Excellent road trip video. I'm looking forward to the rest of the videos. Haven't taken my M3 on a long trip yet (just 230 to 260 mile day trips so far.) Always enjoy your videos! Thanks for sharing them with us.
This is one of the better EV road trip videos, and I have seen a lot. One of the most important things you pointing out here is that even with a superior EV, with superior charging networks, life happens (bio breaks, traffic, broken bathrooms, safety, etc.) and you can end up spending just as much time on the road as with a Chevy Bolt. Relatedly, depending on your needs and the way you like to road trip a car like the Chevy bolt or the Nissan Ariya can still work especially if you like to do a lot of pit stops to get out to walk or go to the bathroom. In other words you don't need to pay more money for a vehicle that you're not really going to utilize as advertised. These two points are rarely expressed with other TH-camrs who cover EV vehicles and lifestyle.
I can’t believe you tried this in a bolt. Wow! I’ll see if there's a video. Nice to see a non-KyleConnor, non-EVDave road trip from less experienced, but highly competent, EV road trippers. Nice work. Being around your age, I’m guessing, is a bonus.
ABC, always be charging! If I have to bio-break and there are chargers you can bet your bottom dollar I will be hooking up to charge even if it is just for 5-10 minutes. Or if I have the dog it will be at least a 15-20 minutes at the quickest. Finally the long anticipated road trip. LOVE IT! Be flexible, that's the motto! Put a rating on those SC sites with no bathrooms so people know when they are trip planning to avoid those stops if you need to go to the bathroom. That really stinks. I can absolutely see the Tesla is fast enough that I will feel rushed. I have not had good luck with Autosteer at all. The area I drive with it there is road construction with safety cones on the side of the road. Autosteer freaks out and slams on the brakes about 4 times on that trip to Springfield. I thought I could avoid it by using the base cruise, but nope, the basic cruise is somehow confused also. I think it is the emergency brakes update they did recently has made it even worse. I have to hammer the go pedal to override the car every time I drive through there. So I am pretty irritated with the cruise and autosteer situation. Having adequate number of chargers and the fast charging EV's means for a lot less congestion at the chargers. Tesla is proving that if we get enough infrastructure EV trips can be pretty effortless... Now if they can do something about facilities at the SCs. Great trip so far! Looking forward to the next installment. Turns out my first regional road trip is going to be to the Tesla Service center later this month. Apparently they no longer do the Tesla Rangers thing and the closest service center is 130 miles away and they are booked almost a month out. I am NOT a happy camper.
Thats stupid pallets blocking the spot for charging and even worse that truck blocking 2 slots for EV. Good thing is you can still squeeze to that 1 charger. People sucks big time there. Thanks for sharing the roadtrip. More power to your channel!
In response to your comments about restroom facilities I agree. It seems to me that the most logical solution is for legacy gas stations to add DC fast charging equipment to their business. In the Iowa/Minnesota area where I live, Kwik Trip inc has posted in the press that they are going to add DC fast chargers to all of their stores with 2 stores coming online this month! Another great video!
There is no profit, currently in the US, in DC charging, ask EVgo who has been trying to make a profit at it for years. Tesla is keeping the electric rates low, they are double per kW in Europe. You may calculate that at $0.60/kW it may more than gasoline.
@@wj9494 there’s also no profit in selling gasoline. The model to make money is selling food and drinks and tobacco and alcohol sales. Seems to me that EV charging takes longer than pumping gas so the customers will be in the store longer to spend more money.
Just did a 4,000 mile trip (MI -> OK -> CO -> MI). I found that even the slowish-charging Mach-E was ready faster than I was. This usually made the next stop faster, or I could reach a different charger than originally planned. Eventually, I just made sure I had enough for the next charger (and its alternate), and did not worry about things if I left with more charge than planned. As another already said, I would use any available charger at a stop, planned or not. ABC!
Just a word of advice esp if you are driving an LFP pack Tesla (so the standard range trim). I would recommend anyone before a road trip to make sure they recalibrate the bms system by draining it down over a week of using it. Then charge it up to max charge (this mean leave it plugged in even when it says it's at 99%. Let it charge until 100% and literally doesn't accept any more charge). This way the bms is calibrated and more accurate. I rented a model 3 standard range last year in florida and my god the performance of that pack was terrible (hertz car). It was losing charge left and right and the bms was all over the bloodly place. I didn't know much about the bms then, nor did I have time to calibrate but I sure did learn my lesson (you do quickly when you don't know if you'll come up short to a charger lol). With that car I kept having to stop at an extra charger and I barely made it, so even though it said we would arrive with 30% we ended up arriving with 2% so depending on how accurate your planner is vs what you actually arrived at, you'll have to calibrate. So couple months ago when we went on vacation again this time I made sure to calibrate the bms on the standard range car we got and it worked great, and the range projection was +-1-3% which was far better and far more accurate and useful If you have a long range or performance trip then it's not as much of a worry and those NMC packs are far more accurate (due to the voltage curve's slope) and don't need to be calibrated nearly as often if at all
@@accountability2000 Yep. Just don't do it every week like some advice. That could lead to some range loss if done too often. But once in a while needs to be done to balance/calibrate them with the BMS.
Great video! thanks for sharing the details. Reminds me of my 33 hour drive (with naps) from Tucson to Bessemer back in February in my 2023 MY LR AWD. It was cool seeing you stopping at some of the same places I had. Nostalgia, they name is EV trip videos!
That's a long drive, we did 2,075 miles in April with our Volt. One thing I've noticed as we get older, you get tired a bit easier than we used to :( Waiting to charge is a nice break, with the Volt you stop and gas up for only a few minutes. Don't get me wrong, the Volt was great to road trip in! Have fun.
12:17 You traded up. The Shreveport charger location was a little thin on amenities and good vibes when I stopped there around 5am back in February (everything in the outdoor mall looked to be closed and no lighting in the lot... Made me wish I had a EVJect at the time. I've since gotten one.
I will attempt to. I’ve had this car since February and still haven’t gotten used to not getting the arrival and departure SOC on the supercharger invoice. I got used to getting that info from EA on Bolt road trips and sometimes forget to get both.
I hate trying to plan my charging, I take one long, 2000 miles, trip a month and trying to balance charging and reroutes is frustrating. Glad you had fun.
24:59 I like that charging location at Vicksburg, but I wasn't comfortable about going into the casino there... no idea why. It does look pretty cool and the view of the river is amazing.
I have been looking forward to this video for a few reasons. First, thanks for taking the time to publish your stats. Second, YMMV. I was curious how you would make the trip, bio break wise. (Not charger). When I compare it to trips I make in my plug in hybrid, the Tesla appears to be slightly less expensive over the miles traveled. Having said that, Old Iron Butt bus driver, (retired) in comparison, could have driven for 5 hours straight. That would have put me at 323 miles for the first charge, at a ChargePoint in a Denny’s restaurant parking lot. So, do we have to wait another week for part 2?
@@SpinnerEV thanks for the answer. I understand, now that I am putting stuff up on the tube. Have you ever revealed what you do for a job? Maybe I missed it.
@@SpinnerEV a great career! My daughter teaches middle school, my sister taught special ed, my Mom also did special ed PE, and my Dad taught high school drivers ed, and PE. He was also a coach. No wonder you and I are on the same wave length.
I like that Terrel Buc-ees. The chargers are a ways from the store, but it is nice enough for us vagabonds. I stopped there around midnight in mid-February (After driving straight from Tucson) and after charging the car and visiting the store, I took a nap in the car for a few hours before proceeding on to Alabama later. Well lighted parking lot. Interestingly, there was a large flock of birds also there at the time, ladening the trees in and around the parking lot, with some small parts of it occasionally spooking and then returning to their tree. It was surreal.
I think that probably goes back to the be flexible thing. I agree with you. If I am going to stop I might as well just plan a 20 minute stop by default at each stop and then try to space out my stops around that cadence if possible. However it looks like they really like to stop more frequently anyway. For me the 20 minutes should give the car, people, and animals on the trip the time they need for most things.
We prefer to have shorter distances between stops just for our own personal needs. The superchargers aren’t always close to amenities. And on our Ozarks trip we discovered that having two short stops ended up being quicker than one long stop in the car’s own route planner. The charging speed slows down as the car gets fuller.
@@SpinnerEV How does it feel to do road trips like these on a Tesla vs your old Bolt (vven with the slower charging LFP version Model 3 and with its shortest range of all) using chargers that actually work, just work, and are all over? I take you no more charger anxiety? Range anxiety these days is a only a thing people who have never driver an EV think is a thing. But charger anxiety for none-Tesla has been a very real fear in some areas.
I rented a Tesla Model S in September of 2024 from Hertz and my experience was horrible. My first attempt with Hertz i booked online only find after I showed up that the rental location they did not have Teslas. My second attempt I verified in person at a different rental location that they would have a Tesla available. They warned me beforehand the single remaining model they had was pretty beat up. I didnt care since all i was concerned about was the driving experience and user interface. They were not joking about the condition of the car. It was only 2 years old with 105k miles but the wheel rims were beat up, the seatbelt enclosure was loose and fell off at one point, and the plastic support around the seat was completely broken. To top it off I discovered the top range on this particular Model S was only about 150 miles fully charged. I am assuming due to less than ideal charging habits. Hertz explained to me it was part of their Uber commuter program. Someone must have beat the heck out of it. I am a bit of a tech nerd so I was fascinated by the software and technology used by the car. Its a fast car but I found the maps and adaptive cruise control to be crude compared to other cars I have driven. I hate one pedal driving, traditional two pedal should still be an option.
The Bolt stops add up fast. Doesn't seem bad to stop for 30-40 minutes during the warmer months of the year in the Bolt until you have to stack multiple stops up in a trip and have a lot of miles to cover. Next thing you know you have eaten a lot of time and are worn out by the end of the day. Winter time is worse. The charge times turn into 1hr+ per stop and the efficiency drops pretty badly since it has no heat pump so you have to stop even more often for much longer. Between slow charging and poor efficiency in the winter it really makes anything beyond regional trips a real challenge. Spinner and Racheal showed you can take longer trips in the Bolt, but it is challenging if you have a lot of miles you have to cover. I think it would be similar in the NIro or Kona EV's also.
We love our Bolt, but we were able to get further in the same amount of time. We stop roughly every 90-120 miles for a bio break, and that drops our average speed
10 stops for 700mi? My e-gmp can do it maybe in 3. You should consider Hyundai or Kia because they are superior EVs and will also get access to teslas chargers in January.
Charging an EV on a road trip is pretty trivial if the charging stations are all working, especially Tesla Superchargers. Yes, it adds more time overall to your trip, and if you absolutely don't want to think about it, you can just follow the car's suggestions on where to charge and for how long. In my experiences with road trips in my 2020 Model Y, it's fairly trivial as the frequent stops allow you to get out and stretch your legs and use the bathroom. When combined with Autopilot doing the boring mundane driving on the interstate, you're less stressed/worn out overall, and can even sightsee a little bit if driving through scenic areas such as the Rockies. If you have charging capabilities at home, then that's what you'll be doing 90% of the time, where you plug it in, and let it charge up overnight while you sleep. If it's hot or cold outside, you can also precondition the cabin safely in the garage since you don't have carbon monoxide to worry about. And imagine not needing to do oil changes, spark plugs, transmission flushes, timing belts, head gaskets, mufflers, alternators, clutches, etc that gas cars require on a regular basis. Most maintenance I've had to do was tires, cabin air filter, and washer fluid.
Excellent road trip video. I'm looking forward to the rest of the videos. Haven't taken my M3 on a long trip yet (just 230 to 260 mile day trips so far.) Always enjoy your videos! Thanks for sharing them with us.
Thanks!
This is one of the better EV road trip videos, and I have seen a lot. One of the most important things you pointing out here is that even with a superior EV, with superior charging networks, life happens (bio breaks, traffic, broken bathrooms, safety, etc.) and you can end up spending just as much time on the road as with a Chevy Bolt. Relatedly, depending on your needs and the way you like to road trip a car like the Chevy bolt or the Nissan Ariya can still work especially if you like to do a lot of pit stops to get out to walk or go to the bathroom. In other words you don't need to pay more money for a vehicle that you're not really going to utilize as advertised. These two points are rarely expressed with other TH-camrs who cover EV vehicles and lifestyle.
I can’t believe you tried this in a bolt. Wow! I’ll see if there's a video. Nice to see a non-KyleConnor, non-EVDave road trip from less experienced, but highly competent, EV road trippers. Nice work. Being around your age, I’m guessing, is a bonus.
I purchased a 2023 with 25k miles from Hertz through auction and personally I love it. I have lots of fun with it and its a great car.
ABC, always be charging! If I have to bio-break and there are chargers you can bet your bottom dollar I will be hooking up to charge even if it is just for 5-10 minutes. Or if I have the dog it will be at least a 15-20 minutes at the quickest.
Finally the long anticipated road trip. LOVE IT! Be flexible, that's the motto! Put a rating on those SC sites with no bathrooms so people know when they are trip planning to avoid those stops if you need to go to the bathroom. That really stinks. I can absolutely see the Tesla is fast enough that I will feel rushed.
I have not had good luck with Autosteer at all. The area I drive with it there is road construction with safety cones on the side of the road. Autosteer freaks out and slams on the brakes about 4 times on that trip to Springfield. I thought I could avoid it by using the base cruise, but nope, the basic cruise is somehow confused also. I think it is the emergency brakes update they did recently has made it even worse. I have to hammer the go pedal to override the car every time I drive through there. So I am pretty irritated with the cruise and autosteer situation.
Having adequate number of chargers and the fast charging EV's means for a lot less congestion at the chargers. Tesla is proving that if we get enough infrastructure EV trips can be pretty effortless... Now if they can do something about facilities at the SCs.
Great trip so far! Looking forward to the next installment. Turns out my first regional road trip is going to be to the Tesla Service center later this month. Apparently they no longer do the Tesla Rangers thing and the closest service center is 130 miles away and they are booked almost a month out. I am NOT a happy camper.
Thats stupid pallets blocking the spot for charging and even worse that truck blocking 2 slots for EV. Good thing is you can still squeeze to that 1 charger. People sucks big time there. Thanks for sharing the roadtrip. More power to your channel!
In response to your comments about restroom facilities I agree. It seems to me that the most logical solution is for legacy gas stations to add DC fast charging equipment to their business. In the Iowa/Minnesota area where I live, Kwik Trip inc has posted in the press that they are going to add DC fast chargers to all of their stores with 2 stores coming online this month! Another great video!
There is no profit, currently in the US, in DC charging, ask EVgo who has been trying to make a profit at it for years. Tesla is keeping the electric rates low, they are double per kW in Europe. You may calculate that at $0.60/kW it may more than gasoline.
@@wj9494 there’s also no profit in selling gasoline. The model to make money is selling food and drinks and tobacco and alcohol sales. Seems to me that EV charging takes longer than pumping gas so the customers will be in the store longer to spend more money.
Just did a 4,000 mile trip (MI -> OK -> CO -> MI). I found that even the slowish-charging Mach-E was ready faster than I was. This usually made the next stop faster, or I could reach a different charger than originally planned. Eventually, I just made sure I had enough for the next charger (and its alternate), and did not worry about things if I left with more charge than planned.
As another already said, I would use any available charger at a stop, planned or not. ABC!
Just a word of advice esp if you are driving an LFP pack Tesla (so the standard range trim). I would recommend anyone before a road trip to make sure they recalibrate the bms system by draining it down over a week of using it. Then charge it up to max charge (this mean leave it plugged in even when it says it's at 99%. Let it charge until 100% and literally doesn't accept any more charge). This way the bms is calibrated and more accurate. I rented a model 3 standard range last year in florida and my god the performance of that pack was terrible (hertz car). It was losing charge left and right and the bms was all over the bloodly place. I didn't know much about the bms then, nor did I have time to calibrate but I sure did learn my lesson (you do quickly when you don't know if you'll come up short to a charger lol). With that car I kept having to stop at an extra charger and I barely made it, so even though it said we would arrive with 30% we ended up arriving with 2% so depending on how accurate your planner is vs what you actually arrived at, you'll have to calibrate. So couple months ago when we went on vacation again this time I made sure to calibrate the bms on the standard range car we got and it worked great, and the range projection was +-1-3% which was far better and far more accurate and useful
If you have a long range or performance trip then it's not as much of a worry and those NMC packs are far more accurate (due to the voltage curve's slope) and don't need to be calibrated nearly as often if at all
Thank you for this information. I had no clue that LFP pack could be that problematic on road trips. Make sense.
@@accountability2000 Yep. Just don't do it every week like some advice. That could lead to some range loss if done too often. But once in a while needs to be done to balance/calibrate them with the BMS.
@@junehanzawa5165 This is really useful info, thanks - I'm planning on buying an LFP based Model 3 soon.
Nice. I will be getting a used 2023 M 3 from Hertz Bedford TX as soon as their internal software glitch is resolved.
Great video! thanks for sharing the details. Reminds me of my 33 hour drive (with naps) from Tucson to Bessemer back in February in my 2023 MY LR AWD. It was cool seeing you stopping at some of the same places I had. Nostalgia, they name is EV trip videos!
That's a long drive, we did 2,075 miles in April with our Volt. One thing I've noticed as we get older, you get tired a bit easier than we used to :( Waiting to charge is a nice break, with the Volt you stop and gas up for only a few minutes. Don't get me wrong, the Volt was great to road trip in! Have fun.
12:17 You traded up. The Shreveport charger location was a little thin on amenities and good vibes when I stopped there around 5am back in February (everything in the outdoor mall looked to be closed and no lighting in the lot... Made me wish I had a EVJect at the time. I've since gotten one.
Great video! Could you add the SOC on arrival and departure for the stops? That would be a nice added info, thank you!
I will attempt to. I’ve had this car since February and still haven’t gotten used to not getting the arrival and departure SOC on the supercharger invoice. I got used to getting that info from EA on Bolt road trips and sometimes forget to get both.
I hate trying to plan my charging, I take one long, 2000 miles, trip a month and trying to balance charging and reroutes is frustrating. Glad you had fun.
24:59 I like that charging location at Vicksburg, but I wasn't comfortable about going into the casino there... no idea why. It does look pretty cool and the view of the river is amazing.
Best river view we’ve ever had
I have been looking forward to this video for a few reasons. First, thanks for taking the time to publish your stats. Second, YMMV. I was curious how you would make the trip, bio break wise. (Not charger). When I compare it to trips I make in my plug in hybrid, the Tesla appears to be slightly less expensive over the miles traveled. Having said that, Old Iron Butt bus driver, (retired) in comparison, could have driven for 5 hours straight. That would have put me at 323 miles for the first charge, at a ChargePoint in a Denny’s restaurant parking lot.
So, do we have to wait another week for part 2?
It takes a while to edit the road trip videos. Factor that in with the regular work schedule, and it takes me about that much time. Sorry about that.
@@SpinnerEV thanks for the answer. I understand, now that I am putting stuff up on the tube. Have you ever revealed what you do for a job? Maybe I missed it.
@Qrail high school teacher
@@SpinnerEV a great career! My daughter teaches middle school, my sister taught special ed, my Mom also did special ed PE, and my Dad taught high school drivers ed, and PE. He was also a coach. No wonder you and I are on the same wave length.
I like that Terrel Buc-ees. The chargers are a ways from the store, but it is nice enough for us vagabonds. I stopped there around midnight in mid-February (After driving straight from Tucson) and after charging the car and visiting the store, I took a nap in the car for a few hours before proceeding on to Alabama later. Well lighted parking lot. Interestingly, there was a large flock of birds also there at the time, ladening the trees in and around the parking lot, with some small parts of it occasionally spooking and then returning to their tree. It was surreal.
Texas grackle (the likely birds) can sometimes look like a Hitchcock film
@@SpinnerEV that fits. They did. Unlike the grackles in AL, they were not black, but they did appear grackle-ish. :)
Can I ask why you charged for micro sessions more often rather than the 30 minute charge sessions to go further each leg?
I think that probably goes back to the be flexible thing. I agree with you. If I am going to stop I might as well just plan a 20 minute stop by default at each stop and then try to space out my stops around that cadence if possible. However it looks like they really like to stop more frequently anyway. For me the 20 minutes should give the car, people, and animals on the trip the time they need for most things.
We prefer to have shorter distances between stops just for our own personal needs. The superchargers aren’t always close to amenities. And on our Ozarks trip we discovered that having two short stops ended up being quicker than one long stop in the car’s own route planner. The charging speed slows down as the car gets fuller.
I have family that live in Bossier city. I was thinking wow you are gonna be right by Bossier city then you ended up going. lol
it was great to have a supercharger so close to our route that got around the traffic jam
@@SpinnerEV How does it feel to do road trips like these on a Tesla vs your old Bolt (vven with the slower charging LFP version Model 3 and with its shortest range of all) using chargers that actually work, just work, and are all over?
I take you no more charger anxiety? Range anxiety these days is a only a thing people who have never driver an EV think is a thing. But charger anxiety for none-Tesla has been a very real fear in some areas.
@junehanzawa5165 no real range anxiety, and this car charges fast enough for us. We usually took longer at our break stops than our car did.
I rented a Tesla Model S in September of 2024 from Hertz and my experience was horrible. My first attempt with Hertz i booked online only find after I showed up that the rental location they did not have Teslas. My second attempt I verified in person at a different rental location that they would have a Tesla available. They warned me beforehand the single remaining model they had was pretty beat up. I didnt care since all i was concerned about was the driving experience and user interface. They were not joking about the condition of the car. It was only 2 years old with 105k miles but the wheel rims were beat up, the seatbelt enclosure was loose and fell off at one point, and the plastic support around the seat was completely broken. To top it off I discovered the top range on this particular Model S was only about 150 miles fully charged. I am assuming due to less than ideal charging habits. Hertz explained to me it was part of their Uber commuter program. Someone must have beat the heck out of it. I am a bit of a tech nerd so I was fascinated by the software and technology used by the car. Its a fast car but I found the maps and adaptive cruise control to be crude compared to other cars I have driven. I hate one pedal driving, traditional two pedal should still be an option.
We also found that the car was ready before we were.
What are you guys going to be doing in Virginia?
Annual get together with friends
Keep sentry mode on.
I did at the hotel. Only one on the recordings was me.
762 miles? Wow! 600 is the most I’d want to do in a day and prefer 500 or less.
Just ridiculous that they are blocking the chargers at the hotel.
So according to fuzzy math your Bolt is running 4 hours behind your Tesla. 4 hours /199 miles = 50MPH
The Bolt stops add up fast. Doesn't seem bad to stop for 30-40 minutes during the warmer months of the year in the Bolt until you have to stack multiple stops up in a trip and have a lot of miles to cover. Next thing you know you have eaten a lot of time and are worn out by the end of the day. Winter time is worse. The charge times turn into 1hr+ per stop and the efficiency drops pretty badly since it has no heat pump so you have to stop even more often for much longer. Between slow charging and poor efficiency in the winter it really makes anything beyond regional trips a real challenge. Spinner and Racheal showed you can take longer trips in the Bolt, but it is challenging if you have a lot of miles you have to cover. I think it would be similar in the NIro or Kona EV's also.
We love our Bolt, but we were able to get further in the same amount of time. We stop roughly every 90-120 miles for a bio break, and that drops our average speed
10 stops for 700mi? My e-gmp can do it maybe in 3. You should consider Hyundai or Kia because they are superior EVs and will also get access to teslas chargers in January.
More convinced than ever to never buy an EV . Living life around a cars needs is not my idea of smart.
Take the plunge. You won't regret it.
Charging an EV on a road trip is pretty trivial if the charging stations are all working, especially Tesla Superchargers. Yes, it adds more time overall to your trip, and if you absolutely don't want to think about it, you can just follow the car's suggestions on where to charge and for how long.
In my experiences with road trips in my 2020 Model Y, it's fairly trivial as the frequent stops allow you to get out and stretch your legs and use the bathroom. When combined with Autopilot doing the boring mundane driving on the interstate, you're less stressed/worn out overall, and can even sightsee a little bit if driving through scenic areas such as the Rockies.
If you have charging capabilities at home, then that's what you'll be doing 90% of the time, where you plug it in, and let it charge up overnight while you sleep. If it's hot or cold outside, you can also precondition the cabin safely in the garage since you don't have carbon monoxide to worry about.
And imagine not needing to do oil changes, spark plugs, transmission flushes, timing belts, head gaskets, mufflers, alternators, clutches, etc that gas cars require on a regular basis. Most maintenance I've had to do was tires, cabin air filter, and washer fluid.
@@Geckogold I agree with every word. My EV experience exactly. Best car I ever owned, and by a lot!