RTPEV
Active Member
So what you've done here is apparently gone onto plugshare and specifically found a "hole" where there are no Superchargers and posted that snippet of the map. A few questions: is this actually an area where people would take road trips through the middle of? What is the scale of the map and how does the diameter of the "circle" compare to the range of a Tesla?
Let me help you out a bit. I went to supercharge.info and found the same area. But I turned on 175 mile range circles around each of the Superchargers in the ring:
As you can see, the entire ring is well covered (although admittedly these are as the crow flies circles), meaning that if you had some business practically anywhere within the inside of the ring, you could make it from the edge and back without much difficulty.
But let's say for example you wanted to travel from a point on the ring to the opposite side. Spokane to Pocatello looks like a good worst-case scenario. Let's see what Google Maps plots for a route:
It looks like the best route to take takes you right along the ring, and not through the middle (not surprising), so you should have no trouble at all with that journey.
Even if for some reason you wanted to take that "shortcut" from Missoula to Idaho Falls, that's a 300 mile leg without Superchargers. Could you do that?
Well, I suspect that there are some serious elevation changes there, so it may in fact be difficult, even in a long range Tesla. However, that is a 5 hour drive, so I suspect a meal break wouldn't be a bad idea as long as you are sightseeing. It just so happens that about halfway through that leg there is a Tesla destination charger in Salmon. According to ABRP you would need to stay there at least an hour and a half to get enough charge to comfortably make it to Idaho Falls, but at the same time I'm guessing that you have some interest in taking that diversion in the first place, so maybe you already have a stop in mind...
Turns out cutting across the ring in the "short" direction might actually be more of a challenge. How about Missoula, MT to Baker City, OR? Here is what Google says to do:
ABRP routes along the outer grey route, which adds 7 minutes versus the "cut through", but of course allows a comfortable trip. But again, let's say you really wanted to cut through the middle. This could be done with some long stops at L2 chargers/240V outlets, but yes, it would add significant time. Again, however, I would imagine there is some reason one would want to cut through the middle like this (maybe a camping trip or something), so the question becomes, during that journey, would you be parked somewhere anyway?
Maybe instead of posting maps with gaps in the network that are probably not an issue anyway, you could give us an example of an actual road trip you would take and we can actually see how difficult it would be?
I'll even help you with this...I've had some interactions with someone from Washington who does have a trip that is actually difficult in a Tesla! It's a fairly unique situation, but at least it's not so unique that it would appear completely contrived. The trip is from Seattle to Pullman, WA to drop his daughter off at school (a 4.5 hour drive one way) with an immediate turn around to drive back to Seattle. There is a 50kW CCS/CHAdeMO charger in Pullman, but without an adapter, it's not going to do much good. There are several L2 stations in Pullman, but that's not going to help the dad get back on the road to make this a one day trip. Routing this trip for a long range Model 3 does require a diversion to the Moses Lake and Ritzville Superchargers, which does add about 70 minutes (13%) of driving time to the trip. So yes, an inconvenience for sure. Certainly doesn't make it impossible though.
And one other thing to mention is that if you've been paying attention, the rate of expansion of the Supercharger network has really accelerated. Tesla is more or less making good on their promise to expand the Supercharger network in keeping with the number of cars they are producing. I would expect this to continue as Austin and Berlin come online, meaning that what you see in the network today will look very different a year from now. Expect many of those gaps to be filled, at least in areas where it actually makes sense. Like I said, I can contrive road trips that are difficult or impossible in a Tesla, but I don't believe that the number of people that would actually travel those routes exceed a couple of dozen altogether.
Let me help you out a bit. I went to supercharge.info and found the same area. But I turned on 175 mile range circles around each of the Superchargers in the ring:
As you can see, the entire ring is well covered (although admittedly these are as the crow flies circles), meaning that if you had some business practically anywhere within the inside of the ring, you could make it from the edge and back without much difficulty.
But let's say for example you wanted to travel from a point on the ring to the opposite side. Spokane to Pocatello looks like a good worst-case scenario. Let's see what Google Maps plots for a route:
It looks like the best route to take takes you right along the ring, and not through the middle (not surprising), so you should have no trouble at all with that journey.
Even if for some reason you wanted to take that "shortcut" from Missoula to Idaho Falls, that's a 300 mile leg without Superchargers. Could you do that?
Well, I suspect that there are some serious elevation changes there, so it may in fact be difficult, even in a long range Tesla. However, that is a 5 hour drive, so I suspect a meal break wouldn't be a bad idea as long as you are sightseeing. It just so happens that about halfway through that leg there is a Tesla destination charger in Salmon. According to ABRP you would need to stay there at least an hour and a half to get enough charge to comfortably make it to Idaho Falls, but at the same time I'm guessing that you have some interest in taking that diversion in the first place, so maybe you already have a stop in mind...
Turns out cutting across the ring in the "short" direction might actually be more of a challenge. How about Missoula, MT to Baker City, OR? Here is what Google says to do:
ABRP routes along the outer grey route, which adds 7 minutes versus the "cut through", but of course allows a comfortable trip. But again, let's say you really wanted to cut through the middle. This could be done with some long stops at L2 chargers/240V outlets, but yes, it would add significant time. Again, however, I would imagine there is some reason one would want to cut through the middle like this (maybe a camping trip or something), so the question becomes, during that journey, would you be parked somewhere anyway?
Maybe instead of posting maps with gaps in the network that are probably not an issue anyway, you could give us an example of an actual road trip you would take and we can actually see how difficult it would be?
I'll even help you with this...I've had some interactions with someone from Washington who does have a trip that is actually difficult in a Tesla! It's a fairly unique situation, but at least it's not so unique that it would appear completely contrived. The trip is from Seattle to Pullman, WA to drop his daughter off at school (a 4.5 hour drive one way) with an immediate turn around to drive back to Seattle. There is a 50kW CCS/CHAdeMO charger in Pullman, but without an adapter, it's not going to do much good. There are several L2 stations in Pullman, but that's not going to help the dad get back on the road to make this a one day trip. Routing this trip for a long range Model 3 does require a diversion to the Moses Lake and Ritzville Superchargers, which does add about 70 minutes (13%) of driving time to the trip. So yes, an inconvenience for sure. Certainly doesn't make it impossible though.
And one other thing to mention is that if you've been paying attention, the rate of expansion of the Supercharger network has really accelerated. Tesla is more or less making good on their promise to expand the Supercharger network in keeping with the number of cars they are producing. I would expect this to continue as Austin and Berlin come online, meaning that what you see in the network today will look very different a year from now. Expect many of those gaps to be filled, at least in areas where it actually makes sense. Like I said, I can contrive road trips that are difficult or impossible in a Tesla, but I don't believe that the number of people that would actually travel those routes exceed a couple of dozen altogether.