Nowadays, the road trip is the most favorite option for American people to travel around the country because it’s private, and convenient. However, there is one big drawback about the road trip which is expensive(high maintenance and fuel cost). On the other hand, the electric car will eliminate this issue, the expensive travel cost because the electric car needs very low maintenance and the consumption rate is really inexpensive, but no one ever proves this theory yet. Therefore, Benswing Rich who is the owner of Tesla Model 3 had set the goal to drive his electric car over 10,000 miles(10,000 miles challenge) from east to west in the United States.
Big fan of EV Vehicle since 2015
First of all, Tesla model 3 is not the first electric vehicle that Mr. Rich used for his road trip. Actually, he fell in love with EV road trip since 2015.
The first vehicle that he rode was electric motorcycle which he rode it around the United State. Therefore, it was unsurprising that he planned to do a road trip with his Tesla Model 3.
Ben Rich – Electric Biker
Youtube Channel : Benswing Rich
Later, Mr. Rich ordered the car since April 2018, and the car was delivered to him on 31st December 2018 at 2 p.m. which was ten hours before the end of incentive ($7,500).
Starting a Journey at Montclair, New Jersey
In the beginning, he started his journey from the place where he lived, Montclair, New Jersey. Then, he continued driving his Tesla Model 3 through several cities such as Banff, Seattle, Park City, Denver, and several cities. Additionally, the final destination in this trip was Glacier National Park which is located 5,000 miles away from his home. The total distance for this trip was around 10,000 miles which he took only 20 days to complete.
Hence, let begin the Q&A(Question & Answer) with Mr. Benswing Rich.
Glacier National Park
How many miles did you drive daily during the trip?
“I traveled over 1,000 miles on the route from Denver to Chicago, and I did two other days of more than 900 miles.”
Benswing Rich
According to my hypothesis, the average travel distance daily would be around 500 miles. However, Mr. Rich planned to visit several places by stopping and resting, so he had to drive farther in some days to compensate the day that he took a rest.
How did you drive 900 miles without any fatigue?
Actually, he told me that he turned on autopilot, self-driving, most of the routes that he went. This function reduced a lot of fatigue during driving. Moreover, he said that the autopilot that was equipped with his Tesla Model 3 was doing a fantastic job. When it comes to the curve, the car turns the wheel nice and neat to the curve. The only thing that Mr. Rich had to do was touching the steering wheel to make sure that the car didn’t go the wrong way, and watch the car do the job.
What is your challenge in this trip?
Mr. Rich mentioned that range was a quite challenge in this trip because his car is mid range which has a range around 254 miles per charge which is the big disadvantage for the road trip. Compared to Tesla Model 3 Long Range which can go exceeding 310 miles per charge. The fifty miles difference won’t be a big problem in our daily commute, but for long distance driving like this road trip. The fifty miles might increase more turns to stop and charge the car.
Obviously long distance trips are easier with the long range Model 3, but it would only decrease each leg of my trip by a few minutes.
Benswing Rich
How long did you spend charging your car each time?
“Charging at superchargers makes road trips easy and enjoyable! Average charge time for the whole 10,000 mile trip was 12 min 18 seconds.”
– Mr. Benswing Rich
In my opinion, spending around 12-18 minutes to charge the car is not long at all because you already drove a car for at least three hours, so it’s a good reason to take a rest for 10-20 minutes and continue driving. This break time will help the driver to refresh himself from insomnia or any exhaustion.
How much did you spend on fuel and maintenance during this trip?
First, I have to highlight that this road trip distance was exceeded 10,000 miles. If you want to use any gasoline car to drive this much of distance. It would cost at least 60 dollars for oil change(twice), and more than 1,000 dollars for fuel.
The total supercharging cost was $442.41.
It would have cost $1,021 in an average gas-powered car.
Benswing Rich
Never service yet!!
In addition, he confirmed with us that he did nothing to the car since he bought it. No fluid change, no any maintenance.
Just rotated the tires at 12,500 miles. Yes I meant “no service center trips yet.”
[แปล] ตั้งแต่ซื้อรถมาทำอย่างเดียวคือ สลับยางรถ ซึ่งทำไปแล้วตอนรถขับครบ 20,000 km(12,500 ไมล์) แล้วผมอยากจะย้ำอีกครั้งว่า “no service center trip = ไม่เคยเข้าศูนย์เลย”
ฺBenswing Rich
Note : he already put 26,356 miles on this car, but zero maintenance except to fill the windshield washer fluid and to rotate the tires.
