Checking out what Tesla has for chargers from South Bend, IN to West Virginia it's all doable until after Morgantown, WV. Every year I go to either Elkins or Cass in WV. There are ZERO chargers in that part of the state! Now one can go to Weston (south of Morgantown on I-79) but from there it is 90-95 miles one way to Cass which would be close to a 200 mile range out and back. But add in fact hotels are in Elkins which is 50 miles from Cass - there's a 100 right there. Elkins to Weston is 40 miles. Now add in that the event I attend can go until 11pm and next morning starts at 7am or so. (Can't just show up any time - MUST be there at appointed time to ride a train!) So if I had a Tesla can just make it but would have to drive half the night and likely sleep in the thing as well just to get recharged. Not practical at all to do!
Yes, looked in opposite direction too. Can go from Cass to Mt. Jackson, VA Supercharger but that's 120 miles one way so is not feasible either.
This is a remote area of West Virginia - there is NO cell phone service in the Cass area due to the observatory in Green Bank. Probably going to be years before a Supercharger makes it to the Elkins area.
Obviously a TDI or gasser makes much more sense for road trips to Elkins/Cass area. I also sometimes head to Romney, WV but there at least a Supercharger is only 30 miles away in LaVale, MD (west of Cumberland) which also is where most hotels are. So Romney is at least practical and not pushing the range compared to Elkins/Cass.
Still a Catch-22 these days - won't buy a Tesla because there are not enough Superchargers and there are not enough Superchargers being built yet since there are not enough Teslas on the road. So question is how long before there are Superchargers spaced about every 50 miles or so which will make driving a Tesla much more practical?
Hey Robert,
I assume you’re going to Cass sometime during warmer weather for the historic railroad adventures. I need to get up there one of these days and ride one of the old steam engines.
There are a couple of route options that will get you there and back utilizing only the Tesla Supercharger network without relying on any sort of destination charging at hotels or stores.
You can take the Ohio Turnpike and head down I-79 or you can take the much more scenic and toll-free route through diagonally through Fort Wayne, Columbus and Parkersburg. If I were doing the trip, I would take the latter and avoid the expensive and boring turnpikes even though it’s slightly longer and slightly slower.
If you click on this link —
https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=fec32d4f-3f24-4831-8e06-def53c07b6d1 — and click on PLAN ROUTE, you’ll see that the scenic route involves three Supercharger stops to get from South Bend to Cass and three more stops for the return trip.
The route above isn’t the most time efficient due to the long distance between the Grove City (Columbus) and Weston Superchargers. That requires charging closer to 100%, which is slower than charging to about 60% and adding an extra Supercharger stop. It takes as long to go from 80% to 100% as it does to go from 10% to 80%.
Feel free to poke around in A Better Route Planner and change some settings for head wind, weather and travel speed to see how those variables affect energy consumption and charge times. This trip can certainly be done in a long range Model 3 (310 miles EPA rated) in the spring, summer and fall. You could also do it in the winter, but it would require a route closer Supercharger spacing (that Grove City to Weston leg I mentioned above) to do it comfortably.
Total trip cost using Superchargers is $24, which works out to 2 cents per mile. If you round up to $30 to account for the energy used at your home, it comes out to about 2.5 cents per mile. That’s about half the cost of a TDI at 50 MPG with $2.50 per gallon diesel fuel. I honestly don’t know what the price of diesel is these days, but I think it’s at least that.
Note that the savings costs you a little extra time due to needing to charge. Total charge time for the round trip is just over 3 hours. If you factor in the food and restroom breaks that you’d probably taking anyway, the additional wait time would probably be under one hour for the car, and much of that would be due to the long charging stop to prepare for the Grove City to Weston gap. A more optimized route would save a little on charging time.
