bilsbie
2 hours ago
This is going to sound weird but I just did my first Tesla road trip and the charging stops were sort of low key highlights of the trip!
Picnic at one while we change. Nice stroll in a park coming back. Went to a restaurant I’d never go to another time.
bretthoerner
22 minutes ago
We had the same experience going ~800mi in a day (each way; so we did this twice). We also had 3 kids in the car, so 5 people total... or to put it another way, approximately 500% more people in our EV than the big SUVs driving next to us.
A guy at one stop in TX was in a huge Excursion and was walking his dog near the charger, laughed and said "you're going to be here a while." We were in and out before he was. The FUD is extremely strong still. Our drive (CO to North TX) has to be one of the least populated (and anti-EV) drives in America and there was still no range or charge speed anxiety.
xeromal
an hour ago
Yeah, I think people underestimate the pleasure of not rushing yourself on a roadtrip even when the destination is the important part. It's a bit healthier too as I force myself to do a bit of walking and stretching
wmanley
2 hours ago
I also completed my first big road trip with the Tesla during the summer holidays. This was around France.
With a long trip my preference was to slow charge overnight so as to start the day at >90%, and sometimes we'd also have a single supercharge during the day. The supercharger experience is great - you plug in and it works. When you're done you unplug and continue your journey.
The slow charge experience was less good. In France there are a lot of charging points in car parks, but to actually start charging it involves a load of faf.
1. Slow chargers typically involve using an app or website, so you need to find that, figure out how to tell it which charger you're at, enter your payment details. Hopefully you've got internet access in the underground car park that you've selected.
2. Each provider has a different app or website - they're typically difficult to use and buggy, but each in its own unique way.
3. Slow chargers don't don't come with their own cables, so you need to get your one out of the boot, and put it away again.
4. Stopping charging typically involves navigating the website/app again, hopefully you haven't closed the tab, otherwise it's going to be a pain getting back there.
5. There's no indication on how much it's going to cost until after you've gone through all the trouble. Even then it can be unclear - for example do I need to pay for parking while I'm charging or not?
6. It often costs as much or more than the supercharger - although all the prices I saw were cheaper than the UK.
7. There are typically idle fees, so you might find yourself having to disconnect your car and move it in the middle of the night (assuming you put it on charge in the evening)[^1], or you might find yourself having to rush back to the car in the middle of your sightseeing.
I want to slow charge when I'm parked, because I'm away from the car anyway. My dream slow-charging experience is:
1. Broad availability in any given car park, let me just plug in if I happen to be stopped
2. Streamlined payment process, preferably automatic and through the touchscreen of the car, rather than involving a phone or website. Don't make me enter payment card details - I want something like the apple pay experience, but "Tesla pay".
3. No idling fees so I can change my mind and have a dessert if I fancy without worrying about getting back
I don't care about speed if I'm not waiting. 7kW is more than enough.
[^1]: My trick here is to adjust the charging current in the Tesla app, such that it will take longer to charge. This way I'm never idling, even though I'm taking up a space for the same time anyway.