3200 miles, 14 days, SoCal to Mt Rushmore, BlueCruise Rocks!

ocdxfv · May 27, 2025

Just got home from a road trip from So Calif to Mt Rushmore, SD with a lay over in Vail CO. We averaged 3.5kWh (never exceeded the posted speed limit and often drove 5mph under). We stayed mostly at hotels with L2 charging which helped a lot. While on the road we charged 20 times (15 Tesla, 5 EA) and only had a couple of small hiccups with EA (none with Tesla). Blue Cruise was a real game changer, as was Tesla charging. If anyone is considering this trip, Wheatland WY is the key to the final leg. Next time I'm heading for Durango.

Ford Mustang Mach-E 3200 miles, 14 days, SoCal to Mt Rushmore, BlueCruise Rocks! 34C103CF-C797-4A54-8068-042903E6B1B0

Ford Mustang Mach-E 3200 miles, 14 days, SoCal to Mt Rushmore, BlueCruise Rocks! IMG_5241

dan_meh · May 27, 2025

What a trip…. I haven’t tried anything that long yet.

What was your average state of charge when you arrived and left your fast charging stops? Like did you usually arrive at 20% and leave at 80% like the manufacturers say?

ocdxfv · May 27, 2025

It varied a lot. One day we drove 475 miles and charged 4 times. Another day we drove 430 and only charged twice. All the charges were planned in advance based on the terrain we were driving and the availability of charging. We also try to charge at restroom & meal breaks regardless of the state of charge.

david_quick · May 28, 2025

I did Seattle to Mt Rushmore this time last year. There were a couple of sparse locations. Did you run into places where there was only one option? I know the Black Hills only had a single L3 location in Rapid City at Target. The others were Sheridan , Gillette, and Jackson WY.

Fremont Kid · May 28, 2025

Excellent efficiency. You can't necessarily rely on regeneration to increase range. However, I do investigate elevation changes across long distances. Downhills can provide regeneration. Of course, you first need to drive uphill.

ocdxfv · May 28, 2025

We used the EA charger in Rapid City when we visited the Badlands. The rest of the time in SD we relied on L2 at our hotel.

RickMachE · May 28, 2025

dan_meh said:
What a trip…. I haven’t tried anything that long yet.

What was your average state of charge when you arrived and left your fast charging stops? Like did you usually arrive at 20% and leave at 80% like the manufacturers say?

Reality is that you charge when you need to charge based on the route that you take. Sometimes, you may find charger spacing works great to go from 80 to 20 and back to 80. Other times you may need to charge to 90 or 95% to make the next charger, especially in cold bad weather. Other times you may need to charge at 50%, because you can't make the next charger.

That's why apps like A Better Route Planner are handy, they figure all this for you. The thing they don't do yet is to figure out your nightly stops. So, you have to say "I'm going to stop around X miles or Y:YY time", figure out where that is, put in a stop, and then restart the planning on day 2. Ideally you get a hotel with overnight charging, as the OP did.

Always check charging stops with PlugShare, both in advance and day of trip.

david_quick · May 28, 2025

ocdxfv said:
We used the EA charger in Rapid City when we visited the Badlands. The rest of the time in SD we relied on L2 at our hotel.

Unfortunately we could not. We rented a VRBO in Lead and it had no L2 or 220 v outlet. We used the cars L1 and since the main highway in the Hills was closed we had to go through RC to go anywhere so I just topped up at EA. They really need some L3 in Sturgis, Custer, and Deadwood. Potentially Wall as well.

ocdxfv · May 28, 2025

david_quick said:
Unfortunately we could not. We rented a VRBO in Lead and it had no L2 or 220 v outlet. We used the cars L1 and since the main highway in the Hills was closed we had to go through RC to go anywhere so I just topped up at EA. They really need some L3 in Sturgis, Custer, and Deadwood. Potentially Wall as well.

Wall has EA now. We drove by to check it out. Nobody was using it.

silverelan · May 28, 2025

Hey OP, what is your car’s trim and battery size?

ocdxfv · May 28, 2025

2021 Select, RWD, STD Battery

Mach-Lee · May 31, 2025

Curious how you planed your charging stops, e.g. always try to arrive with 20% left, always charge to 80% or only as much as (an app) says? What did you use for route planning (e.g. built in nav, Apple maps, ABRP...)?

ocdxfv · May 31, 2025

I only use PlugShare. We try to stay at hotels with charging, and we try to limit our daily travel to 450 miles. We plan to charge every 150 or so miles, but this trip was a little tricky because of the elevation changes. A few times we arrived with under 20% and a few times we charged to 90%, but in general we try to stay in the 30-80% range, which is around 100 miles in my car. We also try to plan a longer charge around lunch time. I also try to have a “plan B” in case of surprises.

silverelan · May 31, 2025

ocdxfv said:
2021 Select, RWD, STD Battery

I was gonna say that seems like a big trip for such a short range car (230 mi EPA) but then I remembered that my 2021 GT legit only gets ~230 miles at 70mph. Well done!

ocdxfv · May 31, 2025

We tried to charge exclusively at Tesla stations and fortunately there are a lot of them on the main highways.

3200 miles, 14 days, SoCal to Mt Rushmore, BlueCruise Rocks!

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