We did a trip from the Bay Area to Reno over Presidents Day weekend, primarily to see a concert in Reno, but also to log visits to a few Superchargers. Let me say up front that this is not a good example of how to road-trip efficiently in a Tesla, because we deliberately did many more Supercharging stops than actually needed.
We left home with a full battery a little after 8AM on Friday, 14 February, Valentine’s Day. An hour and a half drive brought us to the Roseville Supercharger, where we unsuccessfully tried to charge. Even though the in-car nav indicated open stalls, we found there were several stalls out of service, and all of the remaining pedestals (plus two on a temporary pallet) were full. We didn’t feel like waiting around, and we knew that Rocklin was close by (with free stalls), so we headed over there. (Ironically, a new Supercharger in Roseville soft-opened the next day.)
While busy, Rocklin had several open stalls and we took half an hour to charge from 49% to 74%. Such is the life of a Tesla with a charge gated 85 pack. However, this was the only charging stop of the entire trip where we were actively waiting around for the car to charge (unfortunately there wasn’t a lot to do other than hang out at the Tesla store). As per normal practice, we only charged enough to get to the next charger plus have some energy reserves.
After Rocklin, we headed up to Truckee. Our first stop was the Truckee (Donner Pass Road) Supercharger, which we made a lunch stop. This was my 99th Supercharger logged. There are several choices for a quick bite to eat here, none fancy. My son and I picked up sandwiches at Port of Subs and my wife got some food from the deli at Safeway. By time we were done with lunch (about 45 minutes) the car had charged from 20% to 76% SOC, more than enough for us to get to our final destination.
Next stop was the Truckee (Brockway Road) Supercharger. This stop was kind of a big deal for me, being my 100th Supercharger, and getting me into the “Century Club” on the TMC leaderboard. Since it was only a few miles away from our previous stop, we only charged long enough to take some pictures.
Superchargers Visited
Amazingly, neither my wife nor my son objected when I suggested a short detour to the Tahoe City Supercharger (#101). This was the first time on the trip where we actually got to see any part of Lake Tahoe. Again, this was a quick touch-and-go charge.
From there we did a pretty straight shot into Reno, and the parking garage at the Silver Legacy Hotel. After we checked in and were unpacking stuff, discussion turned to what we were going to do for dinner. My wife had done quite a bit of Internet research on the drive up, and she suggested a highly-rated buffet. This was Toucan Charlie’s at the Atlantis Hotel, which just happens to have a small Supercharger in its parking lot. So I was clearly in favor of this.
One hint for going to Toucan Charlie’s…if you go, go early. The line can get pretty long. Food was good, and we especially liked going there for their seafood special (Friday night). We had to hunt a little bit to find the Supercharger in the parking lot, but when we got there, there was only one other car charging. This was another quick touch-and-go charge (#102), also my first Supercharging session outside California.
We then headed back towards our hotel. Next to the Silver Legacy is the El Dorado Hotel, which has Reno’s other Supercharger, so we stopped in there too (#103). It’s a fairly large (20 stall) installation, but we only saw one or two other cars charging on a Friday night. This was a slightly longer stop because I wanted to have enough juice to get us through the next couple days (charged for 24 minutes to 75% SOC). If I were to do this again, I’d consider staying at the El Dorado and using their destination chargers and just let the car charge overnight. We finished off the day with games as the midway at the Circus Circus hotel.
Saturday was a non-travel day, but we hit up the Stone House for brunch with some friends of ours and the Fleischmann Planetarium at the University of Nevada Reno. We did dinner at La Strada, a wonderful Italian restaurant in the El Dorado hotel. From there we walked over to the concert, which was at the Reno Event Center. (George Lam, a singer from Hong Kong, and he put on an excellent show.)
On Sunday, 16 February, we came home. We started with 68% SOC, which turned out to be plenty. First stop was the Incline Village Supercharger (#104). This was only 33 miles, but there was a gain of about 4600 feet of elevation followed by a drop of about 1500 feet. It made for some interesting power graphs and Wh/m figures. Because we had plenty of energy, this was a quick touch-and-go charge.
We then went down the east side of Lake Tahoe to the Stateline Supercharger (#105). This is in a multistory parking garage at the Hard Rock Cafe. Again we basically stopped just long enough to get pictures and put the next destination into the nav.
We came back on US-50, with the next stop being the Folsom (Palladio Parkway) Supercharger. That 82-mile drive only used up 16% of the battery, because it was largely downhill. This Supercharger is one I’d visited before, but I knew we had a lot of food options here. We settled on Back Bistro for a nice brunch/lunch. By time we were done with lunch we had 91% SOC, which was more than enough for us to get home.
Definitely a fun trip, from the driving, culinary, and activities perspectives. Clearly if logging Superchargers wasn’t a concern we could have done a lot fewer stops on our travel days (maybe just Rocklin and Truckee on the way up and Folsom Palladio Parkway on the way back).
The slower charging speeds on 85 packs introduced in mid-2019 software updates does make for longer charging times, but the effect seems to be less near the bottom of the battery. Unlike some other drivers, I find I need to take rest breaks every so often to get out of the car and walk around a bit, so longer charging stops don’t bother me much. Colocating charging and meal stops helps a lot.
I did a lot of the drive on Autopilot, except for driving in the mountains. My experience with Autopilot (and the original Tesla instructions for AP1) have led me to use it only on multi-lane, divided roads.
Almost 5 years old now, my Model S 85D remains a great road trip car.
Total stats (from TeslaFi):
541 miles driven
622.69 rated miles
188.29 kWh used
348 Wh/mile
11:16 driving time
3:10 charging time
137.56 kWh Supercharged
Superchargers used (* denotes first visit to a charger): Rocklin, Truckee (Donner Pass Rd.)*, Truckee (Brockway Rd.)*, Tahoe City*, Reno*, Reno (N. Sierra St.)*, Incline Village*, Stateline*, Folsom (Palladio Parkway)
Destination chargers used: None
Bruce.
We left home with a full battery a little after 8AM on Friday, 14 February, Valentine’s Day. An hour and a half drive brought us to the Roseville Supercharger, where we unsuccessfully tried to charge. Even though the in-car nav indicated open stalls, we found there were several stalls out of service, and all of the remaining pedestals (plus two on a temporary pallet) were full. We didn’t feel like waiting around, and we knew that Rocklin was close by (with free stalls), so we headed over there. (Ironically, a new Supercharger in Roseville soft-opened the next day.)
While busy, Rocklin had several open stalls and we took half an hour to charge from 49% to 74%. Such is the life of a Tesla with a charge gated 85 pack. However, this was the only charging stop of the entire trip where we were actively waiting around for the car to charge (unfortunately there wasn’t a lot to do other than hang out at the Tesla store). As per normal practice, we only charged enough to get to the next charger plus have some energy reserves.
After Rocklin, we headed up to Truckee. Our first stop was the Truckee (Donner Pass Road) Supercharger, which we made a lunch stop. This was my 99th Supercharger logged. There are several choices for a quick bite to eat here, none fancy. My son and I picked up sandwiches at Port of Subs and my wife got some food from the deli at Safeway. By time we were done with lunch (about 45 minutes) the car had charged from 20% to 76% SOC, more than enough for us to get to our final destination.
Next stop was the Truckee (Brockway Road) Supercharger. This stop was kind of a big deal for me, being my 100th Supercharger, and getting me into the “Century Club” on the TMC leaderboard. Since it was only a few miles away from our previous stop, we only charged long enough to take some pictures.
Superchargers Visited
Amazingly, neither my wife nor my son objected when I suggested a short detour to the Tahoe City Supercharger (#101). This was the first time on the trip where we actually got to see any part of Lake Tahoe. Again, this was a quick touch-and-go charge.
From there we did a pretty straight shot into Reno, and the parking garage at the Silver Legacy Hotel. After we checked in and were unpacking stuff, discussion turned to what we were going to do for dinner. My wife had done quite a bit of Internet research on the drive up, and she suggested a highly-rated buffet. This was Toucan Charlie’s at the Atlantis Hotel, which just happens to have a small Supercharger in its parking lot. So I was clearly in favor of this.
One hint for going to Toucan Charlie’s…if you go, go early. The line can get pretty long. Food was good, and we especially liked going there for their seafood special (Friday night). We had to hunt a little bit to find the Supercharger in the parking lot, but when we got there, there was only one other car charging. This was another quick touch-and-go charge (#102), also my first Supercharging session outside California.
We then headed back towards our hotel. Next to the Silver Legacy is the El Dorado Hotel, which has Reno’s other Supercharger, so we stopped in there too (#103). It’s a fairly large (20 stall) installation, but we only saw one or two other cars charging on a Friday night. This was a slightly longer stop because I wanted to have enough juice to get us through the next couple days (charged for 24 minutes to 75% SOC). If I were to do this again, I’d consider staying at the El Dorado and using their destination chargers and just let the car charge overnight. We finished off the day with games as the midway at the Circus Circus hotel.
Saturday was a non-travel day, but we hit up the Stone House for brunch with some friends of ours and the Fleischmann Planetarium at the University of Nevada Reno. We did dinner at La Strada, a wonderful Italian restaurant in the El Dorado hotel. From there we walked over to the concert, which was at the Reno Event Center. (George Lam, a singer from Hong Kong, and he put on an excellent show.)
On Sunday, 16 February, we came home. We started with 68% SOC, which turned out to be plenty. First stop was the Incline Village Supercharger (#104). This was only 33 miles, but there was a gain of about 4600 feet of elevation followed by a drop of about 1500 feet. It made for some interesting power graphs and Wh/m figures. Because we had plenty of energy, this was a quick touch-and-go charge.
We then went down the east side of Lake Tahoe to the Stateline Supercharger (#105). This is in a multistory parking garage at the Hard Rock Cafe. Again we basically stopped just long enough to get pictures and put the next destination into the nav.
We came back on US-50, with the next stop being the Folsom (Palladio Parkway) Supercharger. That 82-mile drive only used up 16% of the battery, because it was largely downhill. This Supercharger is one I’d visited before, but I knew we had a lot of food options here. We settled on Back Bistro for a nice brunch/lunch. By time we were done with lunch we had 91% SOC, which was more than enough for us to get home.
Definitely a fun trip, from the driving, culinary, and activities perspectives. Clearly if logging Superchargers wasn’t a concern we could have done a lot fewer stops on our travel days (maybe just Rocklin and Truckee on the way up and Folsom Palladio Parkway on the way back).
The slower charging speeds on 85 packs introduced in mid-2019 software updates does make for longer charging times, but the effect seems to be less near the bottom of the battery. Unlike some other drivers, I find I need to take rest breaks every so often to get out of the car and walk around a bit, so longer charging stops don’t bother me much. Colocating charging and meal stops helps a lot.
I did a lot of the drive on Autopilot, except for driving in the mountains. My experience with Autopilot (and the original Tesla instructions for AP1) have led me to use it only on multi-lane, divided roads.
Almost 5 years old now, my Model S 85D remains a great road trip car.
Total stats (from TeslaFi):
541 miles driven
622.69 rated miles
188.29 kWh used
348 Wh/mile
11:16 driving time
3:10 charging time
137.56 kWh Supercharged
Superchargers used (* denotes first visit to a charger): Rocklin, Truckee (Donner Pass Rd.)*, Truckee (Brockway Rd.)*, Tahoe City*, Reno*, Reno (N. Sierra St.)*, Incline Village*, Stateline*, Folsom (Palladio Parkway)
Destination chargers used: None
Bruce.
