Lifestyle
A Guide to Planning a Tesla Road Trip
Prior to taking delivery of my Model S I was the guy who suffered from incessant thoughts of range anxiety, which soon disappeared as I grew into my ownership experience. I charge daily to 90% in my 85 kWh Model S and drive about 100 miles a day commuting, running errands, etc. I return home with about 140 miles of range left every day which is enough to do it all again without charging. There have been a few longer round trips where I did about 180 miles round trip, and one intentional (but not required) visit to a Supercharger, but none of my trips have required charging en-route or at the destination. As the end of summer approaches I intend on taking two Tesla road trips – one to New Jersey, about an hour east of NYC, and another road trip taking me one hour northeast of Pittsburgh. The New Jersey trip will be taking place this week hence it’s the subject this post. The Tesla road trip to PA will be the subject for of a future post.
Tesla Road Trip Planning
The first thing to consider is the overall distance of your road trip. With any trip, there are a few routes that one could take, and in my case it’s approximately a 244 mile journey to my destination. If I range charge, I’d have 265 miles of rated range which is merely a prediction of how far I could travel based on many assumptions. It’s not representative of the actual miles that can be driven. Rated miles do not take into account terrain, traffic, air conditioning, pit stops/detours etc. Using EVTripPlanner I determined that I’d likely need a charge along the way just so I can have a safety margin.
Assuming I leave with a 90% state of charge, I’ll need to charge after depleting 160-190 rated miles just so I can maintain a comfortable buffer. Experienced Tesla road trip veterans are probably much better at estimating the amount of buffer needed based on time of year and weather conditions.
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The next thing I researched are the number of Supercharger locations along my route. There are a many ways of doing this, so I’ll just mention two:
- Google maps – Enter your start and end addresses and then type “Supercharger” and have Google find Superchargers on the map along your route. Pick a good one (or more if needed) as waypoints.
- EVTripPlanner.com – This is a useful EV trip planning site put together by an enterprising 16 year old. Enter your start and destination addresses, select the type of car you’ll be using, and click the “Route through Superchargers” button. This will guide you to your destination through routes that have access to Tesla Superchargers. It’s not perfect and it can add more pit stops than needed so be sure to validate the results and adjust accordingly.
I used EVTripPlanner and found that while it wanted me to stop at both the Milford and Darien, Connecticut Superchargers, I technically would still have plenty of range and be able to skip Milford. From my home to the Darien Supercharger it’s 147 miles but EVTripPlanner estimates 161 rated miles needed. Considering we’re charged to 90% (240 miles), we’ll have plenty of buffer to fulfill the 1st leg at 147 miles.
How Much Charge Do I Need?
The rate of charge in an EV taper offs quickly as it approaches a 100% state of charge. This may add a significant amount of time to your charge. Also EVs charge faster from near empty than they do from half full. When you look at charge times and rates on Tesla’s site, those are generally based on ideal conditions assuming you’re using the latest Supercharger technology and you’re not splitting the charge with someone else that’s in the same Supercharger bank.
ALSO SEE: Top 5 Lessons Learned from a First Tesla Road Trip
In summary, I start with 240 rated miles on a 90% charge. I drive to the Darien Supercharger and use 161 rated miles. I have 79 miles of rated range left. Not enough to get me to my destination hence the reason for my stop. EVTripPlanner estimates 93 miles needed with no safety factor. Safety factors are generally added to standard (not rated) mileage. I need to add some safety factor so lets take the 2/3 approach. 93 x 3/2 = 140 miles of rated range needed to arrive at my destination. So I need to add 61 miles of rated range at the Supercharger to get to my destination and still have a good safety margin.
Tesla claims 170 miles of rated range added in 30 minutes, but as we’ve mentioned above they might be overly optimistic with this. Even so, planning for a 30 minute stop is very reasonable.
Destination Charging
Unless you’ve “gifted” a charger setup to the people you’re visiting (several have done this), you’re likely to find some poor charging stations at the destination (if any at all). I’ve accepted the fact that the best charge I’ll probably get (at my destination) is from a 110V 15A plug that adds about three miles of rated range per hour.
I’ll definitely poke around when I get there to see if I can find a better charging station / wall outlet, but nevertheless I need to plan for the worst. If I charge the minimum at the Supercharger to get to 140 miles of rated range, drive and use the estimated 102 miles of rated range i’ll arrive at my destination with 38 miles of rated range left. On the way home I need to go back the same route and I need that 140 miles of rated range for the distance plus safety. Oops — I can’t get home.
So I need to add 102 miles of rated range while i’m there. More if I plan on doing things with my car while I’m there like showing it off with test drives, going to dinner, etc. Lets say I need 50 miles to use while I’m there, plus the 140 to get back to the Supercharger. I need to add 152 miles of rated range. At a charge rate of 3 miles/hour, it’ll take approximately 51 hours of charging to regain 153 miles of rated range.
Options:
- Find a Supercharger near my destination – NJ only has one and its more than an hour away. No good.
- Find a faster charger nearby – A local college has a J1772 reported at 30A/240V which would give 18miles rated/hour added. But I’d have to leave my car there or sit there for the charge. Better, but not great.
- Charge more at my Supercharger stop on the way down and arrive with more left.
Charging up more at the Supercharger seems like it would be the best option. I’ll charge back up to 90% (240 rated miles), use 102 rated miles to get to my NJ destination and have 138 rated miles left. If I don’t go anywhere while there, that leaves me with plenty of charge to get back along with a safety margin. If I want to drive around while I’m there, I figured an additional 50 miles of charge will suffice which equates to 16 hours of charging (from a wall outlet) or two overnights. That’s doable.
Planning Complete
The return trip home should be pretty uneventful assuming I did all of my Tesla road trip planning correctly. One last thing to consider is detours along the way. On our way down to NJ we pass by a favorite Sushi place we like to visit in CT. The restaurant is a bit off route and will add a couple miles so I planned for this as well.
I also considered the unlikely scenario where the Darien, CT supercharger was offline when I arrived. What would I do? Fortunately there’s another one on the Northbound side of I-95 and then another only a few miles away on the Merritt parkway. Unlike MA and NJ, CT is pretty blessed with Superchargers!
This will be my first real EV road trip. Relative to the the epic 12,000 mile Tesla road trip taken by the Recargo folks, and many others that are happening daily, mine will be tiny but just as fun. As a new owner that still occasionally struggles with range anxiety, it has been an eye-opening experience having to think about options and and fall back plans – things I never once thought about in an ICE car. A Tesla road trip takes a little more planning. Thanks to the growing Supercharger network “filling up” my Tesla along the way is a minor inconvenience. Oh, and did I mention that using the Tesla Supercharger is free for life?
Tags: road trip, battery
Elon Musk
NASA’s first human outpost on the Moon starts now – SpaceX on deck
NASA named the rovers, landers, and vendors that will build America’s first Moon Base.
NASA has laid out its most detailed Moon Base plan to date, describing a permanent outpost near the Moon’s south pole that the agency intends to build over the coming decade as a direct stepping stone to Mars. “The Moon Base will be America’s and humanity’s first outpost on another celestial world,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said, adding that every mission crewed and uncrewed “will be a learning opportunity as we return to the lunar surface, build the infrastructure to stay, and master the skills required to live and operate in one of the most demanding and dangerous environments imaginable.”
The plan is structured in three phases involving both uncrewed and crewed missions to deliver equipment, vehicles, and infrastructure to the surface, with the first three moon base missions targeted to launch before the end of 2026.
Moon Base I, targeting fall 2026, will use Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lander to deliver scientific instruments to the Shackleton Connecting Ridge, the same region where Artemis astronauts will land. Moon Base II will send Astrobotic’s Griffin lander carrying more than 1,100 pounds of cargo including Astrolab’s FLIP rover to begin developing mobility systems on the surface. Moon Base III will carry the Lunar Vertex science mission on Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C Trinity lander to study lunar swirls near the south pole, with ESA and Korean science payloads aboard.
On the rover side, NASA awarded Astrolab $219 million and Lunar Outpost $220 million to build the first phase of Lunar Terrain Vehicles, with both rovers targeted for deployment to the lunar surface by 2028. Astrolab’s crewed rover weighs roughly 2,000 pounds and can reach over 6 mph. Lunar Outpost’s Pegasus rover can operate autonomously or via remote control at over 9 mph. Blue Origin separately received $188 million with an option worth $280.4 million to deliver cargo landers for rover transport.
NASA also confirmed that MoonFall, a mission deploying four survey drones to scout Artemis landing sites, has selected Firefly Aerospace to build the transport spacecraft, with a 2028 launch target.
SpaceX sits at the center of that commercial layer. SpaceX holds the NASA Human Landing System contract for the Starship-derived lander that will put astronauts on the surface under Artemis IV, currently targeting 2028. Before that can happen, SpaceX must demonstrate in-orbit propellant transfer at scale, a process requiring multiple Starship tanker launches to fuel a single mission. Water ice at the lunar south pole is central to the base’s long-term viability, as it can be converted into drinking water, breathable oxygen, and rocket fuel, directly reducing dependence on Earth resupply. That resource loop becomes far more practical if Starship can land and be refueled on or near the Moon itself.
Elon Musk has publicly stated that Starship V3, which recently completed its first flight, should be capable enough for initial Mars missions. The Moon Base plan announced Tuesday is the infrastructure layer that connects everything between those two ambitions, and SpaceX is the only American company currently contracted to build the rocket that gets humans to either destination.
Elon Musk
Tesla ditches India after years of broken promises
Tesla has ditched its plans to build a factory in India after years of failed negotiations.
Tesla’s long-running effort to establish a manufacturing presence in India is officially over. India’s Minister of Heavy Industries H.D. Kumaraswamy confirmed on May 19, 2026 that Tesla has informed authorities it will not proceed with a manufacturing facility in the country.
Tesla first signaled serious interest in India around 2021, when it began hiring local staff and lobbying the Indian government for lower import tariffs. The ask was straightforward: reduce duties enough for Tesla to test the market with imported vehicles before committing capital to a local factory. India’s position was equally firm, with an ask of Tesla to commit to manufacturing first, then receive tariff relief. Neither side moved, and the talks quietly collapsed.
Tesla to open first India experience center in Mumbai on July 15
India had offered a policy that would reduce import duties from 110% down to 15% on EVs priced above $35,000, provided companies committed at least $500 million toward local manufacturing investment within three years. Tesla declined to participate. The tariff standoff was only part of the problem. Analysts pointed to significant gaps in India’s local supply chain, inadequate industrial infrastructure, and a mismatch between Tesla’s premium pricing and the purchasing power of India’s automotive market as additional factors that made the investment difficult to justify.
First signs of an unraveling relationship came in April 2024, when Musk abruptly cancelled a planned trip to India where he was set to meet Prime Minister Modi and announce Tesla’s market entry. By July 2024, Fortune reported that Tesla executives had stopped contacting Indian government officials entirely. The government at that point understood Tesla had capital constraints and no plans to invest.
The more fundamental issue is that Tesla’s existing factories are currently operating at approximately 60% capacity, making a commitment to building new manufacturing capacity in a new market difficult to defend to investors. Tesla will continue selling imported Model Y vehicles through its existing showrooms in Mumbai, Delhi, Gurugram, and Bengaluru, but local production is no longer part of the plan.
Elon Musk
Trump’s invite for Elon just reshuffled Tesla’s big Signature Delivery Event
Tesla rescheduled its final Model S farewell to May 20 after Musk joined Trump in China.
Tesla has rescheduled its Model S and Model X Signature Edition delivery event to Wednesday, May 20, 2026, after abruptly calling off the original May 12 celebration. The event will take place at Tesla’s factory at 45500 Fremont Boulevard in Fremont, California, the same location where the Model S first rolled off the line in 2012. Invitees received a follow-up email asking them to reconfirm attendance and download a new QR code ticket, with Tesla noting that all travel and accommodation expenses remain the buyer’s responsibility.
The reason behind the original cancellation came into focus the same day it was announced. President Trump invited Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg, and executives from Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, Citigroup, and Meta to join his trip to China this week for a summit with President Xi Jinping. The agenda covers trade, artificial intelligence, export controls, Taiwan, and the Iran war, following weeks of escalating friction between Washington and Beijing over AI technology, sanctions, and rare earth exports. Trump wrote on Truth Social, “I am very much looking forward to my trip to China, an amazing Country, with a Leader, President Xi, respected by all.”
Tesla launches 200mph Model S “Gold” Signature in invite-only purchase
The vehicles at the center of all this are the last Model S and Model X units Tesla will ever build. Priced at $159,420 each, the 250 Model S and 100 Model X Signature Edition units come finished in Garnet Red with a one-year no-resale agreement, giving Tesla right of first refusal if the owner decides to sell. As Teslarati reported, the Model S defined Tesla’s early identity as a serious luxury automaker, and the Fremont factory line that built it is now being converted to manufacture Optimus humanoid robots.
Musk’s inclusion in the China delegation drew attention given his very public relationship with Trump, and the invitation signals the two have moved past and past grievances. Trump originally brought Musk on to lead the Department of Government Efficiency following his inauguration, and despite a sharp public dispute in mid-2025, the two have appeared together repeatedly in recent months. A seat on the China trip, the most diplomatically consequential visit of Trump’s current term, puts Musk back at the table on U.S. economic policy at a moment when Tesla’s China revenue remains one of the company’s most important financial pillars.
SpaceX to become America’s Military data backbone for missiles, drones, and warfighters
Tesla’s dedicated Optimus factory construction officially underway at Giga Texas
