Just got back from a hunting trip to Missouri from Georgia in my Lightning and wanted to share some of the details! This was my first long EV trip, and it totaled 1,546 miles.
Drive Time:
The trip there took 15 hours 47 minutes (with charging), and coming back was 16 hours 32 minutes. The weather was terrible on the way back, which slowed us down. Google Maps estimates this trip would be around 11 hours 47 minutes in a gas car.
Charging Stops:
I used the ABRP app to plan my route, initially set to arrive with 10% battery at each stop. I bumped that to 15% for peace of mind. I don’t have a Tesla Supercharger adapter yet, so I had to rely on other networks. Ran into one charging station that didn’t even exist anymore, but luckily, I found another nearby. No real issues with waiting times, and most stations had available chargers.
One frustration was that most charge times were slower than the ABRP app predicted, with some chargers working about 10-20% slower than expected.
Efficiency:
When I drive the Lightning around town, I get about 2.3-2.4 mi/kWh. On this trip, I averaged 1.6 mi/kWh in the first six hours but improved to 2.1 mi/kWh after turning off the AC. On the return trip, I averaged 2.0 mi/kWh, even with rain and wind for most of the drive. Seems like AC can impact range a bit, so I minimized it.
Overall Thoughts:
Long trips in an EV aren’t my favorite. Stopping to charge from 10% to 70-80% multiple times makes it a lot slower. For daily use, the Lightning is amazing, but home charging feels like a must.
Happy to answer questions while it’s still fresh in my mind!
Not sure about your AC conclusions. AC doesn’t use that much energy compared to what’s needed to move the truck. Road and elevation changes probably played a bigger role.
Luca said:
Not sure about your AC conclusions. AC doesn’t use that much energy compared to what’s needed to move the truck. Road and elevation changes probably played a bigger role.
Could be! Not a perfect experiment, but turning off AC was the only variable I changed to try to stretch the range. Made sense at the time, haha!
@Chen
The AC compressor doesn’t pull nearly as much power compared to what’s needed to move a big truck up hills or against wind at 70 mph. Lots of other factors hit efficiency harder than AC. No need to sacrifice comfort!
@Monroe
Might be a bit bigger than a softball The AC system in a car is similar to one in a small house, so it’s not nothing, but still small next to the power to keep the truck moving.
AC probably wasn’t a huge factor. I was stuck on a bridge in 85°F for two hours and used only 2%. I’d bet speed or headwinds were bigger issues since resistance increases with speed. I agree, charging on long trips is a bit of a hassle. But for regular medium-distance drives and charging at home, EVs are great.
I love my Lightning too but won’t use it for long drives. Took two road trips early on—one was 450 miles each way and the other was 1,000 miles each way. 450 was annoying; 1,000 was exhausting. Definitely harder with the Lightning.
Sounds about right. The Lightning’s a fantastic daily driver but isn’t the best for road trips due to range. Battery improvements can’t come soon enough!
EVs are perfect for almost all of my driving. Gas would be better for my annual 1,200-mile trip to Florida and that one time I had to tow a boat 100 miles. But for the other 362 days of the year, EVs win.
The AC system in a car is similar to one in a small house, so it’s not nothing, but still small next to the power to keep the truck moving.