Road Trip Long Island, NY to Baltimore, MD; 2023 Pro; best fast chargers and best level 2 chargers?

[William Munny]

We are taking a road trip to Baltimore from LI, NY. Distance to the hotel is about 230 miles. I have a 2023 pro. The way I drive and with the weather I may be able to make it without charging, but don't want to risk it. Has anyone taken this route? What's a good place to stop 1/2 to 2/3 the way there that has a charger in a shopping center with restaurants, etc.?

When I'm there, does anyone know of any good Level 2 chargers in the Towson / Baltimore MD area?

Thanks in advance!

Sponsored

 

[RickLightning]

ABRP and PlugShare tell you all you need to know.

 

[DavidS]

What Rick said. For fast charging, set the filter for 275kW or above on PlugShare to eliminate all of the Tesla Superchargers with short cords. On that corridor, trying to charge at a V3 is just going to be stress inducing. There’s at least four good choices within a few miles of either side of the Delaware/Maryland border. On a sliding scale most convenient but probably most expensive is the Delaware House travel plaza but for decent prices and low hassle there’s a new Ionna in Elkton MD. If you have plug and charge enabled, you don’t have to worry about credit cards or apps and will still get good prices and a Wawa.

 

[Joe Dablock]

I strongly recommend downloading the Tesla AP onto your phone. There must be at least 20 locations that you can charge at. If you are set up to pay through Ford Pass, you really should. I highly recommend it. I wouldn’t worry about class 2 (unless you come across something). Just top off at a Tesla charger near Baltimore.

 

[JamboneMan]

Recently made a trip from Southern Maryland to Connecticut. I used all Tesla Super Chargers. I subscribed to Tesla charging for one month. If you do this make sure you turn off plug an charge with BlueOval. Start the sessions with the Tesla app to get the discount rates. Well worth the $12 subscription fee. I had no issues finding sites using PlugShare. I also use ABRP with a BLE OBD2 connection for route management.

 

[K6CCC]

I subscribed to Tesla charging for one month. If you do this make sure you turn off plug an charge with BlueOval. Start the sessions with the Tesla app to get the discount rates. Well worth the $12 subscription fee.

Agreed that if you are going to charge at Tesla SuperChargers, buy the membership for the month. You can cancel the membership right after paying for it so it does not auto renew, but you still get the full month. Takes one or two charge sessions to break even and then you are paying quite a bit less. Membership price is usually 25 - 35% lower, but the best I have ever gotten was over 50% off (34 vs 72 cents per KWH - saved $33.29 on that one session). If you get the Tesla membership, you MUST activate the charge session with the Tesla app BEFORE you plug in. in order to get the membership price. You don't need to turn off Plug and Charge - although some people recommend it to make sure that you don't get charged at the Plug and Charge price. Personally I have never had an issue with that and I have about 40 Tesla membership charge sessions.

 

[JamboneMan]

Agreed that if you are going to charge at Tesla SuperChargers, buy the membership for the month. You can cancel the membership right after paying for it so it does not auto renew, but you still get the full month. Takes one or two charge sessions to break even and then you are paying quite a bit less. Membership price is usually 25 - 35% lower, but the best I have ever gotten was over 50% off (34 vs 72 cents per KWH - saved $33.29 on that one session). If you get the Tesla membership, you MUST activate the charge session with the Tesla app BEFORE you plug in. in order to get the membership price. You don't need to turn off Plug and Charge - although some people recommend it to make sure that you don't get charged at the Plug and Charge price. Personally I have never had an issue with that and I have about 40 Tesla membership charge sessions.

The reason I recommend turning off Plug and Charge is because I got bit on several charge sessions. If for some reason you started a session with the Tesla app but it fails for some reason, you could get screwed. I have accidentally stated a new session because Plug and Charge was enabled, e.g. failed to start the session, broke connection and the plugged back in and the session immediately restarts. Then I got a nice email bill surprise from Ford at a much higher than expected rate. I recommend avoiding the risk altogether.

 

[Formerly]

As you go down through jersey, the walt whitman rest stop on the turnpike is a nice bathroom break distance from LI. They have chargers there that will bring you back up to 80% while you do your thing.

 

[EFG]

I have charged maybe 6 times (or more) at the chargers at the Fort McHenry Tunnel offices in Charm City... The locations are in industrial areas but I found they are clean and nice. They used to be free!!! But that changed some time back, never busy, I can barely remember anyone else being there and they have 6 or 8 DCFC. They are on all the charging sites (well except Tesla). Planning to use them again in October.

No bathrooms except during daylight hours in the admin building right there.

 

[William Munny]

Thanks everyone. On the way down I stopped at the Franklin mall and used electrify America. It worked out fine. Tomorrow I’m in Baltimore and will try to find a level 2 charger in a public garage.

 

[K6CCC]

Note that Electrify America has a membership that costs $7.00 per month and results in a 25% discount. Your one small charge would not have paid for a month, but would have paid for about half of the month. Like a Tesla membership, you can cancel any time during the month and the savings last for the month.

 

[William Munny]

While in Baltimore I parked at the West Street garage. It was a City owned garage that was a fair price in a nice area. Some of the info online is dated, as that information stated that the Level 2 charging in the garage was free. It was not. It was .17 per KWH on a slower 6kwh charger. Either way, that worked out for my needs.

On the way home I decided to go with what I knew and stopped at the same EA charger at Franklin Mall.

Thanks again everyone!

Sponsored