Family drives 4,500 kilometers with Tesla - electricity costs "blew them away"
Created: 08/11/2022 11:43 am
By: Julian Baumann
During a road trip through the USA, a family charged their rented Tesla Model 3 a total of 12 times at a Supercharger station.
© Imago
On a road trip through the USA, a family covered a distance of almost 4,500 kilometers in a Tesla.
The electricity costs are impressive.
Stuttgart/Columbus - Due to the ever-increasing range and the ever-expanding charging infrastructure, road trips with e-cars are no longer a problem.
However, a Tesla driver had to deal with many problems on a road trip from Munich to the North Cape.
One family's trip through the USA went much better, which is why they took a second one and covered a distance of almost 4,500 kilometers in a Tesla electric car, reports bw24.de.
Due to the Ukraine crisis and the disrupted supply chains, however, electricity prices have risen significantly not only in Europe but also in the USA.
On a road trip with an e-car from Tesla or another provider, you should first plan a precise route that also includes the appropriate charging stations.
Even the super e-car EQXX from Mercedes-Benz, which recently broke its own range record, would have had to be charged at least four times with a range of around 1,000 kilometers on the road trip through the USA.
As the family reports on the Cleantechnica
portal
, the electricity required for the distance of almost 4,500 kilometers in total was not obtained entirely from Tesla's own superchargers.
Tesla road trip through the USA: EV rental at 2,000 dollars/euro per month
The report states that the family actually owns a Tesla Model 3 themselves, but decided to rent one of the company's models from Elon Musk for the road trip or holiday trip.
To visit family and friends in the Northeastern United States, the five people - the author of the
Celantechnica
article , his wife and two children, and an exchange student - embarked on a month-long trip in an electric car.
In addition to the increased price per kilowatt hour, another problem arose: the costs for rental cars are currently at a record high.
"It feels like it wasn't that long ago that you could rent a car for under $500 a month," the report says.
However, a look at the offer from a car rental company in Columbus, Ohio showed that the cheapest combustion engine model cost almost 1,300 dollars (dollars and euros are almost equivalent as of July 27, ed.).
Gasoline wasn't an option for the family, so they ended up going with a Model 3 for $2,000 for 31 days.
"What blew us away is how little we spent on fuel," the report said.
After all, after driving almost 4,500 kilometers, the family spent a total of 95 dollars on the electricity.
E-car road trip: 650 kilometers per day - at least one charging stop
After the five had successfully rented a Tesla Model 3, the road trip started in Columbus, Ohio, went via Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York City to Portland, Maine and then back to Columbus.
The family also benefited from the fact that the Tesla planned the route independently and calculated when the e-car had to be charged at a supercharger station.
"This system is a real advantage at Tesla and will remain so until e-car charging stations are as common as gas stations," says
Cleantechnica
.
The family drove about 400 miles a day, charging the Model 3 when not in use.
Depending on the kilometers driven, one or two charging stops were necessary per day.
Since Tesla had raised the cost of a kilowatt hour from 24 cents to 45 cents in recent years, the road trip could theoretically have become more expensive.
However, the family did not only get the electricity from Tesla itself. "We charged 12 times at Supercharger stations and thus drew a total of 206 kilowatt hours of electricity from Tesla," reports the author.
"The other 311 kilowatt hours came from charging our hosts' house electricity."
E-car road trip cheaper than with a combustion engine - "just imagine the future"
In total, the Tesla Model 3 consumed 517 kilowatt hours of electricity on the road trip through the USA, 60 percent of which was not obtained from the supercharger stations.
The said 95 dollars (and therefore also around 95 euros) only refer to the manufacturer's chargeable stations.
According to the report, the 311 kilowatt hours charged at home would have cost an additional 47 dollars/euro at a price of 15 cents per kilowatt hour.
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That is still significantly cheaper than with a petrol engine, which would have consumed around 532 dollars in fuel for the same route.
"I hope our trip shows how much financial sense it makes to rent, drive or buy an electric car if you haven't already done so," the report concludes.
"Imagine the future when more cars are electric and charging stations are ubiquitous."