So I've had the rare opportunity to do a 600 mile road trip in a Model S, and follow that up a week later with an identical road trip in an ICE (GMC Sierra 2500HD Denali - Diesel). Model S trip was to go look at an RV trailer, ICE trip was to go get it.
The trip was from Seattle to Butte, MT on the I90. Both done in 1 day. With the Tesla it took 12 hours - with the GMC 11.
Charging vs. Re-fuelling stops
The Denali could do the 600 mile trip in one go, so no fuel stops for it. However, we stopped at highway rest areas, lookouts and state parks to let the dogs out. The Model S in turn got stops in Ellensburg, Ritzville, Coeur d'Alene, Missoula, Superior and Butte.
The stop frequency and time of the Model S wasn't bothersome at all. In fact, I got frustrated on the way back because my passengers wanted me to drive 6 hours straight (towing a 10'000lbs trailer!) without any breaks. Boy did I miss the Tesla at that point.
What is however bothersome is the very bleak and boring placement of Superchargers. I don't know who in Tesla thought there was a large overlap between people who drive $100k+ vehicles and people who like to frequent Golden Corral and Dollar Tree. Tesla doesn't seem to have formal restroom agreements with the establishments around the Superchargers, so going into a restroom of a establishment that you're not a customer in is not the greatest experience. (I did get called on this at the Golden Corral.)
Compare that to instead stopping at lookouts, state parks and even highway rest areas with the GMC. They generally have cleaner bathrooms (and you don't feel like you're intruding), picnic tables, free coffee in some places, dedicated pet locations (seriously, can someone please give Elon a puppy for Christmas) - and they're mostly directly off the highway. This is where I stop when given the choice. I drove by all those Supercharger locations on the I90, and not once did I think: "Oh wouldn't it be nice if we were there because then we could ...". They're just not in places I would ever stop. I think the strong ties between Superchargers and food establishments are too much and I hope when a next round of redundant rollouts start, they'd go for a different theme. State parks would be awesome - even highway rest areas would be a welcome change.
I think it's best summed up:
The Tesla is a luxury car, but yields a pedestrian trip.
The GMC is a pedestrian car, but yields a luxury trip.
Driving dynamics
Ok, obviously a no contest win to the Tesla. Suspension & performance makes a huge difference.
However, what I don't always appreciate is that Tesla doesn't treat me like a child that can't be trusted with his own safety. There are features that both cars have that impact safety, but on the GMC you're not allowed to use it:
a) I can turn the Tesla rear view camera on while driving on the highway. The GMC has horrible blind spots. The rear view camera would help eliminating it, but NO - not allowed.
b) On the Tesla my wife can use the Navigation system to enter an address while I'm driving. The GMC forces the driver to use voice commands. So instead of the passenger fiddling around with the Navigation screen for 5 minutes, you have the driver fiddling around with it over voice for 15 minutes. And you DO have to look down to look at the options on the console. And this is supposed to be safer than the passenger typing in an address??? (WTH).
c) The Tesla in-dash navigation provides a huge safety feature when going over the mountain passes at night and being able to know which direction the next curve is before you can see it. You can do that on the GMC as well, but NOT while you have navigation up. So you have to choose between being able to predict the curves, or knowing where you're going. Ugh. So I had to turn off navigation while going through the passes.
As for the reverse:
d) You can tether your iPhone/iPod/Laptop etc. to GMC's LTE WiFi (with excellent signal quality). Costs you $10 per month. You can't do that with the Tesla, no matter how much you're willing to pay. Boo Tesla.
Conclusion
In all honesty, I preferred the trip in the GMC. Those Supercharger spots drags down the experience of owing a Tesla and outweighs the driving dynamics. If just some of them were located in places worth visiting, it would make a world of difference.
The trip was from Seattle to Butte, MT on the I90. Both done in 1 day. With the Tesla it took 12 hours - with the GMC 11.
Charging vs. Re-fuelling stops
The Denali could do the 600 mile trip in one go, so no fuel stops for it. However, we stopped at highway rest areas, lookouts and state parks to let the dogs out. The Model S in turn got stops in Ellensburg, Ritzville, Coeur d'Alene, Missoula, Superior and Butte.
The stop frequency and time of the Model S wasn't bothersome at all. In fact, I got frustrated on the way back because my passengers wanted me to drive 6 hours straight (towing a 10'000lbs trailer!) without any breaks. Boy did I miss the Tesla at that point.
What is however bothersome is the very bleak and boring placement of Superchargers. I don't know who in Tesla thought there was a large overlap between people who drive $100k+ vehicles and people who like to frequent Golden Corral and Dollar Tree. Tesla doesn't seem to have formal restroom agreements with the establishments around the Superchargers, so going into a restroom of a establishment that you're not a customer in is not the greatest experience. (I did get called on this at the Golden Corral.)
Compare that to instead stopping at lookouts, state parks and even highway rest areas with the GMC. They generally have cleaner bathrooms (and you don't feel like you're intruding), picnic tables, free coffee in some places, dedicated pet locations (seriously, can someone please give Elon a puppy for Christmas) - and they're mostly directly off the highway. This is where I stop when given the choice. I drove by all those Supercharger locations on the I90, and not once did I think: "Oh wouldn't it be nice if we were there because then we could ...". They're just not in places I would ever stop. I think the strong ties between Superchargers and food establishments are too much and I hope when a next round of redundant rollouts start, they'd go for a different theme. State parks would be awesome - even highway rest areas would be a welcome change.
I think it's best summed up:
The Tesla is a luxury car, but yields a pedestrian trip.
The GMC is a pedestrian car, but yields a luxury trip.
Driving dynamics
Ok, obviously a no contest win to the Tesla. Suspension & performance makes a huge difference.
However, what I don't always appreciate is that Tesla doesn't treat me like a child that can't be trusted with his own safety. There are features that both cars have that impact safety, but on the GMC you're not allowed to use it:
a) I can turn the Tesla rear view camera on while driving on the highway. The GMC has horrible blind spots. The rear view camera would help eliminating it, but NO - not allowed.
b) On the Tesla my wife can use the Navigation system to enter an address while I'm driving. The GMC forces the driver to use voice commands. So instead of the passenger fiddling around with the Navigation screen for 5 minutes, you have the driver fiddling around with it over voice for 15 minutes. And you DO have to look down to look at the options on the console. And this is supposed to be safer than the passenger typing in an address??? (WTH).
c) The Tesla in-dash navigation provides a huge safety feature when going over the mountain passes at night and being able to know which direction the next curve is before you can see it. You can do that on the GMC as well, but NOT while you have navigation up. So you have to choose between being able to predict the curves, or knowing where you're going. Ugh. So I had to turn off navigation while going through the passes.
As for the reverse:
d) You can tether your iPhone/iPod/Laptop etc. to GMC's LTE WiFi (with excellent signal quality). Costs you $10 per month. You can't do that with the Tesla, no matter how much you're willing to pay. Boo Tesla.
Conclusion
In all honesty, I preferred the trip in the GMC. Those Supercharger spots drags down the experience of owing a Tesla and outweighs the driving dynamics. If just some of them were located in places worth visiting, it would make a world of difference.
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