Tesla Chronicles #36 - Trip to State College

Susan and I made a trip up to PSU this past weekend to see some PSU Hockey (they lost) and PSU Men's Basketball (they lost in an epic meltdown). We also got a chance to visit Goot Essa ("good eats" in German) - a local Amish farm NE of State College that produces and sells their own cheeses and jams, and two wineries (Nittany Mountain which we love and 7 Mountains Wine Cellars which was excellent as well).

The major difference for this trip that was different than other trips we have taken to State College over the last year is that we stayed at the Country Inn and Suites which is out on the east side of town at 26 and 322. This was nice because that hotel has 4 Level 2 EV chargers behind the building, 2 Tesla Chargers and 2 J1772 Chargers. On the first night, there was only one other Tesla there and on the second night, I was the only EV charging.

This is a game changer when travelling in an EV for sure. I didn't need to stop at any Superchargers on the way up or on the way back. On a Level 2 charger, it may only take 3-6 hours to get an EV to a full charge depending on the starting SOC. We got a full charge Friday night in Harrisburg (at MA's) before driving up on Saturday. When we arrived at our Hotel Saturday afternoon before the game, we were able to add about 10% to the battery in about an hour while we were getting checked in and ready for the Hockey Game, and then each night, I was able to charge up to >90% SOC each night while we were sleeping.

The drive north to State College has a good bit of elevation change (increase) and as such, it takes a bit more to get there than it does to get home. So much so in fact that I could have made the entire trip from State College to Home using about 90% of the battery. To get to State College, it is going to require 95-105% depending on wind and temperature. Given there is zero opportunity to charge up past Harrisburg, we have to make sure we stop in Harrisburg on the way to top off. Coming home, we actually stopped briefly and added 17% to the car on one of our rest stops on the way home, but we didn't have to really, but arriving home with an estimated 5% was a bit low given I had a few errands to run once I got home.

Here is the data from TeslaFi. We drove a total of about 450 miles (not sure why the summary data says 260 miles), which cost us $5.10 in Supercharging (which we actually didn't need), and another $5 to charge back up to a SOC level above what I had when we left home. In our CX-5, this trip would have cost about $70 in fuel.

https://www.teslafi.com/sharedRT.php?roadtrip=bpTceTQCiJbxLBM

One more example of our Tesla Model Y performing flawlessly. AND, because we didn't need to stop anywhere for "fuel", taking the Model Y actually SAVED us time on this particular trip.