“Can your car’s battery make it all the way to Anaheim?” my dad had asked, when I mentioned my weekend plan to drive down from San Francisco in my new Tesla Model 3. My goals were to see the incandescent Japanese baseball star Shohei Ohtani pitch and hit in an Angels game and to get a sense for the level of difficulty of longer-distance EV driving.
Boy, did Ohtani deliver! And the car’s range—theoretically 353 miles, but in practice ~15% lower through use of air conditioning, climbing steep terrain, and driving fast (uh, I would never, Mom!)—proved to be no impediment. Tesla’s in-car navigation system automatically suggests “Superchargers” along one’s driving route that minimize travel disruption, and exits along CA highways like I-5 and US-101 are covered at regular intervals.
My return trip, including a quick stop to drop off my friend in Cupertino, required just one half-hour stop to charge, and I reached home with a comfortable 75 miles range to spare.
Superchargers: a road trip driver’s best friend
Kettleman City, CA (population: 1,136), is located in the hot, dry, central part of the state. Its presence likely doesn’t register even for most Californians—except, perhaps, for plane-averse business travelers, long-haul truckers, and road-trippers. Along I-5, it’s a natural rest stop: the midpoint signifying San Francisco is a 200-mile drive north, or Los Angeles a 200-mile drive south.
There I discovered a Supercharger station pairing a whopping 40 fast-chargers with a 24-hour “driver’s lounge”. Like a management consultant’s airport dream, there was A/C, free Wi-Fi, clean bathrooms, comfy seats, and even a barista, all in a secure space accessible to Tesla drivers via passcode provided in-vehicle. Among places to get respite from the 100°F heat, you could do far worse!
Of course, the lounge concept isn’t the standard charging experience, even for Tesla—it may in fact be the only one of its kind. To me, though, it does serve as a good example of reimagining what the fueling experience should be, de-coupled from the longstanding stereotype of gas stations as just candy-and-soda purveyors with bathrooms you hope to not have to use.
Much more common among public EV charging (and particularly espoused by my employer) is placing stations at existing retail locations. On our meandering route downstate, my friend and I stopped off at a Subway and Starbucks, respectively, while Supercharging in a Paso Robles shopping center. When situated at that type of site, drivers can access many of the conveniences they need. This isn’t universal—Supercharging in an office park near Angel Stadium, the nearest strip mall was far enough that I eschewed walking there in case I would run up idle fees before making it back.
Also… have I already seen my last squeegee? Let’s get those at EV charging stations, please—the windshields of the future will be grateful.
Fast-charging a non-Tesla
Tesla, thanks to a years-long headstart, has made charging on road trips acceptably convenient. But Supercharger stations only work for Tesla vehicles. Elon Musk recently caused a stir when he appeared to confirm long-rumored plans to make Superchargers accessible to other manufacturer’s cars:
Despite this tease, given the vast scale of their network and that Teslas have their own plug type, we are still probably a long way from Superchargers being universally accessible. In the interim, reports like this Ford driver sweating out his Boston-NYC drive are unfortunately not uncommon:
Upon arriving at the garage, I'm informed that the EV charging station (yes, singular), isn't operational. Again, they do have working ones for Tesla... The bottom line: EV owners not only need to plan, but also need backup plans when the original ones fall through. At least for now.
Compare Tesla’s Supercharger network to the two biggest fast-charging public networks, Electrify America and EVgo. Information I’ve collected from their websites and the government’s AFDC database of electric vehicle stations show the disparity in network size:
Tesla: 10,000+ fast chargers at ~1,100 locations
Electrify America: ~2,800 fast chargers at ~650 locations
EVgo: ~1,600 fast chargers at 800+ locations
Much of EA’s and EVgo’s growth has come in the past couple years. It’s becoming much easier to take road trips in a Chevy Bolt, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Hyundai Kona, or Volkswagen ID.4! Still, availability (as more EVs hit the road), charger reliability (for EA, in particular), faster speeds (EVgo has a substantial portion of its “fast” chargers on the low-end of the kilowatt spectrum), and competitive pricing are also concerns for Tesla’s challengers to address.
Hot FERC Summer
Despite the occasional attempts you see in this newsletter, it can be hard to merge pop culture and clean energy topics. So we’ll give Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) a pass—grudging admiration, even—for his commitment to a 15-year-old song in order to draw attention to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission:
Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” was right there, Rep. Casten! I look forward to elected officials in 2035 using Olivia Rodrigo’s “Driver’s License” to rally voters against autonomous vehicles.