Two frequently asked questions about owning a Tesla: how far can you go on a single charge? And what is the furthest you have gone in your Model S? Well, our car can go 250 miles on a charge but just like with a gas car, we stop along the way to fill up until the next charging station which is exactly how we drove from Georgia to New York.
Based on our car’s range, the duration of our total road trip was estimated to be 16 hours!
I know, I know, but hear me out. I am a New York native and that is where most of my family still resides, so I was very excited to see everybody. AND I love taking road trips in our Tesla so I was actually looking forward to the ride, too. Yes, we could have flown but who wants to do that when you can drive a cool all-electric luxury vehicle?! Also, we were there for 10 days, which strategically overlapped with Labor Day weekend, so we didn’t have to rush back on the road after that long drive. (Sidebar: Tesla navigation calculates how many times you will need to stop during every trip, where you will stop, and how long you will need to be at each supercharger, which alleviates a lot of additional planning.)
However, Tesla or not, that is a long drive to take by oneself so I probably would not have been as accepting of that travel time if I were not sharing the driving with my husband. Rotating driver shifts allowed us to sleep while the other drove and not risk causing an accident. Of course, engaging autopilot didn’t hurt the process either 😉. We both used autopilot during our shifts, and were able to have an even more comfortable ride.
As I discussed in a previous post, Tesla’s supercharger network is vast. We stopped 4 times in each direction. My mom lives in upstate NY (about 1 hour north of NYC) and is conveniently located 2 miles from a supercharger.
At home in Atlanta, we charge overnight with our apartment’s non-Tesla EV charger so we wake up every morning to a fully charged battery…I definitely missed that! However, staying close to a supercharger station and the multitude of stations in New York made driving around the city, and back and forth upstate, a cinch.
We went to a beautiful wedding, 2 different BBQs, ate a Sushi dinner in Manhattan, relaxed at the river front, played at an amusement park, and more, but most importantly we laughed until our stomachs hurt throughout the entire trip. Hopefully, we also convinced some relatives to make Tesla their next car by debunking some myths and doing a little math. It was definitely worth the drive to have all of that fun with our family and friends.
Being a Tesla owner has definitely changed my outlook on travel. I was always up for a road trip, but I hated stopping even for bathroom breaks. I was always in a rush to “just get there”. Now, when we stop to charge, particularly because of the locations of the superchargers, I always want to get out and enjoy our surroundings whether it’s a shopping center/mall, a restaurant, or a more rural area that I’ve never been to and can just enjoy the nature. Pleasantly, the locations of the superchargers in New York made me nostalgic and brought back good memories of when I was growing up. Tesla has undoubtedly added a new aspect of traveling for me, especially for road trips.
Did you take any road trips this summer? How far did you go? Did you stop on the way to your destination?
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