# Los Angeles to San Francisco



## EBMCS03

So I haven’t gotten an invite yet and had planned on getting a standard range. I was playing around with the supercharger site today and ideally I would be able to make one stop in Kettleman and then to Sam Francisco. 

However Kettleman is 195 miles away from my house. So that means with 220 mile range I may or may not make it there with one charge. Then i notice there are no supercharging stations in San Francisco. So does that mean if I am cheap and go with the standard range I’ll have to stop at Bakersfield then at Gustine, Dublin or San Mateo before I can arrive in SF? 

3 stops for charging and that’ll leave me roughly 150 miles to drive around SF then make it back to San Mateo to charge before going back to LA.


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## Petra

Yeah, you're gonna be looking at a 3-4 stop trip.

Getting from the Lancaster/Palmdale area to San Jose is a two stop trip in my S 70D. In favorable conditions, I can make it in one stop at either Kettleman or Harris Ranch but I have to waste a bunch of time at the Supercharger charging to nearly 100% (I actually spend less time charging if I do it in 2 stops due to how the charge curve works out). Either way, I charge via 240V at my destination so cutting it close on the way in isn't a problem and I'm all charged up for departure... also, it's a shorter trip.

I'd recommend playing around with EV Trip Planner ( https://www.evtripplanner.com ) and A Better Route Planner ( https://abetterrouteplanner.com ) to get a better idea of what to expect, even though I don't think either supports the Model 3 yet.


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## EBMCS03

Oh man. That sucks. Oh wells. I guess that’s what I’ll have to live with for trying to save $9k. Lucky I don’t plan on making this trip too much. Maybe once every two years.


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## garsh

EBMCS03 said:


> Lucky I don't plan on making this trip too much. Maybe once every two years.


Would you be able to park the car at a destination charger when you arrive at San Francisco? You don't necessarily have to supercharge if you can leave the car parked somewhere for an hour or two. You'll gain ~30 miles for every hour of L2 charging.


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## @gravityrydr

Petra said:


> I'd recommend playing around with EV Trip Planner ( https://www.evtripplanner.com ) and A Better Route Planner ( https://abetterrouteplanner.com ) to get a better idea of what to expect, even though I don't think either supports the Model 3 yet.


A Better Route Planner supports Model 3 LRB and Standard. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the settings though.


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## EBMCS03

garsh said:


> Would you be able to park the car at a destination charger when you arrive at San Francisco? You don't necessarily have to supercharge if you can leave the car parked somewhere for an hour or two. You'll gain ~30 miles for every hour of L2 charging.


I will have to look into it more I suppose once I get the car and plan my trip in November. However will I even get a model 3 by then?


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## smak

There is going to be a supercharger in Emeryville, which is only 10 miles from SF, and basically on the way home via the 5.


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## Rich M

EBMCS03 said:


> Oh man. That sucks. Oh wells. I guess that's what I'll have to live with for trying to save $9k. Lucky I don't plan on making this trip too much. Maybe once every two years.


If that is really the only time you make such a trip, just a rent a car.


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## EBMCS03

Rich M said:


> If that is really the only time you make such a trip, just a rent a car.


Ya pretty much. Hardly make long trips. I was thinking I like to try it once maybe and that's about it. $9k is a lot of car rentals.


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## sodakar

Found this thread while contemplating trips from San Francisco to Disneyland in Anaheim, and it's most definitely not fun trying to make it work with the Standard Range Model 3, as I would have to stop 1-2 more times and spend 30-45 minutes more per leg to accommodate for charging.

The Long Range Model 3 can do the initial trip to Anaheim in two, three-hour legs with a long stop at Kettleman, but if I want to repeat that on my return trip, I would have to source destination L2 charging, or face having to make an extended stop at Buena Park or Burbank in addition to Kettelman. 

Disneyland supposedly has 20 L2 charging spots, so assuming I'm staying more than a day, I'll have a very good chance at getting back to 100% -- certainly far better odds than OP finding a hotel in San Francisco with ample L2 chargers -- though some do offer Tesla charging via valet...

Either way, the fact that I would have to charge for 1+ hours per leg makes me worried, as I fear being stuck in a long queue at a Supercharging station once a bunch of Model 3's hit the road. Perhaps I am worrying too much...

As others have stated, the easiest alternative for this trip is to rent a regular, ICE vehicle, but my hope was to enlist the support of the Model 3's driver assist features to help me with the drive. Without the assist features, I'm not sure if driving is really an option for me, as I find I-5 to be quite hypnotic...


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## rsbell

sodakar said:


> Found this thread while contemplating trips from San Francisco to Disneyland in Anaheim, and it's most definitely not fun trying to make it work with the Standard Range Model 3, as I would have to stop 1-2 more times and spend 30-45 minutes more per leg to accommodate for charging.
> 
> The Long Range Model 3 can do the initial trip to Anaheim in two, three-hour legs with a long stop at Kettleman, but if I want to repeat that on my return trip, I would have to source destination L2 charging, or face having to make an extended stop at Buena Park or Burbank in addition to Kettelman.
> 
> Disneyland supposedly has 20 L2 charging spots, so assuming I'm staying more than a day, I'll have a very good chance at getting back to 100% -- certainly far better odds than OP finding a hotel in San Francisco with ample L2 chargers -- though some do offer Tesla charging via valet...
> 
> Either way, the fact that I would have to charge for 1+ hours per leg makes me worried, as I fear being stuck in a long queue at a Supercharging station once a bunch of Model 3's hit the road. Perhaps I am worrying too much...
> 
> As others have stated, the easiest alternative for this trip is to rent a regular, ICE vehicle, but my hope was to enlist the support of the Model 3's driver assist features to help me with the drive. Without the assist features, I'm not sure if driving is really an option for me, as I find I-5 to be quite hypnotic...


FWIW, the chargers at Disneyland are never full, and one of the security guards looked at me like I was crazy once when I went out to move my i3 when it was done charging.

And I think they're up to about 40 chargers now.


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## sodakar

rsbell said:


> FWIW, the chargers at Disneyland are never full, and one of the security guards looked at me like I was crazy once when I went out to move my i3 when it was done charging.
> 
> And I think they're up to about 40 chargers now.


That's great news -- thanks for sharing your experience. And, woah, 40 chargers! That's... a lot of charging slots. I guess I shouldn't have to lose sleep over destination charging...


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## Derik

Most people don’t know they are there is my guess. Or they don’t have a ChargePoint account. 

Looks like there are like 60+ chargers in the mickey and friends parking structure. And it’s like $0.35/KWh


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## sodakar

Derik said:


> Most people don't know they are there is my guess. Or they don't have a ChargePoint account.
> 
> Looks like there are like 60+ chargers in the mickey and friends parking structure. And it's like $0.35/KWh


Wow, 60?! That's pretty crazy... The price per KWh isn't super, but that sounds consistent with what they charge cast members for employee EV parking, so that's fair.

For OP, arriving to Kettleman with ~10% charge would be understandably uncomfortable, but a quick, ~10-minute, splash and dash charge at any of the Supercharging stops on the way could mitigate such concerns, so as long as charging spots are available, so that sounds quite doable.

Apologies for the semi-thread-jacking (after all, the thread was about LA to SF), but it's interesting to see how much more doable this trip is, in either direction, once you get destination charging sorted out. Sure, with the Standard Range Model 3, you do lose an extra 30+ minutes charging with an extra stop, but most of the annoyance is on the return trip from SF to LA, and having to make an extra, somewhat lengthy stop just out of SF if your SF hotel doesn't have charging options.

Kudos to Petra for the charge/trip-planning links, and the reminder that charging to 100% takes a lot longer - according to those planners, you'll get to your destination just as fast with <30 minute stops than you would with an hour+ stop to get to 100%... Fascinating..


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