Driving US 50, "The loneliest highway in America"

[Brad]

I figure a great challenge is driving U.S. 50 across Nevada.  It is dubbed "the loneliest highway in America" and very far off the Supercharger Network.  In a long range, it's reasonable to do it with an overnight at an RV park/motel in Ely, NV.    In a SR+ or Mid-range, it's more of a challenge.

 At one end there is the Reno or Tahoe supercharger but the gateway is the Chademo or Level 2 station in Fallon -- you're going to probably want the Chademo adapter and to use this.  There are RV parks at Eureka and Austin you can stop for 1-2 hours of 14-50 plugin between Fallon and Ely.  These are not shown on ABRP, so it makes doing this plan a bit harder to do.

Likewise at the other end there is Chademo and Level 2 in Scipio and Fillmore, Utah, and you may need them to make it to or from the Superchargers in Richfield or Beaver.    There are some other RV parks along that route which do show up in ABRP.

Finally, you will have an easier time if you go westbound, because Fallon is 700 feet lower than Scipio, giving you just a little edge.

This is probably one of the hardest trips in the USA to do in an Electric car.   (There are plenty of harder ones in Canada though there is now Chademo/CCS along the Trans Canada Highway, though no superchargers yet.  Musk has apologize for this since he's part Canadian.   But even after that there will be tons of the area in many provinces you are not going to easily do in an EV.)

So, anybody done this drive?  I saw one video of an inexperienced guy doing it in a big Model X.   He stayed 2 nights though -- it's easy to do it in 2 nights.  This is a 6 hour drive, so even having to spend one night is a compromise, though if planned well, not a huge one, on a cross country trip.  Did you pull it off in anything less than a Long Range?   This is one of those trips you could regret not having a LR on to be sure -- though the cost may only be a couple of hours chilling in an RV park, reading or watching videos.    With access to the full 32 amps your mobile connector can do, RV parks are your best bet anyway -- there are no J1772 chargers on the route, anyway.

[wws]

Did U.S. 50/Lincoln Highway across Nevada back in September.  There were actually three Teslas in our touring group of about 30 cars - my Model 3 LR, a Model S 70D, and a Model X 75D.  We charged at the Wendover Supercharger, then headed south on Alt 93/93 to Ely.  Overnight 14-50 at the Ely KOA.  Calcs showed that my Model 3 could make it to the Fallon CHAdeMO on a single charge, but the Model S and X could not.  They did some 14-50 charging at the Silver Springs RV park in Eureka for an hour or so.  (The owner of the RV park is VERY EV friendly.  Would like to see more EV tourists.)  We then toured through Austin and had lunch at Cold Springs Station - doing some opportunity charging at his 14-50s.  Then easily made it to Fallon.  After charging in Fallon, it was then easy to follow U.S. 50 up to Stateline (South Shore of Lake Tahoe), and down into California - where there are Superchargers a plenty.

Note that we had made prior arrangements with the owners of both Silver Springs RV park and Cold Springs Station.  So they were expecting us, and we had no problems getting charging.    We also made reservations at the Ely KOA.  As it turned out, the reservations at the Ely KOA were especially important because that was the same weekend as the Nevada Silver State Classic road races.  All the RV spots were reserved.  So if we had just 'showed up' we would have been out of luck.

Since then, the State of Nevada has installed a CCS/CHAdeMO site in Ely.  Unfortunately as of today, the sole check in was unsuccessful.  Hopefully it will get fixed soon.  The State is also planning a CCS/CHAdeMO site at Cold Springs Station soon, and one in Austin as well.

When travelling across U.S. 50, be sure to get a copy of the "Loneliest Highway" booklet from one of the visitors centers.  You can get it stamped at various locations along the road, send in the card in the back, and get a nice certificate - suitable for framing.

Edited June 12, 2020 by wws

[wws]

On 6/12/2020 at 1:16 PM, wws said:

....  The State is also planning a CCS/CHAdeMO site at Cold Springs Station soon, and one in Austin as well...

According to plugshare, Cold Springs Station and Austin just lit up with CCS/CHAdeMO and J1772 L2 charging!  Hopefully they actually work.