- Joined
- Jun 29, 2022
- Messages
- 298
- Reaction score
- 556
- Location
- Salt Lake City, Utah
- Cars
- 2023 Lucid Air Touring
- Referral Code
- EZJAF0R7
Hey everyone!
I just wanted to share my experiences attending Tesla Takeover on 7/29/23 and 7/30/23 in San Luis Obispo, CA. For reference, I drove my 2023 Touring on the 20" OEM wheels. I decided to go at the last minute and had a bit more adventure than I had bargained for, but overall I'm really glad I decided to go and will definitely consider going again in the future. My thanks to @Tesla2Lucid for making me feel welcome and hanging out and @Neurio for stopping by on Saturday. It was great meeting both of you.
For those wanting the TL;DR, I had an awesome but often stressful time. It was great meeting and chatting with people at the event and everyone I talked to was very friendly and welcoming. Charging in CA was often a struggle, but I was ultimately able to get where I needed to go. I had an almost catastrophic stop on the way home in Battle Mountain, NV, but was able to sort through it and make it home, albeit 3 hours later than expected. Round trip totals were about 2650 miles and 3.2 mi/kWh.
Trip Prep/Planning:
I'd hear about Tesla Takeover earlier in July, but didn't have much interest initially. The Wednesday before the event I looked into the event a little bit more and I decided I was in the mood for an adventure and planned to make the trek from Salt Lake City, UT to attend. I was miraculously able to get someone to cover work for me and after I got home from work Thursday I bought tickets, packed as lightly and quickly as I could, gave Lucie a bath, and tried to get as much sleep as I could for the trip.
Day 1 (7/28/23):
I got up very early and hit the road just after 2 AM PST. I had just received the 2.1.7/2.1.10 updates a few days prior so I was eager to try out the Highway Assist updates and the automatics preconditioning feature. Unfortunately, I still find I end up fighting with HA more than I would like, so most of the trip was spent using Adaptive Cruise. The automatic preconditioning feature was nice, and it was interesting that it would begin when the ETA to the charger was 45 minutes, while the confirmation screen in the car mentions beginning 20 minute beforehand. I kept this feature on for most of the trip and was preconditioned for almost every charging session. The native navigation did pretty well with time and SOC arrival estimates, but is just a tad too conservative in some spots. I look forward to be able to remove unwanted charging stops in the future.
Made it to the Electrify America station in St. George, UT about 4 hours and 295ish mile later with 5% SOC. Plugged into what I thought was a 350 kW unit and peaked at 175 kW. Unfortunately the other 350 kW unit was listed as unavailable, so I decided to ride it out and went inside the Walmart for a restroom break. After returning and helping a new Kia EV6 owner get plugged in I realized that the labels on our units were swapped and the 150 kW unit was actually a 350 kW and vice versa. Good charging session overall despite the mixup, but ended up staying longer than expected and charged to around 80% after about 45 minutes.
Since I had charged for so long I was able to make it the next 210 miles to Baker, CA without stopping. Arrived at 8% SOC and peaked at 276 kW, my new personal best! If all EA stations could be this reliable and well laid out EV road tripping would be so much better. Charged for about 30 minutes to about 60% SOC.
Next stop was Mojave, CA about 133 miles away. Unfortunately, this is where the headaches began. Arrived to find the one working 350 kW unit taken and the other unavailable. Was only getting around 60 kW on a 150 kW unit, and it appeared the other units were derated, as well. I was originally planning to charge up enough to make it to Paso Robles, but decided to get just enough juice to try make it to Bakersfield and try to get a better charging session.
Made it to the Bakersfield Plaza station to find one unit down and all other units taken with someone already waiting to charge. I decided to go down the road to another station at a Target and try to grab an open 150 kW unit. I arrived at 11% SOC and fluctuated between 40-70 kW. I was pretty hungry and luckily there were plenty of food options around, but unfortunately another really poor charging experience with EA. Stuck around for around 45 minutes to get enough juice to make the 167 miles to Paso Robles.
Arrived in Paso Robles at 8% SOC to another full station with 1 unit unavailable. This station is next to a Bank of America and I had to wait about 20 minutes for someone to leave as multiple cars began arriving behind me. Plugged into a 350 kW unit and peaked at 60 kW. Was able to move to a different unit about 10 minutes later and got a much better peak of 180 kW, although speed was still limited by the station. The Bolt directly behind me was happy with the severely derated unit, which I appreciated. If I've learned anything about charging with EA it's that stations next to popular commercial establishments are more a curse than a blessing. Way too many people leave their cars for over an hour and charge to 90%+. Pretty frustrated at this point, but almost there (sort of)!
The goal was to charge up to about 80% here as there was a scenic drive planned along CA-1 that evening, but the BoA station was getting really crowded, so I decided to head down the road a short ways to Atascadero to try a seemingly less crowded station. Arrived at 50% SOC was was treated to the beloved Signet Surge, yet again. Was only able to charge for about 15 minutes as it was 5:15 PM PST and the scenic drive began at 6, but I was able to charge up enough and make it in time.
Unfortunately, one of the Teslas was involved in a pretty bad accident shortly into the drive, but luckily no one was injured that I was aware of. The 40-50 car convoy pulled off onto the shoulder to regroup. At this point I had been on the road for almost 17 hours and was pretty tired, so I decided to leave early to make it to my accommodations at a reasonable time. Fortunately I have family in the Monterey area to stay with, but unfortunately it was another 2 hour drive away.
It was at this point I learned that my folks did not actually have a functional 220 Volt outlet available in their garage like I had expected, so I had the unexpected treat of charging with EA one more time that day. Arrived at the station in Soledad at 8% SOC and peaked at 160 kW. Yet another less-than-ideal session, but good enough to get me to Monterey and have enough to work with the following morning.
Day 2 (7/29/23):
This was the first official day of Tesla Takeover. The event ran from 10 AM to 4 PM both days, but I had drive the 2 hours back down from Monterey to San Luis Obispo and also charge up again, so I didn't make arrive until around 11:30. Had a better but still not flawless charging session in Atascadero, peaking at 275 kW at 13% SOC, followed by some Signet Surging.
I finally arrived in SLO, got checked in, and met up with @Tesla2Lucid. After chatting for a bit, I was actually able to pull my car into the EV showcase area. It was really cool of the staff to let me pull in and show off my car. We had a decent amount of people show interest and ask questions, but unfortunately there was no official Lucid presence like I thought there would be based on the event description. While most of the event was Tesla related as you would expect, it was still really cool to walk around and see everything on display. Ended up with some nasty sunburns, but a beautiful and enjoyable day all-around!
That evening Holley hosted a performance driving event at the Santa Margarita Ranch airport runway for some drag racing and autocross. I was able to drag a Taycan Turbo, which was awesome, but it was my first time ever drag racing and I feel like I let Lucie down a bit! However, the autocross portion was underwhelming and the whole event was a bit disorganized and overly crowded. Hopefully this event will be expanded and better planned in the future.
As I was pulling out to head back to Monterey for the evening, I bumped into a couple of my favorite Youtubers that I had been able to meet with earlier in the day. They were gathering up folks who wanted to go for a fun canyon road drive. This ended up being the highlight of the entire trip for me and an experience I'll never forget. We gathered up our cars and headed out east on CA-58. There were about a dozen cars to begin with, most of them being Model 3's or Model S's, with my Lucid, a Rivian, and even a 911. For anyone that lives in that area that hasn't been on this road, I highly recommend checking it out. Truly epic.
After a thrilling drive we stopped to charge in Buttonwillow just off of I-5. At this point it was just my Lucid and about 8 Teslas. They nearly filled the Supercharger while I was stuck charging on a little ChargePoint station. They were at least all in the same parking lot and I charged up with no issues.
We had a bite to eat, charged up for a bit, and headed out. About half of us went back west across CA-58 and the other half headed home on I-5. We had another awesome drive back out west, albeit a little slower as it was dark. Charged up again in Atascadero with more Signet Surge, had limited power again in Soledad, and crawled into bed around 2:30 AM. Way more adventure and excitement than I'm used to, but this evening made the whole trip worth it.
I just wanted to share my experiences attending Tesla Takeover on 7/29/23 and 7/30/23 in San Luis Obispo, CA. For reference, I drove my 2023 Touring on the 20" OEM wheels. I decided to go at the last minute and had a bit more adventure than I had bargained for, but overall I'm really glad I decided to go and will definitely consider going again in the future. My thanks to @Tesla2Lucid for making me feel welcome and hanging out and @Neurio for stopping by on Saturday. It was great meeting both of you.
For those wanting the TL;DR, I had an awesome but often stressful time. It was great meeting and chatting with people at the event and everyone I talked to was very friendly and welcoming. Charging in CA was often a struggle, but I was ultimately able to get where I needed to go. I had an almost catastrophic stop on the way home in Battle Mountain, NV, but was able to sort through it and make it home, albeit 3 hours later than expected. Round trip totals were about 2650 miles and 3.2 mi/kWh.
Trip Prep/Planning:
I'd hear about Tesla Takeover earlier in July, but didn't have much interest initially. The Wednesday before the event I looked into the event a little bit more and I decided I was in the mood for an adventure and planned to make the trek from Salt Lake City, UT to attend. I was miraculously able to get someone to cover work for me and after I got home from work Thursday I bought tickets, packed as lightly and quickly as I could, gave Lucie a bath, and tried to get as much sleep as I could for the trip.
Day 1 (7/28/23):
I got up very early and hit the road just after 2 AM PST. I had just received the 2.1.7/2.1.10 updates a few days prior so I was eager to try out the Highway Assist updates and the automatics preconditioning feature. Unfortunately, I still find I end up fighting with HA more than I would like, so most of the trip was spent using Adaptive Cruise. The automatic preconditioning feature was nice, and it was interesting that it would begin when the ETA to the charger was 45 minutes, while the confirmation screen in the car mentions beginning 20 minute beforehand. I kept this feature on for most of the trip and was preconditioned for almost every charging session. The native navigation did pretty well with time and SOC arrival estimates, but is just a tad too conservative in some spots. I look forward to be able to remove unwanted charging stops in the future.
Made it to the Electrify America station in St. George, UT about 4 hours and 295ish mile later with 5% SOC. Plugged into what I thought was a 350 kW unit and peaked at 175 kW. Unfortunately the other 350 kW unit was listed as unavailable, so I decided to ride it out and went inside the Walmart for a restroom break. After returning and helping a new Kia EV6 owner get plugged in I realized that the labels on our units were swapped and the 150 kW unit was actually a 350 kW and vice versa. Good charging session overall despite the mixup, but ended up staying longer than expected and charged to around 80% after about 45 minutes.
Since I had charged for so long I was able to make it the next 210 miles to Baker, CA without stopping. Arrived at 8% SOC and peaked at 276 kW, my new personal best! If all EA stations could be this reliable and well laid out EV road tripping would be so much better. Charged for about 30 minutes to about 60% SOC.
Next stop was Mojave, CA about 133 miles away. Unfortunately, this is where the headaches began. Arrived to find the one working 350 kW unit taken and the other unavailable. Was only getting around 60 kW on a 150 kW unit, and it appeared the other units were derated, as well. I was originally planning to charge up enough to make it to Paso Robles, but decided to get just enough juice to try make it to Bakersfield and try to get a better charging session.
Made it to the Bakersfield Plaza station to find one unit down and all other units taken with someone already waiting to charge. I decided to go down the road to another station at a Target and try to grab an open 150 kW unit. I arrived at 11% SOC and fluctuated between 40-70 kW. I was pretty hungry and luckily there were plenty of food options around, but unfortunately another really poor charging experience with EA. Stuck around for around 45 minutes to get enough juice to make the 167 miles to Paso Robles.
Arrived in Paso Robles at 8% SOC to another full station with 1 unit unavailable. This station is next to a Bank of America and I had to wait about 20 minutes for someone to leave as multiple cars began arriving behind me. Plugged into a 350 kW unit and peaked at 60 kW. Was able to move to a different unit about 10 minutes later and got a much better peak of 180 kW, although speed was still limited by the station. The Bolt directly behind me was happy with the severely derated unit, which I appreciated. If I've learned anything about charging with EA it's that stations next to popular commercial establishments are more a curse than a blessing. Way too many people leave their cars for over an hour and charge to 90%+. Pretty frustrated at this point, but almost there (sort of)!
The goal was to charge up to about 80% here as there was a scenic drive planned along CA-1 that evening, but the BoA station was getting really crowded, so I decided to head down the road a short ways to Atascadero to try a seemingly less crowded station. Arrived at 50% SOC was was treated to the beloved Signet Surge, yet again. Was only able to charge for about 15 minutes as it was 5:15 PM PST and the scenic drive began at 6, but I was able to charge up enough and make it in time.
Unfortunately, one of the Teslas was involved in a pretty bad accident shortly into the drive, but luckily no one was injured that I was aware of. The 40-50 car convoy pulled off onto the shoulder to regroup. At this point I had been on the road for almost 17 hours and was pretty tired, so I decided to leave early to make it to my accommodations at a reasonable time. Fortunately I have family in the Monterey area to stay with, but unfortunately it was another 2 hour drive away.
It was at this point I learned that my folks did not actually have a functional 220 Volt outlet available in their garage like I had expected, so I had the unexpected treat of charging with EA one more time that day. Arrived at the station in Soledad at 8% SOC and peaked at 160 kW. Yet another less-than-ideal session, but good enough to get me to Monterey and have enough to work with the following morning.
Day 2 (7/29/23):
This was the first official day of Tesla Takeover. The event ran from 10 AM to 4 PM both days, but I had drive the 2 hours back down from Monterey to San Luis Obispo and also charge up again, so I didn't make arrive until around 11:30. Had a better but still not flawless charging session in Atascadero, peaking at 275 kW at 13% SOC, followed by some Signet Surging.
I finally arrived in SLO, got checked in, and met up with @Tesla2Lucid. After chatting for a bit, I was actually able to pull my car into the EV showcase area. It was really cool of the staff to let me pull in and show off my car. We had a decent amount of people show interest and ask questions, but unfortunately there was no official Lucid presence like I thought there would be based on the event description. While most of the event was Tesla related as you would expect, it was still really cool to walk around and see everything on display. Ended up with some nasty sunburns, but a beautiful and enjoyable day all-around!
That evening Holley hosted a performance driving event at the Santa Margarita Ranch airport runway for some drag racing and autocross. I was able to drag a Taycan Turbo, which was awesome, but it was my first time ever drag racing and I feel like I let Lucie down a bit! However, the autocross portion was underwhelming and the whole event was a bit disorganized and overly crowded. Hopefully this event will be expanded and better planned in the future.
As I was pulling out to head back to Monterey for the evening, I bumped into a couple of my favorite Youtubers that I had been able to meet with earlier in the day. They were gathering up folks who wanted to go for a fun canyon road drive. This ended up being the highlight of the entire trip for me and an experience I'll never forget. We gathered up our cars and headed out east on CA-58. There were about a dozen cars to begin with, most of them being Model 3's or Model S's, with my Lucid, a Rivian, and even a 911. For anyone that lives in that area that hasn't been on this road, I highly recommend checking it out. Truly epic.
After a thrilling drive we stopped to charge in Buttonwillow just off of I-5. At this point it was just my Lucid and about 8 Teslas. They nearly filled the Supercharger while I was stuck charging on a little ChargePoint station. They were at least all in the same parking lot and I charged up with no issues.
We had a bite to eat, charged up for a bit, and headed out. About half of us went back west across CA-58 and the other half headed home on I-5. We had another awesome drive back out west, albeit a little slower as it was dark. Charged up again in Atascadero with more Signet Surge, had limited power again in Soledad, and crawled into bed around 2:30 AM. Way more adventure and excitement than I'm used to, but this evening made the whole trip worth it.
