Tesla Cross Country Run
 

Tesla is doing a stunt/PR move where they are sending two cars from LA to NY. They left late last night, intending to set a record for "least time charging" in a trip cross country (note that they aren't trying to set an actual time over distance record).

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/cross-country-rally

What's interesting is that they may be coming through DC. Not the typical route you'd expect for LA to NY, but given the way the Superchargers are set up right now, to get from Somerset, PA to NYC I think you almost have to come down through Hagerstown and back up to Newark.

http://www.teslawiki.net/supercharger/

Oh, and then there's this--the temporary Supercharger they just installed in the Montgomery Mall. There really doesn't seem like any other reason to put this in, especially since a permanent Supercharger is going in at Woodbridge in a few weeks/whenever they get the permit cleared.

http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showt...light=bethesda

So, this weekend at some point we may see them coming through.

Considering the volume of test drives out of that garage (ours started at that spot), I imagine there is a need to juice up the demos. I would expect every store that has test drives to have a small scale Supercharger station. I wonder what their policy is for use by vehicles other than their own demo cars.

The could use the new one in Hagerstown. :dunno:


Edit: I can't read. JST mentioned Hagerstown.


Maybe they'll stop over at the Columbia test drive event this weekend. I'm curious how they'll recharge the cars for this event, or if they just plan on bringing a bunch of cars for the drives.

I can't find a link (too recent?), but C&D recently pitted a Tesla Model S against a Ford Model T. The route ran from Detroit to the Tesla Science Center on Long Island. Interestingly enough, the Tesla won by just a few hours.

Actually, it's not terribly common at this point to have Superchargers at stores/service centers. There are a few (Syosset and Chicago spring to mind), but my understanding is that the electrical load from the Superchargers means that they are an order of magnitude more difficult to install than the normal 80A high powered wall charger.

The Bethesda Supercharger isn't officially live yet. Should happen today or tomorrow. I assume when it goes live it'll appear on the nav system in the car like all the other Superchargers and access will be public, though I don't know for sure.

The policy on charging customer cars at most stores is that they will accommodate you if you call in advance and set up an appointment. Some have stopped doing this, because they need the slots for the demo cars, though even the ones that have stopped will still offer emergency charging.

There's a big Tesla owner's club rally in DC on President's Day weekend, FWIW. Should be 50+ cars, maybe more.

Yeah, that article was written before the Superchargers in OH and PA went live. If you did the same route now, you could charge in Cleveland, Somerset, Hagerstown, Newark DE, and JFK.

https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=D...mra=ls&t=m&z=7

You'd have to go south, out of your way, though. Would add about 100 miles to the trip, but it would mean not having to air drop a HPWC to a helpful reader somewhere in PA.

Any cross country route is going to go through some rural areas, but I find it very odd that they built the supercharging stations on a route north out of Denver and across South Dakota.

It makes more sense to me to go on I-70 from Denver to Kansas City and St. Louis, then north to Chicago and/or Indianapolis. :dunno:

The explanation I've seen is that this is the route you use to get to Mt. Rushmore.

I bet there are a lot more people that drive their Teslas to St. Louis and Kansas City than Mt. Rushmore...

Maybe they determined that installing a Supercharger at the top of Vail Pass was harder than at a truck stop on I-80?