This week Tesla is announcing a huge increase in the number of their supercharger stations. These are dedicated charging stations for Tesla owners at key locations along major interstates, like I-5 through the California Central Valley for those driving between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. Tesla wants people to lose their range anxiety and be able to take long trips in their electric cars. Oh, and the charge ups are included in the purchase price of the car.
Assuming you start your road trip with a full overnight charge and the 85kW battery then you will have an initial range of 301 miles. That’s pretty good for a lot of trips and is about what the average car manufacturer aims for on a full tank of gas.
The supercharger will give a full charge in one hour or half a charge in half the time. That’s 150 miles of range if you hang out for 30 minutes.
If you’re on a big wide open freeway with a 65MPH speed limit then you’ll cover the first 301 miles in 4.6 hours. But there’s a catch, the quoted range is for 55MPH with no air conditioning. The I-5 trip through a hot valley and something like I-10 is even worse. Once you crank up the speed and turn on the air the range drops to 247 miles (or less because the Tesla calculator only goes up to 65MPH and you don’t always drive 65). At 65MPH you’ll cover the 247 miles in 3.7 hours.
Being a prudent person you’d never let the batteries drain all the way down, because the owner’s manual says not to do that. You’ll probably want to charge up at about half way and no less than a quarter charge. Based on that timeline here is how the Tesla road trip would look.
- Start: 0 miles / 0 hours
- First charge at 25% charge left: 185 miles / 2.85 hours elapsed
- Wait (have a cup of coffee and a cronut) 45 minutes: 185 miles / 3.6 hours elapsed
- Back on the road after a 75% charge up for a new range of 247 miles
- Drive 185 miles to get back down to 25% and charge up: 370 miles / 6.45 hours elapsed
Congratulations you just made it from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 6.45 hours. Google Maps says that trip would take you 5.75 hours if you drive straight through. But you saved $50 in gas for your trouble (assuming 30MPG). Though if you just bought a $70,000 car, maybe $50 in gas isn’t really a big deal.
If you had started in San Diego you would need to add in another 45 minute charge up to not dip below 25%.
Photo: Flickr
