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775 mile California Road Trip - 5 Superchargers

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Took a 775-mile trip around California this week. I wanted to see if real-world long distance travel was possible with the Tesla.

I used the Harris Ranch, Tejon, Buellton, Atascadero and Gilroy Superchargers as well as local chargers in Santa Barbara. Short answer, these trips are eminently doable as long as you add an hour or two in your travel schedule. (With the one caveat, that my the trip was in the middle of the week with no waiting at any of the chargers.)

Details: I have a P85, air, tech package, pano roof. Left Silicon Valley and went down Highway 101 and across to I-5 stopping at the Harris Ranch charger. No one else was there and my first time plugging into a supercharger and … nothing happened… got a message on the dash about “preparing to charge” but charging never started. I unplugged and moved to the next charger and then the magic happened. (That was the only problem I had in any of the 5 Superchargers, but I did see other individual stations cone’d off at Atascadero.) Had lunch at Harris Ranch and if you're a carnivore this is your place.

My charging rates at all Superchargers seemed to follow a curve of starting off at ~275 miles/hour then declining to about ~165 miles/hour (regardless of whether I was doing standard or range charge.)

My trip down I-5 from the Tejon charger took me to Glendale and then up Highway 101 to Santa Barbara and ultimately back home to Pescadero (between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz), stopping at Buellton, Atascadero and Gilroy.

I had no range problems getting from the charge at Tejon to my first destination in Glendale and then up 101 to Santa Barbara. However once in Santa Barbara I was worried that I wouldn't have enough range to get to the next Supercharger in Buellton. Since I was staying overnight in Santa Barbara, I found a Chargepoint charger in a public lot near my B&B and then the next day at a public lot at UC Santa Barbara. Before this trip I would only charge at home and never used public chargers, but using the Recargo app on my iPhone made finding them easy. (BTW, I had signed up for Chargepoint and had gotten a card, which I put on my Tesla key ring. All you have to do is tap the card on the Chargepoint display and you can use the charger. Magic. )

The car was a pleasure to drive (except that my newly repaired pano roof howls in the wind when going 75mph or greater.) Met interesting people at a few of the Superchargers, including someone from Germany who bought a used Tesla that day and was going to drive it to Canada.

I gave 4 different test rides to 8 interested friends and I can testify that the Tesla grin not only exists but it is accompanied by a look of utter astonishment.

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P85/19"/Black/Pano/Tech/Sound/Air/shelf/Armor/dual charger/HPWC
 
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@tacket - Short answer, yes I ended up cutting it close - not because of the Tesla range - but by the unexpected driving I did when I was touring around.

Just by looking at the map between Superchargers I thought I could make it from a range charge in Tejon to-Glendale to- two nights staying in Santa Barbara and then on to a Supercharger in Buellton.

I neglected to take into account "10-mile down the road" side-trips I'd make when I was in-Santa Barbara, the 0-90mph demo rides for friends, and the 10 mile/day vampire loss. All those cut into my "should make it" calculations and made me think "what if I don't." That's when the public charging stations in Santa Barbara really helped.


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P85/19"/Black/Pano/Tech/Sound/Air/shelf/Armor/dual charger/HPWC
 
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I'm having a hard time understanding why you ended up 'cutting it close' if you drove for 775 miles and used 5 superchargers. That's six stretches, so an average of just 130 miles per stretch between superchargers, and then I'm not even counting the local chargers you used. Is something off with the math?
 
I'm having a hard time understanding why you ended up 'cutting it close' if you drove for 775 miles and used 5 superchargers. That's six stretches, so an average of just 130 miles per stretch between superchargers, and then I'm not even counting the local chargers you used. Is something off with the math?

I guess for a trip like to be interesting, it has to be more than a "Tour de Superchargers". Extra distance=extra fun.
 
I might do a 740 mile trip with only 3 superchargers, this is what I have in mind for a LA up to the factory & then down the coast via HWY 1 to home in Granada Hills.

Home to Harris Ranch 176 miles
Harris Ranch to Freemont & then back to Gilroy is 193 miles (plan on range charging here)
Gilroy over to Monterey, spend the night in Carmel then down to Moro bay & spend the night, then over to Atascadero is 172 miles+2 nights vampire loss.
Atascadero back to home is 192 miles (plan on range charging here).

It looks pretty doable, am I missing something? Any advice?
 
I might do a 740 mile trip with only 3 superchargers, this is what I have in mind for a LA up to the factory & then down the coast via HWY 1 to home in Granada Hills.

Home to Harris Ranch 176 miles
Harris Ranch to Freemont & then back to Gilroy is 193 miles (plan on range charging here)
Gilroy over to Monterey, spend the night in Carmel then down to Moro bay & spend the night, then over to Atascadero is 172 miles+2 nights vampire loss.
Atascadero back to home is 192 miles (plan on range charging here).

It looks pretty doable, am I missing something? Any advice?
Yesterday, I drove up to TESLIVE from Glendale and back home again; also around 750 miles. I range charged, then hit Buellton and Atascadero on the 101 before arriving at the Crown Plaza with about 50 miles of range. At the event, I Blink-charged to add another 100 miles. On the return, I used Gilroy, Harris and Tejon. I drove a pretty solid 70-75 mph the whole trip and got about 330 Wh/mi.
I had perfect weather and temps with some cross/head winds on the 5 coming home. Most of my stops were around 30-40 mins and most were welcome breaks anyway, especially on the drive home where I caught a 30 min nap at Harris Ranch. Harris had 2 chargers that would start charging and then quit. Perhaps they were overheated although temps were mild at 9:30p. Atascadero was coned-off by a paving crew just after I left. This would have been a real headache if I had arrived 1 hour later.

I tried to charge with just enough margin to get to the next Supercharger but the uncertainty of whether some spots might be full or inoperative had me add enough charge to get to the one beyond (if I backed off on my speed). I think adding real-time Supercharger status is an important thing for Tesla to address soon.
It was a great trip made easier by the 85 pack (and a great car).
 
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I also drove up from Del Mar, just north of San Diego, to Fremont for TESLIVE and back again on Sunday.
Trip charged Wednesday night 254 rated range
Left around 1:20pm
Stopped at Tejon Ranch Supercharger, 186 miles, 2:50, with about 47 miles of rated range, Had lunch for about 45 minutes while charging. Did not charge full.
Stopped at Harris Ranch Supercharger, 116 miles, 1:45, with about 70 miles of rated range. Had a snack while charging, did not charger full.
Stopped at Gilroy Supercharger, out of range anxiety :), 111 miles with about 40 miles of rated range.
Had to wait about 35 minutes for a supercharger then charged for 45 minutes while eating at Denny's
Hotel 36 miles, :40 170 rated range.
Arrived 11:30pm

Sunday, left about 7:20am. Did not charge before leaving
Stopped at Gilroy
Stopped at Harris Ranch for Breakfast and charge
Stopped at Tejon Ranch, took a nap in the car while charging
Back Home to Del Mar arrived about 4:45pm

If switching was available I would probably charge while eating a meal at one stop, and switch at the other long stop.
 
I'll admit I only skimmed the OP but...

1. 775 miles
2. 5 supercharges

Is there another constraint? For example, it's terribly boring but trivial to do it with 1 supercharge at 15 mph if you don't get impounded for impeding traffic flow.