Last week I fast charged my SR Lightning for the first time, as we loaded up the back with beach gear and took it to South Padre Island for spring break. We live in the exurbs between Austin and the Fort Cavazos area, so it's about an 800 mile round trip down there, plus local mileage. We broke up the trip with an overnight stop in Corpus Christi in both directions as we had young kids with us.
I would say the results were mostly as-expected, some better than expected. I purchased a monthly Tesla membership for $12.99 and we took our Ford supplied adapter. That was a big win, the Tesla rates were a lot cheaper than Electrify America or EVgo, I think the most I paid was in the mid-30s per KWH and in the Rio Grande Valley, it was in the mid-20s per KWH. I never paid more than $25 to charge and the standard range Lightning has a 98kwh battery. The DC fast charging itself, I saw a peak of 172KW and it held 160KW to 50% in all cases and 100KW to 70% in all cases but one.
Traveling with two small children, the truck was ready to go every time before we were, sometimes it was the fault of the kids eating slow, but other times like at Buc-ees in New Braunfels, TX it was just a giant horde or people that made everything take a long time. We also encountered the world's slowest Chipotle in Corpus Christi, I mean literally we waited in line for an hour, I went and moved the truck off the charger after it went from 25-90% and our food still wasn't ready yet. And one charge in Harlingen, we went for a sit down meal at Cheddar's, so that obviously took more time. Was worried about idle fees but never saw one.
The Superchargers did cut me off at 90% every time, which was fine for this trip, but if I had really needed 100%, it might have been an issue. Thankfully it was not. I don't know if I had tried to plug the truck back in, maybe it then would have charged to 100%, didn't try it, but my wife suggested it. Thankfully wasn't an issue.
On the way down, we charged at Kenedy, TX, we took the back roads rather than the Interstate, Kenedy charger was at a Burget King with an indoor playscape. Win. We got to the hotel in Corpus and still had 36% charge so dropped the bags off and got our room key, then drove the 10 miles or so down to the beach without charging. On the way back around sunset we stopped at the aforementioned Supercharger with the Chipolte debacle, I was not planning to go to 90% that time because the hotel had an L2, but ended up at 90% anyway. Oh well. Was able to top off to 100% overnight on the hotel's L2.
Bonus: You can drive on the beach on Mustang Island (near Corpus) and I have to say, the Lightning is an absolute rock star in the sand once you switch it to off-road mode in the console. At first it felt like it didn't want to go when I was rolling away from stops in soft sand, but as soon as I put it off-road mode, it turns off all traction control and other nannies and man it just goes like you're on pavement, even in soft deep sand. I saw a few 2wd trucks get stuck and had to be pulled out. No problem with the Lightning!
Day 2 we drove from Corpus to SPI, the 100% charge got us to the Boca Chica Blvd Supercharger in Brownsville at HEB at 20-some odd percent. Had a pretty good tailwind so was able to go 75-80 most of the way without a huge hit to the efficiency. This Supercharger had a curb stop and the cords are short, so I had to jump it in order to charge, but it was no problem with the Lighning's 775 lb/ft of torque. (I have a picture of this, but unfortunately Google Photos is blocked at work) There was a McDonalds with a playground for the kids right across the street, so that was another win. Arrived at the hotel in SPI at 79% and that was plenty enough to serve our small trips around the island and to Port Isabel.
After 4 nights, we decided to leave SPI a day earlier than planned because a cold front had blown in and it was windy and cold. This presented something of a challenge because it meant we would be facing a stiff north headwind on the way back to Corpus, and the Lightning is not aerodynamic or particularly efficient and I have the small battery. I chose the furthest north DCFC in the Valley, along I-69 in Harlingen, arrived with 43%, charged to 90% as we ate at Cheddar's. We headed off with 90% for the 135 mile trek back to the same hotel in Corpus, arrived with 11%. At times efficiency with the headwind was as low as 1.5miles/kwh, so you can do the math on that as far as range goes with a 98 KWH battery. Pulled into the hotel at 1.7 miles/kwh as we did a little better in the urban setting of Corpus Christi. This time I just plugged the truck in to the L2 in the back parking lot and decided to see how far it would go before trying to DCFC. We didn't end up leaving again that afternoon or night, walked to a restaurant for dinner, so by 8AM the truck was at 100% for free. Win!
The last day we drove home from Corpus and the weather conditions couldn't have been more different, it was warmer and there was a 20MPH+ south wind. I started off thinking we could make the Supercharger at New Braunfels and when we left the hotel, Google Maps was showing -3% SOC at arrival, but with the blustery south wind, the numbers soon picked picked up and kept going the other way. I again sped up to 75-80 but still was seeing efficiency numbers in the 2.3-2.4 range, was super happy about that. Unfortunately after getting into San Antonio, I got into traffic on I-35 and it remained bad traffic pretty much the rest of the way, which also helped with efficiency, but not so much with my patience. Upon getting close to the Buc-ees exit, I noticed the right lane was backed up. Well, quite a bit of that traffic was for Buc-ees. Of the 24 Superchargers, they were about 6 or 7 occupied, but man, the inside of the store was an absolute zoo! We had arrived with 23% battery and I ended up wishing we had gone on to the next Supercharger which was only about 9 miles down the road. Generally speaking I like Buc-ees for the variety of food that it has but I'm not sure that I would go back during the week of Spring Break again. There comes a point at which crowds are unplesant and this Buc-ees visit was very unpleasant.
Was able to get home after that with over 50% battery remaining, lots of stop and go traffic. Not fun but it is what it is.
Overall good trip, enjoyed taking the truck and would do so again. The Lightning has electric efficiency on the highway that can only be characterized as terrible compared to our Mach-E and most Teslas, but, the cheap electricity on the Tesla network softened the blow. Being an XLT, it doesn't have BlueCruise whereas my wife's Mach-E does, but, the additional interior space of the truck is better for me on a long trip, I just have to drive the whole time, which is not really that bad. Plus on this trip we loaded up the back of the truck with every bit of beach gear we had in the garage, which would not have been possible in the Mach-E. The truck does have lane keep assist and if you start getting too far left or right, it will nudge you back into the lane, so that is occasionally helpful. Do I wish I had the big battery for road trips? Absolutely, but was not willing to pay the additional cost for it. The advantage of it would be that I'd probably be able to make it from Corpus to Padre without a charging stop and still have a reasonable SOC to do things around Padre Island and Port Isabel.
This was our first road trip with either of our EVs that was longer than Houston or Dallas which are both about 3 hours. I'd have to say it was a success and I enjoyed it. The truck was always charged before we were ready to leave from our stops. Being a 50-something Gen-Xer, I'm not that much into iron butt road trips like I used to be, I had an old Honda I once got 450+ miles into in a single gas stop 30+ years ago driving from Alabama to Texas, but, these days I need to stop and stretch every 2-3 hours.
All in all, great family road trip with our small battery Lightning!
I would say the results were mostly as-expected, some better than expected. I purchased a monthly Tesla membership for $12.99 and we took our Ford supplied adapter. That was a big win, the Tesla rates were a lot cheaper than Electrify America or EVgo, I think the most I paid was in the mid-30s per KWH and in the Rio Grande Valley, it was in the mid-20s per KWH. I never paid more than $25 to charge and the standard range Lightning has a 98kwh battery. The DC fast charging itself, I saw a peak of 172KW and it held 160KW to 50% in all cases and 100KW to 70% in all cases but one.
Traveling with two small children, the truck was ready to go every time before we were, sometimes it was the fault of the kids eating slow, but other times like at Buc-ees in New Braunfels, TX it was just a giant horde or people that made everything take a long time. We also encountered the world's slowest Chipotle in Corpus Christi, I mean literally we waited in line for an hour, I went and moved the truck off the charger after it went from 25-90% and our food still wasn't ready yet. And one charge in Harlingen, we went for a sit down meal at Cheddar's, so that obviously took more time. Was worried about idle fees but never saw one.
The Superchargers did cut me off at 90% every time, which was fine for this trip, but if I had really needed 100%, it might have been an issue. Thankfully it was not. I don't know if I had tried to plug the truck back in, maybe it then would have charged to 100%, didn't try it, but my wife suggested it. Thankfully wasn't an issue.
On the way down, we charged at Kenedy, TX, we took the back roads rather than the Interstate, Kenedy charger was at a Burget King with an indoor playscape. Win. We got to the hotel in Corpus and still had 36% charge so dropped the bags off and got our room key, then drove the 10 miles or so down to the beach without charging. On the way back around sunset we stopped at the aforementioned Supercharger with the Chipolte debacle, I was not planning to go to 90% that time because the hotel had an L2, but ended up at 90% anyway. Oh well. Was able to top off to 100% overnight on the hotel's L2.
Bonus: You can drive on the beach on Mustang Island (near Corpus) and I have to say, the Lightning is an absolute rock star in the sand once you switch it to off-road mode in the console. At first it felt like it didn't want to go when I was rolling away from stops in soft sand, but as soon as I put it off-road mode, it turns off all traction control and other nannies and man it just goes like you're on pavement, even in soft deep sand. I saw a few 2wd trucks get stuck and had to be pulled out. No problem with the Lightning!
Day 2 we drove from Corpus to SPI, the 100% charge got us to the Boca Chica Blvd Supercharger in Brownsville at HEB at 20-some odd percent. Had a pretty good tailwind so was able to go 75-80 most of the way without a huge hit to the efficiency. This Supercharger had a curb stop and the cords are short, so I had to jump it in order to charge, but it was no problem with the Lighning's 775 lb/ft of torque. (I have a picture of this, but unfortunately Google Photos is blocked at work) There was a McDonalds with a playground for the kids right across the street, so that was another win. Arrived at the hotel in SPI at 79% and that was plenty enough to serve our small trips around the island and to Port Isabel.
After 4 nights, we decided to leave SPI a day earlier than planned because a cold front had blown in and it was windy and cold. This presented something of a challenge because it meant we would be facing a stiff north headwind on the way back to Corpus, and the Lightning is not aerodynamic or particularly efficient and I have the small battery. I chose the furthest north DCFC in the Valley, along I-69 in Harlingen, arrived with 43%, charged to 90% as we ate at Cheddar's. We headed off with 90% for the 135 mile trek back to the same hotel in Corpus, arrived with 11%. At times efficiency with the headwind was as low as 1.5miles/kwh, so you can do the math on that as far as range goes with a 98 KWH battery. Pulled into the hotel at 1.7 miles/kwh as we did a little better in the urban setting of Corpus Christi. This time I just plugged the truck in to the L2 in the back parking lot and decided to see how far it would go before trying to DCFC. We didn't end up leaving again that afternoon or night, walked to a restaurant for dinner, so by 8AM the truck was at 100% for free. Win!
The last day we drove home from Corpus and the weather conditions couldn't have been more different, it was warmer and there was a 20MPH+ south wind. I started off thinking we could make the Supercharger at New Braunfels and when we left the hotel, Google Maps was showing -3% SOC at arrival, but with the blustery south wind, the numbers soon picked picked up and kept going the other way. I again sped up to 75-80 but still was seeing efficiency numbers in the 2.3-2.4 range, was super happy about that. Unfortunately after getting into San Antonio, I got into traffic on I-35 and it remained bad traffic pretty much the rest of the way, which also helped with efficiency, but not so much with my patience. Upon getting close to the Buc-ees exit, I noticed the right lane was backed up. Well, quite a bit of that traffic was for Buc-ees. Of the 24 Superchargers, they were about 6 or 7 occupied, but man, the inside of the store was an absolute zoo! We had arrived with 23% battery and I ended up wishing we had gone on to the next Supercharger which was only about 9 miles down the road. Generally speaking I like Buc-ees for the variety of food that it has but I'm not sure that I would go back during the week of Spring Break again. There comes a point at which crowds are unplesant and this Buc-ees visit was very unpleasant.
Was able to get home after that with over 50% battery remaining, lots of stop and go traffic. Not fun but it is what it is.
Overall good trip, enjoyed taking the truck and would do so again. The Lightning has electric efficiency on the highway that can only be characterized as terrible compared to our Mach-E and most Teslas, but, the cheap electricity on the Tesla network softened the blow. Being an XLT, it doesn't have BlueCruise whereas my wife's Mach-E does, but, the additional interior space of the truck is better for me on a long trip, I just have to drive the whole time, which is not really that bad. Plus on this trip we loaded up the back of the truck with every bit of beach gear we had in the garage, which would not have been possible in the Mach-E. The truck does have lane keep assist and if you start getting too far left or right, it will nudge you back into the lane, so that is occasionally helpful. Do I wish I had the big battery for road trips? Absolutely, but was not willing to pay the additional cost for it. The advantage of it would be that I'd probably be able to make it from Corpus to Padre without a charging stop and still have a reasonable SOC to do things around Padre Island and Port Isabel.
This was our first road trip with either of our EVs that was longer than Houston or Dallas which are both about 3 hours. I'd have to say it was a success and I enjoyed it. The truck was always charged before we were ready to leave from our stops. Being a 50-something Gen-Xer, I'm not that much into iron butt road trips like I used to be, I had an old Honda I once got 450+ miles into in a single gas stop 30+ years ago driving from Alabama to Texas, but, these days I need to stop and stretch every 2-3 hours.
All in all, great family road trip with our small battery Lightning!
