Vegas to Fresno (and back)

We already had one trip under our belt to Phoenix and back. Since we were headed to CA and CA is the capital for EVs, I was not concerned about the charging situation. I should have been concerned.

First thing is first though… The truck is awesome for road trips. Super comfy for a family of four, and everybody loves being a passenger.

The trip from Vegas to Fresno

Our strategy was to make lots of short stops and just keep the SOC close to 80% by the end of each charge.

We started off with a 99% charge. I was shooting for 100%, but didn’t get the timing right. Given the high SOC and our first stop not being that far away, I drove a little on the faster side and we got to Baker with 64%. We charged long enough (18 minutes) to eat a snack and hit the restrooms. This charging location was huge. Nice, covered EA station and tons of Tesla chargers. Added 21%/66 miles in 18 minutes.

Our next stop was at the Walmart in Barstow. Several open chargers, and we plugged in without issue. Charged for 19 minutes and added 25%/75 miles. Back of the parking lot, but still within an easy walk to Panda Express or Jack in the Box.

This is when things went downhill. I wasn’t sure how the truck would do going over the mountains between Mojave and Bakersfield, so we stopped at the EA station in the Comfort Inn and Suites parking lot in Mojave. There are no amenities, and the staff said bathrooms are for guests only. Nothing else around and not even a trash can. There are four chargers, and they have bollards around each stall, making it tricky to get the truck parked to charge. There was only one charger giving a decent speed and there was a line for that one. We plugged in and got 6%/15miles in 15 minutes. Not great. We did some math on our efficiency and decided to keep going. The haul up the mountain was a little scary as I watched my range drop like a rock, but things worked out well on the downward side.

We pulled into the EA station in Bakersfield (Bakersfield Plaza) with 31% SOC. Our plan was to charge up enough to make it the rest of the way. One of the chargers was offline and the others were taken. We hung out for about 10 minutes and someone left. WooHoo! The charge speed wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t great. We were there 28 minutes and added 29%/76 miles. We could have stayed longer, but the promise of a faster charger further up the road was too strong for us.

Our last stop of the trip was another EA station in Tulare, CA. This one was good/not great, but good enough for us. Plugged in at 35% and unplugged 26 minutes later at 67% adding 84 miles. That was enough to get us to our hotel.

In Fresno

We chose our hotel poorly which meant I had to make a couple trips to the local EA station at the Save Mart. This charger was pretty good. There are only three stalls available, but they are pretty easy to get in and out of and charged at the advertised speed. Short walk to a host of different businesses and we didn’t have to charge that often while there for the week. My first stop there, I went from 48% to 90% in 45 minutes.

The trip from Fresno to Vegas

We decided to try a different approach to the second half of the trip. If we find a good charger, we would charge a little higher and not stop as often. Good plan and worked out pretty well.


We started with 90% and made it all the way to Bakersfield with 50% SOC. We plugged in for 20 minutes and charged up to 77% adding 92 miles. In retrospect, I should have just hung out here until 90%.


We made it over the mountains and skipped the trash EA station in Mojave getting to Barstow at 26% SOC. It was hot. We were tired. One station out of service. The other open station kept giving us charge faults. So we had to wait about 25 minutes for something else to open up. I watched a Mach e also fail to charge at the one giving us a fault. Interestingly enough though, an ID4 and Ironic 5 did manage to charge at that stall. Apparently, that stall just hates Ford. (jerk)

We had lunch at Jack in the Box and went from 26% - 80% (added 167 miles) in 48 minutes. We figured this would get us home.

If you have made the drive from CA to Vegas in an EV, you are probably familiar with a long long (LONG) uphill climb that starts in Baker. I have made the drive in ICE cars many times, but never really noticed the length of the climb. It is long! We had a pretty big buffer between the estimated range and distance to travel when we started. By the time we got to the top of giant climb, my buffer was about 12 miles. OMG! But then heading down the hill, things got better. We ended up making it home with 42 miles to spare at ~14% SOC.


Final thoughts:

• I know to not trust the guess-o-meter. I was doing the math on range. But… If you don’t use the Ford trip planner (I use Waze), the GOM is pretty accurate. Ok… maybe not “accurate”, but not as much of a joke.
• Each trip in the truck, I learn a little more and I am sure some of what I am sharing seems dumb to Lightning veterans out there.
• I really REALLY can’t wait to use the Tesla charging network. My wife drives a Model Y LR and road trips are stupid easy with that car.
• The Lightning is MUCH more comfy than the Tesla.
• If you drive a little slower you can go much farther. There is a big difference between 65mph, 75mph, and 80mph. I “knew” this already, but living it is different.
• Road trips in my RAM 1500 were easier and faster. I added over an hour each way on this trip. Again… I knew that already, but living it is different. (I still prefer my Lightning though)
• I drive 99% of the time around town. I have solar at home and free charging at work. I love the Lightning and am super happy with my purchase.
• Oh… while in Fresno, my Lightning told me I had a software update and asked if I wanted to install. I declined. Gonna wait for Thursday evening since I keep reading about others having to get towed to the dealership following recent updates.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Tesla chargers are a game changer for trips and anxiety.

PlugShare let's you see the charger status ahead of time, eliminates surprises.

• If you drive a little slower you can go much farther. There is a big difference between 65mph, 75mph, and 80mph. I “knew” this already, but living it is different.

I tell myself this every morning as I get on the highway for the 30 mile part of commute....until some pantload rides my ass when I'm doing 65 in the far right lane and my brain goes "Let's dance"

Excellent write up @ChrisInVegas!! Great details

good story, and real-world information about how life happens when we travel long-range in our EVs, whether a Lightning, or Tesla, or anything else...

We took a camper trip to far North Georgia the other day, from west central Georgia, a total of about 275 miles, on a direct route.
While I planned on stopping at a well-known EVgo, with speed, for our first stop, my Ford Navigation was telling me slowly but surely that the farther we went, the less 'buffer' we would have before our arrival, just south of the ATL(that's ATLANTA for you newbies)... so, I diverted to a known EA charger off the route, but still in the basic 'direction' we were going...

What I realized, too late, is that Ford's Navigation was projecting me to take a different road than I expected for the first EVgo station, which is why it was giving me a low range indication on arrival - why Ford's navigation does this, is beyond me, since my easy-to-use google maps on my phone gave me perfect information - I just failed to look at it to confirm the Ford information before I diverted.
It all worked out, though, it just required us to go out of the way more miles, and possibly have to charge a third time before reaching our final destination, in the beautiful Blue Ridge/Appalachian mountains of N Georgia - wow! (our son is in college there, and this area is not new to us, but WOW, everytime you arrive you are just amazed!).... crazy good.

yes, long-range travel with EVs is still in it's infancy. We'll one day find it something we no longer concern ourselves with, but right now, we are the ones 'testing out' this growing infrastructure.

Great trip report!!!!

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Peddyr said:

and my brain goes "Let's dance

Click to expand...

My brain usually goes on pause when my right foot takes over. I had an incident last weekend. The wife freaks out whenever I push the go pedal so I basically drive it like a tractor trailer whenever she is in the passenger seat. We are at a red light starting to head out for our vacation with a long line of civilized folks behind us. I say civilized because there is a lane on the right that is ending but no one is taking it. This bimmer skips the line and pulls right next to me. Light goes green and I am thinking this calls for a bit of education. I leave him in my dust until I hit the speed limit of the road (and until I feel a sharp pain from my wife’s fingernails planted firmly in my arm). I let go of the go pedal. He finally catches up, and puts his hand out of the window saying bye bye and proceed to what I guess to be at least twice the speed limit. It turned out to be more of an education for me than it was for him;

Don’t start anything stupid unless you are planning to be the most stupid guy in the game.

Sometimes I wish we could go back to walking.