There’s a tweet that is currently going somewhat viral, all about a long road trip taken in a Tesla Model Y. It’s a 3,605 mile road trip, which is absolutely no joke by any standards of a road trip. What’s notable about this trip is that the taker of this trip, Alex Gayer, kept some nicely meticulous records and did some math to figure out how much time was spent charging, how much money was spent, and what the equivalent would be in miles per gallon. One gets the sense that this was all done to brag about his Tesla, which is fine since we don’t kink-shame here, but interestingly, I think the end result of this is not an aggrandizement of Tesla, but actually a pretty solid argument in favor of plug-in hybrids!
As I think we’ve made pretty clear, we’re very pro hybrids, especially plug-in hybrids. They may not be the absolute platonic ideal of perfect efficiency, but they make a lot of sense for the flawed, messy reality we all actually live in. There’s a pragmatic beauty to hybrids. Yes, you’re dragging around two entire types of drivetrains, but the capabilities of those drivetrains dovetail so well with each other, with each one’s strengths filling in the weaknesses of the other – electric motors’ instant torque helping the combustion engine, the reclamation of normally lost kinetic energy from braking, the energy density of gasoline, all of these traits combine to make a system that’s more than the sum of its parts.
Let’s take a look at this proud Tesla owner’s math and see what we think of all this. First, let’s look at the overall trip:
Just took Model Y on a 3,605 mi road trip. Wanted to see what the worst case might look like for charging costs. 5 passengers total, fully loaded frunk and trunk, we drove as fast as conditions allowed and hit several rain storms, used heavy A/C, kids playing video games from the pic.twitter.com/amcO0lhpbc
— Alex Gayer (@alex_gayer) June 18, 2024
Damn, that’s a long trip! Based on that map, it looks like it took, what, 24 recharging stops? Alex breaks down some of the math for us, helpfully:
Here are my statistics:
Trip Miles: 3,605
Total kWh: 1310.58
Wh/mi: 363.55
Total spent charging: $421.84
Avg. Cost per mile: $0.12
Avg. Cost per kWh: $0.32
Total Time Spent Supercharging: 10 hours 58 minutes (did not include destination charges)— Alex Gayer (@alex_gayer) June 18, 2024
So, we have 3,605 miles, with an average cost per mile of 12 cents, and just under 11 hours of charging time for the trip. Oh, and that doesn’t count “destination charges” which is charging done once they reached their destination for that leg of the journey. The total spent on electrons to feed into those big lithium batteries came to $421.84. Okay, all that seems in order. But it was this next tweet that I really think got everyone wondering:
The average price of gas at the time was about $3.516 per gallon. The money spent charging could have purchased 119.98 gallons of gas. This means that to have made the same trip in a gas-powered car for the same cost, I would have had to achieve an average of 30.0 MPG.
— Alex Gayer (@alex_gayer) June 18, 2024
Okay, so I suspect everyone here is thinking the same thing: 30 mpg? That’s, um, normal? Like, almost anything can hit 30 mpg on the highway now, right? And the way this is phrased – “I would have had to achieve an average of 30.0 MPG” – makes it sound like this is some incredible feat? Big-ass modern SUVs can pull off about 30 MPG now. I just had a press V8 Mustang that was hitting about 30 mpg on the highway recently, too. This isn’t nuclear fusion here.
Okay, so using Alex’ numbers here, let’s figure out what an equivalent trip in a combustion car that gets 30 mpg highway would be like. Let’s say we’re taking an Acura Integra, why not, which gets a combined 30-33 mpg (city 30/highway 37, if you’re curious) and that car has a 12.4 gallon gas tank.
So, the range of that car at a conservative 30 mpg would be 372 miles, so if we divide 3,605 miles by 372 that means we’d have to stop for gas 9.69 times, which we’ll round up to 10 because we probably want more Nutter Butters and Munchos and pee breaks, anyway.
Each tank of 12.4 gallons at $3.516 is $43.60 to fill the tank (completely, which is unlikely, but whatever so that comes to $436.00 for all the gas, a bit more than the electricity, but effectively the same, since it’s unlikely you’ll be draining that tank to bone-dry each time.
Now let’s think about time. Let’s err on the side of slowness and say each fill-up takes 15 minutes, so we have 10 stops, which means 150 minutes, or two and a half hours total. That’s a hell of a lot less than 11 hours. It’s eight and a half hours less, in fact.
And, keep in mind, 30 mpg is just a baseline here – it’s not hard to find all sorts of cars, like Toyota Priuses or Honda Civics or Volkswagen Jettas or Toyota RAV4s or any number of other cars that get well over 30 mpg, 35 and up, even 40 mpg for highway mileage is not uncommon. So the reality is likely to be less fuel needed and less fill-ups than we calculated here.
Of course, people on eX-Twitter pointed out these facts, Alex pointed out that in non-highway use, his Tesla gets well over 30 mpg, often up to an EV equivalent of 90 mpg. And that’s true! But it’s also true that plug-in hybrids can get similar equivalent mpg numbers when running on battery power in-town, and can also take advantage of having a combustion engine that quickly refuels when being used on a long road trip.
If we look at the electric-only ranges of PHEVs, we can see that most of them can cover the average American daily commute distance of 12 miles just on battery power:
- Jeep Wrangler 4xe: 22 miles
- Ford Escape plug-in: 37 miles
- Chrysler Pacifica PHEV: 32 miles
- Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe: 26 miles
- Hyundai Tucson PHEV: 33 miles
- Mazda CX-90 PHEV: 26 miles
- BMW X5 xDrive50e: 38 miles
- BMW 330e: 23 miles
- Toyota Prius Prime: 44 miles
- Toyota RAV4 Prime: 42 miles
- Lexus RX450h+: 37 miles
Hell, even the worst of these can pull off almost the whole back-and-forth commute without needing to start the combustion motor at all:
I know Alex Gayer didn’t really intend it to be this way, but I think his carefully-tracked road trip tweets will actually do a lot of good, just not in the everyone-should-get-a-Tesla sense. I think it’ll do good in the we-should-all-seriously-consider-plug-in-hybrids sense. Sure, they’re conceptually a clunky compromise, but in reality, in actual practice, they really do seem to offer the best of both worlds.
Had Alex and his four companions and all their luggage been in a plug-in hybrid, they could have spent the same amount of money and finished their trip an entire eight and a half hours earlier, which perhaps could have spared them seven or so hours of listening to Alex talk about how awesome his Tesla is.
I kid, Alex, I kid! I’m delighted you love your car! We should all be so lucky! But if we’re talking hard numbers, I think this whole thing has been a win for the plug-in hybrids.
I hope you had a fun trip, though!
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The Tesla numbers sound pretty good to me considering that where I live the gas costs twice as much, so you would need to get about 60 miles per gallon to beat it. Of course, I do agree that hybrids are pretty amazing and I really like PHEV’s as we’ll. I rented a Tesla on a trip to Washington and I absolutely fell in love with the technology. My dream car would be my car as an electric with Tesla’s technology. I rented a Model 3. The car just wasn’t as comfortable as my car and it was too low to the ground for my taste. My passengers complained about the back seat being too small and uncomfortable. In my car, they can cross their legs in the back seat. I have a Ford Flex.
The Tesla numbers sound pretty good to me considering that where I live the gas costs twice as much, so you would need to get about 60 miles per gallon to beat it. Of course, I do agree that hybrids are pretty amazing and I really like PHEV’s as we’ll. I rented a Tesla on a trip to Washington and I absolutely fell in love with the technology. My dream car would be my car as an electric with Tesla’s technology. I rented a Model 3. The car just wasn’t as comfortable as my car and it was too low to the ground for my taste. My passengers complained about the back seat being too small and uncomfortable. In my car, they can cross their legs in the back seat. I have a Ford Flex.
My wife and I did a road trip to see the eclipse in April. We drove 800 miles (almost exactly) total trip. We drove our 2019 Honda Insight Hybrid. I did not hypermile, but did drive conservatively. We got 53 mpg.
I have been app tracking my mileage since day one with this car. Here are the totals –
29890 miles. 588.783 gal. total fuel cost $1532.11. — MPG ave. 50.77.
And, let’s look at some more numbers; your Honda probably cost $23k when the MY was $45k, your insurance each month is around $128 vs $329 for the Tesla, your tires with mounting and balancing comes out to around $800 every 50,000 miles and the Tesla comes out to around $2,000 every 25,000… tables are turned when you consider maintenance; you will be paying $432/year where as the Tesla is only $380/year. However, the likelihood of needing a major repair is pretty high on both (11-15% likelihood) your Honda is likely to incur a $820 bill but the Tesla is likely to incur a $8,250-15,000 repair bill…
My wife and I did a road trip to see the eclipse in April. We drove 800 miles (almost exactly) total trip. We drove our 2019 Honda Insight Hybrid. I did not hypermile, but did drive conservatively. We got 53 mpg.
I have been app tracking my mileage since day one with this car. Here are the totals –
29890 miles. 588.783 gal. total fuel cost $1532.11. — MPG ave. 50.77.
And, let’s look at some more numbers; your Honda probably cost $23k when the MY was $45k, your insurance each month is around $128 vs $329 for the Tesla, your tires with mounting and balancing comes out to around $800 every 50,000 miles and the Tesla comes out to around $2,000 every 25,000… tables are turned when you consider maintenance; you will be paying $432/year where as the Tesla is only $380/year. However, the likelihood of needing a major repair is pretty high on both (11-15% likelihood) your Honda is likely to incur a $820 bill but the Tesla is likely to incur a $8,250-15,000 repair bill…
How timely! 3 days ago I went to New Hampshire for my house 135 mi one way, 270, rnd trp. I left with a half tank, against my better judgment I figured that maybe I’d have to splash some gas on the way back. I got back, I was on empty but not on fumes as we all have been in the past, they was a comfortable empty! Lol! So this is a four cylinder 2016 Acura TLX non turbo. I guess, I should be happy with my 36-37 miles to the gallon! I figured I’d use about 7.5 gallons total. For the sake of simplicity will use your average gas prices that you have in the article but just to be clear, I paid a lot less because we get points from our grocery store for gas… I actually price per gallon was 2.59.
Wow! I have not seen gas for $2.59 in probably over 20 years. I recently paid almost $6/gallon. Gas has been over $5/gallon for years now. The last time I filled up it was $90. This is why I see a lot of electric and hybrid vehicles where I live.
I remember paying $1.90/gallon in California in 2016 and thinking I would never see gas that cheap again! It was when the Saudis were in an oil price war with US producers.
It’s a Stop & Shop gas station. You get points when you buy their groceries, and if you accumulate at least 100 points it’s 10 cents off a gallon. At 600 points that would be 60 cents off, which is why I came up to 2.59….right now we have 800 points. So my case is not your usual price of gas simply because I’m using a point system to reduce that dollar amount. But, to address your comment about the price of gas being under $2 a gallon, we only have to look at the covid period, and I was getting gas at $1.49 without discounts!
How timely! 3 days ago I went to New Hampshire for my house 135 mi one way, 270, rnd trp. I left with a half tank, against my better judgment I figured that maybe I’d have to splash some gas on the way back. I got back, I was on empty but not on fumes as we all have been in the past, they was a comfortable empty! Lol! So this is a four cylinder 2016 Acura TLX non turbo. I guess, I should be happy with my 36-37 miles to the gallon! I figured I’d use about 7.5 gallons total. For the sake of simplicity will use your average gas prices that you have in the article but just to be clear, I paid a lot less because we get points from our grocery store for gas… I actually price per gallon was 2.59.
Wow! I have not seen gas for $2.59 in probably over 20 years. I recently paid almost $6/gallon. Gas has been over $5/gallon for years now. The last time I filled up it was $90. This is why I see a lot of electric and hybrid vehicles where I live.
I remember paying $1.90/gallon in California in 2016 and thinking I would never see gas that cheap again! It was when the Saudis were in an oil price war with US producers.
It’s a Stop & Shop gas station. You get points when you buy their groceries, and if you accumulate at least 100 points it’s 10 cents off a gallon. At 600 points that would be 60 cents off, which is why I came up to 2.59….right now we have 800 points. So my case is not your usual price of gas simply because I’m using a point system to reduce that dollar amount. But, to address your comment about the price of gas being under $2 a gallon, we only have to look at the covid period, and I was getting gas at $1.49 without discounts!
My wife drove a mark II Volt for 6 years, that thing was amazing! 50ish miles battery, then 40mpg hybrid no matter how hard I flogged it. It was a peppy, comfortable road trip car that we only had to fill up with gas every couple of months if we kept it in town. That car was ahead of its time, with an unfortunate battery lay out that led to its demise and us getting rid of it. 10 year life cycle, and insane money to replace.
We just went on a trip to the Ozarks in her 2023 Civic, 4 people, full trunk, and still 35mpg, Plus, no giant battery to worry about
My wife drove a mark II Volt for 6 years, that thing was amazing! 50ish miles battery, then 40mpg hybrid no matter how hard I flogged it. It was a peppy, comfortable road trip car that we only had to fill up with gas every couple of months if we kept it in town. That car was ahead of its time, with an unfortunate battery lay out that led to its demise and us getting rid of it. 10 year life cycle, and insane money to replace.
We just went on a trip to the Ozarks in her 2023 Civic, 4 people, full trunk, and still 35mpg, Plus, no giant battery to worry about
But the key bit of info is his statement “Wanted to see what the worst case might look like for charging costs. ”
In reality, only an idiot or someone looking to figure out the “worst case” will spend that.
In reality, you’ll charging at home overnight at a much lower rate… OR you’ll be charging for free or at much a lower rate overnight at the Hotel/motel/camp ground you’re staying at.
So in reality, you’ll still spend less on fuel/energy with a BEV as long as you’ve done some homework and have some smarts.
What this guy is doing would be like having a gas car and looking for the most expensive places to fill up and when driving, locking out overdrive and keeping the AC cranked.
Or it would be like using a plug in hybrid and NOT plugging it in.
Given that when listing charging time he explicitly called out that it excluded destination charging, it would seem he was also taking advantage of overnight charging at hotels and the like.
I took that to mean that his trip didn’t include destination charges, given the rest of the context. And his price per kwh seems high if it includes overnight charging at hotels and such.
Yeah, reading it again, your interpretation is valid. Really need a full rundown of what he did instead of a bullet point list.
Yeah, I’d really like to see the data behind his conclusions. It doesn’t sound good, but there’s a lot missing here. If we look at 11 hours of supercharging added to about 60 hours of driving (assuming an avg speed of 60), divided up over 24 charging stops, we’re looking at less than half an hour per stop on average. If you’re also stopping and having a bite to eat and such at some of those stops, it doesn’t really tell us 11 hours were added to the trip, depending on how these folks normally travel. It could also mean some really brief stops and some long stops that didn’t accomplish much, which might feel even worse than it sounds. We just don’t know. I suspect the former is more likely, but who knows.
Similarly, if the pricing was that bad including some destination charging, that tells us that it could be much worse if you are stuck on just DC fast charging.
Yeah, since he’s looking for worst case, I think the “did not include destination charges” means his trip didn’t include any destination charging, not that he just left it out of the math.
Basically, this guy seems to have decided to see what someone who does mostly highway driving, has nowhere to charge except DC fast chargers, and hauls a lot of people or stuff.
But the key bit of info is his statement “Wanted to see what the worst case might look like for charging costs. ”
In reality, only an idiot or someone looking to figure out the “worst case” will spend that.
In reality, you’ll charging at home overnight at a much lower rate… OR you’ll be charging for free or at much a lower rate overnight at the Hotel/motel/camp ground you’re staying at.
So in reality, you’ll still spend less on fuel/energy with a BEV as long as you’ve done some homework and have some smarts.
What this guy is doing would be like having a gas car and looking for the most expensive places to fill up and when driving, locking out overdrive and keeping the AC cranked.
Or it would be like using a plug in hybrid and NOT plugging it in.
Given that when listing charging time he explicitly called out that it excluded destination charging, it would seem he was also taking advantage of overnight charging at hotels and the like.
I took that to mean that his trip didn’t include destination charges, given the rest of the context. And his price per kwh seems high if it includes overnight charging at hotels and such.
Yeah, reading it again, your interpretation is valid. Really need a full rundown of what he did instead of a bullet point list.
Yeah, I’d really like to see the data behind his conclusions. It doesn’t sound good, but there’s a lot missing here. If we look at 11 hours of supercharging added to about 60 hours of driving (assuming an avg speed of 60), divided up over 24 charging stops, we’re looking at less than half an hour per stop on average. If you’re also stopping and having a bite to eat and such at some of those stops, it doesn’t really tell us 11 hours were added to the trip, depending on how these folks normally travel. It could also mean some really brief stops and some long stops that didn’t accomplish much, which might feel even worse than it sounds. We just don’t know. I suspect the former is more likely, but who knows.
Similarly, if the pricing was that bad including some destination charging, that tells us that it could be much worse if you are stuck on just DC fast charging.
Yeah, since he’s looking for worst case, I think the “did not include destination charges” means his trip didn’t include any destination charging, not that he just left it out of the math.
Basically, this guy seems to have decided to see what someone who does mostly highway driving, has nowhere to charge except DC fast chargers, and hauls a lot of people or stuff.
My road trips mostly involve Florida and back (NH) to visit my dad. My ride a 2016 Mazda 3 with the 2.5 the big 4 in that car always made it feel a little bit hot hatchish with better day to day mileage. I still got at least 32-33 mpg on those trips despite the fact that you have to do at least 80 through the south otherwise you become a speed bump for a semi. Recently my girlfriend and I acquired a 2022 RAV4 hybrid. Not my cup of tea dynamically but more room and an even better 36 mpg on the trip. Occasionally we would do a leg either up or down in one go something you could not do with the electric. 30 mpg highway is not a great milestone today.
My road trips mostly involve Florida and back (NH) to visit my dad. My ride a 2016 Mazda 3 with the 2.5 the big 4 in that car always made it feel a little bit hot hatchish with better day to day mileage. I still got at least 32-33 mpg on those trips despite the fact that you have to do at least 80 through the south otherwise you become a speed bump for a semi. Recently my girlfriend and I acquired a 2022 RAV4 hybrid. Not my cup of tea dynamically but more room and an even better 36 mpg on the trip. Occasionally we would do a leg either up or down in one go something you could not do with the electric. 30 mpg highway is not a great milestone today.
Hey, I know you didn’t endorse the argument, but you weren’t nearly hard enough on the “dragging two drivetrains around” BS argument. The Tesla model Y battery weighs 1700 lbs. You could easy have 3 ICEs and still be under that weight. Anybody who had ever argued “dragging two drivetrains around” needs to be permanently removed from the discussion so that the adults can speak.
Correct and, technically, you are only dragging two half drivetrains around. It’s not like the car has two motors AND two transmissions and double the number of axles.
Hey, I know you didn’t endorse the argument, but you weren’t nearly hard enough on the “dragging two drivetrains around” BS argument. The Tesla model Y battery weighs 1700 lbs. You could easy have 3 ICEs and still be under that weight. Anybody who had ever argued “dragging two drivetrains around” needs to be permanently removed from the discussion so that the adults can speak.
Correct and, technically, you are only dragging two half drivetrains around. It’s not like the car has two motors AND two transmissions and double the number of axles.
I do like 2-3 round trips Florida to Pennsylvania a year, I had a Fusion Hybrid, mild not plug in, I’d have to stop for gas twice on the trip. I just bought a Tesla model Y, but did consider this beforehand. I’m actually departing for Pennsylvania this Thursday. I realize these trips will take slightly longer and cost slightly more than before, but I weighed that against the costs of operating it for my normal commute. Also it’s hard to quantify the amount of fatigue one feels while driving on a road trip. I had previously done 900 miles in a rented Tesla and man was it noticeably less. Especially on the highway, Autopilot does like 90% of the work. I am not saying you don’t have to pay attention or be engaged, but it drastically reduces the mental load.
Until it drives you into an oncoming train, anyway.
Man you people are rubes.
I do like 2-3 round trips Florida to Pennsylvania a year, I had a Fusion Hybrid, mild not plug in, I’d have to stop for gas twice on the trip. I just bought a Tesla model Y, but did consider this beforehand. I’m actually departing for Pennsylvania this Thursday. I realize these trips will take slightly longer and cost slightly more than before, but I weighed that against the costs of operating it for my normal commute. Also it’s hard to quantify the amount of fatigue one feels while driving on a road trip. I had previously done 900 miles in a rented Tesla and man was it noticeably less. Especially on the highway, Autopilot does like 90% of the work. I am not saying you don’t have to pay attention or be engaged, but it drastically reduces the mental load.
Until it drives you into an oncoming train, anyway.
Man you people are rubes.
Just finished a 2425 mile trip (coast-ish to coast-ish) in a RAV4 Hybrid. Average fuel economy was about 29 MPG. However we got that figure with under just about the worst conditions for maximizing fuel efficiency:
So yeah I imagine that any newish hybrid could do as good or better than 30mpg in real world conditions.
Just finished a 2425 mile trip (coast-ish to coast-ish) in a RAV4 Hybrid. Average fuel economy was about 29 MPG. However we got that figure with under just about the worst conditions for maximizing fuel efficiency:
So yeah I imagine that any newish hybrid could do as good or better than 30mpg in real world conditions.
I couldn’t imagine doing a trip like this with more than 2 people and everyone being OK with stopping so much, nobody would want to travel again. I just did KS to VA 1330 miles in a 2021 Yukon xl diesel stopped to fill up before we left and once on the way cost $140 and averaged 29 mpg with 6 people, 2 dogs, and luggage.
I couldn’t imagine doing a trip like this with more than 2 people and everyone being OK with stopping so much, nobody would want to travel again. I just did KS to VA 1330 miles in a 2021 Yukon xl diesel stopped to fill up before we left and once on the way cost $140 and averaged 29 mpg with 6 people, 2 dogs, and luggage.
I think we’re all discounting how long it takes for kids to go inside a gas station, fart around, complain, go to the bathroom, eat, complain, etc.. We road trip in Teslas often, and we find that we drive 2-2.5 hrs then charge for 35 min. With 5th and 7th graders, that’s how long we stretch and putz around when driving gas cars, but that may be unique to our family. Usually our kids are the bottleneck, not the charging. Tesla Superchargers always have bathrooms, food/coffee, etc.. so the experience is similar to our gas fill ups with ICE.
The outlier cost of charging on road trip is around $15 for a “fillup” which is ~225-250 miles. We’ll say 225 miles for these numbers. If you drive 30 mpg in a gas car thats 7.5 gallons @$3.5 is $26.25. I dont know about that dude’s math.. or maybe he’s driving 80mph and leaving the AC on while he eats. No idea. I drive 70-72mph (my normal gas driving speed), 4 people, AC, no external racks/mounts.
I’m guessing this guy’s numbers are at the very extreme end of the spectrum and shouldn’t be cherry-picked to make an argument. His average wh/m @ 363 is high, but not unusual for hilly areas. Your 30mpg hybrid will get way less with those same hills. 280-300 wh/mi is way more typical for the flats in my world.
That said, PHEVs are awesome too.
My experience with travelling with kids is much different, so tough to say who the outlier is. I have a 13 and 11 year old and we just went on a trip a couple weeks ago. Our fill ups for gas and restroom breaks are quick, we are out of there in 10-15 minutes, and usually towards the lower end of that. If we stop for a meal, that can be much longer, but that would typically only be once per day.
By “outlier” I meant road trips in general. 99% of my EV’s useage is in town fractions of pennies per mile with solar charging. Its not a great metric for judging an EV’s worthwhile, its just a few thousand miles a year. I find the overall experience of Tesla charging to be very close to ICE for me personally. We’re slow, hit up the local antique store and soak up the downtown diner kind of road trippers.
For my entire childhood, my parents twice a year took us on 1000 mile one way road trips to see family. Every gas stop was understood to be a coordinated, absolute minimum of time event. One kid walks the dog, one adult fuels the car. The other kid and adult go to the bathroom. Trade off responsibilities ASAP. Get in, go. Want to buy snacks? They’re already packed, get back in the car we’ve got 14 more hours of this.
The thought of Dad looking at his watch on one hand and twirling the other hand shouting, “Let’s go people, we’re making good time, keep it up!”….it brings a nostalgic tear to my eye.
And that was back before we had Google Maps to tell us the the time we had to beat.
Yeah.. thats not us. We tried it and its stressful and no one’s happy. We’re a pretty chill, take your time, try on sunglasses, look at magnets kind of road trippers. Without fail, after we’re all buckled up my youngest always has to pee after stopping for 20 min. No judgement for any other families, we all more at our own pace.
I totally agree with this. I personally can’t go more than 3 hours maximum without stopping to stretch. Instead of stopping at a rest area or gas station, you stop at a super charging station. Doing it this way, there wouldn’t be any more time spent than when driving a gas vehicle. Also, those gas prices are insanely low. I haven’t seen gas that low in about 20 years. So, on the West coast, the Tesla wins, hands down….unless your hybrid is getting at least 60 miles per gallon.
We have a truck and a Tesla, so which vehicle we take on road trips is an easy choice as far as gas savings. The truck is for towing the camper and sports activities and the Tesla for everything else. I do a TON of 3 hr round trip work drives and the 10 min at a Supercharger is no big deal, but the gas savings is HUGE. I leave with a full tank charged at home and I only use maybe $4-5 in Supercharger electricity. Not bad for a 200-250 mile drive. I arrive at home with 20% and charge back up for nothing. Lots of one way 3 hr drives as well with free charging at hotels.
I think we’re all discounting how long it takes for kids to go inside a gas station, fart around, complain, go to the bathroom, eat, complain, etc.. We road trip in Teslas often, and we find that we drive 2-2.5 hrs then charge for 35 min. With 5th and 7th graders, that’s how long we stretch and putz around when driving gas cars, but that may be unique to our family. Usually our kids are the bottleneck, not the charging. Tesla Superchargers always have bathrooms, food/coffee, etc.. so the experience is similar to our gas fill ups with ICE.
The outlier cost of charging on road trip is around $15 for a “fillup” which is ~225-250 miles. We’ll say 225 miles for these numbers. If you drive 30 mpg in a gas car thats 7.5 gallons @$3.5 is $26.25. I dont know about that dude’s math.. or maybe he’s driving 80mph and leaving the AC on while he eats. No idea. I drive 70-72mph (my normal gas driving speed), 4 people, AC, no external racks/mounts.
I’m guessing this guy’s numbers are at the very extreme end of the spectrum and shouldn’t be cherry-picked to make an argument. His average wh/m @ 363 is high, but not unusual for hilly areas. Your 30mpg hybrid will get way less with those same hills. 280-300 wh/mi is way more typical for the flats in my world.
That said, PHEVs are awesome too.
My experience with travelling with kids is much different, so tough to say who the outlier is. I have a 13 and 11 year old and we just went on a trip a couple weeks ago. Our fill ups for gas and restroom breaks are quick, we are out of there in 10-15 minutes, and usually towards the lower end of that. If we stop for a meal, that can be much longer, but that would typically only be once per day.
By “outlier” I meant road trips in general. 99% of my EV’s useage is in town fractions of pennies per mile with solar charging. Its not a great metric for judging an EV’s worthwhile, its just a few thousand miles a year. I find the overall experience of Tesla charging to be very close to ICE for me personally. We’re slow, hit up the local antique store and soak up the downtown diner kind of road trippers.
For my entire childhood, my parents twice a year took us on 1000 mile one way road trips to see family. Every gas stop was understood to be a coordinated, absolute minimum of time event. One kid walks the dog, one adult fuels the car. The other kid and adult go to the bathroom. Trade off responsibilities ASAP. Get in, go. Want to buy snacks? They’re already packed, get back in the car we’ve got 14 more hours of this.
The thought of Dad looking at his watch on one hand and twirling the other hand shouting, “Let’s go people, we’re making good time, keep it up!”….it brings a nostalgic tear to my eye.
And that was back before we had Google Maps to tell us the the time we had to beat.
Yeah.. thats not us. We tried it and its stressful and no one’s happy. We’re a pretty chill, take your time, try on sunglasses, look at magnets kind of road trippers. Without fail, after we’re all buckled up my youngest always has to pee after stopping for 20 min. No judgement for any other families, we all more at our own pace.
I totally agree with this. I personally can’t go more than 3 hours maximum without stopping to stretch. Instead of stopping at a rest area or gas station, you stop at a super charging station. Doing it this way, there wouldn’t be any more time spent than when driving a gas vehicle. Also, those gas prices are insanely low. I haven’t seen gas that low in about 20 years. So, on the West coast, the Tesla wins, hands down….unless your hybrid is getting at least 60 miles per gallon.
We have a truck and a Tesla, so which vehicle we take on road trips is an easy choice as far as gas savings. The truck is for towing the camper and sports activities and the Tesla for everything else. I do a TON of 3 hr round trip work drives and the 10 min at a Supercharger is no big deal, but the gas savings is HUGE. I leave with a full tank charged at home and I only use maybe $4-5 in Supercharger electricity. Not bad for a 200-250 mile drive. I arrive at home with 20% and charge back up for nothing. Lots of one way 3 hr drives as well with free charging at hotels.
My wife’s non-hybrid Elantra averages 38-42 mpg just driving around locally, and on the highway, I have seen numbers in the 47-50mpg range, all above the EPA numbers. So, for about $300.42, I could have done the same trip on gas, and likely saved 9-10 hours of hearing my kid say “are we there yet?”
My 2019 WRX has returned 29.4 mpg over its lifetime. I can regularly get 33 mpg highway and under ideal conditions (steady state cruising, no hills or stoplights) hit 36 mpg for a trip.
My wife’s non-hybrid Elantra averages 38-42 mpg just driving around locally, and on the highway, I have seen numbers in the 47-50mpg range, all above the EPA numbers. So, for about $300.42, I could have done the same trip on gas, and likely saved 9-10 hours of hearing my kid say “are we there yet?”
My 2019 WRX has returned 29.4 mpg over its lifetime. I can regularly get 33 mpg highway and under ideal conditions (steady state cruising, no hills or stoplights) hit 36 mpg for a trip.
Just ask yourself: “would I rather be charged up or gassed?”