I'll tell the story in full detail later, but I completely drained the battery on my Fiat once. It was not a pleasant experience. History almost repeated itself on a trip to Tucson over a long weekend with the big red sled. Our first trip to pick up the car in Arizona went well. Stopping to charge was easy, especially considering it was our first time traveling that far in an EV. The trip to Tucson was a bit more challenging.
It's Gettin’ Hot in Here
Before we set out to Tucson, we had the foresight to rectify a problem we noticed on our drive back from picking up the car. The car has an all-glass panorama roof and sunroof, which looks impressive. Unfortunately, that all-glass roof combined with untinted side, front, and rear windows turn the car into a 155 MPH greenhouse. This was an easy problem to fix, and it allowed me to add my own personal touch to the Tesla. We took the car down to a local tint shop and had them put lifetime warranty ceramic tint on all the glass except the front windshield and the roof. I opted for the almost legal tint because I've had cars with limo tint, and it can be impossible to see police cars through the tint on a dark night. As you probably already know from the drama in earlier posts, the front windshield has a repaired crack. So, it seemed like a waste to glue $400 worth of tint on a busted windshield. We didn't tint the roof because it already has tint from the factory on it. That small change sure made a difference in the car's look. It made it look more aggressive. It also reduced the amount of heat that poured into the cabin.
The Road Out
Our Tucson excursion was just a quick business trip for us. We set out late on a Friday afternoon and did most of our charging in the evening. I planned our trip before hitting the road. It only added about 1-1.5 hours to the trip in an EV, relative to an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) car.
Indio, California - Supercharger
We headed out of the L.A. basin East on the 10 Freeway and made it all the way to Indio before we had to charge. We elected to charge in Indio and take our time so we'd spend less time charging in the dark at Quartzsite and Casa Grande. Indio is a great place to stop and charge. It's a big shopping center with a lot of food and shopping options within walking distance. It is also very well lit. Many people will rejoice that a Starbucks is less than a 5-minute walk from the Supercharger stalls. We needed to pick up a few small things at Home Depot, so we walked across the parking lot and did some shopping. There are only 8 stalls at the Supercharger, though, so make sure you've checked the app for available stalls before stopping in.
Quartzsite, Arizona - Supercharger
Our next charging stop was Quartzsite. Quartzsite is a nice Supercharger stop, it sits in a Carl's Junior parking lot, but there isn't much else around. It really is in the middle of nowhere. Tesla did a great job of expanding that station. They went from about a dozen stalls to three dozen stalls. They also improved the lighting a lot. It's a much less mysterious place to charge now. After we got some watts in Quartzsite, we headed off to the next stop in Buckeye.
Buckeye, AZ - Supercharger
Our next charging stop was Buckeye. As I've mentioned in previous posts, this is a well-lit and well-appointed place to stop. 12 Superchargers sit in a Carl's Jr parking lot. Just a brief walk across the parking lot is a Cracker Barrel. Before our last trip to Arizona, I'd never been to a Cracker Barrel. I was pleasantly surprised. It's a clean, nice little place with traditional American food and décor. After a quick dinner at Cracker Barrel, we stopped for a brief layover in Casa Grande.
Casa Grande, Arizona - Supercharger
Casa Grande doesn't have a lot of superchargers, only 6, but there are a lot of amenities nearby. It's not as spooky as some of the other Supercharger spots. It sits right behind a Culver's fast-food restaurant, and a Rasing Canne's is also nearby. Across the street is a shopping center with more food options. It's a nice spot to stop and charge. Just make sure there are chargers available before you plan on stopping by.
Bac and Forth
After charging at Casa Grande, we rolled into our hotel in Tucson late in the evening. We stayed at a quaint older hotel with a lovely courtyard. The following day, we grabbed brunch at a local eatery we found on Yelp called Season's Eatings. The food was great, but for some reason, I got sick- strike number one. After brunch, we took care of some business downtown. Then went on a driving tour of Tucson to get a feel for the city since it was our first time visiting. After our tour, we decided to check out the Mission San Xavier Del Bac, a 300+ year-old church and mission. Once our tour of the mission concluded, we headed back to our hotel so I could charge the Tesla. Or so I thought.
Trickle Charging
Throughout the day, I monitored the battery to ensure we'd have enough juice to get us all the places we needed to go. I knew of several non-Tesla chargers near the hotel, so the plan was to head back to the hotel after brunch and activities. I would let the car charge for a few hours at a charger a few blocks away, then have my wife come pick me up. It was a well-laid-out plan. We'd have more than enough battery to get to dinner and head to a shopping center in the Catalina Foothills, where we'd look around and charge the car for the next day. I dropped my wife off at the hotel and navigated to the Blink charging station a few blocks away.
I had to drive by the address several times before I homed in on the exact location. After navigating through some alleys, I found the lonely little charger behind an office building. I was excited. I would hook the car up to charge and just walk about a half-mile to the hotel. However, my excitement quickly dissipated when I saw a black 2004 Accord parked in the EV spot. After some grumbling and cursing under my breath, I figured I'd just have to sit in the car in a non-EV stall and drag the charging cable over to my car. No worries, just a slight inconvenience. I jostled my husky car around and deftly maneuvered in a position where the charging cable would reach. I got out of the car, and as I walked to the charger, my enthusiasm waned further. It looked like an EV owner with range anxiety had taken a baseball bat to the top of the charging station. Despite the wildly unsafe look of the station, I decided to try and charge the car anyway. To no avail, the station was dead.
I restored my chipper demeanor and said, no worries, there's another charging station 1.1 miles away. I'll go charge there, and we'll be all set for this evening. I quickly found the listed address of the next charging station. Finally, after more slow-rolling through parking lots and alleys, I found the actual charging station. It was in a much better spot behind a professional office complex. Unfortunately, that charger also looked like it had been beaten up hard by the Arizona sun. Regardless, I pulled the car into the EV stall, fiddled with the charger and the app, and huzzah! The car was charging.
I hopped in the car and planned on just hanging out for the next hour while the car charged enough to take us through the next legs of our trip. I didn't plan to wait an hour to get 12 miles of charge. This charger was a level 1, 24A charger. Basically, the equivalent of a trickle charger you'd get at AutoZone. You may be thinking, why not drive to another, faster charger? Good question. The closest chargers were all about 1.5 miles away in each direction and were all level 1 chargers. So, if any of those were broken like the previous charger or occupied, I'd lose 1.5+1.5+1.1 = 4ish miles of charge. I'd lose the miles going to, returning from, then going to the next charger. The nearest non-Blink charger was 6 miles away, also a level 1. Who knew owning an EV involved so much math? Range anxiety is legit, folks. I was still ok, though. I had planned on complications and had enough battery for the extra running around and our trip later in the evening. 55 miles of charge seemed like more than enough to get us to dinner and the Catalina Foothills shopping center (total anticipated miles 20ish). Hindsight being 20/20, I would have made the 2-hour (+charging) round trip to the nearest Supercharger.
Get Out and Push Sweetheart, I’ll Steer
It almost came to that, and I would have felt really guilty about my petite wife pushing a 5,000lb Tesla uphill, but I was willing to make the sacrifice. I finished the trickle charging, picked up my wife at the hotel, and went to meet our friend for dinner. After dinner, we decided to set out towards the La Encantada Shopping Center in the Catalina Foothills to look around and supercharge the car. We needed to charge the car, so we'd have plenty of battery for the first leg of our trip home in the morning. When we set out to dinner, I had 55 miles on the battery, but including dinner and the trip to the shopping center, the total mileage was only 23.5 miles. What the heck happened to my 31.5-mile buffer? It appears the Navigation system in the car didn't account for the steep foothills. Also, I'd assume the car was just off in its calculations due to normal variances. But, the two missteps combined almost led us to my poor wife having to push a Tesla Model S in the dark.
As we navigated the dark and windy roads up to the foothills, I noticed my battery gauge diminishing far faster than the car or I anticipated. I also saw the nav was telling us we would have a 4-5% charge when we arrived at the Supercharger. Not good. I realized all this about halfway to the shopping center, that the math probably wouldn't work, even though the car said we would have 4-5% left. Based upon the rate of battery use up to that point, I knew the computer would be off even further by the time we got to La Encantada. To make matters worse…I was sick again. Something about Tucson food doesn't agree with me.
We only had about 5 miles left to the shopping center when I realized all these problems, but the math wasn't working, and there were no other options. The nearest charger of any kind was too far away for us to make it. So we went into conservation mode and turned off every support system in the car, AC, vent, running lights, fog lights, center screen, even the radio. When the road was naturally lit well enough, which was rare, I even turned off the headlights. I also tried to aggressively regulate my use of the accelerator. I allowed the car to coast as much as possible for as long as possible to maximize regen.
When we finally crept into the shopping center parking lot and parked in the supercharger stall, the car had one mile left on the gauge. We had driven a total of 23.5 miles since my trickle charge, but I had left that station with about 55 miles of charge. The car had initially shown a very reasonable remaining charge when we started our drive to the foothills, at least 10%. Not cool, Tesla. It was super tense, but we managed to hook the car up and start charging. I was still dealing with a somersaulting stomach on top of all of this. Much to our dismay, we found out the entire shopping center was closed. Thankfully, we discovered a solitary restaurant in the center that was open after 9:00pm. We sat and relaxed in that restaurant, reminiscing about the last few stressful hours we had- just trying to charge the car.
La Encantada Supercharger
La Encantada is the shopping center's name in the Catalina Foothills where the Supercharger I just discussed is located. This is a great facility. It's very well lit, and it's just a short walk to a beautifully appointed high-end shopping center. There are a lot of nice restaurants and shops in the shopping center. So if you need to charge, it's a great place to stop and relax.
The Road Home
We let the car charge for far longer than necessary to ensure we had more than enough battery to make it to the first charging station on our way home. We drove back to the hotel and settled in when the car was done. We got brunch at a quaint little place in Tucson the following day. Thankfully, I only got a little sick this time, a considerable improvement over the last two days. After brunch, we bid adieu to Tucson and hit the road again, retracing our original charging stops along the way. It was a fun weekend with fond memories of beautiful sights, good times with friends, rapidly discharging batteries, forsaken charging stations, and a version of Montezuma's revenge that only seemed to affect me.
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