLB ballparks in one month (details here<\/a><\/em>).<\/p>\n
Road Trips Supercharged: the Model 3<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n
Driving along the Eastern Sierras in July 2018.<\/p><\/div>\n
This road trip was not planned but came about because my kids did not have summer camp options for the week of July 4th. The first 2 days of that week they came to my office…. and that convinced me\u00a0to give up the charade\u00a0that I was actually getting useful work\u00a0done and that we’d be better off spending real quality time together by\u00a0going somewhere fun.<\/p>\n
We decided to head out past Lake Tahoe into\u00a0Nevada and then either continue east for what I’ve heard is a beautiful drive, or head\u00a0south along the Eastern Sierras. I checked out Tesla’s\u00a0Supercharger network and either direction was fine, but\u00a0in the end we went south along interstate 395. And what a beautiful drive.<\/p>\n
Our trip\u00a0took us\u00a0from just about sea level in the Sacramento area to over 8,500′ elevation.\u00a0Driving any car over mountain passes requires extra energy. In our case about an extra 15 kWh. If your car’s battery pack held 24 kWh of energy, the elevation climb would leave very little for actually moving forward. But with auto manufacturers like Tesla, who sell EVs with larger capacity battery packs, and who have an established nationwide DC charging network, mountain passes are\u00a0not an obstacle.<\/p>\n
\"Our
Our route from the Central Valley to Mammoth Lakes with changes in elevation plotted.<\/p><\/div>\n
One of\u00a0the\u00a0great things about EVs is regenerative braking, which recaptures energy when you slow or brake the car. Gas powered cars generate heat while braking on a long descent, but EVs generate electricity that is stored back in the battery pack. Therefore on a round trip that involves steep climbs you’ll recapture a lot of the energy spent\u00a0gaining altitude when you descend and return to your starting point.<\/p>\n
\"Since
Since getting our Model 3 we’ve driven to coastal Redwood groves and through the Eastern Sierras to swim in Mono Lake, visit Bodie State Park and the Mammoth Lakes area, and see Devil’s Postpile…. all thanks to Tesla’s Supercharger network.<\/p><\/div>\n
Our driving time was about 6 hours each way. We entertained ourselves with\u00a0time-tested games like road sign alphabet; let’s irritate our sibling in the next seat; and invented new games like creating a radio channel (the Beatles in our case), and letting the kids give thumbs up or down for each song the car’s streaming\u00a0audio\u00a0suite suggested for the channel. This was actually my kids first introduction to the Beatles and I was glad\u00a0to find they liked it all. But let me tell you, the damned audio\u00a0system was really determined to get\u00a0Billy Joel songs into the\u00a0Beatles lineup.<\/p>\n
Hey, don’t get me wrong, I like Billy Joel, I’ve seen him in concert, but he ain’t the Beatles.<\/p><\/div>\n
Besides the music, I enjoyed the scenery. This is a beautiful part of the country and I highly recommend a visit.\u00a0We swam (actually floated) in Mono Lake, went to\u00a0Devil’s Postpile, climbed an obsidian dome, and visited a mining ghost town. All on a spur of the moment road trip in our region of the country.<\/p>\n
While I like\u00a0the Model 3’s styling and find it a\u00a0pure pleasure to drive, the main selling point for me has always been\u00a0Tesla’s Supercharger network. I can’t emphasize enough how important this sort of network\u00a0is for the future of EV transportation. Our trip involved\u00a0more than\u00a012\u00a0hours driving in the car, but it was just\u00a0a short trip when compared to much longer trips many others\u00a0have taken (current record for coast to coast in a Model 3 is 50 hours 16 minutes). This point is born out by comparing the three Superchargers we used on our\u00a0trip (see arrows on map below<\/em>) to the constantly growing number of Tesla Superchargers.<\/p>\n
Our short trip seen in the larger context of Tesla’s growing Supercharger network.<\/p><\/div>\n
Charging Details<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
I did not fully charge my car in prep for this trip. I charged to slightly over\u00a080% SOC, which gave me 257 miles of rated range.<\/p>\n
We used 147 miles of rated range on our first leg driving 118 miles from the Sacramento area\u00a0to the Stateline, NV Supercharger because of the 7,000+ foot\u00a0climb. We had\u00a0110 miles of range\u00a0in the pack when we arrived at the Supercharger. It took just\u00a025 minutes for the Supercharger to add 147 miles to the pack\u00a0while we grabbed\u00a0a quick bite to eat. We left Stateline, NV with 257 miles of range.<\/p>\n
We arrived in Mammoth lakes with over 110 miles of range. The trip to Mammoth was 257 miles with one 25 minute Supercharging\/lunch stop. We used 66 kWh for that trip, suggesting that I could get to Mammoth Lakes on a single charge in warm weather. But Tesla\u2019s Supercharger network gives you the flexibility to explore and change plans without worrying about range.<\/p>\n
The next day\u00a0we drove to Devil’s Postpile then\u00a0picked up some groceries in Mammoth Lakes while Supercharging for 15 minutes. We visited Mono Lake to walk among the Tufa and go\u00a0for a swim, or rather a float, and checked out a\u00a0nearby obsidian dome.<\/p>\n
On our last day I charged to 257 miles of range in the morning while getting a cup of coffee, and after a short hike we started our return trip. We stopped at Bodie on the way home, a place I’d been wanting to visit for nearly 15 years. This state park is really worth the visit.\u00a0Who would have guessed we’d finally visit the park\u00a0after getting rid of our gas-powered cars and going fully electric?<\/p>\n
\"Bodie
Bodie State Historic Park. This old mining ghost town is a beautiful place to visit if you can get there.<\/p><\/div>\n
After visiting Bodie we stopped for 25 minutes at the Gardnerville, NV Supercharger to eat\u00a0lunch and charge. From Gardnerville we basically came back down\u00a0into the Sacramento Valley and recouped a lot of the energy we’d spent driving up into the mountains. We started our last leg with 257 miles of rated range, but because of the 7,000+ foot\u00a0descent we used 106 miles of range to drive 157 miles. We arrived home with 151 miles in the pack. That’s gravity, and regeneration, at work.<\/p>\n
In the end we used 130 kWh for this 625 mile trip. I had the\u00a0cruise control set between 61 -75 depending on the road and traffic, and set the AC at a comfortable 72 degrees. The Model 3 has lots of power and acceleration always at the ready, even on very steep\u00a0climbs. At the same time it can\u00a0be very efficient. This car has the range and speed for you to drive\u00a0as you like.<\/p>\n
\"We
We used 130 kWh for this 625 mile trip. The Model 3 can be fast when you want and efficient if you like that too.<\/p><\/div>\n
The Model 3 does not have the storage capacity of our Rav4 EV, but the range and Supercharging network more than make up for that. The Model 3 has the trunk space of a\u00a0typical mid-sized 4-door sedan, and when it comes to packing for trips necessity is the mother of invention so\u00a0we stored\u00a0all\u00a0we needed in the trunk and frunk.<\/p>\n
What’s next? I’ve been planning a cross country trip for a long, long time. The Model 3 will take me there in comfort. The question is, will I survive that trip with my kids in the back….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
July 2018. California and Nevada. Since getting our first electric car\u00a05 years ago we’ve taken our EV on summer road\u00a0trips. Last week we took\u00a0our first road trip in our Model 3. How was it? We saw some great sites, interesting history, and beautiful vistas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[21,27,26,43,41,40,20,7,19,10,8,25],"class_list":["post-580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal-posts","tag-bodie","tag-chademo","tag-dc-charging","tag-electric-cars","tag-electric-vehicle","tag-ev","tag-family-road-trip","tag-model-3","tag-mono-lake","tag-supercharger","tag-tesla","tag-toyota-rav4-ev"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ventricular.org\/ItsElectric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ventricular.org\/ItsElectric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ventricular.org\/ItsElectric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ventricular.org\/ItsElectric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ventricular.org\/ItsElectric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580"}],"version-history":[{"count":105,"href":"https:\/\/ventricular.org\/ItsElectric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4586,"href":"https:\/\/ventricular.org\/ItsElectric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions\/4586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ventricular.org\/ItsElectric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ventricular.org\/ItsElectric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ventricular.org\/ItsElectric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ventricular.org\/ItsElectric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}