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I-65/i-75 — A New Route from Chicago to Florida
- Thread starter Cottonwood
- Start date
They are on exit 3. They sold the restaurant 6 years ago when grand kids came. The previous owner ran it to the ground and now they are opening back up in a month or two. A hot pot / Chinese style restaurant. I put in for a supercharger to be built here since they have a large parking lot. I'll see if Dad can get a Tesla HPWC installed in the mean time.
With London, KY found and Lexington, KY probably found, the only link left is to find the Supercharger Location in Knoxville, TN.
See Dayton, OH to Chattanooga, TN - Google Maps
It looks like two Superchargers are on the 2015 map near Cincinnati, OH to break up the 151 mile segment between Dayton and Lexington.
Lexington, KY Supercharger being built
Supercharger - London, Ky
Knoxville??
See Dayton, OH to Chattanooga, TN - Google Maps
- Dayton, OH
- Lexigton, KY - 151 mi
- London, KY - 69 mi
- Knoxville, TN - 99 mi
- Chattanooga, TN - 104 mi
It looks like two Superchargers are on the 2015 map near Cincinnati, OH to break up the 151 mile segment between Dayton and Lexington.
Lexington, KY Supercharger being built
Supercharger - London, Ky
Knoxville??
Knoxville is the missing link on this chain, and it is an "Opening Soon," grey icon on the Tesla Motors Supercharger Page.
Is anyone looking in Knoxville?
Is anyone looking in Knoxville?
I have it on good authority that something should be happening in Knoxville, now or soon. Locals keep your eyes open...
With Lexington open and London soon, Knoxville will open a much shorter, Supercharger path from the midwest to Florida!
That's good news, but it's still nowhere near the optimal path using the I-24 corridor.
956 miles for me to Orlando via I-64/I-24 route, 1,225 miles to Orlando via the I-65/I-75 route. It's 60 miles faster for Chicago, too.
When I talked to Tesla about it, their response was "we enabled regional travel" and didn't respond after I told them it was a critical route for anyone west of Chicago, because it's the most direct way to get to Florida, especially from the midwest. Best path would be STL to Mt. Vernon, IL via I-64, then I-57 to I-24 to Nashville, TN, then on to Chattanooga and south from there.
Great that this path is open because it means we can consider our travel to Orlando in the Model S this year (since our X won't be here in time), but an additional 300 miles is "meh" to me.
Hey, I could not agree more, but one step at a time!
Because the Paducah Supercharger may be the last link in the I-24 chain, I think a few of you Midwesterners should lobby Harrah's Metropolis to apply for some Destination Charging HPWC's. That could be a good place to top up until the Paducah Supercharger is built.
I grew up in Metropolis, and worked construction building I-24 just north of the Ohio River for a couple of summers, so know this region reasonably well.
History factoids: The Spanish built a fort near Metropolis in 1540, and by 1800, Fort Massac, the predecessor to Metropolis was in it's third incarnation with control passing from Spain to France to England to finally to the U.S., while Fort Dearborn, the predecessor to Chicago wasn't built until 1803. Metropolis was laid out in 1839 and Chicago was organized in 1833.
dhanson865
Well-Known Member
See that green the the southeast of Knoxville, TN? That would be the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. Population 0 humans, lots of bears, deer, etc. There are no easy routes from Atlanta to Knoxville that don't take that circuitous route.
The Appalachian mountains are the reason the Florida to north routes generally go through Atlanta. There isn't a good way to start up the east coast then cut over the mountains to go west.
Then once you get to Chattanooga you could swap over to Nashville and go up I-65 to save miles on an Orlando to Chicago trip but Tesla isn't just doing the shortest route from Orlando to Chicago, they are building links to population centers for trips in all directions.
I-24 was built specifically to address midwest-to-southeast travel. If I were planning the network, after doing the east-west route they did, I'd make sure I-75 was covered well, then go after the I-24 route next. The goal would be to enable the most-used paths first.
I could not agree more!
The I-75 route is good for the Ohio area and pretty good for Chicago and east. Once you start looking at St Louis and west, I-24 becomes a very important, time-saving route to Nashville, Atlanta, and Florida.
Besides, having personally helped build part of I-24, I am very interested in that route. There is nothing like laying miles of rebar to remember a highway...
Two side roads to recommend in the area for folks with time and full batteries (= hilly):
1. 25E from Morristown TN to Corbin KY through the Cumberland Gap to bypass Knoxville
2. 64 and/or 74 through the Great Smokies Park and Nantahala Forest between Chattanooga TN and Asheville NC.
Have driven both in an ICE, would be interesting to see the energy consumption with hill climbing, numerous regen opportunities and relatively low speeds vs. interstates.
1. 25E from Morristown TN to Corbin KY through the Cumberland Gap to bypass Knoxville
2. 64 and/or 74 through the Great Smokies Park and Nantahala Forest between Chattanooga TN and Asheville NC.
Have driven both in an ICE, would be interesting to see the energy consumption with hill climbing, numerous regen opportunities and relatively low speeds vs. interstates.
I reached out to the GM at Harrah's today and spoke with him for about 10 minutes. He seemed interested in hearing more, and asked for more information. I sent him a letter that I detailed here:
Tesla Supercharger network - Page 609
dhanson865
Well-Known Member
I'm happy to scour, scout, and post pics.
I don't know if the power will be LCUB or KUB. It'll depend on the site.
Codes Administration and Enforcement - Knox County Tennessee Government
Permit Reports - Codes Administration and Enforcement - Knox County Tennessee Government
City of Knoxville - Plans Review & Inspections (plenty of names and phone numbers but I don't want to pester anyone until I have a better idea of timing)
I doubt it'd be worth driving around until we can find the permit. My number one guess would be somewhere on Campbell Station RD (I-40/I-75 exit 373) with a second guess of Lovell RD (exit 374). Both areas are in Knox county, the majority of each road is in Knoxville (they annexed anything retail that would bring in taxes for the City, I doubt any property selected would be county only).
Both of those exits service I-75 south and I-40 west out of Knoxville (towards Chattanooga or Nashville) and are between the I-40/75 spit and the I-140 intersection which services Alcoa/Maryville (where the main airport is) and Oak Ridge (the secret city).
There are literally dozens if not hundreds of viable locations to put superchargers in those couple of miles along the interstate so I'd expect they'll look for the most favorable lease terms and build in that area. The high pay option would be to put it in the Turkey Creek shopping center say in the lot of the Smokey Mountain Brewery or any thing near that center area.
Another option would be to pick something like the Hampton Inn & Suites 11340 Campbell Lakes Drive Knoxville, TN 37934
Just way to many options to check them all without a permit to narrow the search.
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Knoxville is open: Knoxville supercharger - where - Page 8
With Knoxville open, and except for the 188 mile, Indianapolis to Lexington gap, there is now a Supercharger chain from Chicago to Florida!
The Cincinnati Supercharger will be on the wrong side of town for this route, so hopefully, Louisville will be happening soon...
Rifleman
Now owns 2 Model S's!!!
I would probably still go through cincinnati, and either detour to hit the cincy supercharger (it will be about a 30 mile detour total) or hit a L2 charger or Chademo (if you have the adapter) in cincy for a little bit. You are welcome to hit my 14-50 in Harrison (far west side of cincy, 99 miles from the indy supercharger) if you need a top off, but it might still be quicker to detour to the supercharger, depending on how much range you need. Just PM me if you need the charge.
Unless the weather is bad, it should just need a longer (hour+) charge in Indy. If you use EV Trip Planner, it shows the segment needing 214 rated miles in an 85 driving with traffic and normal conditions; 1.0 speed is the average speed on the route, not the speed limit.
If I were doing this route, I would charge to 95-98% Soc at Indy, then set the Lexington Supercharger as the destination and watch the Energy:Trip display. If the predicted SoC at the Lexington Supercharger drops below 10%, slow down. Also, use the Cinci Supercharger and Plugshare as backups.
Enjoy the drive!
Rifleman
Now owns 2 Model S's!!!
Keep in mind that you will need to make a proceed/stop and charge call before you pass Cincinnati, as there are essentially no places to charge between cincy and lexington.
Thanks for the advice Rifleman and Cottonwood, and thank you very much for the offer Rifleman.
I think I will try the Indianapolis/Lexington gap after charging to almost full in Indianapolis. But, as plan B, I noticed that Louisville has a hotel (21c) that is in the destination charging program. I will ask them if I can dine at their restaurant for lunch and use their HPWC. Also on Plugshare there seems to be a model S owner in Louisville making his HPWC available, that can be plan C.
Ahhh....it's tough being a Tesla pioneer....but also fun.
I think I will try the Indianapolis/Lexington gap after charging to almost full in Indianapolis. But, as plan B, I noticed that Louisville has a hotel (21c) that is in the destination charging program. I will ask them if I can dine at their restaurant for lunch and use their HPWC. Also on Plugshare there seems to be a model S owner in Louisville making his HPWC available, that can be plan C.
Ahhh....it's tough being a Tesla pioneer....but also fun.
I'm doing this route soon as well. With my family, EVTripPlanner says I should use ~220 mi of rated range from Indy-Lexington. I plan to drive it 70 and slow down if needed. CSV data shows avg speed of 68-70 along there.
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