My objective was to travel from San Jose area to the entrance of Sequoia national Forest and back without compromise on a holiday weekend. This means running with prevailing traffic (not slow lanes) and heat set to 75 degrees. Outside temps ranged from 50 to 65 degrees. This trip is 265 miles each way and has quite a few significant hills along the route. Most roads are freeway, but about 15% of the route is hilly two-lane slower roads. Highway 5 is posted at 70, but the prevailing speed is usually higher.
The entire trip was a success and included an extra day traveling around, with a 240V/40A charge each night. We never went below 60 miles of range due to several stops at superchargers. The Gilroy superchargers with 4 stations is popular. Two were in use on the way down, and three in use on the return. We never had to wait to get in. We didn’t really bother to get a full charge as there was plenty of safety margin on both directions (to the Harris Ranch supercharger is 110 miles, and on the return, home is 45 miles from Gilroy). I might have skipped Gilroy altogether, but it would have made the trip rather tight with about 15 miles of range left, so it really wasn’t worth pushing it that close.
The Harris Ranch supercharger can be a bottleneck with only one station. We were a bit behind schedule and we had to wait an hour for another S to charge up who arrived from Gilroy just ahead of us. Once we got plugged in, it took about 45 minutes to range charge, going from 62 to 197 rated miles. No one else appeared while we were charging. The Harris Ranch Super charger is actually between the Shell and Subway sandwich store. There is a list at the Subway checkout where you should sign up and leave a phone number. I guess you can call the current person charging to get an estimate when they will be done. While charging we walked over to Harris Ranch next door for lunch. Having the phone app to see the charge level is really nice. Note that Harris Ranch restaurant service is a bit slow, and will likely take about hour – longer if you have to wait for a table.
We spent a day traveling down to Visalia and back, with some around-town driving, about 80 miles of driving in all.
On the return trip to Harris Ranch, also at lunch time, we were able to charge up immediately. From the list it appeared only 3 others charged up in the two days between our last charge, so it doesn’t appear to be all that busy. Some users may not have signed up on the list if they didn't know about it. A note on this supercharger indicates additional chargers will be in place at the end of March. I think I read from another post that 10 new supercharger stations are going in here.
During the trip there was no attempt to baby it or alter normal driving habits other than using normal regeneration. The trip ended with a 330KW/h average, which considering the speed and hills, seems reasonable to me.
Overall, the trip was a joy. While it took a bit longer than my ICE car, it demonstrated to me that I can live without a ICE car. It’s time to let it go, as I’ve not used it in a month other than one quick trip to keep the ICE battery charged!
The entire trip was a success and included an extra day traveling around, with a 240V/40A charge each night. We never went below 60 miles of range due to several stops at superchargers. The Gilroy superchargers with 4 stations is popular. Two were in use on the way down, and three in use on the return. We never had to wait to get in. We didn’t really bother to get a full charge as there was plenty of safety margin on both directions (to the Harris Ranch supercharger is 110 miles, and on the return, home is 45 miles from Gilroy). I might have skipped Gilroy altogether, but it would have made the trip rather tight with about 15 miles of range left, so it really wasn’t worth pushing it that close.
The Harris Ranch supercharger can be a bottleneck with only one station. We were a bit behind schedule and we had to wait an hour for another S to charge up who arrived from Gilroy just ahead of us. Once we got plugged in, it took about 45 minutes to range charge, going from 62 to 197 rated miles. No one else appeared while we were charging. The Harris Ranch Super charger is actually between the Shell and Subway sandwich store. There is a list at the Subway checkout where you should sign up and leave a phone number. I guess you can call the current person charging to get an estimate when they will be done. While charging we walked over to Harris Ranch next door for lunch. Having the phone app to see the charge level is really nice. Note that Harris Ranch restaurant service is a bit slow, and will likely take about hour – longer if you have to wait for a table.
We spent a day traveling down to Visalia and back, with some around-town driving, about 80 miles of driving in all.
On the return trip to Harris Ranch, also at lunch time, we were able to charge up immediately. From the list it appeared only 3 others charged up in the two days between our last charge, so it doesn’t appear to be all that busy. Some users may not have signed up on the list if they didn't know about it. A note on this supercharger indicates additional chargers will be in place at the end of March. I think I read from another post that 10 new supercharger stations are going in here.
During the trip there was no attempt to baby it or alter normal driving habits other than using normal regeneration. The trip ended with a 330KW/h average, which considering the speed and hills, seems reasonable to me.
Overall, the trip was a joy. While it took a bit longer than my ICE car, it demonstrated to me that I can live without a ICE car. It’s time to let it go, as I’ve not used it in a month other than one quick trip to keep the ICE battery charged!