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2013 Tesla Model S Coast-to-Coast Road Trip | Edmunds.com
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2013 Tesla Model S Coast-to-Coast Road Trip | Edmunds.com
We drive from Los Angeles to New York in our 2013 Tesla Model S in an attempt to break the cross-country world record for electric vehicles.
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Nice trip, but I'm not buying the $0 fuel cost. I assume that you have to pay at the Superchargers? Based on your consumption at average rate per kwh your trip would cost about $160-$170. Posting this story without that information seems pointless. As pointless as all of our tax dollars subsidizing Tesla in every way imaginable including building the Supercharger network. Just saying.
ZoomZoomn - Tesla's superchargers are free. Any Tesla owner can use any Tesla supercharger at no cost. It is quite nice!
Congrats! A hell of an achievement, with no support team. I'm sure you were sweating bullets with "Range anxiety" a couple of times.
The Superchargers are FREE if you've ever read the blogs you'd know that.
@zoomzoomn; I presume you are equally as annoyed by our tax dollars subsidizing fossil fuels? To the tune of about $50B annually, not including military, health, climate, or local pollution costs.
^^^ I have not read "the blogs". Consider that question asked and answered. Thanks. To add to my above comment, then, nothing is FREE. Somebody is paying for it. In this case WE all are paying for the Supercharger Stations AND for people to charge their Teslas...and, no, I'm not OK with that!!! And, morey000, if they paid for my gas at the pump then it would be the same thing!
What was the best part of the trip? Zero dollars for fuel cost is a very nice perk.
@zoomzoomn Right. Nothing is free.
But your're not paying for it. The cost associated with Supercharger use is built into the price of the car itself. Supercharger use is "free" (built into the sticker price) of the P85, but it's a $2,000 option on the P60. That price covers the necessary software upgrade and the $ value of the juice you're likely to consume on cross-country trips away from home.
So get out there an use them, Model S owners. Take a trip. You're not getting your money's worth if you don't!
Twitter: @Edmunds_Test
I knew we were going to cut it close on the run to Beaver, but I was pretty confident. And it was worth it. Even at 50 mph we saved a couple of hours compared to Tesla's longer route through the Navajo Reservation.
The big oops happened on the way home driving into very strong headwinds in South Dakota. We were talking and not paying attention to the meter, which had gone to over 500 Wh/mile. Had to slow way down in order to make it, and the meter went to "---" miles about 3 miles before we got to the station.
Twitter: @Edmunds_Test
Very nice story! Really enjoying reading it and all those pics. It must be an incredible amount of good memories for the rest of your life! I hope to do such a crazy trip in my life. Being an engineer, I wish I could get a copy if that Excel spreadsheet on your laptop that was used to calculate the charging time for each stations
Use of the Supercharger network is free, but you should also know that Tesla paid off its government loans quite some time ago. So no, you're not subsidizing Tesla. Repeating it often won't make it true.
I think @zoomzoomn is just jealous he doesn't have a Tesla.
Amazing accomplishment - my wife and I are planning a more sedate trip from Irvine via Arizona to attend the People's Climate March Sept 20-12 in New York City. Ignore the inane comments from fossil-fueler's!
Must have been an awesome trip! Great planning and reporting. How was the comfort level on a long run like that? The seats don't seem too cushy, but it's by far the most awesome car I've ever driven.
I'm planning to journey all over the US and Canada spreading the Tesla love - but will spend most of a year doing it and won't be able to depend solely on the Superchargers.
Joe Tesla Kennedy
JoeTesla@ImGettingATesla.com
(424) 234-8590
I'm Manifesting a Tesla - check out ImGettingATesla.com
You can support the cause at Patreon.com/JoeTesla
How are "we" all paying for the Supercharger stations? If you mean we as in all Tesla owners, then yes "we" are all paying for the "free" charging. Tesla includes the cost of free Supercharging in every call they sell. So every owner (like myself) is paying for the free networking of Superchargers. Tesla gets no government money to build the Superchargers or federal money to pay for the free electricity. So unless you "zoomzoomn" have a Tesla, you aren't paying a penny for the Supercharger network or the electricity used.
@zoomzoomn paying for your gas is EXACTLY what the rest of us are doing. Do you think the natural market price of gas is really only $4 a gallon?
EV incentives are microscopic by comparison and necessary to level the playing field.
I think you missed the comment pointing out that the government DOES pay for part of your fuel costs. Without the billions in existing subsidies (as old or older than your or I probably are) you would pay considerably more. See Europe as an example. You don't hear about it because the policy is essentially grandfathered in, whereas tax breaks for EVs are new and open to debate. You also play into the hands of the largest corporations by shooting down Tesla's efforts, by supporting these old and bloated oil companies that area already treated as royalty by Washington. So, good luck keeping your government out of it.
How much time do you think you'd save once the St. George, UT supercharger is up?
Nice trip. Definitely not for the faint of heart, or people with high blood pressure. Your trip shows how impractical this Tesla cross country trip is. You have to take it up as a challenge, a major project. Not as a given. You also got really lucky. What if some super charger malfunctioned or there was a power outage and the previous car sucked up all the charge that was there before power shutdown? Edmunds must be paying you tons of money to go through this pain and anxiety.
PS: With 7 days of food. lodging and time spent, it must be way cheaper to just fly there, even if we assume the superchargers were free, which isn't, as it is built into the P85 price tag.
HIS gas? What about the gas of the UPS, Fedex etc that got YOUR packages to YOUR house? What about YOUR groceries?
I'm curious if you have any stats on the return trip, especially the run from Beaver to Vegas. I imagine you could increase your speed on that leg considerably, vs from Las Vegas to Beaver.
@teslafan. Driving across the country in any vehicle is impractical depending on how you define it. But you missed the point. It's the experience. Regarding the "what if's", you can do that for any scenario in life, but not a life I would want to live.
As coal is the number one source of energy for the world, you can't differentiate btw Tesla and any gasoline or diesel powered car as we're all "fossil fuelers."
Too bad someone didn't spring for an ezpass to cut down on the toll stops and save some range. It must be embarrassing to pull up to a toll booth in a Tesla and fork over the cash. There are plenty of places to buy an ezpass on the route. 23 stops seems like more than would be made with most other vehicles. Congrats for making it left to right and back.
Uhm, perhaps you didn't read this post? Dan and Kurt's total time from LA to NYC was 67 hours, 21 minutes. That's less than 3 days, and no where near '7 days of food, lodging and time spent'. The only expense was a lot of energy drinks and food. I suspect there is no LA-NYC flight as cheap for two people. That being said, I've driven coast-to-coast many times with my brother, and we would usually have at least one hotel stop along the way in our 3-day trips. I can't imagine doing this type of trip without any real rest. Flying is definitely the more humane and time effective way to go,
RE: Tolls... I don't think your FasTrak would work outside of California -- Just sayin'... Nice run though... If I had a week of and agreeable family I'd do this trip as well
Probably an hour. The Vegas charge would have been 40 minutes instead of 83 and the St. George charge would be 40 minutes. So total charge time would stay the same, but we'd get to drive 75 mph instead of 50-55 for those 223 miles.
Twitter: @Edmunds_Test
I plan to release a few extra tidbits in the long-term blog. This is one of them. Vegas to Beaver compared to Beaver to Vegas. Obviously, the downhill run had no drama whatsoever.
Twitter: @Edmunds_Test
Excellent point. Electric vehicles aren't always cleaner because the electricity generation method varies wildly. The late Dave Hermance (Toyota's Prius guru) once showed me data that demonstrated how an EV could be cleaner in Cali due to the way we generate power, but a gas-powered Prius might have less of a well-to-wheels carbon footprint in states where coal is used to generate electricity.
But that's no reason to pooh-pooh EV technology. Tesla's envelope-pushing business strategy can only help spur new improvements and demand as they show the concept to be viable. And I think the powerplant issue will take care of itself in the same timeframe. Cleaner electricity is a prime goal of current pollution-control efforts.
And no one needs to worry about EVs taking over, even if they don't ever plan on buying one. They will not be forced down anyone's throat. Hybrids have been around for a long time and they barely represent 5% of the market.
Twitter: @Edmunds_Test
That's what I kept telling myself each time we had to stop at a cash lane. But I've talked to folks who have lived in both places and they think it might have worked. I know it works in NorCal where the FasTrak logo isn't on the toll lanes. I think they call them EZ Pay up there, too.
I'm sure I could have asked an east coast friend to mail me their transponder and let me borrow it for a few days. Anyway, there's another hour of potential savings for those that have an eye on breaking our record.
Twitter: @Edmunds_Test
EZ Pass is good from Illinois and east. South to North Carolina. You can search for EZ Pass coverage map. I have a New York pass. It doesn't cost anything other than to keep some money in your account. tied to a credit card.
Dan, you were way too soft on this guy. It boggles my mind that ignorance of how energy works is so pervasive that people still attempt to make the "You're still using coal!" argument against EV's.
It's very simple, people: There is a principle called "economy of scale". Millions of vehicles obtaining energy generated from a large, centralized source -- even coal-fired -- is far more efficient than having millions of vehicles each with their own combustion powerplant under the hood.
@Jim_in_nj,
No, I'm not miscalculating the 7 days. Please see the last few lines in the article:
"Total L.A.-N.Y.-L.A. Round Trip Time: **6 days, 23 hours, 4 minutes (less than a week!)"
As the co-holder of the 28:50 cross-country record, I say congratulations! I'm thrilled you honored the traditional route while establishing the record for a new era of American automotive history.
Can some owner tell me the how many miles I can drive with full charge with AC or heater on at 72 degree and driving average 78 miles per hour ?
on model P85
can someone tell me how many actual miles I can drive on P85 with a/c or heater ON and driving 82 miles /hour speed ?
Nice work! But why the diversion up to I-90? Are there not enough super chargers on the I-70 or I-80 corridors?
In IL you can bypass the toll booths and pay them all on line when finished! Would have saved you an hour.
How many Teslas before the power runs out with "O" shutting down all the power plants?
OK, what am I missing here on your route? Heading east outa Denver, why go up through WY, SD, MN & WI? Why not I-76 up to I-80 and into Nebraska & east? Or just stay on I-70?
Meanwhile the unavailable "under construction" Saint George station that forced our excruciatingly slow initial pace in Utah is now open for business.
http://www.teslamotors.com/supercharger
Twitter: @Edmunds_Test
The EV “least charging time” coast to coast world record has been unofficially broken. On Thursday April 16th at 11:14pm PST. A team of three drivers: Rod Hawk, Deena Mastracci and Carl Reese drove from Los Angeles to New York City. Landing at New York City Hall at 1:36pm EST. Total elapse drive and charge time of 58 hours 55 minutes.
A team of three timekeepers: Anthony Alvarado, Matt Nordenstrom and Johnnie Oberg Jr.
GPS Insight provided third party auditing equipment.
Two records were smashed
1. Coast to coast fastest time in an EV of 58 hours and 55 minutes and 25 seconds. Is now the current record held by Rod Hawk, Deena Mastracci and Carl Reese as of April 19th 2015. They have broken the the unofficially time set by edumonds.com on July 16, 2014.
2. The “Least amount of Non-drive time of 12 hour, 48 minutes, and 19 seconds. AKA total charge time coast to coast.
Carl and Deena used their own person vehicle of the record setting event. Sponsor included: GPS Insight ,mobileInspect.com of Santa Clarita, CA ,ChalkoLot.com of Santa Clarita, CA TeslaGrilles.com, Signs by Tomorrow of Santa Clarita, and Might Fine Detailing of Los Angeles.
Trip Stats for: Team "Uber Qik” (Rodney Hawk, Deena Mastracci, Carl Reese)
Total Time: *58 hours, 55 minutes
Previous Records: (Edmunds.com: 67 hours, 21 minutes)
(Tesla: 76 hours, 5 minutes)
Total Distance: 3011 miles (Tesla: 3,427 miles)
Driving Time: *46 Hours 07 minutes 05 seconds
Previous Records: (Edmunds.com 52 hours, 41 minutes) (Tesla: 60 hours, 8 minutes)
Average Driving Speed: *65.4 mph
Previous Records : (Edmunds.com 63.2 mph) (Tesla: 57.0 mph)
Average Trip Speed: *51.1 mph (Edmunds.com 49.5 mph) (Tesla 45.0 mph)
Supercharger Plug-In Time: *12 hours, 48 minutes
Previous Records: (Edmunds.com 14 hours, 40 minutes) (Tesla: 15 hours, 57 minutes)
* Stat times remain unofficial until we get official times GPSInsight and Guinness.
http://www.daviscustomdigital.com/Tesla-EVents/Dan-Edmunds-Recordsetting-LANY/
http://www.daviscustomdigital.com/Tesla-EVents/Supercharger-Portraits
Twitter: @Edmunds_Test