LA to Phoenix..... NEVER AGAIN...
I drive a 2021 Model 3 Standard. I have driven to Vegas countless times and never had any issues.. Typically stopping to charge once in Baker and for the most part twice on the way home, Baker and Barstow....
My son had a Basketball Tournament in Phoenix this past weekend and I had airline tickets for us but based on the tournament schedule I didn't know when we'd be done on Sunday.. It depended on how they did on Saturday.. We could have been done at 9am. 12pm. 2pm or 5pm... So I figured maybe it would be better if we drove so we had the flexibility of coming home on Sunday. I looked and Phoenix is about 120 miles further than Vegas so I wasn't worried about the drive.. It's not bad especially when I FSD takes me virtually the entire way.
I couldn't have been more wrong... the trip was horrible.... I had to stop 4 times on the way there and 5 times on the way back which led to a 8 hour drive home..! The issue was the chargers between Buckeye - Quartzite - Indio are SOOOOO Spread out that I needed to get my car to 90% just to be able to make it to the next charger. So it really added on to my charging time.. 45 minutes per stop.. I was trying to keep it at 75 mph the entire way which is quite slow for a wide open road but then I get a notification on my screen that said I needed to slow down to 70mph to make it to the next charging destination...
It was a really rough drive....
yes yes yes... I should have known... but just PSA if others are thinking of doing this trip in a Standard Model 3..... BEWARE!