No More Road Trips

doogie63

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I will use recent real world experience. I just did a 600 mile round trip which cost me $25 total at charger. That would be $60 for your ice example. I did take advantage of hotel charging but even if i didn’t it would at most add another $15 to my cost so $40.
600 miles divided by say 3 kwh is 200. Charge cost around .45 so 200 divided by .45 is $90. How do you come up with $25? And not all hotel have charger or working chargers. Or someone already taken the charger stop. Plus once again you can't stop where you want just like finding a charger. Ever exit has gas.
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Blackgt350h

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After 3.5 years of ownership I’ve finally tossed in the towel with lengthy road trips. The poor mileage under freeway conditions, unpredictable charging infrastructure, wait lines for charging, and the Walmart parking lot ambiance makes for a longer and unpleasant experience. My wife has been putting up with this up to now, but has finally put her foot down. Not doing it ever again.

This is for trips 300 miles or more. Great car for around town and shorter trips.
I agree 100%. Took my car on a 380 mile trip and it was not pleasant. Using car for local driving and loving it.
 

Space_Pony

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600 miles divided by say 3 kwh is 200. Charge cost around .45 so 200 divided by .45 is $90. How do you come up with $25? And not all hotel have charger or working chargers. Or someone already taken the charger stop. Plus once again you can't stop where you want just like finding a charger. Ever exit has gas.
You beat me to it. That's not the same math that I learned.
 

2FlyMache

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600 miles divided by say 3 kwh is 200. Charge cost around .45 so 200 divided by .45 is $90. How do you come up with $25? And not all hotel have charger or working chargers. Or someone already taken the charger stop. Plus once again you can't stop where you want just like finding a charger. Ever exit has gas.
Start at 100% charge and only need to go from 27%-67% which was $13 at the Tesla station. Charged to 100% at hotel and charged from 18%-57% to get home with 15%. That was $12 so yep $25 total.
 


Sikkun

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Start at 100% charge and only need to go from 27%-67% which was $13 at the Tesla station. Charged to 100% at hotel and charged from 18%-57% to get home with 15%. That was $12 so yep $25 total.
Cost slightly more than $25 assuming your home electricity is not free. But, yes, people seem to forget that your first couple hundred miles are at home energy rates not fast charging rates.
 

david_quick

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I don’t think you’d like the Walmart parking lot at 11pm vs middle of the day ;) I know I don’t.
11 pm I’m going to be sleeping in a nice hotel. We did a road trip this summer and called it quits by 4 o’clock every day.
 

2FlyMache

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Cost slightly more than $25 assuming your home electricity is not free. But, yes, people seem to forget that your first couple hundred miles are at home energy rates not fast charging rates.
That’s fair, so going from 90% to 100% cost me around .25 cents and bringing it back to 90% cost me $6.95 so I will round up to $8. So if I didn’t charge at hotel, it would have cost me at worst $53 if you assume $15 per charge at supercharger. That is 35 minutes of charge time each stop which wasn’t really necessary.
 

azerik

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To me the MME doesn't ride nice enough to be a trip vehicle. I have a Lexus for that (which after switching to Yoko tires my wife's not thrilled with the slightly harsher ride than the 300 tread wear Michalins that came on it. I'll agree. But 20k tires vs 60k tires make a big difference in the minor stuff) but even that SUV I can't stand driving more than about 4 hours a day. In my younger years I've done 28+ hour straight drives in a 4cyl mini truck that was lowered. I should have got an award for surviving that.
 

ChasingCoral

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After 3.5 years of ownership I’ve finally tossed in the towel with lengthy road trips. The poor mileage under freeway conditions, unpredictable charging infrastructure, wait lines for charging, and the Walmart parking lot ambiance makes for a longer and unpleasant experience. My wife has been putting up with this up to now, but has finally put her foot down. Not doing it ever again.

This is for trips 300 miles or more. Great car for around town and shorter trips.
My Mach E road trips (that required recharging):
MD <-> FL twice
MD <-> IN
MD <-> MI
MD <-> NY five times
MD <-> NC leaving tomorrow

Especially now that we have access to Tesla Superchargers, it's a piece of cake.

By mileage I'm guessing you mean range? I often have to make pit stops between charges. Plenty of range.

Unpredictable charging infrastructure? Not if you use the available tools.

Wait lines for charging: rare

Walmart parking lots are not the best experience but there are lots of non-Walmart options, especially with Superchargers available now.

Doing it again -- tomorrow!
 

dbsb3233

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11 pm I’m going to be sleeping in a nice hotel. We did a road trip this summer and called it quits by 4 o’clock every day.
We try to do all driving in daylight too (usual till 6 or 7pm). In part because we're old now (harder to see at night), and in part because there's a lot of deer/elk in our part of the country which make it a lot riskier driving 75-80 MPH in the dark. It's easier, safer, and more enjoyable in daylight.

On the downside, it means a shorter drive day than it otherwise could, which often means paying for an extra hotel night. So for instance on our frequent 785 mile Denver-Vegas drive, it actually costs us more to drive the EV than the ICE. It's right at that tipping point where the extra 1-2 hours of charging stops means breaking it into 2 days and paying for a hotel night instead of making it in one day in the ICE. We save some on fuel cost taking the EV, but spend that and more on the extra hotel night. But it's worth it anyway.
 

Fred Bombelyn

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I've just had my 2024 for less than 2 weeks, I live in Charleston and would probably drive the MMEGT to Florida, but I kept my 2021 Escape PHEV for longer trips, especially to NJ in winter to visit family. Escape ain't bad, about 40 mpg on the highway and close to 50 driving around town without charging.
 

Space_Pony

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Start at 100% charge and only need to go from 27%-67% which was $13 at the Tesla station. Charged to 100% at hotel and charged from 18%-57% to get home with 15%. That was $12 so yep $25 total.
I can beat you. My first road trip was free because I used free EA charging compliments of Ford, although I'm sure I actually paid for it with purchase of the car.
I could also beat you with ICE by using the company car with company credit card.
You're comparing apples to oranges. We can't always find a free L2 charger to use.
A more reasonable way to compare would be to use an average price of DCFC on your trip and calculate cost per mile as we do with ICE.
 

dbsb3233

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Walmart parking lots are not the best experience but there are lots of non-Walmart options, especially with Superchargers available now.
I find EA being in Walmart lots a big plus, not a minus. Most of the EA's I've used (over 100 different stations across the country) that aren't in Walmart lots usually have fewer amenities. And Walmart is a lot cheaper (and has a lot more) than a convenience store if we do want to buy anything. I also like the big store for simply walking to stretch my legs when it's hot/cold/wet outside. And there's usually multiple restaurants around the lot. Pretty much everything I want (we almost never drive overnight so 3am is not an issue for us).

Win-win for me vs most alternative DCFC sites. Only downside is that some are a little further off the highway. But usually it's just a few blocks.
 

iahgva

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The short cords aren’t an issue. I had no problem getting close of them
They are an issue when all positions are taken because you know the next car leaving will leave a space but you won’t be able to charge due to the positioning of the cable. You then need to wait until your neighbor leaves at which point some else immediately park to charge.
Love the Tesla adapters but on very busy locations, those with the short cable are useless to us.
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