Our Trip from Florida to Pennsylvania in Our Tesla Electric Car

Hampton Inn Hotel - Tesla Supercharger

We are safely in our loaner home in Barnesville PA. We had a safe trip from our home in Florida back to our roots in Tamaqua PA. We drove roughly from 9 to 5 for 3 days. That included stops for charging our car - eating - shopping - bathrooms. 

We stayed the first night in a Hampton Inn in Santee SC. The second night we stayed at our son’s home in Richmond VA. 

We stopped to charge our car 6 times. We did not fill the battery to the top - because the last 10% takes much longer to fill. To save time we charge usually to 300 miles range. 

When your charge at home you pay only 10 cents per KWH. That would be about 3 cents a mile. When you charge at a Tesla Supercharger you pay 20 to 30 cents per KWH. You pay more because the charger is much faster. You pay for the speed. At home you charge at the rate of 20 miles per hour. At a Tesla Supercharger your speed varies from 200 miles per hour of charge to as high as 1000 miles of charge per hour! Usually a charge takes 15 to 20 minutes. Nancy stretches it into a shopping session. 

We had noticed you get many more miles from a charge by going 65 mph - versus 70 mph. We did not take in other conditions - like hills - etc. When the car is going down a hill - you actually gain more miles of range. 

My friend Ted loaned me his second home with pool for 10 nights. It is like our own resort. 

Our Trip from Tallahassee FL to Tamaqua PA

We charged the battery 6 times. 

August 3 - St Marys GA - $14

August 3 - Savannah GA - $14

August 4 - Santee SC - $18

August 4 - Smithville NC - $27

August 5 - Ashland VA - $17

August 5 - Carlisle PA $16

Total Tallahassee to Tamaqua - $106

It was roughly 1100 miles for the trip. 

To compare that to a gasoline car - if we would have driven our Honda Odyssey instead - it gets 25 miles per gallon of gasoline. Gasoline costs about $4 a gallon. 1100 miles would have required 44 gallons. 44 gallons x $4 a gallon = $176. Even with paying the higher prices of Tesla superchargers - we saved $176 gasoline price minus $106 electricity price = $70 savings. 

When you plug in - Tesla immediately recognizes your car’s VIN number - and charges the electricity directly to your account. The charge shows up as a receipt on your phone. 

I would say that we had the car set on AUTOPILOT about 95% of the time. It steers - hits the brakes -  and sets the speed. You keep your hands on the wheel - you can take your hands off the wheel up to 30 seconds. If its does not  detect your hands - it stops. You cannot crawl into the back seat and go to sleep. 

The autopilot keeps you exactly in the middle of your lane. No zig zagging. 

We will be in Pennsylvania 10 days - then we will head home to Florida. We are looking forward to spending time with friends and family.