Heading Out of Town
We had a tournament up in Greeley, about 70 miles away and planned to leave Saturday night. We had run errands during the day and when we got in the car around 730p, we had 57% charge. The trip planner showed us arriving with 27%, but it was supposed to be a cold night and we had to go 10mi the next morning to compete and then get home.
Google Searches
My wife searched on Google for chargers in the Greeley area, and there were some Level II ones, but no Superchargers. We were trying to decide what to do and if we should go West to Loveland, as there are a number there.
Then we clicked “add stop” in the navigation and searched for superchargers. It turns out there were some in Brighton, which was on the way. We decided to go there and charge up.
We added the stop and the battery started preconditioning.
First Stop
We arrived at a Kum and Go gas station where there were 8 stalls. Four were in use, and we ended up at a stall separate from another. I plugged in the charge rate went up to 194mi/hr. We went inside for snacks and came back to sit and chat for a bit. We spent 20 minutes in total there listening to music and chatting, getting up to 72%, which would give us plenty of buffer.
It was slightly longer than a gas stop, but not a big deal to us. This was an $8.40 cost for 22.5kWh.
Second Stop
After our night in the hotel, drive to the tournament and heading home, navigation predicted we’d arrive home with 10% charge. As we wanted to stop for dinner and perhaps shopping, we decided to stop again at the same place.
This time we spent only 10 minutes there, getting up to 57%. This was really about as long as a gas stop, and we were able to use the restroom, pump up a tire slightly, and get back on the road quickly. Sitting in the car was about 5 minutes.
Summary
Going out to some places in Colorado can be slightly stressful as the infrastructure for charging can be sparse. I was surprised to find superchargers in a fairly desolate area in Brightton, but glad that we had the quick option to charge and move on.
This was our first tournament of the year, and I’ll need to be better charging up the night before as I’m often only charging to around 70% on a regular basis.
Still, things went smooth and easy.
Back to the main Tesla Experience page